Hi All! This month at Papertrey Ink, one of the assignments that Nichole gave us on the Design Team, was to create a Mother's Day gift and coordinating card. For my project, I actually enlisted the help of my siblings to jot down some favorite memories of Mom over the years so that I could put together a Memory Jar for her. This turned into such a fun project and I can't wait to see Mom's face when she reads all of the memories that my siblings and I put on paper for her. She's gonna bawl like a baby! HEE!! (Mom, try and act surprised when we give you your gift!) :)
I am the oldest of 5 siblings - the "baby" at 14 years old, being almost 20 years younger than me. So my parents have had kids in the house for almost 34 years now, with a few years to go yet. ;) AND, they've got two grandbabies now besides! It's been so interesting to read all of the memories that my siblings have of special mom moments........some of them, things I never even knew that had happened. Each one of us has our own special memories that we cherish and I think it will be so sweet for Mom to have those memories down on paper to read thru whenever she wants. I'm even thinking that this would make a GREAT gift for our 2 Grandmas......the whole extended family could even participate in contributing memories to the jar.
First off, lets gather up a few supplies for our project.
I started by selecting a jar that I wanted to use. In this case, I found this penny candy jar at Target, but they also have them at Walmart from time to time, and at either store, they generally run $6 or less.
I had each of my siblings email me some of their favorite memories of mom from not just our childhood, but over the years too. Just anything that stood out in their mind as something that they really appreciated or that made them feel really special. Once I had everyone's memories, I copied them from the emails and pasted them into a blank document. I made sure to separate them into individual paragraphs, adding each sibling's name at the end of each memory. You'll also want to leave 5 or 6 lines of spacing between each memory to allow for cutting space once they're printed. Once I had the entire document ready, I printed them out on standard copy paper in black ink.
Once the memories are printed out, you'll want to cut them into strips, each one approx. 2 1/2" - 3" wide.
Next, you'll want to determine what ribbon you're going to use to tie around your 'scrolls'. In this case, I decided to color code each of the memories by using a different color of ribbon for each sibling. I chose the ribbon colors for each sibling based on our favorite colors..........this way, Mom will know right away who's memory is who's. :)
Now for a tip on tying bows around these little scrolls. If you try to tie the ribbon around the paper, you'll end up smooshing the paper. I found that by using a highlighter (marker), I could tye the bow around the highlighter and then slide it off and slip my rolled up strip of paper into the already tied bow. MUCH easier.........trust me on this one! ;)
This is what they'll look like when you get them finished.
And here is the completed jar full of sweet memories. I used a couple of ribbons to tie a bow around the handle on the jar's lid. Then I added a flower and button and then made a tag to hang off the handle as well.
Here's a close up to show you the detail on the tag. I used Melissa Bickford's new Wishing You... stamp set (available on the 15th) for the fun tulip cameo image and then created my sentiment with the Fresh Alphabet set and the Simple Alphabet set.
I also created a coordinating card using some of the same colors and details that I used on the jar and tag. I used another of the tulip images from Wishing You... as well as some sentiment stamps from the new Mother stamp set (available on the 15th) and some Damask Designs as well.
Here are the card and the jar together. I love how coordinated this project is and it would be so easy to recreate in any color scheme!
Nichole has created a FREE pdf download for you that has complete supply lists and instructions as well as full color photos of this project plus mother's day gift ensembles from EACH of the other Design Team members so you'll want to be sure to head over to Nichole's blog to get your download and to see Nichole's mother's day project as well!
You'll also want to visit each of the Design Team members to see lots more details about each of their projects!
Betsy Veldman
Melissa Phillips
Mish Wooderson
Lisa Johnson
Heather Nichols
Geny Cassady
Lauren Meader
Niki Estes
Becky Oehlers
Debbie Olson
And don't forget to stop by Melissa Bickford's blog, to see what else she has created with her new Wishing You... stamp set!
I hope that you've found some inspiration here today! Does this project seem like something you could see yourself making for a special mom in your life?? :) I hope that at the very least, your creative juices are flowin'!
Have a goodie!
Dawn
