Coffee Tins, Glass Jars, Plastic Containers

[quarkiegirl]

that's such a great idea! you could decorate the jar with paint or little pictures so the light would glow thru them.

[jamby]

This is not for everybody- you have to have a certain esthetic and sense of humour.
cheap decorating idea and great gift for people that have everything- use old glass jars to create your own laboratory look!
take old glass jars and one old barbie (or buck store equivalent). take the barbie apart, put one complete barbie per jar. fill with water, and add pretty food coloring. put lid on. glue gun a piece of feather boa to lid, and voila! barbie inna jar!
if you're on a budget, these can look fabulous lined up in a window, all different colours.

Wait--This is brilliant!  Think of the possibilities.  If you don't want to do Barbie, I'm sure there's other stuff you can do to match any personality....  Plastic frogs, dinosaurs, bouncy balls with eyes drawn on.  

[jenthezero]

I'm planning on using all my saved-up coffee cans to make lanterns for the back yard.  I'm going to paint the coffee cans, punch holes in them (just random holes, with a hammer and a nail), string lights on a tree, and cover the lights with the cans.

[seeshells]

You can do a cool kid project with the big coffee tins, though I think we used juice cans. You can make stilts. My son made these with his grandfather a couple years ago, it was a nice project for them.
http://www.kidsdomain.com/craft/canstilts.html

[Lara]

i use baby food jars (or any other small jars will do) to store straight pins inside, i cut a fabric circle larger in diameter than the lid, then stuff it with wadding or cotton balls and stick it to the lid and put a ribbon or beads on the edges so it becomes a pin cushion, then i store the pins inside (this also makes a lovely gift).

a friend of mine sticks the lids under shelves and uses the jars to store stuff in them (in the kitchen she stores herbs, spices and in the garage she stores nails..etc.) this way you get extra storage without taking the shelf space.

[conclusion]

An idea for the plastic ice cream containers....I work in a preschool centre and I made a "tree" for the classroom.  You have to buy some quick- set cement (Home Depot) and hunt around outside after a storm to find a few branches that will look good together.  I think that branches with a lot of smaller stems coming off of them look the best.  Pour the cement into the container and stick the branches into the cement, holding them still for about five minutes (check what the cement package says).  

also with this idea you could spray paint the branches, white looks great with christmas lights, and you can paint, decoupage, etc. the can to look more like a flower pot.

[naturbuf]

For glass jars with lids you can decorate the lids not only with fabric like some have already suggested, but using polymer clay to create a design then baking it on. If you combine this with the glass etching that someone mentioned earlier it looks really nice.

[Kar-UH]

one of my friends paints the inside of jars so you cant see what is inside and keeps secret stuff stashed inside them. I was thinking im going to elaborate on his idea and glue a black shillouette to the inside before painting them to let me know what is inside

[miss_mom]

Start hoarding your coffee cans now - the big (3 lb.) size ones are already in danger - they are now being made plastic instead of metal. I'm collecting the smaller ones now, just in case!

[clayaddict]

I got this old glass jar in a white elephant exchange at Xmas, and thought I'd cover it in clay and put kitchen utensils in it.


Also, a friend gave us a bottle of nice olive oil, and when it was done I covered it in clay. I don't know what I'll do with it, maybe give it away as a gift.