Stars in Jars

It's no secret that I love to experiment.  Being crafty is often about trial and error.  I'm often awake at night patting a two year old's hand "shhh... you are feeling sleepy... go back to sleep... sleep... pleeeeeease."  It's driving me insane.  But.  The upside is if I can stay calm, I can also get a bit of thinking done.  Don't ask me why, but a week ago the phrase "stars in jars" kept repeating in my head.  I thought of all the DIY snow domes I've seen in magazines and blogs and I wondered what else you could do that would be similar but different, and could any of them end up as party crafts for kids to do.
Using clean spice jars I tried three different designs for stars in jars.  None of them was particularly great, but I could imagine kids being at least semi-satisfied with the results.  I'll list them in order of most toddler-friendly to least;

1. Cut plastic star garlands into pieces the length of the jar.  Using tape, stick the ends of each garland to the underside of the lid or inside the jar's rim-top.  Screw the lid on.
2. Push a rubber animal or toy into a jar (it's helpful if it's flexible and slightly wider than the jar so you can get it in, and it will hold itself up mid-jar), I used the decoration off a novelty bendy straw.  Pour water in almost to the top.  Add some glitter and stars.  Screw lid on tightly and shake gently.
3. Pour watered down glue into a jar.  Add some glitter and foil stars, and gently roll the jar so that the glue coats the inside of the jar and the stars and glitter stick.  Leave to dry overnight.  Find a tiny toy, and put a sticky-dot on it's base.  Using long tweezers, push the toy inside and hard against the base of the jar.  (Mine fell over but with a push with a pencil-end got back in place.)  Screw the lid on and enjoy.

Christmas may be done and dusted for another year, but that doesn't mean we can't stay inspired by the great Chrissy-Craft we've seen.  Go on... try something different-crafty today!