I love it when craft projects use the word “simple”. And every time I read it, I’m sucked in! So as I was perusing my new Family Fun (April
2012), I saw a wonderful organize-your-kids-collections idea using glass and
plastic food jars. Since Little Miss
loves to pick up stones and shells, I thought this would be a great
solution.
So I went to my collection of clean pickle jars (you never
know when there will be a pickle jar emergency!) and collected a few to make
them. The first problem I ran into was
the labels. See, you can soak them off,
but the glue won’t come off!! I thought,
well, Downy takes off wallpaper, so let’s try pickle jar labels.
I soaked my jars overnight and end up with two that were
clean enough to use. I did some
scrubbing with an abrasive sponge and ended up with 4.
Now we are 27 hours into this project.
Shew! Now to attach
the “specimens” to the lids. Well, I
don’t have the Amazing Goop they suggest, and my superglue has dried up. So I pull out my trusty hot glue gun and get
to work. The rock is just fine, and
glues nice and snug. But the nautilus
shell that Little Miss chose isn’t sticking too well. So I decide to paint the rock lid, and grab
the tempera. Again, the suggestion is to
use spray-paint, but I’m a little too smart to allow a 7-year-old to use spray
paint. So, she paints the lid for the
rock jar while I glue the shell and it looks great. On to the shell, but as she’s painting it,
the shell drops off and rolls away, leaving a pink trail across the kitchen
floor.
Oops.
OK, fine.
Paint the lid, paint the shell, we’ll glue them in the morning. In the meantime, we paint the other two plain
lids for the yet-to-be-discovered treasures.
Now we’re 40 hours into the “simple” project.
I’m holding the glue gun again, saying words
in my head that my 7-year-old doesn’t need to hear yet as I use a generous
amount of glue to attach the %*(*^T%$@ shell to the $$^()^$@ lid. Once that is done, I forbid Little Miss to
touch it while the glue cools, and I go off to nurse my burnt finger.
45 hours: Repainting the shell and lid. Thank goodness, the shell seems to be staying
put this time. Little Miss wanders in to
the kitchen and says, “I don’t like that color pink. Can we paint it again?”
(*^(%#^%$@.
47 hours: Lid is repainted again, and drying. We have placed the “special” rocks in one jar
and the 4 million silly bands she doesn’t wear in another jar.
49 hours, 23 minutes: Shells in the jar, lids are all
placed. Grudgingly I say that they look
pretty good.
Two lessons learned here.
1) “Simple” is a very objective word. What is simple for people who spend their
days crafting might not be for the rest of us.
2) Take the time to shop for the correct ingredients. Trying to substitute may bring about those
words that a 7-year-old shouldn’t hear.