Mind Jars, also known as calm jars or glitter jars, are a great tool for individuals to help cope with feelings of anxiety, stress, or anger. When the jar is shaken, mixing up all of the glitter, the jumbled swirling glitter represents the jumbled or extreme emotions the user is feeling. As the user watches the glitter fall and settle, their emotions and feelings will calm down and the user will feel more grounded.
These jars are beneficial for both children and adults. Many people like to make mind jars from plastic bottles for time-out. (Any jar meant for a child to use should be made of plastic) I took a mind jar made from a large mason jar into the vocational school where I teach, and my adult students really enjoyed using it throughout the semester, so I decided to make some for their graduation this spring.
These jars are a little fancier than most, but that’s because they were intended as gifts. I think they turned out pretty cute.
The first thing you will need is a jar. You can recycle jars from grocery items, drinks, or you can purchase a canning jar. The jar should be clear and not tinted.
Then you can gather the rest of your supplies. How much depends on how large your jar is. For a medium/large jar, a bottle of clear glue and a medium container of glitter should be sufficient. Some people like to combine a couple of different sizes of glitter that are the same color, as the different sizes take different amounts of time to fall to the bottom and add texture.
Some people choose to add a drop of food coloring to their jars for more color.
Fill your container about half full of warm water. Add approximately 3 to 4 tablespoons of clear glue, then your desired amount of glitter. Fill the container with warm water to about 1 inch below the top. Tightly attach the lid and mix it well.
Watch how the glitter falls and adjust your ingredients accordingly. More glue with thicken the liquid and case the glitter to fall a little more slowly.
If all you wanted was a simple mind jar, you are done!
Since I used these as gifts, I decided to spruce them up a bit.
The next thing I did was add a cool paper to cover the logo on the lids. I used old book paper that I had, but decorative scrapbook paper or construction paper would work well also. I glued it on, then brushed glue over the paper to keep it nice.
After that, I added some neat labels. I used the Avery online design feature to create these neat round labels in craft brown. Since I teach computer applications, I used the phrase, “Keep Calm and Type On.”
After that, I added some twine around the bottle necks. For the blue bottle, which was for a male student, I added brown and white beads. For the other bottles I attached paper scrap booking flowers to the twine with hot glue.
The end result was a super cute mind jar to give my students as gifts!
**Originally posted on pinterestinspiration, this was reposted to Mossy Elm and all images are my own.
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