Nebula Jars Make-and-Take at Granville Island

A month ago, I saw this public Facebook event from Granville Island for a Nebula Jars Make-and-Take! I thought, "Hey, that's pretty cool! Let's go check it out!", so I put it in my calendar to remind myself and headed off to Granville Island the morning of.

If you are visiting Vancouver, you should make Granville Island one of your destinations. There's something that makes Granville Island a truly unique and special place to visit. Emily Carr University, a worldwide known university for arts and design used to be located right on Granville Island. But only until last year. Since then, they have moved to a new location.


Many artists and artisans set up their shop and/or studio right on the island. Potters, blacksmiths, goldsmiths, press printers and glassblowers are just a few niches you may encounter on the island. There are many remarkable things you can find on Granville Island that you won't be able to find anywhere else and it's definitely a worthwhile place to visit.

I've actually never been to Granville Island until after I met Hanson. He knew how much of a "big kid" I am and decided to bring me to the Kids Market. Since then, I have fallen in love with this timeless island. I always said that if I had enough money to open up my own shop on Granville Island, I would open up a "cube shop" and rent out little cubicles to artists and crafters who want to sell their handmade treasures. Kind of like a craft fair, but it would hopefully be there permanently rather than popping up about 5 times or so a year.

Anyway, enough about Granville Island and back to the Nebula Jars, which may also be known as Galaxy Jars. I've never made a nebula jar before and have no idea how to do it or what kind of materials I would even be working with, but it looked so cool from the photos I thought "we HAVE to try this!"


BB is still at that age where she can't always focus on an activity. I have found that if she doesn't get captured within the first few seconds, she would just walk off. To my surprise, she was quite attentive and made this craft with me from start to finish! It helps that she now knows her colours and can pick out what she wants to put in it. She particularly liked ripping up the cotton balls and pouring glitter into her jar.


She enjoyed making her nebula jar and seemed really proud of her work afterwards too!


If you're interested in making your own Nebula/Galaxy Jar, keep reading!

What You Need / Materials

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• Glass jar (with a closable lid)
• Water
• Paint (at least 2 colours)
• Glitter and confetti
• Cotton Balls (lots of it)
• A stir stick

     

Instructions

1. Add a little water to your jar
2. Add some paint and stir
3. Stretch out some of your cotton balls and add them to your jar. Then add some glitter on top. Let the cotton balls soak up the water and paint mixture and keep adding until the bottom is filled with cotton. Use your stir stick and press the cotton balls down in place. Your cotton balls pretty much determine where that colour will sit where it will begin mixing with your next colour.
4. The repeat steps 1-3 using different colours until your jar is filled. 

Thankfully, there's no right or wrong way of doing this craft. So just sit, relax and enjoy the fun!