Beach In A Jar...

This gift was supposed to have been made and delivered to my father-in-law for Father's Day, but life got the best of me, and instead, I saved it for him for his Birthday.  It comes at the perfect timing anyway because he is heading, to the beach, in honor of his special day, so he can bring it to our beach condo and display it there.

The gift bears much meaning! 

First, our family walked the beach, for at least an hour, collecting sea shells. The kids enjoyed picking shells, that "grandad would like", and then they would wash each sea shell off and put it in our "clean" bucket.  Then, we spelled out each child's name, using the sea shells we collected. Finally, we took a posed picture of each child next to their sea shell name :)

I collected some Myrtle Beach sand and saved it in a rubbermaid container until I was ready to make this "beach in a jar" craft.

Here are the items you need in order to complete this craft the way I did.  You may have your own ideas or your own versions that require MORE supplies or less, but basically you need the following:

A Glass Jar

Sand

Sea Shells

Photos of Your Family

Clear Jewelry String

Hot Glue Gun

Decorative Paper

First, pour the sand into the glass jar.

Then arrange the sea shells the way you like! Printing the pictures, assembling the sand and the seashells was SIMPLE and fun.  

NEXT, hot glue and hang photos to the lid of the jar.  It will resemble an infant's "mobile".  The hard, grueling, and disastrous part was hanging the photos from the top of the jar. It just is NOT as easy as it looks.

I added a decorative "label" that reads, "Myrtle Beach 2013", so grandad will know when the photos were taken.

Finally, close the lid TIGHT until you deliver or display it.  Once the jar finds a "home", you can screw the lid as loose or as tight as need be in order for the photos to line up properly.  

And walaa..... This is by far one of my favorite projects I have ever done.  It looks so gorgeous.  Since Darren and I were married on the beach, I definitely plan to make one of these with our wedding photos and possibly insert a little memorabilia from our honeymoon, as well. This is a great memory jar or gift to give out. I'd love to see you make one of your own.  Email me photos when it's complete.  I had a hard time choosing what photos to use for this post, so if you desire to see all of the pictures I took, for this craft, double clip on the photo album below.  This was difficult to photograph because the jar creates a glare.