I wish I had been one of those incredible mom's who made all of her baby food by scratch. Occasionally, I made my own cooked fruits and vegetables for Little Man, but usually his cuisine came straight from the jar. Please don't judge me. I vow to be better prepared for Baby #2.
Luckily, I was smart enough to save most of my baby food jars. Now I am thinking of so many ways I can use them! Last week, I made Little Man a matching game using the lids of baby food jars!
I love how easy this was, and how cute it turned out! I popped the circles into the insides of the baby food jars. They fit nice and snug, but I also used mod podge to secure them.
I decided to make the tops of the lids cute, too, by tracing the lids onto scrapbook paper, cutting them out, and securing them with LOTS of mod podge. I knew Little Man would be rough on these, so I added a couple of coats of mod podge over the top of the paper, too.
Little Man loves his game!! (In fact he saw me typing up this post, and ran to the other room to go get it!)
There are a few ways we have used this game so far:
1. We practice our animal sounds (at least for the pictures of animals that make sounds). He has learned how to bzzz like a bumble bee!
2. I model matching for him, and he is learning to see that 2 pictures are similar and go together.
3. I simply tell him to "Find the lion", etc. and see if he can find a specific animal within the group.
4. He loves dumping out the game, and the sound of the lids on a hard surface!! But we are also practicing cleaning up. He loves to place the lids one by one back into the bag, just to dump it out again! I am loving that he is learning to pick up!
Some day, I am hoping he will learn to use this as a matching game. Some day. We'll grow into it, of course!
For this project:
* Clip art designs &/or fonts copyright Dianne J Hook. Used with permission from DJ Inkers.
* If you wish to make your own, you can download here.
Have a fun and fabulous Fourth!
This is really fun, a nice way of recycling those lids, and I love all the different ways you use the game!
Love it! My sons loves the matching game I have, but he tears the paper up every time. The lids will hold up much better! 🙂
Super fun! And so generous to offer a download, too! *sigh* I knew I should be keeping all those lids. And I cringe every time I take the jars to the recylcing just knowing I'm missing out on making them into some exciting craft project! Thanks, Alison!!!
What a great idea! This morning you were at least the 2nd post about what to do with the baby food jars~ this must be the trend today in blog world 😉 If I still had some I could have made some cute tea lights out of them and then used my lids for this adorable game! Thanks for sharing!!! 😉
Thank you for sharing the idea!
Don't you just love DJ Inkers! The graphics are so cute! Thank you for sharing this printable! We used juice lids from frozen juice containers and gatorade type lids to make a game similar to this one. Have you tried paint chip matching? Another favorite in our house! Here is a link to a post about that on my blog: http://meandmarielearning.blogspot.com/2010/03/more-homemade-games.html
Love your blog!! Thanks again for sharing!!!
Great idea! I love it. I have saved my baby food jars/lids as well. As soon as I get some more ink for my printer, I'll be printing these out! Thanks.
LOVE IT!! Very cute. When my baby starts eating baby food I will be sure to keep the lids.
Just a quick note to let you know that a link to this post will be placed on CraftCrave today [02 Jul 01:12pm GMT]. Thanks, Maria
Oh my gosh. BRILLIANCE! Love it!! I will have to go make it with the billions and billions of baby food jars I've been saving for nothing in particular RIGHT THIS SECOND.
I didn't save enough of my baby food jars with Number 1 (maybe I'll do better with Number 2), but I have been saving milk and juice bottle lids for craft projects, so I might just resize this and give it a go. Thanks!
Just found your ADORABLE blog!! I cannot wait to see more. This is such a great way to repurpose the lids!
So adorable!!! really I love it! I have a box full of recycled baby food jars… So now I can make a memory game with the lids if I choose. Thanks for the idea. Thank you also for your SUPER SWEET comment on my Picture Knob Plaques, what a flattering comment. I am now your newest follower too. Have a HAPPY 4th of July! jENN
this is such a cute idea! I'm hunting around the house for lids!! Thanks for sharing this!
These are darling!!
These are clever, and way more sturdy than the cardboard game pieces I would imagine.
Stopping by from Sumo's Marketing Monday ….
This is such a cute little idea! If I still had little ones I would definitely do it! hehe
This is a really frugal and fun idea; super clever! Thanks for the links and for sharing this project. I've got a whole box of baby food jars purchased last week from the thrift shop. This is another project I can add. Following along now thru Keeping It Simple. Pam @ Sallygoodin
This is a great idea and would make a GREAT present.
I would love it if you linked up to my first linky party for my month long Christmas in July homemade gifts event.
Really, you have TONS of great gift ideas and I would love for you to share any of them.
I hope to see you there.
Just Another Day in Paradise
http://www.zitzmanfam.blogspot.com
Cool idea! Thanks for linking up to Mad Skills Monday!
Great idea. I have a TON of jars and lids from my twins. I wouldn't let anyone throw them away thinking they would be so great for crafting and now I have BOXES of them just sitting there waiting for a post just like this one. Thanks for the printables!
What a great idea!!
I love this – this is way too cute! My kids are too grown up for this, but I will be saving this idea for the neighbor across the street who just had a baby 🙂
I've been saving lids — not baby food lids since I don't have a baby anymore (*sniff), but I bet I could use the ones I have! Thanks for sharing the printable too
This is such a cute idea. I'm sending it off to my daughters!
oh, such a good idea!
I love for you to stop by and link up to Socialize with me Monday til Sunday. Going on now! 🙂
http://simpsonizedcraftsandthensome.blogspot.com/2010/07/socialize-with-me-monday-til-sunday.html
Love this. you really should link up to my Upcycling linky party.
http://www.thetshirtdiaries.com/2010/07/upcycled-awesome-4_07.html
I love this idea, thank you for providing the super cute download! I host a weekly linky party at my other blog and I'd love for you to link up!
http://www.abcand123learning.com/2010/07/show-and-tell-15.html
Just plain lovely idea! Love it!
This is so awesome! I love it!
How cute! I always plan on making my own baby food too, and it just hasn't happened yet :). I'll have to make this with all my jars!
Thanks for linking up to We Did It! Wednesday!
I LOVE this. Will be doing this over the weekend 🙂
I found u on Delicious Ambiguity and am now a follower.
What a great idea! I never made my own baby food either, so don't feel bad you are still a fabulous mother! Thanks for linking up to Hoo's got talent!
Thanks so much for coming by and linking up! I'm glad you did and even featured it, in tomorrow's Show and Tell.
What a great idea and so generous of you to include the download! Can't wait to make mine!
-Kara
http://littlelearnerslounge.blogspot.com/
love this! I can't wait to give it a try!
I have a download at my site for colors and shapes that I think would fit on these (we used them on milk tops) if you want to check it out.
this is such an awesome printable! thank you SO much for sharing it.. i will definitely try this
oh and i added this to my tumblr, fun with mama tumblr..so awesome!
This post has been selected as one of my top posts of the week. Here is the link: http://www.jdaniel4smom.com/2010/07/great-post-i-came-across-this-week-july.html
Oh man, Alison. These are awesome. I love every single freebie you have. Time to lug the printer into the living room. (Sadly, if I so much as move my laptop, it shuts off. But, I'm hoping she holds on until Christmas. Haha!)
Thanks for the inspiration! I hope that you don't mind that I shared it on my blog:
http://www.pbandjoy.com/2011/02/baby-food-lid-match-game.html
We love it!
what a fun idea! thanks for sharing! I also shared it on my blog with credit back to yours! Hope you don't mind!
http://salttree.blogspot.com/2011/04/101-uses-for-baby-food-jars.html
Way cute idea. Thanks for sharing!!
Such a great idea! I am going to feature this on SomewhatSimple.com tonight!
Thanks for the inspiration,
Steph