Make The Day Special January Challenge: Recycle

This months challenge at Make The Day Special is all about recycling or using a household item for crafting. I am currently trying to expand my crafting skills beyond card making as part of my 2015 New Years Resolution so I decided to use the mason jars I had received as a Christmas present containing the dry ingredients for cakes and cookies (they were very delicious) to create a Happy Memories Jar for 2015. Apart from my NYR mentioned above I decided that I was going to make a Happy Memories Jar, due to last years failed attempts at NYRs being abandoned by March and all the resulting failure feeling of not achieving simple goals! I had seen the idea on Pinterest for such a jar about 18 months ago but forgot about it for 2014 so I was especially keen to make one for 2015.

There are two methods of filling the jar, the first being putting in small bits of memorabilia into the jar as a sort of scrap book alternative which is a pretty easy option and shows the highlights of the year. The second way of using the jar (and what I'm doing) is to write on small pieces of paper something good that happened on every day of 2015, of course there will be some easy days but others will be more challenging. The more challenging days are the key to the success of the jar as it makes you look for something good in a day, so even if you're having the most dreadful day/week/month you have the enjoyment of putting something in a jar that wasn't bad. When it comes to 31st December 2015 (probably after 11pm or before you go out to a party) you open the jar properly (no peeking inside before then aloud other than to add things to the jar) and read through all the good things that happened in 2015, so you can realise that 2015 was actually a year full of good things.

So onto me making the jar! Firstly I washed it out really well as I didn't fancy the cake mixture going mouldy and ruining my jar. While it was drying I took the disc part of the lid and worked out which one of my circle dies was the right fit to cut out some watercolour paper to put in the ring part of the lid. I then stamped out "Happy Memories Jar 2015" using Lawn Fawn's Jessie's ABC Set in Versafine Black Onyx Ink, I sprinkled over some Hero Arts clear embossing powder to give it more of a professional feel and heat set it. At this point the jar was dry and I could add the first coat of "frosting" to the jar so it was obscure enough to stop writing on the papers to be legible through the glass but not too much that the content of the jar was hidden. I made the frosting by squirting about 1cm of PVA glue (I used wood PVA as there was some in the garage because I have no regular PVA!) into a disposable cup and adding three heaped ends of a large paint brush of mica powder (you can use more or less depending on how obscure you want the jar). I mixed the glue and the mica powder together and used a foam brush to add a thin coat of glue to the jar, it goes on very pale and the red jar I made even looked pink (to my horror) when I applied it! I left it to dry in a warm place(wood PVA dries very quickly so I only had to leave it for a couple of hours but I would imagine ordinary PVA would take much longer).

While the jar was drying I returned to the watercolour circles to add a coordinating colour to the jar. My jar was green so I went for Distress Ink in Evergreen Bough, the blue jar used Salty Ocean, the purple was Seedless Preserves, the red was Festive Berries and the silver was Pumice Stone. I applied a generous amount of colour to the circles and then added droplets of water to the circle to make the colour move, unfortunately for my own circle I couldn't add the water as I had a long phone call and the piece was too dry when I had finished so I left it how it was. I set them aside to dry naturally and returned to add another coat to the jars as they had dried by that point.

The longest bit I had to wait for was attaching the watercolour circle to the jar ring to dry, I squeezed Rangers Glossy Accents into the ring and then pushed the watercolour circle in, as the paper had warped from the water I used several acrylic blocks and a heavy card game I had to hand to ensure the adhesive held firm. I left it overnight as I wanted it to stick for 12 months! As I was giving out four of the jars as presents I typed up the instructions to put inside the jar. I would guess that if the only jar you could find didn't have a two part lid you could use a tag to stamp the "Happy Memories Jar 2015" on and write the instructions on the back and tie it with ribbon or twine to the jar for a slightly different look. I gave the jars out as late New Year gifts to spread the positivity, although if they don't use the jars in the way I am they can always use it for a pen holder, small flower vase or any other jar use they want!

I hope this has inspired you to make your own Happy Memories Jar for 2015 or to enter the Challenge yourself by clicking here.