Mason Jar Memory Jars

This is a quick and easy, and FUN, way to showcase some of those little travel mementos that everyone has stashed away. Some people scrapbook them, but if you're too lazy not a scrapper, try this idea from Young House Love.

First: gather all your little coins, paper money that was too pretty to exchange, ticket stubs, maps, etc. from your trips.

Beijing trip 2009 (see the Pizza Hut receipt? - yeah, we're adventurous eaters)

Second: either find or buy some mason jars, enough for all your trips. I got mine at my local Ace Hardware, with a coupon.

Third: fill the jars (yep, it's that easy). If you're particularly futzy, go ahead and arrange the items for optimal display. Guess what I did…

Finally: label the jars. I tried a few ideas, and ended up with handwritten tape labels. I may change them at one point, but it'll have to be transparent - for me, what's in the jars are more interesting than where they came from.

It's that easy! 

For my display, the desk in my office has an empty space in the front. I bought a nice hardwood board (it looks prettier when stained), sanded, stained to match, and poly'ed it. I drilled holes in the desk (and only one went all the way thru - oops!) and put those shelf ledge pins in the holes. The board sits on top of those, and the vacation memory jars sit on the shelf and voila! mason jar scrapbooks!

I'm linking this to Saturday Night Special (SNS) #76 at Funky Junk Interiors - there's a fab link party with mason jar ideas! It's quite unbelievable what people come up with to do with simple mason jars - you really should go take a look...