Desserts in a Jar

What do you get for someone who has everything or enough money to buy whatever they want? This is the issue I was facing when I decided to create these desserts in a jar. They are a nice thoughtful, simple gift for someone who enjoys baking. I made these as a retirement gift for my boyfriend's aunt.

I found a bunch of different recipes on various websites and I picked the ones that sounded the yummiest. (Please excuse my dirty kitchen in the background of my photos!)

I ended up making the following 4 recipes:

• Cranberry Hootycreeks
• M&M Cookies
• Chocolate Chunk Cookies
• Sand Art Brownies

I used a funnel to get all of the sugar, flour, etc. in the jars. In order to make them look pretty, you have to strategically layer each ingredient. Alternate between ingredients with contrasting colors. All ingredients are meant to fit in regular sized mason jars. Basically the idea behind these is that all of the dry ingredients are included in the jar, they would just need the wet ingredients to complete the recipe. In most cases that is butter, eggs, milk, vanilla.....all things most people would already have around the house. The complete recipes should be attached to the jar. I included all of the tags I used for mine below. 

Ingredients (layered in this order!): 

1 1/8 cup sifted all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup rolled oats

1/3 cup granulated sugar

1/3 cup brown sugar, packed

1 cup dried cranberries

1/2 cup white chocolate chips

1/2 cup walnuts or pecans, chopped

I got this recipe & tags here.

Ingredients (layered in this order):

1/4 cup sugar

1 1/4 cup M&Ms

2 cups sifted flour

1/2 tsp baking soda

3/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 tsp baking powder

I got this recipe & tags here.

Ingredients (in this order):

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 cup semi sweet chocolate chunks or chocolate chips (per your preference)
1/2 cup pecans or walnuts, chopped

I got the recipe here. For this one I made my own tag.

Ingredients (in this order):

2/3 tsp salt

1 1/8 cup sifted flour

1/3 cup cocoa powder

2/3 cup brown sugar, packed

2/3 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup chocolate chips

1/2 cup white chocolate chips

1/2 cup walnuts or pecans, chopped

I got the recipe for this one here. I made this tag myself, also. 

I chose the same type of nut for all 3 recipes so that I didn't have to spend a ton of money on ingredients. Here is what each jar looked like before I did all the decorating. You can see all the layers, which really looks cool!

For the decorations, I used a lot of stuff I already had in my crafting collection. I did go to Hobby Lobby and buy 1/2 yard of white fabric to put over the tops of all the jars. Much more economic than buying a bunch of different fabric types. I also bought the yellow and white/red string from Hobby Lobby. The red/green/white/blue ribbon is actually from the Dollar Tree, along with the blue bow that I put on top of the Chocolate Chunk jar. I used card-stock and scrapbooking paper for all of the tags.

Since these ended up being pretty heavy, I used one of those cardboard half boxes that come in the bottom of large packs of soda from Costco. I cut it in half and folded up one of the sides so all the jars fit snug. 

The gift recipient loved the gift...she said the Cranberry Hootycreeks were her favorite. :)

Happy crafting!

My first post!

Hi all,

Welcome to Arhest.

The name Arhest comes from the Armenian word for craft.

I've been wanting to create a craft blog for a while now, so this is very exciting. I'm a pretty private person, but I guess I'll tell you a little about myself. I grew up in the Northwest suburbs of Chicago with one older brother. I spent most of my childhood being carted around to his little league games, and I loved every minute of it. After high school, I moved to Madison, WI to attend the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In 2012, I graduated with a degree in environmental engineering (I won't make you do the math, that makes me 24). I now work as a sustainability analyst for a chemical company, attempting to make the world a more sustainable place to live. I live in the Western Chicago suburbs with my boyfriend and absolutely no pets (although he has been pushing for frogs lately). We spend most of our time playing 90's video games, drinking wine, watching The Big Bang Theory & Game of Thrones, and playing Settlers of Catan with anyone who will agree to play with us. I swear we're not that nerdy.

I am passionate about the environment, crafting and Morgan Freeman. I take any excuse to put a creative spin on things, whether it be the way that I wrap a birthday gift, how I write my name on a sheet of paper, or how I decorate a bathroom. I would describe my overall style as minimalist and modern. I like geometric shapes, grays contrasted with bright colors and clean lines. I try to find beauty in everything.

Don't get me wrong - I don't claim to know a thing about art. The furthest I got in studying art is a high school level photography course. I usually just go with my gut - sometimes it turns out well, sometimes not. On this blog I will feature all of my crafting projects, and I will try to include as much instruction as possible. For the most part, I borrow ideas from pinterest or other craft blogs and put my own spin on it. I try to give credit when it's due.