Love mason jar gifts? Gifts in a jar are some of the cutest and easiest things you can make for people on your gift giving list. Perfect places for storing and giving other gift items, gift cards and cool sets of things your friends and family like mason jars can be gifted for just about any occasion. Whether you need a gift for men, women, kids or a few things on hand for neighbors that stop by during the Christmas holidays, these cool DIY projects are super creative and easy to make. I’ve made so many mason jar gifts for my kid’s teachers, ladies in my gardening club, and so many others. When time and money are both tight, the mason jar DIY craft idea makes an excellent option for the group gift needs of a wedding or baby shower. What better way to say I care to anyone you love and respect, its time to let them know they are truly appreciated.
DIY Gifts in A Jar
1. Santa Chocolate Jar
This is my go to when Christmas has crept up on me again. A plain jar becomes a jolly little Santa, and you can fill him with chocolates, candy, trinkets or hot cocoa mix depending on who is getting him. Cute, cheap and genuinely quick. My tutorial is right this way.
2. Mason Jar Pineapple
The perfect gift for my daughter’s teacher popped into my mind as I was staring at the pineapples at Randall’s grocery store. I had this cute faux succulent pen that I always thought looked like a pineapple, so I realized that was my top. I painted my mason jar yellow and drew on the pineapple husk with my paint pen, filled it with some leftover Halloween candy I had lying around and I had the most beautiful gift that cost no money to put this together. I now get consulted by my daughter’s teachers on best DIY projects for the children’s craft hour.
3. Herb Kit Gift In A Jar
The mini herb garden kit is a lovely gift for anyone of any age. I started mine with a little seed starter at the bottom of the mason jar and added packs of seeds and these cute mini terracotta clay pots. You can find little chalkboard themed markers at Michael’s craft store so the new gardener can label all their lovely new plants. This is so well liked, it’s my go-to standby DIY gift idea for almost any occasion.
4. Girls Weekend Gift in a Mason Jar
Girls weekends are a blast, my friends and I usually shop, eat, play fun games that we used to play in Jr. high like charades. Since the ladies that join in on the fun come from all over and I am local, I like to have a little something special for them when they arrive. I will never forget how hard we laughed when our charade game turned into impersonating our teachers like Coach Heldman, my friend Beatrice was cracking us all up as she walked around the room stomping like Lurch on the Adams Family. We all wore matching pajama pants- compliments of me! You could not believe the sight of Beatrice leading a team of Lurches around the room stomping in unison wearing matching pajama pants. Thinking outside the box with help from my trusty friend the mason jar provided a lovely DIY packaging presentation for my school chums and they loved them. Who wouldn’t love receiving a girls weekend gift in a mason jar? Especially when there are matching pajama pants for everyone to wear all weekend!
5. Hot Chocolate Mix In A Jar
A layered jar of hot chocolate mix is what I hand to teachers and neighbors every December, because people actually use it. Milk powder, cocoa and a bit of white chocolate do all the work. Tie on a ribbon and a scoop and you are finished. I Heart Naptime has the recipe.
6. DIY Beginner Sewing Kit Mason Jar Gift
It’s that time when your kids and their friends go off to college. I was so worried about some of my daughter’s friends, not having any sewing knowledge and my daughter said, Mom, we all can use Youtube. I laughed but reminded her they still needed supplies. So I turned to my old friend the trusty mason jar to make a darling sewing kit for these precious girls. The kits included straight pins, a seam ripper, scissors, a tape measure, trim, twine, and buttons. I made a little pincushion for the top, but the sky is the limit on how you want to put this DIY mason jar project together. I can’t wait for feedback when they come home for Thanksgiving.
7. Pressed Flower Mason Jar Fairy Lights
Flowers pressed against the glass with lights glowing behind them make this look far more expensive than it is. I gave one away and immediately had to make another for myself. It is a keepsake rather than a throwaway gift. Here is my full tutorial.
9. Fairy Jar Lamp
There is a tiny glowing scene inside this jar, and every person I have given one to has held it up to the light for a good long while. It works as a night light for a child or as a bit of magic on a grown up’s shelf. I have the whole process written up for you.
10. Blueberry Sugar Scrub In A Jar
A few pantry ingredients turn into a scrub that smells incredible and leaves skin soft, and packed into a little jar it looks like something off a spa shelf. I keep one back for myself every time I make a batch. Skip the store bought version entirely. My recipe is here.
11. 11. Homemade Milk Bath
Powdered goat milk is the whole trick here, blended with Epsom salt, colloidal oatmeal and lavender buds. Soap Queen suggests gloves rather than a spoon, which sounds fussy until the milk powder clumps and you’re breaking it apart with your fingers anyway. The soak goes into sealable tea bags, one to two tablespoons each, ironed shut, and one full 8 ounce jar fills seven to ten of them. That’s most of a gift list out of a single bowl, which is my favorite kind of arithmetic.
15. 15. Coconut Lime Body Scrub In A Jar
One product, not a whole spa kit, and I’d rather say so up front. Lori’s coconut lime scrub is half a cup of coconut oil with sea salt, Epsom salt, vitamin E and ten drops of lime oil stirred in, which fills a mason jar and makes about a cup. She says the lime and coconut together smell like the beach, and she is not wrong about that combination. Her own suggestion is to add a couple of homemade bath bombs alongside it, which is how you build a proper pampering jar out of one scrub.
16. Snow Globe Gift Card Holder
Handing over a gift card can feel a bit flat, so I seal mine inside a homemade snow globe instead. There is no water involved, which makes it far easier than you would expect, and old mason jars are exactly the right shape. Come see how I make them.
20. Chocolate Chip Cookie Mix In A Jar
The layers of a cookie mix jar look beautiful before anyone has baked a single thing, and whoever receives it only has to add the wet ingredients. I love an edible gift that does not need eating straight away. Skip to My Lou has the layering worked out.
21. Flower Pot Candy Jar
I spent my childhood begging my mom for extra coins at the gumball machine, so building one of my own was always going to happen eventually. A terracotta pot and a jar give you that unmistakable classic shape, filled with whatever candy you like best. It is pure nostalgia on a shelf. Here is my tutorial.
22. Alphabet Soup In A Jar
hannaford
25. Sweet BBQ Rub In A Jar
For anyone in your life who lives at the grill, a jar of homemade rub beats another set of tongs. This one is sweet and smoky and works on ribs, steak, pork and chicken, and I mix a big batch in about five minutes flat. The Slow Roasted Italian has the blend.
30. 30. Mason Jar Sewing Kit
Skip the pre-packaged kit. Ellen’s argument is that store kits are built for quick repairs, so a DIY jar can hold full packages of elastic, bias tape and thread instead, and a wide mouth quart jar gives you the height to do it. Steal her tiny 5 milliliter jars from the craft store beading aisle, one for buttons and one for safety pins, so nothing rattles loose in the bottom. I could guide you through a Michaels better than some of their employees, and the one thing worth spending real money on here is the embroidery scissors.
35. 35. Peppermint Oreo Icebox Cake
Nothing about this one goes in a jar and I’m fine with that. Jocelyn layers red filled Oreos dipped in milk with a no bake cheesecake of cream cheese, marshmallow fluff and melted white chocolate peppermint, then refrigerates it four hours until the cookies soften into cake. Add the crushed candy canes right before serving, because they melt into the top and get sticky if they go on early. My rule for feeding people is a few things done well and prepped ahead, and this is both.
36. 36. Bailey’s Hot Chocolate Bombs
A hot chocolate bomb is already a good gift. Ours has a Bailey’s ganache sealed inside instead of cocoa powder, and that one swap is the reason I like this version. Heat the Bailey’s until it barely begins to boil, because scorched cream turns bitter and nothing after that will fix it. Melt the wafers in 30 second bursts, coat the mold, tip the excess onto wax paper and chill for five minutes. Bailey’s makes a non alcoholic version, so this is a boozy gift that still works for the whole list.
37. 37. Homemade Bath Bombs
Homemade bath bombs fail at one moment only, and it’s when the liquid hits the dry mix too fast and sets the fizz off in the bowl. Add it a few drops at a time, and I do mean drops. Ours is baking soda, citric acid, cornstarch and Epsom salt packed tight into both halves of a mold and left overnight, with an optional capsule that turns into a sponge animal in the tub. The water amount shifts with the humidity where you live, which is the part nobody tells you and probably why yours crumbled last time.
38. Peppermint Brownie Mix In A Jar
Peppermint turns a brownie mix jar into a proper holiday gift, and I make a row of them for neighbors every year. There is a free printable tag to finish it off, which saves everyone from my handwriting. Get the mix over at I Heart Naptime.
44. S’44. S’mores Mason Jar Gift
Golden Grahams, holiday M&Ms and mini marshmallows. That is the entire shopping list, tossed in one bowl and poured into jars. Kimberly’s own tip is to use the mason jars with handles, so the container is a mug the recipient keeps long after the mix is gone, which quietly makes this two handmade gifts instead of one. There are free printable tags to tie on with baker’s twine. She admits the leftover mix didn’t survive her, which tells me to buy enough cereal for two batches.
