DIY 2015 Memory Jar

Hi Everyone! Welcome to A Homemade Living! I’m so excited to finally let you see my new site that I’ve been working on for the past couple of weeks! You can still find all my old posts with my recipes, crafts and tutorials on here, and I’m looking forward to sharing lots of new ideas with you this year! I hope that 2015 has been off to a good start for you, and that if you made any new year’s resolutions, they are going even better than you expected! As much as I love Christmas and the whole holiday season, once it’s over and the Christmas tree and all the festive decorations are put away, I’m ready for the new year and for a clean start (and warmer weather. But that clearly isn’t happening anytime soon). I wanted to share a fun DIY project with you that’s a great way to start the year with the right mindset. I remember a couple of years ago, lots of my friends were writing “grateful journals”, writing down things they were thankful for every day. I loved the idea but never got around to doing it myself, so I thought I would do something similar with this 2015 Memory Jar idea. What you do is fill the jar with pieces of paper containing good memories and things you are thankful for over the course of the year, then look back at them when the year is over. Sometimes, simply focusing on the good and remembering to be thankful even for the little things, does more for the soul than we realize!

YOU WILL NEED

Glass jar

Glitter

Mod Podge

Paintbrush

Clear tape

“2015” stencil on paper (hand-drawn or printed)

DIRECTIONS

1. First, choose your jar (big enough to fill with lots of pieces of paper over the course of the year!) and make sure it’s clean, since you’ll be applying glitter onto its surface. (I used a clean candle jar, you can find my tutorial for how to remove wax from candle jars here!) Next, create your “2015” stencil. Either print the numbers on a piece of paper or hand-draw them. Place the piece of paper inside the jar (with the letters facing the glass so you can trace them) and position it where you want it, then secure it with some tape.

2. Using a paintbrush, fill in the numbers with mod podge one at a time, sprinkling each with glitter after you paint it with the mod podge. Carefully shake off the excess glitter, and let the glitter dry completely. Once dry, do another coat. Paint over each glittery number with mod podge again, and sprinkle each with glitter again. Shake off the excess glitter again, and let the jar dry. Then, paint each glittery number with a layer of mod podge one last time, to make sure all the glitter is stuck on well, and to give the numbers a smooth finish. Let the jar dry completely and clean off any excess glitter with a piece of soft fabric or a cotton ball. And once you’re done, it’s time to start filling the jar!

I hope that 2015 brings you lots of new adventures, things to celebrate and happy memories! Have a great week, Everyone!

I will be linking to these awesome blogs!