A World of Geegaws: Making Discovery Jars

Tchotchke (/ˈtʃɒtʃkə/CHOCH-ka) is a small bauble, doodad, doohickey, gewgaw, gismo, goolya, kitsch, knickknack, lagniappe, swag, thingamabob, thingamajig, toy, trinket, whatchamacallit, whosie-whatsit, widget, etc.

– Wikipedia

I thought about calling these “low-rent snow globes,” but…

When I saw jars like these at my crafty friend Beth’s house, I knew that they were destined to be my next easy project with Maya. If you have a toddler hanging around, and you are anything like me, you also have a drawer somewhere with stuff too small for playtime. Ours includes dominoes, game pieces, dollhouse doodads, coins, buttons, beads, pine cones, seashells, a busted kazoo and other flotsam.

This easy project transforms these hitherto hazards into a safe toy, without even needing a run to the craft store. The materials are all re-purposed and the time it takes to put together more or less corresponds to a two-year-old’s attention span, so that this is actually a toddler-friendly crafting adventure. They do notice such things: Maya periodically will pick our jars up and proudly pronounce, “We made it!” — which is payback plenty for me.

Snicker as you like, but I actually had to request plastic jars from our local list serv, which came through for me as it always does, because I’ve so habituated myself to buying food in glass. My pal Laura also helped by saving some nice-sized jars, so we had enough.

What you’ll need:

• 1-2 well-sized plastic food jars (we used a peanut butter and an apple sauce jar), cleaned, with labels and gummy stuff removed
• Household jetsam: small objects, such as dice, coins, pom-poms, cut pieces of felt in shapes like stars or hearts, beads, thimbles, craft supplies, game pieces, dollhouse items, feathers, erasers, party favors, seashells, stones, pine cones, paper clips, etc. (You could also make a holiday themed version if you have that sort of stuff on hand.)
• Glue: I used a small hot glue gun, but Superglue would also likely work.
• Rice: Short-grained cheap white rice would likely work best, though we used what we had in the pantry.
• Optional: ribbons or paper for decorating the jar and lid.
• Toddler with 20 minutes of focus and attention

Directions:

Lay down newspaper or a cloth to catch the stray rice and objects. Put the objects in a large bowl and let the toddler sort them for a bit.

Divide them up among your jars and add the rice, leaving room at the top for the rice and objects to be able to move around. Most toddlers can help pour the rice, which is great fine motor practice.

Glue the lid and make sure it’s secure. If desired, decorate the jar with paper on the lid (I used origami paper) and/or ribbon. Et voila, geegaws! Enjoy turning the jar to reveal the shifting contents.

There’s really no limit on what small objects can be included — I even finally found an appropriate location for an hilariously hideous little framed school photo of me circa 1985. Shudder. Happy to have that disappear under the “snow.”

Here are some other related holiday crafts you may want to check out:

• Snow Globes (diyconfessions.com)
• Holiday Crafts: Mason Jar Snow Globes (ohshedabbles.com)
• DIY Snow Globe! Fun Craft to Give or Keep (tamerietherton.com)
• 9 Simple Thanksgiving Crafts Your Kids Will Love (redtri.com)