A couple of years ago I saw this adorable picture with a jar decorated to look like Rudolph. I fell in love with it and I said I have to try recreating them. And as you guessed, they turned out too adorable to not share them with you.
These reindeer jars are not just an instant “awww!” magnet, but are also practical. Use them to store Christmas cookies, hot chocolate mix or fill them with tiny presents and gift them to your loved ones.
What You Will Need
You don’t need lots of craft items for this, so let’s add “easy” to the adorable part of this project. The things you will need for the adorable reindeer jar are:
- jar – fancy or not, small or big, depending on what you want to store in them
- all-purpose adhesive (or a glue gun – I personally don’t get along with them)
- funny googly eyes – depending on the jar’s size, choose the according to size
- large, fluffy red pom-pom – again, according to the jar’s size
- brown felt fabric sheet – for the fur
- dark brown or black furry wires (aka pipe cleaners)
- a pair of scissors – if you love that turquoise, polka-dot pair of scissors as much as I do, you can find it here
- polka-dot red ribbon (not pictured, because I forgot about it #fail)
Do it Yourself
Start by measuring around the jar, using the felt fabric to determine the height and length of the “fur”.
Once the measures are set, cut the felt fabric accordingly and wrap it around the jar, adding glue at one end.
Cut the excess felt fabric, if any.
Place the eyes and red nose over the felt fabric. Don’t glue them right away. Choose the right size for the eyes and nose. Depending on the size of the jar, they should be smaller or bigger. Also, make sure the eyes are straight. I know it sounds stupid, but my first reindeer jar did not have straight eyes…
Ok, now that everything is straight and even, it’s time to glue them.
On the cap of the jar, add two blobs of glue and stick two pipe cleaners and hold them in place to allow the glue to dry. Make them as long or as short as you feel comfortable. If you plan using the jar only for decorative purposes, then longer horns it is.
Related: How To Make Christmas Gift Bows
Cut two small pieces of furry wire (around 5 cm or depending on how long the horns actually are) and wrap them on top of the horns in a V shape to finish the reindeer horns. Depending on how long the horns are, you can add more of these.
Last, wrap the red ribbon around the jar’s lid and glue it in place. Based on how large the lid of the jar is, you will need more or less ribbon.
And that’s pretty much it.
I filled this one with some homemade chocolate mix (recipe coming soon). But there are a lot of things you can store using these cuties.
What you can store in them:
- hot chocolate mix
- cake mix
- mulled wine mix
- Christmasy spices such as ginger, cinnamon or cloves
- buttons
- small Christmas ornaments
- candies
- … pretty much anything that will fit in
Last year I added some hand and nail care items (mini nail polishes, travel size hand cream, etc.) and gave them to my best friends. They were more impressed by the packaging rather than what was inside, honestly. I’m telling you, a boring jar “dressed” as an adorable reindeer will melt hearts.
You can also choose non-traditional colours. For example, “dress” seven jars in each colour of the rainbow and use them to store things like sugar, flour or tea during Christmas time.
Related: DIY Christmas Tree Decorations
I also created some sort of a video tutorial (never going to use autofocus while filming again) to show you how you can recreate this crafting project. I hope you will find it useful and the article made you “aww”.
17 comments
How stinking adorable! I am going to make this with my girls this weekend.
oh my gosh! these are absolutely adorable. I so want to make these!!
These are absolutely cute and easy to do. I need to pin this.
These are so cute!! Perfect for hot cocoa gifts! Love.
I love this! Would be such a cool family activity to do around Xmas
ok this could not be cuter to make with my kids this holiday season! YAY!
This is such a cute little project. I might try it out with my goddaughter. She has an artistic bug
so cute! and you could do so much with them too as far as what to put inside!
So cute! A great idea for gifting food items. Definitely going to keep this in mind!
They are perfect for another type of gifts as well, not just food. I added travel sized nail and hand care products and gifted them like that.
So cute! I love Christmas crafts. I’ve been looking for a cute mug craft for hot cocoa – def gonna try this with handled mason jars!
Love this! It seems so easy, but looks like it took a lot of effort!
These are cute! I made similar last year and filled with Maltesers x
Nice idea! I guess they will look really cute also with M&Ms or Skittles.
These are really cute to do with kids
Yes, they are quite easy to make and I think kids will enjoy creating them. Just keep the pair of scissors for yourself and everything will be fine.
Well that’s adorable! I love the antlers!