What do you do with your used canning snap-lids?

[Siana]

I collect my snap lids from my the canned goodies that I've used, because I know they can not be reused or recycled. But I have no idea what do with all of them. Does anyone else collect these and use them for any craft projects for the kids? I just can't think of anything to do with them for some reason! I really don't want them to go straight to the landfill.
Thanks in advance for any ideas at all

[momto l&a]

I'm not sure what you mean by "snap'? But i reuse my canning lids : as did my mom

[chalupamom]

Do you mean the flat part of the two-piece "dome" lid?

I usually throw mine away but I wonder if you could make kids' wind chimes out of them? They wouldn't all have different tones, but I bet with some construction paper covering the side with the sealing ring they could be made pretty and just fine for kids (with different lengths of ribbon or string).

That's the first idea of the top of my head. I'll give it some more thought to see if I can't think of anything else.

[tinamaries]

My little ones teacher must have been saving hers here's what she did with them.
She covered the back (side w/rubber ring) with a piece of fabric using hot glue to attach. Then on the front she hot glued small lace around the edge and covered it with a piece of muslin or Christmasy looking fabric. In the middle of it she attached a small picture of your child that she had taken during the school year. Oh, on the back she made a loop from ribbon that was stuck in the hot glue w/the backing when she was attaching it so we could hang them on the Christmas tree. They did turn out cute and we kept ours.

[chalupamom]

I remembered another idea: my sis and her playgroup made memory games for the kids. All the same fabric glued to one side of the lids and then duplicate photos or illustrations to the other side. My sis did animals and someone else did family pictures.

[LittleOne03]

I think they would make great letter or number manipulatives. You could put all the letters of the alphabet on them and use them for letter recognition, or for putting them in alphabetical order as they are learning their ABC's. Or you could make a set of capital and a set of lower case so they can match them (playing a matching game or whatever... lots of different ways to do it). You can use them when you begin simple words, putting them together for them to sound out (CAT, etc). You could use them for adding and subtracting manipulatives (3 lids plus 4 lids equals?) or even for multiplication and division on smaller number while they are learning the concept (2 rows of 3 or divide 16 lids into 4 equal rows). I was a teacher before becoming a mama, so that is where my mind immediately goes...

[AngelBee]

Why can't you reuse them? :

[Jes'sBeth]

I'd make magnets out of them! I'm collecting mine (I just finished my teaching degree) to use for math especially data collection. You can use them to write the kids names on them and then collect data by having the kids answer questions... what kind of pet do you have, how many people live in your house, do you like mushrooms on your pizza etc. Anyway, you really could decorate them up and turn them into fun magnets and i really like the memory idea too.

You aren't supposed to reuse them because the sealing compound is designed to work once and you might not get a good seal after the first use. After doing all the work of canning something, it's always good to ensure that you haven't lost your canned goods by reusing the snap lids. But I have certainly re-boiled mine when I have miscounted (or just dumped the box when canning stuff : )

[mnnice]

nak

i always thought that you weren't to reuse them for food safety issues. my understanding is that you could get botcholism sp? from home canned food made with reused lids.

OT
in the mid 1970 there was a shortage of jar lids. to this day my dad keeps large stockpile on hand, just in case

[Siana]

What great ideas!

[deliarose]

You can also use them to make tin punch type art. You will need to help the younger kids, but with a sharp nail and a hammer, you can tap in a cute design.

[merrijayne]

i also saw were they made a memory matching game using duplicate stickers. also there are so many kinds of stickers you could make many different manipulatives very easy.

[lilyka]

you can punch teh constilations on them and hold them to the end of a flashlight. that would make little light stars on teh ceiling.

also a wind spinning thing