Gifts in a Jar

This is my first year to have to come up with teacher gifts for Christmas. I decided to go with a Gift in a Jar cookie mix. It was super easy! I checked out a book from the library and picked out a recipe. I baked the cookies first to see if they were any good and decided to alter the recipe a little by switching peanuts and raisins for white chocolate chips.



I layered all the ingredients in quart canning jars. The heavier, more compact ingredients, such as brown sugar, are layered on the bottom with the lighter ingredients, such as flour, are layered on top.

I used a tupperware lid as a guide to cut circles out of fabric.  Then I used ribbon to secure the fabric over the lid. I also thread the recipe for finishing the cookies onto the ribbon.



I also made homemade play dough jars as gifts for some friends of the boys. Such an easy gift!

Homemade play dough

Today we made homemade play dough. I got the recipe from the book Gifts in a Jar: For Kids, but I've also seen this on Pinterest. Silly me didn't take any pictures while we were making it, but here is the finished product. We made orange because it's J's favorite color.

The recipe is:

2 cups all purpose flour

1 cup salt

2 tablespoons cream of tartar

2 packages of Kool-Aid

2 cups water

2 tablespoons baby oil

Mix the Kool-Aid, water and baby oil together. Mix the flour, salt, and cream of tartar in a large, microwave safe bowl. Add the liquid to the to the flour mixture and stir until blended. Mine was still kinda lumpy, and I think that made hard spots in the finished play dough that I had to pick out. So make sure it's not lumpy. Microwave in 30 second increments for 4-5 minutes, stirring after every 30 seconds. Continue to microwave and stir until a ball forms. Let cool and then play! There's no storage instructions in the book, so I wrapped it in plastic wrap and put it in a gallon ziploc bag.

This recipe made a TON, definitely enough for 2 kids to share and have plenty. You could definitely half or split the recipe and make two different colors. The recipe is made to fill a quart jar for gift giving, that's why it's so big.