Tuesday 3 July 2012

I Spy Jar

Our I Spy Jar was inspired by Pinterest, and in fact it was one of the first things that I ever pinned. I held off making it for a little while because I wanted to make sure that my children were old enough to handle a glass jar safely under supervision.

How to make an I Spy bottle toy for children

I've seen many different versions of the I Spy jar online, but the one that I first saw was over at Meet the Dubiens, unfortunately the blog post is no longer available.

This is my version:

How to make an I Spy bottle toy for children

I used an old pasta sauce jar. To remove the label from the jar I soaked it in WD40, and it peeled right off. I like to think that our home is fairly uncluttered, but I found it very easy to gather together tiny items to put inside by raiding the toy box, my craft supplies and the bowl in the kitchen that we keep for keys and other junk. I used brown rice for the bulk of the jar (just what we had in the cupboard) and I found that you don't need to leave much space at the top of the jar at all as the contents easily shift around with a bit of shaking.

How to make an I Spy bottle toy for children

My contents are - leaf bead, old heart earring, toy handbag, flower bead, heart cutout, nut, marble, butterfly eraser, pom pom, penny, shell, stone, craft flower, paperclip, plastic cow, silver bead, eyelet, googly eye, blue button, star sequin, snowflake brad, yellow button, tiny clothes peg, doll crown, pink drawing pin, safety pin, flat shell.

Harry is fascinated by it and I can't stop turning it around myself!

Update - it's been a few years now since I made this and it has become one of the favourite toys, still played with long after. It would be great to remake one in a plastic bottle to take on car journeys, and I'd love to print off a little checklist of things that are included to attach to the lid.

13 comments:

  1. I've seen this before, but now you have convinced me. We'll have to try this- we have a zillion little thingymabobbers I'm sure!

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    1. It's really easy to do, you've probably got everything that you need lying about!

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  2. Fab idea!!! I need to get into Pinterest. Seems like there are some fab ideas on there! x

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    1. Oh yes you absolutely need to get into Pinterest, it's brilliant! Addictive though...!

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  3. Another brilliant idea I have never seen before.

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  4. Man, this is so clever! my six year old would LOVE this! Thanks so much for entering the challenge too!

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    1. Thank you! And thanks for hosting the challenge this month, I love taking part!

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  5. Great idea. Might have to try this. x

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  6. That looks like a fab idea to keep the kids occupied on an upcoming long distance flight! They have clear plastic bottles at the 99p store I might have to invest in! Thanks foor linking up!

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    1. A plastic bottle would be really good, I'm going to keep an eye out for a nice one to transfer it into because it would be a lot safer, especially for travelling.

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  7. Brilliant jar! I am currently working on a list of I Spy games for travel and have seen lots of jars around (will be making one ourselves!) yours is one of the best so far ;)

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  8. Hi I have just linked to your post here http://theholidaytotsblog.co.uk/2014/01/07/i-spy-games-for-all-ages-perfect-for-family-travel/ I hope that's ok

    S xx

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