This & That Memory Jar

Apr 17, 2013 | Designer Series Paper, This & That | 0 comments

I love this project – it is a memory jar.  Throughout the year you right down all the things big and small and put them in the jar.  Then at the end of the year you can pull them all out and see all that happened in one year. You could add tickets stubs from events that you attend throughout the year.  Or other little pieces of memorabilia.

I think this project would be easy to adapt to a variety of things – how about wishes for a couple getting married or advice for a new mother, or baby’s memories from their first year.  I used several pieces from the new This & That product line.  Here are some more details and photos –

• Cut a strip of the Epic Day This & That Designer Series paper to wrap around the jar and use the Washi Tape to secure it in the back.
• Punch a circle of the Designer paper to cover the lid – for my jar the 2-1/2 circle was the right size.  For a wide mouth jar I think the 3″ circle Bigz Die is the right size.
• Tie a piece of Whisper White Baker’s Twine around the jar – folding a paper doily in half and over one pass of the twine and let the rest of the twine go over the top of it holding it against the jar.  Tie a bow.
• Punch a Blossom Punch from Calypso Coral card stock.  Using the matching piercing template, pad, and piercing tool to pierce around the flower.
• Punch a piece of Pool Party card stock with the 1-1/4″ Scalloped Circle punch.
• Punch a piece of Calypso Coral card stock with the 1″ Circle punch.
• Stamp an image from the A Round Array stamp set with Calypso Coral ink on Whisper White card stock and punch out with the 7/8″ Scallop circle punch.
• Color a Jumbo Rhinestone with a turquoise colored permanent marker to make it a light blue color.
• Layer all those piece to create the flower focal point for the front of the jar.  Add to the front of the jar with Stampin’ Dimensionals.
• Use the Epic Day Rotary Stamp to stamp the word Remember – punch out with the Word Window punch and add to the front of the jar.
• Add a silver button with a glue dot.
• Tie some Baker’s Twine through the large Faceted Button and add to the front of the jar with glue dots.
• I printed out the poem and cut it down and then layered it on a piece of Basic Gray card stock.  I attached this to the back of the jar with some of the Washi tape.
• Inside the jar – I cut a piece of Whisper White card stock into 16 pieces (just 1/2 it, then 1/2 each of those, and 1/2 each of those, etc.)  – I used one for the stamping on the front of the jar and the rest go inside the jar.  Cut more card stock when you fill those up. 
• I decorated a clothes pin with the Washi tape and clipped the blank cards to it.
• As you fill out one of the cards you can use the rotary stamp to add a date and/or message to each card.  Read on for some tips with the rotary stamp.

I did some practicing with the rotary stamp and have a few tips that you might want to try.

• I used a marker to color the stamp or parts of the stamp that I wanted to use.
• Use a tissue or piece of paper towel sprayed with some stamp cleaner to clean the part that you used.  I think this works better than trying to clean it on our big stamp cleaner.  I just wiped it off when I was done.  You don’t want to turn the dial and forget to clean it so just do it right away after you stamp.
• Since each dial rotates individually I found that there was some unevenness across the stamp if you were using the whole thing – a saying and the full date – sometimes one section wouldn’t stamp – if you use the Stampin’ Pierce mat under your paper it worked better.
• practice some on scrap paper so you get the feel for stamping it straight and not leaning one way or the other.
• these are some of the things that helped me – hope they work for you.

The idea for this project came from one of the Stampin’ Up! designers.  I hope you love it!  I sure do!

Thanks for visiting today.