Craft Jams & Jellies for A Pretend Kitchen

My pretend preserves are cooling on the window seal. Soon someone small will have a charming,
 new addition to her old-fashioned, play pantry.

       Any older brother or sister can craft these adorable, homemade jelly or jam jars for a child sized market stall or play kitchen! It's a simple craft that looks like just like real preserves! You can choose to draw pictures of fruit fillings, apply stickers or Mod Podge free, fruit clip art from the web onto the labels I have provided below. The age of your crafter will predetermine whichever steps you decide to take when decorating these labels.

Draw a larger circle using a pencil, onto
the wrong side of your fabric selections.
Cut an additional 1/2 inch margin around
the circle for a proper ruffle if making a
template from the jelly jar itself.

Supply List:

• four glass or plastic containers
• four acrylic paint colors: blue, purple, red and orange
• labels for jellies and jams
• stickers of fruit (optional)
• Mod Podge
• soft paint brush
• scissors
• pencils, crayons or paint for coloring fruit
• calico or gingham cotton fabric (scraps)
• rubber bands

Step-by-Step Directions:  

1. Gather your supplies before beginning. You do not need to use glass jars like mine, if you are afraid they might break when handled by little ones roughly. There are many grocery products on the market that come in similar styles and sizes to mine that are made from plastic. I used four glass yogurt jars that look just like old-fashioned jelly jars for this craft. 
2. Clean the jars with warm soap and water; removing any labels from the outside of the jar with a bit of elbow grease, of course.
3. Squeeze a small amount of paint into each jar and cover the entire surface of the inside of the jars with color. Rotate the jars from side to side until there is a nice even coat of paint. Drain the excess of paint back into the paint containers if possible. Let the paint in each jar harden over night before proceeding to the following steps.
4. Using a round template/pattern (from a glass or plate or the jar plus 1/2 inch), draw a larger circle using a pencil, onto the wrong side of your fabric selections. Repeat this four times for each jar of jam. Make sure that the circles are larger than the top openings of your pretend jam/jelly jars by at least one half inch. You will need this much fabric to hang over the outer rims all the way around each jar in order to seal them with a rubber band. Mothers and Grandmothers often decorate their home made preserves with similar fabric rounds after canning themselves.
5. Set these fabric lid covers aside for wrapping the tops of each jar later.
6. Now print out the labels that I have included for the project below.
7. You can choose to draw and then color in four separate fruits for each label: grapes, apricots, strawberries, and blue berries. Alternatively, you could use some colorful, fruity stickers to decorate each label before applying them with Mod Podge instead of drawing and coloring the fruits if you wish.
8. Use the blue berry label for a jar painted with blue acrylic, a strawberry label for a red painted jar, an apricot label for an orange painted jar and finally a purple painted jar for the grape jelly label.
9. After coloring in or decoupaging each label with stickers, apply Mod Podge to the surface areas of each jar of jam and carefully stick the labels onto the painted jars. Let the surface dry and repeat an application of Mod Podge on top of the labels to protect them from play.
10. Now secure a fabric round to the top of each jar with a rubber band. (see photo)

Left, Clean the jars with warm soap and water. Right, Let the paint in each jar harden over night before proceeding.

Here I have drawn some free labels for your jam & jelly jars.

I added yellow, calico, fabric lids to my pretend preserves.

Crafting For An Old-Fashioned Kitchen:

• Vintage Kitchen Ideas from Better Homes & Gardens
• Woman's 1950s Timewarp House