Up to date 2019
With Thanksgiving across the nook, we thought it will be good to adapt Sherry’s each day gratitude journal behavior for a enjoyable vacation craft for the entire household. Moderately than preserve the issues we’re grateful for caught in our heads or on the web page of a journal, what if we put the follow on show throughout the month of November? Who is aware of, perhaps it is going to even encourage extra gratitude!
Craft Provides To Create Your Personal “Thanks Jar”
We received this concept after scoring this superior 99-cent apothecary jar from the thrift retailer (it was initially $1.99 however we scored it throughout a 50% off glassware sale). However you need to use any glass vessel you select, even a daily ingesting glass or flower vase!
- Small glass jar
- Glass etching cream
- Small paintbrush
- Craft knife
- Printer and printer paper
- Painter’s tape
- Colourful cardstock lower sufficiently small to slot in the jar
Clearly you may also create a Thanksgiving “Thanks Jar” with out etching your glass vessel, however we’ve been itching to strive a glass etching craft ever since seeing this one on How About Orange.
Step 1: Design & Print Your Stencil
We ever-so-creatively (kidding) determined that we wished to etch the phrase “thanks” on the bottom of our jar. So we used our pc to print it out on paper in a easy, blocky font (Helvetica) that was sized completely to our jar. You may create this in any phrase processing software program (even a draft e-mail!) simply you’ll want to preserve the design easy and stencil pleasant.
Step 2: Tape Your Stencil Over Painter’s Tape
Since we actually want to stay our stencil tight to the glass, we first needed to switch the design from paper to painter’s tape. So we taped a thick part of inexperienced painter’s tape to a chopping board after which scot taped our “thanks” print out over it. I promise it will make extra sense in a second.
Step 3: Minimize Out Your Stencil
With all the things taped down, we used an Exacto knife to chop out our letters one after the other. Make sure to go deep sufficient to chop by the painter’s tape too. We determined to not be choosy about preserving the outlet within the “a.” However we did crack up when Sherry mentioned “I don’t suppose we have to save the a-hole.” I do know, we’re like fifth graders over right here.
Step 4: Apply Your Tape Stencil To Your Glass
With the “stencil” lower, we then disposed of the paper print-out information and slowly peeled the painter’s tape from the chopping board, being cautious to not rip the tape or let it stick with itself. As soon as it was safely off the chopping board, we caught it proper onto the glass jar. Ta-dah! Tape stencil mission full.
The hump within the “h” received slightly wonky, however aside from that we have been pleasantly shocked by how effectively our makeshift stencil was holding up. And with a pair extra strips of tape on the edges (simply to be secure) we have been prepared to use the etching cream with out having to fret about getting it within the fallacious locations.
Step 5: Brush On Your Glass Etch Cream
We picked up this Armour Etch cream for $6.50 at Michael’s (due to a 50% off coupon) and broke out this tiny paintbrush to use it over every of the cut-out letters. The painter’s tape does the job of not letting it seep behind the letters.
Step 6: Wait!
The directions made it unclear how lengthy we must always preserve the cream on (since that rely son your “stencil” materials). However since our tape wasn’t as sturdy as a vinyl stencil may be, we stored an in depth eye on the bottom of the tape by the glass. We observed after about 90 seconds that the perimeters of the tape weren’t wanting as crisp as that they had been (the etching cream was in all probability slowly degrading the tape). However the longer you permit it on, the deeper your etch might be.
Step 6: Rinse Off Cream & Take away Stencil
After letting the cream work its magic for about 1.5 minutes, we washed it off within the sink and eliminated our tape stencil. We had a tiny smidge of bleeding between the “ok” and “s” however in any other case it labored out superbly!
Step 7: Beginning Filling Your Jar With Gratitude!
Sherry lower out a number of small notecard from Fall-colored scrapbooking paper from Michael’s. Our purpose is to put in writing one per day all month lengthy so by November thirtieth we’ll have amassed sixty notes of gratitude. Oh, and we have now a no peeking coverage so we gained’t know what one another has written till the top of the month! That ought to be a enjoyable little household reveal.
“Thanks Jar” Replace
Need to see what we ended up writing? Right here’s are the outcomes of our inaugural “Thanks Jar” Thanksgiving tradition.
BONUS: Save Your “Thanks Jar” Notes
We’re additionally considering on the finish of the month we’ll punch holes within the playing cards so we are able to retailer the gathering on a ribbon or a binder ring. That means after we get away our “thanks jar” subsequent yr we are able to relive the entire issues that we have been grateful for in 2010 and create one other assortment of issues we’re grateful for that yr.
Who is aware of, it may turn into an excellent little household custom with Clara and future kiddo(s) including their due to the pile after they’re older. And we love that we’ll have a yearly account of all the things that we’re grateful for. Type of like a diary, however much less excessive upkeep since we solely should scribble one small factor down every day for a month.
Replace: Our Continued Thanksgiving Custom
We did find yourself preserving this custom for a number of years and even blogged about it several other times, together with different Thanksgiving crafts and traditions we undertook. Test them out right here:
Do you guys have any enjoyable Thanksgiving traditions? Any glass etching tales of success or horror? An acute attraction to printed scrapbooking paper like my spouse? She will be able to’t be the one one who geeks out within the paper aisle.
Replace: You may try all of our favorite holiday decor finds here – lots of that are below $15!
