Ok, for the first post, it's too easy: glow sticks + jars = night-time lanterns! This is great if you're having a (New Year's) party, to put down your front walk way, and you don't have to worry about candles going out or burning anything! Here's what you'll need:
1. Glow sticks
2. Gloves (you don't want the glow-in-the-dark liquid on your fingers and trust me, it can messy!)
3. Scissors
4. Jars (I know I said mason jars but I actually used two different size salsa jars and I'm glad I did - more on that later...)
Next, make your sticks glow! Crack them as much as you can so the entire stick lights up. Once that's completed, snip off one of the ends, stick it in a jar, and shake it until all the contents come out. Sometimes you'll get small, hard pieces coming out instead of liquid (pictured) - that means you didn't crack it thoroughly. If you find that only half of the liquid is out, make another cut in the stick and shake the contents out again!Now the reason I said I'm glad I had two different size jars was because I found the smaller, fatter jar made me make more of a mess while the taller, thinner jar was able to keep all the contents inside when I shook the stick. Just something to think about when picking your jars!
And voila! You've got your very own glow-in-the-dark jars!
TOTAL COSTS: About $6 to make as many as you have jars for!
$3.50 for glow sticks from Vons (I used 1 green stick for both jars, one purple and one red)
$2.29 for vinyl disposable gloves (10 pack) from Rite Aid
Jars and scissors already on hand
TOTAL AMOUNT OF TIME: Less than 5 minutes
EASY-PEASY SCALE (1 super easy - 5 very difficult): 1 out of 5
If you trust your kids won't ingest the liquid, this would be a great project for them!
The second project I've blogged about before - a time capsule jar. Starting on January 1st, grab a jar and start putting random things inside. Maybe your family took a trip to the beach so add a seashell or some sand. Maybe a friend visited from out of town so add some movie tickets or concert passes. When December 31st rolls around, open up the jar to see what happened throughout the year! The best part? You get to keep the jars for as long as you like, so hold onto them so you can see what happened 10, 20, even 50 years ago!
TOTAL COSTS: Free!
You can just use paper and a marker to write on the top or sides of the jar (or you can buy chalkboard liner for $6 on Amazon). And you don't have to use mason jars - find ones that will fit your family!
TOTAL AMOUNT OF TIME: 1 year
EASY-PEASY SCALE (1 super easy - 5 very difficult): 1 out of 5
We keep our jar in the same place - visible, but not in the way. That way, we know to stick something in there when we get the chance!
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