Turn any ordinary jar into a delightful gift container or a charming addition to your pantry with these quick and easy DIY jar lid covers. The possibilities are endless:
Express Your Love: Choose from pre-designed
templates like heart-decorated Valentine's Day covers or
shamrock-decorated St. Patrick's Day covers.
Spread Gratitude: Create a special "gratitude
jar" with a unique lid cover.
Get Creative: Design your own custom-sized
covers or print our circle templates on decorative paper. For an
extra touch, create a coordinating gift tag from the same paper!
Repurpose & Upcycle: Fill a recycled jar with
treats or your favorite recipe ingredients, then top it off with a
custom lid cover.
Pantry Perfection: Brighten your shelves with
patterned covers for dry beans, peas, or any pantry staple! Our
templates fit standard large-mouth canning jars (5" lids).
Craft Your Way: These lid covers are perfect
for beginners and offer endless creative possibilities. You can
simply cut a circle from wrapping paper, decoupage designs, or
create a whole themed look with matching gift tags. Turn any jar into
something special with a jar lid cover that you can quickly make from paper.
Related crafts: Check out Aunt Annie's other Gift Wrap crafts for more gift wrapping and decoration ideas.
Step 1: Determine SizeFirst, you need to figure out the size of the lid cover. To do this, measure across the top of your lid to get its diameter. Add two or three inches to this measurement to get the diameter of the circle for your lid cover. Check the size by cutting the circle from scrap paper and testing how it covers the lid. Make size adjustments as needed
Tip: If your lid is deep, or you want a longer ruffle, add another inch or so to the diameter of the lid cover circle.
Imagine the design you want to appear on the lid cover and what colors you would like. You can use just about any lightweight paper for the lid cover. Wrapping paper, tissue paper, printed napkins, and decorative craft paper all work well.
You can also use plain white or colored paper with your own designs. Since the lid cover is a circle, you might want to place a graphic in the center of the circle or around the edge.
For an easy print-and-cut lid cover, use one of Aunt Annie's printable patterns.
Tip: Find a plate or lid that is the same size as the lid cover circle, and trace around it on the back of the paper using a pencil.
For easy print-and-cut lid covers, select one of these printable patterns. The colored patterns can be printed on white paper, and the black-and-white versions can be printed on colored paper. The circle patterns come in three sizes and are meant to be printed on the back of decorative papers like Aunt Annie's digital downloads.
Make a gratitude jar decorated with the Thankful Cover and filled with messages of thanks to gift to someone special. Or leading up to Thanksgiving, have the family help fill the jar with messages of thanks and gratitude written on slips of paper. On Thanksgiving, pull messages from the jar to read to each other.
Patterns are Adobe PDF files. The Adobe Reader is available for free.
All of Aunt Annie's Crafts project patterns are designed to be printed on standard letter-size paper (8.5"x11" or A4). When printing from Adobe Reader, you may need to select "Auto-Rotate and Center" or "Choose paper source by PDF page size" to ensure the best fit.
Cut out the lid cover on the printed or traced circle outline. Be careful to cut a neat, smooth circle. If you have decorative-edge scissors, use them to make a pretty edge.
If you made a plain paper lid cover or printed a border pattern, use rubber stamps, stencils, or colored pencils to decorate the lid cover.
To protect your lid cover from getting dirty, spray it lightly with hairspray. Before spraying, place the lid cover on a piece of waxed paper. Alternatively, you can apply one or two coats of acrylic varnish to the lid cover. This protects the design and makes the paper shiny and more pliable.
To put your cover on the jar lid, you will need a rubber band. Center the cover on the lid and use your hands to fold down the sides. Hold the sides in place while another person places the rubber band around the lid and lid cover. You may want to use your fingers to curl the edges upward.
Tip: You may find it easier to use thicker rubber bands.
As a finishing touch, you can tie ribbon over the rubber band, wrap cord around the rubber band, or use elastic cord in place of the rubber band.
That's it! Your jar lid cover is
done!
Tip: Use a holiday-themed paper napkin to turn an empty jar into a Candy Jar with a coordinating jar lid cover.
Tip: Use the printable patterns in this project to make jar lid covers. Make a lid cover using the heart cover pattern, or print the border pattern and add a stamped image. You can also print a circle pattern on the back of decorative paper to make a lid cover.
Tip: Add a scalloped edge to the lid cover with plain scissors by cutting gentle waves on the edge of the circle.
Tip: Use the printable Shamrocks Lid Cover pattern to top off a special jar filled with treats for St. Patrick's Day!
Tip: To complete your gift, make a Miniature Frame Gift Tag that coordinates with your lid cover.
