Swap time is rolling around on the Half Scale Minis Group and I have an idea I’m excited about, but of course I won’t be able to talk about it for a few months.
While I was thinking about this I realized that I posted about the basket I made for the last swap, but never showed how I made the goodies inside the basket. Luckily I prepared all of the pictures already. Now let’s see if I can remember the steps…
My swap item was a Northern California gift basket containing a jar of jam, a brie wheel, a box of crackers, and a bottle of champagne.
I made the jam jars out of Lite Brite pegs. I got the idea from this Joann Swanson tutorial, which is mostly about creating bottles from Christmas lights, but also has instructions for making bottles and jars out of acrylic rods.
I shopped for Lite Brite pegs on eBay and soon realized that different sized and shaped pegs were sold in different years. The ones I bought are from the 1960s and they’re 1 1/8″ inches long.
I separated out the colors that could realistically be jam.
Using my razor saw and miter box, I cut off the pointed tips, and then cut a 1/4″ length. I saved the pointed tips to use as gum drops in the candy shop I’ll build one of these days. Never throw anything away!
I sanded the raggedy edges with an emery board.
Next, I cut the legs off of silver mini brads to make the lids.
These are exactly the right size to slip over the top of the jar.
I made the labels by shrinking down pictures off the Wild Pear Co. website. This is a local business that sells jam at the farmer’s market. The flavors I picked are strawberry, apricot, pomegranate, and pineapple.