Blessing Bags

[Witchy Cowgirl]

This thread is per special request from Freyja. From a tread in Just Talk called To Spell or Not To Spell
You know Freyja I am quite flattered!

Anyway my favorite type of spell work is to make Blessing Bags (jars, boxes or baskets....whatever suits the purpose) for my family.
I make these when they may have a certain need that I know of, at the time of a special occasion. And of course upon request.

As an example:
Earlier in the year my mama-in-law was about to embark on a new career as an interior designer. Although she is EXTREMELY talented she was a little unsure of herself and was afraid she wouldn't get the job. So after putting lots of thought and meditation into it I decided which items to use and carefully picked out a pretty little jar. I set up my kitchen counter as an altar along with the jar, some potpourri, inscense, an orange candle, sea salt, and a couple of grounding stones. (I always combine something from each of the elements) and cast a circle. I charged all the items with the approiate energies, offered a prayer and then arranged the items in the jar. Next step was to write instructions for use and then folded the paper, blessed it, and sealed it with orange wax from a candle that I had burning on the altar. Next I wrapped the jar in white cotton fabric and tied it shut with white ribbon and sealed the knot with wax from the same orange candle that was used before. Offered a prayer of thanks and opened my circle.

A month or so later the same situtation came up with my sis-in-law. My mama-in-law had by that time returned her jar to me to have it re-charged because now she had the job but wanted some help keeping her confidence up. I decided to use mama-in-laws jar for her daughter and to make a new one form mama-in-law. I used the same procedure as above....picked out the aprroiate items for each lady and continued as above. I took both blessing jars to mama-in-law and the only verbal instruction was she had to hand sis-in-law's jar to her.

You can do this for special occasions as well. Just recently I made Blessings Boxes for mama-in-law, sis-in-law, and my wanna be sis-in-law. I found the cutest boxes at Wal-Mart in the Halloween section. They were orange and each side had a broom on it and the top had a Witch on a broom and it said, "Best Witches" Since Samhain is the celebration of a New Year I thought I would send "Best Wishes for the New Year" Because this is tradtionally a good time to ward off negativity I made this the theme of the boxes and centered them around a black candle.

I hope ya'll can use the ideas here to make some Blessing Jars, (Baskets, Bags, etc) of your own and I hope your people get as much use out of them as mine do.

Blessings to All of You and ((((Freyja))))

[Flar's Freyja]

Thanks so much for sharing this! You know, I pick up little boxes all the time and have quite a supply....I have wooden boxes with designs, I found a velvet heart-shaped box......a little porcelain box with an antique shoe on top......I just felt I had to buy them. They're stockpiled and I was going to use them for spell boxes but there they sit. Now I know what I bought them for! :)

[Witchy Cowgirl]

I would love to find some little bottles that have lids or corks, something that closes tight so that I could include actual water in my bags.
Anybody know where I might purchase these?

[Flar's Freyja]

I have found a lot of those at junk shops! A friend just gave me a set that she had sitting around for a long time. I'm thinking of getting rid of them, what with moving and all.........:D

Also, Thor's Hammer has a thread in Pagan Public Marketplace. Rootwork 13 is a friend of mine in OK and she might have some to sell.

[Flar's Freyja]

Bump.

More ideas for bottles: Many candles come in jars with airtight lids these days, and I've found some in dollar stores. You get double blessings out of these because you can burn the candle for yourself and then have the jar to give as a gift :D

[Jeleia]

Try your local dollar store. I've found some nice bottles in my local store for an excellent price.

Also try flea markets.

[Lavender]

I use the little tubes that beads comes in. The really really tiny beads, that is. You can seal the cork on with some beeswax to make it really watertight.

I make something similar for people too but I use knitted bags. They are wonderful and so special. The bags are about 2"x3" or smaller so people can carry it in their pockets.

[Morrighana]

I buy most of my jars and bottles at Michaels craft store. I work there, so I always know when things are going on clearance and I snap them up. The best time to shop there is right after a holiday, because all of the seasonal items go on clearance. I've got some beautiful harvest and Samhain decorations, candles, jars, etc in the past month for less than a dollar apeice! And over the past year, I've filled two shelves in my closet with candles of all shapes and sizes at similar cost. I couldn't've gotten better deals even at a dollar store.

[Witchy Cowgirl]

Just figured out that the bottles vanilla flavoring come in are a good size for this use!:D

[Leviyah]

I makes something similar, but out of little pieces of material, so they're more like little pillows. I like the idea of using bottles, is plastic ok or should I stick to glass?
Blessings
Leviyah

[Witchy Cowgirl]

I'd say that just depends on what you prefer and can find.
I prefer glass.

[Lavender]

Like Witchy said, it depends on what you find. Also, if you're putting essential oils into the vials/bottles, you're better off with glass. I also found a source for little 2ml size amber glass bottles. The lids look really funny on them so I carve out little corks for the top.

I also found neat tiny little bottles in Chinese herb shops. Some of these contains really foul smelling liquids and you really have to wash them out very very well!

[Flar's Freyja]

I make my own salad dressing and Flar got generous and bought me an $8 bottle of olive oil because I said I liked the bottle, which is a cool shape with a cork :)

I also use store-brand red wine vinegar and noticed last night when I emptied one that it would also be perfect for some of these projects. They're kind of a mid-size and would be perfect for things such as bath salts or herbs.

On a similar note, I'm going to be making some rune sets, and I'm having difficulty finding cloth bags that are the right size. Fire Mountain Beads has pretty ones at a good price that are a bit too small, and I really don't have time to make them - and even if I did, sewing is not really my forte'......any ideas?

[Lavender]

Do you knit? You can also knit the bags.

I saw some really nice ones on ebay that would fit a deck of tarot cards. Would that be the size you're looking for?

[Morrighana]

*sigh* I've been working at Michaels for too long.

We have some lurvely seasonal bags that would be perfect for runestones, various sizes(and prices) and colors, gold drawstrings, in our Canadian stores. As far as I know, the american stores should have them right now too. They're crushed velvet on one side and some other fabric on the other. The brand name escapes me at the moment. In our stores, they are located on the end of an isle near the holidays&seasons section.
We also have some smallish (I'd say 2"x3.5"abouts) velvet bags in with our individual gemstones, designed with drawstring for gem storage. They fit the runestones that I make, if that helps(each stone is less than an inch in diameter and about 1/4" thick), and they are cheap. They cost $1.69 CDN so about a dollar US.

I should really get commissions from this, lol

[Morrighana]

I forgot to say, the seasonal bags go up to and beyond ones that are large enough to fit tarot decks, so you're bound to find a good size if the others are too small. An equivalent size to the gemstone ones costs about double, so your best bet, if you're buying bulk, is to wait until the last week of this month, when a flier will come out with several major-discount coupons. (I'm not sure what all of the US percentages on the coupons are, but I think there's a 25%off all regular priced merchandise coupon on the 30th)

[Lavender]

I saw those bags at our local Michaels. *sigh* It's a good thing I don't work there...never bring home any money then! :p

[Morrighana]

Yea, it's quite the challenge. I've worked there a year or so, and I've spent sooooo much money there. I dont think I'll EVER have to buy another art supply in the next decade or so.

[Flar's Freyja]

Thanks to both of you for those ideas. Yes, Wild, I haven't knitted in years but I'm decent at that and it's a great idea! I saw some really cool yarn in Wal-Mart the other night.....

Morrighana ~ wish I'd looked at this before Flar and I took a tour of Michael's the other night looking for those wooden albums you told me about! They no longer carry the larger ones :( Flar has a friend who is a genuis with wood. He looked at how they were made and we're going to try to persuade him to make me one.

I'll look for the bags on my next visit. I didn't think to look for them there the other night! And yes, you should get commission or at least some free merchandise :T

[Jeleia]

Originally posted by Morrighana
I buy most of my jars and bottles at Michaels craft store. I work there, so I always know when things are going on clearance and I snap them up. I couldn't've gotten better deals even at a dollar store.

Morrighana, OoOo, I never even thought of going there :) I might have to come in and visit one day!

[Flar's Freyja]

I ran across this site last night and their prices on bottles are more than reasonable:

Mountain Rose Herbs (http://www.mountainroseherbs.com/)

Azure Green also carries some fancier ones and the prices aren't bad.

I've been buying a natural maple syrup that comes in a bottle that looks like a pint whiskey bottle and I'm going to try to use a few for bath salts...........if I can find where my son put the cap to the one that he just emptied :rolleyes:

[Witchy Cowgirl]

Do ya'll have a BIG LOTS store? I went there yesterday and found the most marvelous jars and bottles - all sizes - lots of smaller ones - just what I wanted. Very inexpensive too - like .49 cents each for the least expensive. I got 4 and told the boys that some more of them would be great Christmas gifts.:D

[Morrighana]

Wow, that's a great price, Witchy! Too bad we dont have those here. And Freyja, I forgot to mention before, we still carry the larger albums (fits normal computer size paper) for $36 CDN...I can get them for about $25 CDN...if you can't get one made, I wouldn't mind shipping one to ya:)


Yes, Akasha, you simply MUST come and visit me! If you come when it's not busy, I can give you the personal tour (complete with the staff discount, if you're extra nice, lol).

[Flar's Freyja]

Bumping a favorite