Craft Lightning Mother's Day Crafts | DIY Bath Salt Soak + Floral Jar

Welcome back, friends! If you didn’t catch it yesterday, I’m excited to share that I’ve teamed up with two of my favorite bloggers as a guest host for Craft Lightning. Every day this week, I’ll be sharing projects that are lightning fast – each one will take 15 minutes or less to make. They’re great Mother’s Day craft ideas – plus, I’ll be rounding up the best of the best Craft Lightning projects. If you come back every day, you’ll get almost 50 different ideas for DIY Mother’s Day Gifts!

So, Mother’s Day always makes me think FLOWERS. Today’s project has a floral theme and a pinch of pampering! I’ll share an easy recipe for DIY Bath Salt Soak and also show you how to make this fun little jar. This is *also* a project featured in my first craft book, DIY T-Shirt Crafts. (You know, so if you like it, there’s more recycled goodness to be had by picking that up on Amazon or at your local bookstore. Ahem.)

I used the following supplies to make this cute floral-topped mason jar (and if you need to do some shopping, you can click on any affiliate link below to get supplies).

A strip of 1½” wide T-Shirt fabric, approximately 24″ long. You can use jersey fabric from the fabric store or cut right into a thrift find or old shirt you already have.
1 fabric circle approximately 2½” in diameter, and 1 fabric circle cut to the same size as your jar lid
Needle and thread
Fabric glue
Jewelry glue or your favorite heavy duty adhesive (I like Gutermann)
Heavy paper or card stock, cut to the same size as your jar lid
Half-Pint Mason jar with ring and lid

Thread your needle and stitch into your fabric strip at one end in the center of the 1-1/2″ width. Tie the thread directly to the fabric strip. Then, use a simple basting stitch (an over-under stitch) and stitch vertically along the center of your fabric strip. It’s not essential to keep these stitches uniform, so don’t worry if they’re a little messy! Just try to keep them as close to the center of the strip as possible.

When you get to the end of the fabric strip, pull the thread tight and gather the fabric into small ruffles until your fabric strip has been reduced to about 15″ long. Tie off the thread securely at the end of the gathered fabric strip.

Next, fold the ruffled strip in half along the line of stitching. Because it’s gathered, it might not cooperate. Again, it doesn’t have to be perfect! The goal is for the raw edge (the “petals”) to stand up, and the smooth stitching to be at the bottom so you can roll it in the next step.

So yes, roll the fabric into a spiral along that stitched edge, giving you one flat side and one ruffled side. Cover the flat side of your ruffled rose with fabric glue, and secure it with a small fabric circle.

Glue together the card stock or paper circle and the fabric circle that matches your jar lid size, using a very thin layer of fabric glue. Then, run a line of jewelry glue or your heavy duty adhesive along the inside of the mason jar ring.

Now, position the circle fabric side up, and place it into the top of the jar ring so that the ring has a fabric topper that will cover the jar’s metal lid. Then, glue the rose to the fabric topper inside the ring.

You’ll be able to use the jar’s metal lid to seal your bath salt, and just screw the lid on top of it. What’s nice about this is that once the jar is empty, it can easily be kept and re-used!

Finally – mix up your favorite scented bath salts! Here’s the recipe:

5-6 drops of your favorite essential oil
1 cup of coarse sea salt
1 tablespoon of baking soda

Add the oil first to the salt, and stir it well. Then, add the baking soda and stir it again. This recipe will last up to a year on the shelf if covered tightly. My favorite scent is 4 drops of lavender and 2 drops of peppermint oil, but you can create any scent using this recipe!

Be sure to take a look at some of these other great ideas by Made to be a Momma, My Creative Life, Ginger Snap Crafts, Albion Gould, Dragonfly and Lily Pads, Doodlecraft, and 365 Days Of Crafts! You can click the image to learn more about any of these projects.