It was great fun, but I must admit that my favorite gift I made was for my parents. I created "Memory Jars". A memory jar is essentially a jar filled with memories written down on individual pieces of paper from various friends and family. I started collecting memories in October and ended up with quite a few. The goal was to have them open the jar and read one memory a day. (I think they ended up reading them all at once, though! And that's totally okay.) All in all, the Memory Jar gift was a huge success and I'd like to share it with you!
First on the list was finding the perfect jars. I wanted them to be a flea-market find with an antique-feel. I scored. I found these two antique mason jars for $4 a piece.
Mind you, these are larger than they appear....
Next step was glazing to keep nosy eyes from peeking! I accomplished this by using white acrylic paint. I put a small amount of the paint in a bowl and diluted it with a bit of water. I then transferred the paint mixture into the jar and I rolled the jar around until every inch of it's interior was coated. I put the jars upside down on a paper towel to dry. I repeated this step twice.
Once dried, I wrote each memory down on it's own piece of paper, folded them and put them in the jar. I used a little raffia grass for a cute touch and made name tags from paper bags. Luckily for me.....I already had the string and paint so this project only cost me $8 for two gifts. Pretty thrifty, huh? But if you wanted to purchase the raffia and the paint you could very easily do so without spending a lot of money. Raffia will cost you a couple of dollars and you can purchase a small tube of acrylic paint for around .60 cents.
***Finished Product***
Forgot to get wrapping paper? Here's an idea that's not only resourceful, but fun, too. Grab your favorite magazine, tear out your favorite pages, tape them together and.....boom. Wrapping paper. It's quirky and I like it.
Proof.....you don't need a lot of money to make a big impact, you just need a little effort. I'd take a homemade gift over a store-bought one any day.
Feel free to use this idea and warm someones heart!
~Sylvie
