Tuesday, January 22, 2013

The Famous "Calm Jar"

You may have seen this "calm jar" floating around Pinterest lately.  It's by no means an original idea, so I, myself, and about half a million other people can't take credit for the "aha" moment some creative gal (or guy!) had when they thought of this wonderful little idea.  Actually, it's very basic and may seem almost juvenile... and technically, I'm pretty certain it's intended to entertain and/or calm down children, but, well...

I made this for me.



When my daughter is older and understands that the lid isn't supposed to come off, I'll let her in on this fun craft.  But for right now, this is just an experiment for mama.

I've seen that people are using it as a "time-out" method with their children.  They hand them the "calm jar" when they seem a little too rambunctious or have suddenly transformed into the Tasmanian Devil, and the kids apparently shake up this jar (sometimes to help get frustration out), and then they just watch the glitter sloooooooowly make its way to the bottom.  It takes a few minutes, so that gives them enough time to just breathe, relax, think more rationally, and just flat out calm the heck down.

Aaaaand this is why I made it for ME.  I'll be the first to admit that sometimes I need to put myself in a time out.  I'm an anxious person, sometimes a little stubborn, and I haven't mastered the art of not letting my emotions take over my reactions just yet... I have a lot of my own ways to clear my head normally, and they work very well, but I thought to myself, Why not add this calm jar into the mix, too?  So here I am, giving it a go.

If yelling out "Serenity nowww!" is no longer working for you, then by all means join me.  (Any Seinfeld fans know what I'm talking about.)  And if you have a child who needs a little calming every now and then, why not see if this helps... Maybe it will give you a little peace and quiet for about 5 minutes, huh?  :)

Supplies:
-Small jar or container with a (very tight sealing) lid
-warm to hot water
-2-3 small tubes of glitter glue
-A few tablespoons of fine colored glitter


Make sure your jar is very clean before you start.  First, add the warm or hot water.  The water needs to be warm enough that it can help break down the glue after you put it in. The glue is used to slow the time it takes the glitter to reach the bottom of the jar, but for goodness sakes, please don't add too much glue just to add more minutes to your calming time.  This will totally backfire my sweet desperate friends... The glitter will all be stuck up top unable to sink, and the kids will come running to you in frustration which defeats the entire purpose of the "calming experience."  ;)

On that note, add the tubes of glitter glue to the water.  I wanted to try different colors than I originally intended when I got out my supplies, so that is why yellow suddenly appears in the following photo.  I did end up using some of the green glue (probably half) and an entire tube of yellow, so technically I used 2.5 tubes of glue and it turned out just fine.


Give it all a nice stir to try to break it up a bit.  The glue won't mix in completely so don't worry about that.

Finally, dump in that glitter!!  It will settle on top, so you have to push it down a bit and stir it around.


That's it!  Now just get that lid in place and tighten, tighten, tighten!  I used a Ball jar, so the seal was as tight as can be... but I still got out the handy glue gun and did some touch ups just in case.

There you have it.  Of course, you can add in other things, too... Larger glitter pieces that come in shapes like stars or hearts, food coloring in the water, etc.  You can decorate the lid... whatever!  Go crazy, and have fun with it.

And when you're done, enjoy that wonderful gift of peace and quiet, my friends.
Happy crafting!


-Marybeth