Monday Made It- It's all about memory keepsakes for school and home

Hi Sweet Friends!

I just love Tara's Monday Made Its.  I get so many fabulous ideas from everyone!

This week was a CUH-RAZY one so I didn't have time to get much "crafting on".  Summer is in full swing at our house!

1.  A Memory Jar

Kids say some of the most precious things.  Truly!  They grow up so fast, and I wanted a way to remember all those funny and precious things that come out of their little mouths. So, I purchased some plastic jars from Dollar Tree, chevron ribbon, and some star post it notes.  I've seen a memory jar created with the glass mason jars, but this wouldn't work at our house with a 3 year old that gets into lots of things.

Then I created some labels to go on each jar.  I bought several jars from the Dollar Tree and thought I would label them by the year.  My plans are to have these darling things sitting on a shelf in my craft room with the scrapbook albums ( I should say that a craft room is on my "just gotta have list" also... maybe when my kids are grown.) Currently, I have this jar sitting on a shelf in my kitchen.

If you would like a copy of the labels, just click on the picture below to download it from Google Docs.

I laminated the labels before hot gluing them to the plastic jar. 

AND one for my classroom

2. A Picture Perfect Year... A paper bag photo album of the school year

I had several inspirations that helped me with this idea.  I LOVED the idea that many of the younger grades use to create a photo album of the year.  My first grader brought one of these home this year.  His teacher had captured those fun photos of events throughout the school year such as the first day of school, Halloween or Fall Party, Christmas, Valentine's Day, Spring, field trip, and so much MORE.  She laminated the photos onto brightly colored cardstock and bound them.

I wanted to do something similar, and I've been seeing these fabulous paper bag scrapbooks all over Pinterest.  Here's a link to a few of the DIY's I found on this below.  Just click on the picture to be taken to this link.  They are great tutorials.

1.  This one comes from Dirt Cheap Decor

2.  This tutorial comes from Mrs. Sheppard at  My Second Grade Journal.  Just click on the photo below to check out the link on her paper bag journals.

So I created "A Picture Perfect Paper Bag Memory Album".  It's a photo and writing activity through the entire school year.  There are 9 different lay outs with inserts that go in the pockets the paper bag album creates.  The lay outs are:  first day of school, fall, Thanksgiving, holidays, Valentine's Day, spring, field trips, and end of the year
Each lay out includes an area on one page for students to adhere a photo and a writing activity for students to complete.  It's a great introduction to journaling.  Each lay out also includes an item to place in the pocket.  For example, at the beginning of the school year, there is a note for the teacher to write to the student and at Valentine's Day there is an activity on " I am special because".  You can either send these home for parents to complete about their child, or pair students up and use as a character building activity.
Only the front cover will need to be printed in color.  I purposely created the rest in black and white to make it easier on printing expenses.  The graphics used make it easy for students to decorate using marker or crayon or even adding stickers to the albums.  I also created two writing forms for each lay-out.  One has more lines for older students, and fewer lines with larger spaces for younger students.

I have already purchased a large plastic tub to keep the paper bag albums in as my students work on them throughout the school year.  This project requires 4 lunch size paper bags per student. This will be such a fabulous keepsake to send home with them at the end of the year.  It's also a great way to see their growth in the area of writing as well.
If you are interested in finding more about this just click HERE, or on any of the pictures shown below.

Have a great week Friends!  I can't wait to check out everyone's Monday Made It projects.
Just click on the Monday Made It link at the top of this post to check out all of the other fabulous projects.