a "Heartfelt Thank you" little craft decorating a mason jar

"A Heartfelt Thank You" Little Craft

2/2/2017

Isn't it nice when we receive someone's help without even asking for it, or some unexpected act of kindness?
I decorated this jar of crab-apple jam as a "heartfelt thank you" for someone that did just that for me.
I thought it would be nice to share it with you as it might give you an idea for your own "heartfelt thank you" gifts.
Continue reading for easy to follow steps.

Since I wanted it to show my appreciation and how I was really touched by my friend's gesture, I decorated a mason jar I had in my pantry with jam I did last summer from a crab apple tree we have in the front of our house (I still have four more jars!).
Of curse you might not have any jam in your pantry like me! no worries, you can use this same idea with any kind of jar, it could be a candle, a jar full of hot chocolate mix, candies, bath salts, ... you name it, there are so many possibilities.
Then I simply decorated it with some left over ribbons and scrapbook paper I had. The jar looked so pretty specially once I set it in a basket along with some muffins (to bad I forgot to take that last picture! ).

Let me show you how I did it. The instructions seem long but is actually very easy to do.

The materials you will need are:
-a jar
-Black color paper (small piece)
-Color paper (small piece)
-Jute ribbon
-color ribbon with soft texture
-Jute twine
-White gel pen or white charcoal pencil
scissors and glue

1- First wrap around the jar a jute ribbon. As you can see in the picture my ribbon was much to wide for this jar so I simply folded it in half and glued it with a hot gun. You do not need an expensive ribbon, mine was from the dollar store, and you only need the width of your jar which is not much, my jar was a 500 ml. jar and the ribbon length was 12 inches.

2- Over the jute I added the thin colored ribbon (mine was in salmon pink) which I wrapped around the jar twice because it was so thin. If you would like to wrap it around twice you will need 24 inches if not, 12 inches is enough. Try to choose a ribbon with some soft texture so it works as a contrast to the jute. Also keep in mine the color of scrapbook paper you will use in the next step so the go along. Again, it doesn't have to be expensive, mine was from the dollar store and I already had it from another project.

3-Cut a 2 inches square in a colored scrapbook paper. Like I said before it should get along with the ribbon from the step #2. As you can see in the picture I cut mine with a scissor with decorated edges, but you can recreate a similar look with regular scissors.

4- For the next step cut a 1 - 1/2 inch circle in black paper.

Now is time to write in the circle with a white gel penthe word "Heartfelt" on the top in circular fashion and "thank you" below (please read tip #1 and #2 below). I added a little sticker in the center just for fun.

TIP #1: When you are writing in a circle, in order to figure out how to space the letters, count how many letters you need to write and divided them by two, this will tell you how many letter you would write to the left and how many to the right so it looks even. For example in "heartfelt" there are 9 letters, so you would write 4 letters to the left ("hear"), one letter in the center (the "t") and the last 4 letters ("felt") to the right. It helps to write first the letter that goes in the center (the "t") and after the letters to the left and then the letters to the right so by then you have a better idea of the space to fill.

For "Thank you" it would be 9 letters counting the space in between, so then write in the center the "k" and to the left "than" and to the right " an empty space then "you"

TIP#2: If you feel nervous using a white gel pen you can start by writing with a white chalk pencil, it still looks very nice with a "chalkboard style" and this way if you make a mistake you can easily erase it with a regular eraser, and if after erasing it you still see a little bit of marks, gently rub a slightly wet rag over it and let it dry completely before writing on it again. You can find white charcoal pencils in art and craft stores near charcoal and sepia color pencils.

5- I used a scrapbook self-adhesive foam dot to attached the circle to the square for more dimension, but you can use any kind of glue. After this, glue the square to the ribbon.

6- Add jute twine to the top of the jar. Go around two or three times and finish with a bow. I used 45 inches and went around three times. Again, this is inexpensive jute twine that I found in the dollar store in the hardware supplies section.

7- Last step and optional. Cut another black circle (or sticker) for the jar's lid and write with white gel pen or white charcoal pencil the contents of your jar, in this case "crab apple jelly".

I hope you found this post helpful for those moments when we need to say a big "thank you".