I love crafting – designing and making things. This week’s mission: to create gifts for our needlecraft group – something fun but not crazy expensive  – using crafting skills. So I cut paper, stamped paper, glued ribbon, attached bows, used the computer for gift info tags, filled jars, made gift bags, and so on …

I took pictures for each step. I worked at it little by little, completing one or more steps at a time … so it didn’t become overwhelming. The results – here are my CARE JARS. Each jar takes care of your sweet tooth needs and more …

The First Step – Making gift bags – (see photo below)

1 – Out comes the traditional Christmas colored paper and the Christmas stamps. Of course, I don’t have my stamps cataloged yet so it was quite the search to find a stamp – and to find paper in the stacks (three-foot tall) of paper. I tried red, green and black ink but decided the black shows up best.

2 – After cutting out the stamped pieces, I cut contrasting striped paper for a backing and glued the stamped pieces to the striped pieces.

3 – Next I added a decoration to the tags (see the Elf in the photo) and glued a tag to plain brown paper sandwich bags.

Then I set the gift bags aside.

Next – The care jar in progress – (see photo below)

1 – For the jars, I used a pint-sized clear canning jar. I used the lid to trace circles on Christmas paper which are then used to decorate the top of the jar.

2-  I cut all of the pieces needed for all of the jars at the same time. (You will see later, however, that I changed my choice of decorative ribbon around the top of the jar – that’s a designer’s perogative.)

3- I used a plaid/burlap ribbon to decorate the jars.

4- Mod Podge is applied with a brush to the back of the plaid part of the ribbon, then wrapped around the jar, overlapping the ends. I held the ribbon in place for just a few minutes and the ribbon was secure. I followed that by tying a piece of ribbon around the top of the jar.

And last – Filling and bagging the jars – (see photo below)

1- Now for the fun part – filling the jar with various chocolates and other Christmas season candy. (And just a little taste testing.)

2-  Once filled, I added the jar lid, placing the paper decorative lid between the ring and the lid.

3-  The jars were then placed in the decorated sandwich bags and sealed with a festive ribbon.

And, the bonus – Once the candy is gone, you place an LED candle in the bottom; put the paper cover and ring back on (not the metal lid) and now you have a candle.

I hope the ladies enjoy the care jars as much as I did making them. I didn’t take pictures of my desk during this project; that’s my next project – cleaning off my desk and putting everything away – so I can start the next project.

Thanks for reading!