Kids' Money Jars {tutorial}

November 19, 2011 Teresa Swanstrom Anderson

As my ever-ongoing quest to be organized continues, Ben and I decided it was time for the boys to have chores & therefore earn a bit of an allowance {chore chart tutorial coming soon!}.

Unfortunately, neither he nor I learned about finances growing up {I think it must have been a taboo subject in that generation because I hear that from a lot of friends} and we therefore have had to learn in our adult years how on earth to manage our money.

I searched online for some ideas as to how to do this and help us learn how to instill the concept into their little heads early and everything I found was ugly. Or expensive.

We did order this for them, but again...ugly. What's up with that??

So, I decided to make these "piggy banks" for each of them. They each have three jars "Save," "Spend," & "Give."

I am in LOVE with mason jars and often use them as serving glasses for parties, so I have tons waiting to be played with.

{much less expensive to buy mason jars at the grocery store, than a craft shore. wooden box from hobby lobby}

Cute...but definitely not cute enough, so I decided to tint the clear glass of the jars.

I found this blog and this blog on how to do it, and decided to take what worked from both and apply it to my own project {the first blog's design didn't turn out very well}.

So here ya go! Hope it inspires you!

Supplies:

{for mason jar} - mason jar {or other clear vessel} - modge podge {in gloss} - food coloring - ramekin or small bowl - oven

- jute, ribbon, etc.

{for box} - wooden box or crate - paint brush - paint {I used a sample left over from this project - behr, porpoise 790E-3}

Mix food coloring with about a Tablespoon {T} of water. Go a lot darker than you initially think you should because it looks quite a bit lighter when it dries on the glass. The color above is very light on my jar. I went a lot darker, as I continued on with my jars.

Pour in about a T or two of Modge Podge.

Add the ramekin of color

Roll around in the jar, coating the entire thing.

Flip the jars upside down {about 30 mins} and let the extra modge podge & color run out.

Don't freak out if yours looks like this. Remember, modge podge dries clear.

I set my oven to 200 and let the jars dry in there for an hour, turning it off when the buzzer went off and leaving them inside overnight. In the morning, they were streak free, translucent, and beautiful! Very similar to vintage mason jars. I love how each jar is a little different in color.

Ok... onto the box. Ben and I really liked the way old weathered wood looks and found this blog on how to age new wood with apple cider vinegar & steel wool! What a cool idea! Thought I'd try it out but even with multiple applications over several days, I gave up. It wasn't as quick & easy as the blog made it out to be.

{this is as weathered as i could get it to look}

Instead, I decided to use some paint I had left over from this project.

I simply dry-brushed it because I still wanted a more worn look, rather than a perfectly painted crate.

I like seeing the wood beneath.

Here's my finished product! I found lots of fun free printable tags here, here, here, here, and here {the grey ones above are actually Christmas gift tags}

{these are Christmas gift tags, too! love.}

Now I'm just trying to figure out if I like the monochromatic look with the grey, or a pop of color {which I typically tend to be drawn toward}. Guess I'll live with them a few days and see. What do you think?