Spice up your Mason Jars

Dear all, Today we have my very good friend and colleague, Abeerah; I like calling her Abee! She came up with an amazing idea for Mason Jars! They look fabulous. Thank you Abee for the wonderful idea!

Spice up your Mason Jars

Today we’re going to take a little bit of the old, a little bit of the new, and stir them up until we find ourselves in the midst of a fun DIY project. This project is creative, inexpensive and practical - what more could you ask for? Find colorful backgrounds in old magazines to personalize labels for your mason jars that will contain bulk spices, seeds and teas from your favorite co-op, or that lavender from your last foraging adventure. Simple, yet this project brings new life to your kitchen with color, practical usage, and it never fails to get compliments from guests.

Mason Jars have been used for generations and generations from the times of our predecessors of the Wild West to our very own grandmas canning vegetables, delicious compotes and tart jellies. With our new awareness of the dangers of storing foods in plastics, especially long term or in hot or very cold conditions, we’ve got to move to glass. The second new trend in the health food movement is the purchase of bulk items. You save the environment from the over abundance of packaging, and save money on your favorite staples. This can be anything from sugar, pasta, rice, spices or teas. Today you’re going to learn to take this practical step in storing your spices and teas in mason jars, to the next DIY level. Join me!
Materials:

• Old magazines with cool pictures
• Mason Jars
• Spices, teas, etc
• 3 inch wide clear tape
• Scissors
• Fine tipped permanent marker

How To:

1. Measure the tops of your mason jars. To be able to get a good legible label, I recommend going with the widest mouth jars you can find. I used the squat, wide mouthed Ball Jars available at eBay and Amazon.

2. Use the measurement you found for the tops of the jars to determine what pictures you want to cut out of magazines. I used travel magazines and favored brightly colored nature-scapes for my labels. Also keep in mind you’ll be writing over the background so you don’t want the picture to be too cluttered. Cut out your pictures. Get creative and go with different

3. Determine which pictures you want to go with what items. For example I choose a calm lake scene with blues and greens for my “Love your Liver” health tea.

4. Now the fun really begins! Use your fine tipped permanent marker to start decorating your pictures to complete the label. Use different fonts of writing and feel free to draw accompanying pictures. I also made sure to include ingredients of spice mixtures that I wanted to remember. I also noted that the chai tea I bought had caffeine in it. Make these notes on the labels under the assumption you’re throwing any packaging or notes on the bulk bags away. Another trick is to tape notes on the bottom if it doesn’t fit or look nice!

5. Use your wide clear tape to affix the pictures to the tops of the jars. I find that it looks nicer if your tape is wide enough to just use one strip, versus having ridges where the multiple pieces of tape meet.

6. Add your spices, teas and other food items to the jars! (I get an absolute delight trying new things in the bulk section. This coconut chai tea I tried from my local co-op hit it out of the ball park!)

7. Screw the tops of the lids on, adding any extra flourishes you like! For example, you could add ribbons to the jars.

8. Determine where you want the jar family to live! I choose a prominent area on the ledge separating the living room and kitchen. If you need a beautiful table to display your latest creations, consider checking out the great selection of gorgeous dining sets.