Journal Jars

I had a lot of trouble figuring out what to get my nieces this Christmas. I didn't want to do anything generic; I wanted to put some time and thought into their gifts, so they would know that I didn't grab just any old thing off the shelf. I ended up stumbling across an idea called a journal jar. Here's a picture of the finished product, and then I'll explain more.

I decided to go with a butterfly theme for Riley and a cupcake theme for Taylor. These are pretty easy to make. Honestly, you can can put as much time, or as little time as you want in them. Instead of just copying and pasting journal entry ideas from other websites, I made up my own. There were 100+ of them and let me tell you, cutting them all out was sort of a pain. But SO worth it! I'll post some links to sites where you can copy/paste or just get some ideas later. Basically all you need to make your own journal jars is:

• A jar, or something similar. I used some containers I found at Michaels; they sort of look like little see-thru paint cans. Perfect for this sort of thing!
• Journal entry ideas, to be printed and cut out. I chose card stock in a matching color scheme to print them on; this way, they would hold up better.
• A journal/diary. You can always have them just set up a blog on the internet instead, if you think they would prefer that to actual writing.
• Decorations for the jar. This is sort of optional, but they look so awesome decorated! Again, I perused Michaels and picked out card stock pages for the front/back. I also had fun picking out stickers in the scrapbooking section.

Pretty easy, right? I also included nice pens and some glue sticks. The idea is that the person can pick out a random slip of paper, glue the slip of paper in their journal (or not, if they go the blog route instead), and then write their answer or thoughts. I provided enough ideas to where they could choose one a week to write about and it would last more than a year, but really they can write as often as they wish. 

On the back of the jars I added this poem, which I found on Squidoo.

It reads:

Preserve your memories,

Seal them up well.

What you forget,

You can never retell.

But a journal that's kept fresh on the shelf,

Will help someone through rough times,

Maybe even yourself. 

That website also has many ideas for making journal jars, so be sure to check it out! 

Check out the top of the jars too! I didn't leave much undecorated!

As I promised, here are some links to websites where you can get more ideas and help with topics:

• MADE
• Teaching With TLC
• Scrapjazz

Those are just a few of the many websites out there, but they are the ones I used for ideas. Journal jars are great because they are perfect for many different age groups, not just kids. 

And for those of you who use Pinterest, feel free to repin and share this with others!