DIY "I'm Thankful" Jar

Last Fall I put together a Fall Bucket List and item #22 was "Start an 'I'm Thankful' Jar to read on Thanksgiving Day." I was guest posting on Blissful & Domestic Blog in November and ended up sharing today's tutorial over there, but this is a new year so I thought I'd share it hear this time because the idea was so well liked at our house. As I did with many of the completed items from my Fall Bucket List I wrote a post about The Thankful Jar and shared some of the things people wrote that they were thankful for.

What You Need

A quart-size mason jar

Fun piece of paper for front of jar

5-8 pieces of copy paper for the 'thankful' notes

A sharpie or other marker

Masking tape

Scissors or paper cutter

A pen for people to write the notes with

Directions

1. Make sure the jar is clean! Mine was washed a few days before I started the project so it was ready to use.

2. Cut out your fun piece of paper for the front of the jar. I did a 3 inch by 2 1/2 inch wide piece for my jar. Write the words "I'm Thankful' on the front of the paper. I used a fun paper punch to add some 'spice' to the corners. This project is totally customize-able so have fun with it! Use masking tape to secure the paper onto one side of the jar.

3. Next cut the copy paper into square like shapes for people/your children/family to write what they are most thankful for. I did squares that were 3 inches by 3 inches or close to that. Mine are nowhere near perfect since I just eyeballed it with the paper cutter. After all, you're only writing on the paper, reading it in a few weeks and later throwing them away so it wont matter if it's a perfect square or not.

4. If you want you could write "I'm thankful for..." as a prompt on the pieces of paper. I did this for one and left the rest blank and it worked fine just like that.

5. Set your decorated jar, the pieces of paper, and a pen in an easy to get to place. Explain to everyone the purpose of the jar (to share things you are currently thankful for) and make sure everyone gets a turn to put at least one thing they're thankful for in the jar by the time Thanksgiving comes around! You can have them write their names too or you can all try to guess who wrote what things when you read them on Thanksgiving day.

  

To see some examples of things our family wrote on papers for our Thankful Jar last year check out this post.