It’s a clear jar that’s turned into a time capsule! The blog author threw small memorabilia and other mementos into the jar throughout the year, representing the things she did with her family. At the end of the year, she stores the jars on a shelf for her kids to look through and take a stroll down memory lane whenever they want!

I thought this was a fun idea. I always have lots of little mementos that I want to save, but don’t know what to do with. If I don’t have my camera along when I try a new restaurant, for example, I’ll grab a matchbox or a business card to remember the experience by. Or, I save ticket stubs from sporting events, concerts, and other events I attend. All of these little items end up scattered throughout my house in random drawers, in the bottom of my purse, or worse, get lost altogether. A decorated jar can be left out on a counter and is the perfect “home” for all of these items!

For my version, I used a clear plastic Making Memories jar and decorated it with the brand-new Little Yellow Bicycle Twig collection.

The finished jar can be used as a “time capsule” and saved, or it can act as a place to store memorabilia until it’s ready to go into a scrapbook. Because the Making Memories jars come in packs of three, you could make one for each child to keep in his/her room as a place to store all of their special “treasures”. There are lots of possibilities–no matter which way you choose, you’ll end up with a jar full of fun memories!

Here are just a few of my favorite ideas:

1. Tribute or heritage photos

I love how this tray (from our Appleton, WI store) uses old photos in a whole new way. Talk about a touching way to honor your loved ones or family members who are in the military! I have a stack of old photos of my grandparents that I love, but have never known quite what to do with them. I think I’ve found my answer! A decorated tray like this would make a really special, meaningful gift for grandma, grandpa, or other family members. Remember to always use copies of your photos and not the originals!

2. Travel photos

Whether you went on an exciting adventure to a far-away place, took your annual family trip to the beach or cabin, or spent a day exploring a nearby town or attraction, almost everyone has travel photos of some kind or another. When I get home from a trip, I love displaying my favorite vacation photos throughout my home so I can look at them every day and remember all the fun we had. This tray (from our Fairview Heights, IL store) caught my eye–what a fun and different approach to showcasing travel photos! I really like how memorabilia (in this case, shells) are incorporated into the design, too. Wouldn’t it be cool to have an entire wall filled with trays like these, one for each trip you took?

3. Baby photos

Look at this adorable tray (from our Woodbury, MN store)! Instead of giving a new mom a few cute outfits that her baby will quickly outgrow, why not give a beautiful home decor piece for the baby’s nursery instead? Mom will be able to look at and admire this special keepsake every day. While none of my close friends have babies on the way at the moment, you can bet I’m saving this idea for the future!

4. Wedding photos

A wedding is one of the most important days in a bride and groom’s life. Instead of keeping wedding photos in an album that only gets pulled out a few times a year, why not display them on the wall and enjoy them every day? This tray (from our Austin, TX store) really highlights these special moments and memories and turns them into a home decor piece the happy couple will love looking at day after day. Make a tray using copies of your own wedding photos, or give a tray as a thoughtful gift to the bride-to-be in your life. You can add the papers and embellishments now, and she can fill in the photos later. Or, give it as a special 1st anniversary gift!

I’ve got a blank tray at home, just waiting to be decorated. After seeing these ideas, I’m inspired and excited to get started–how about you?

Typically the paper that postcards and other memorabilia  are printed on contain acid that will migrate to your photos over time.  While acid and lignin are issues that came up readily in the early years of scrapbooking, you don’t hear a lot about them now.  They remain harmful chemicals to photos and are the biggest issue with including memorabilia straight into albums.  I use the archival color copier to eliminate the problem and put as much memorabilia in my books as I want.  My albums are only 8-10 years old and when I haven’t made a copy, I have been sorry as some of the photos closest to it are already yellowing.     The copier we have at Archiver’s is acid/lignin free and uses archival quality paper and ink. I was a devotee of this tool long before I started working at Archiver’s and was impressed with the research they had done before adding them to the first stores.   The copies are photo quality and are on thick archival paper, so you really get the look and quality of the original you are copying.  I can enlarge and shrink photos to a really small size, beyond what most photo stations I have tried can.  If you don’t have an Archiver’s near you, you can use a product called Archival Mist to de-acidify the item that you are using.  Some fun ways to incorporate  memorabilia:

Shrink Photos – I like to have header pages in my trip albums.  I used the copier to shrink down several of my best photos and included them small on the first page – then used the actual photo in my layouts later in the album.

Ticket Stubs – I had pre-ordered tickets to castles and historic British sites before we left on this trip.  When they started arriving they all had the Queen’s seal on them.  I want to incorporate as many as I could into my layouts because they looked so cool!  On this particular layout I had open space  that I didn’t have a photo to fill with – copies of the airline tickets worked great.

Maps - We did so many fun things in and around London that I wanted to include the map to orient where in the city we spent our time.  I copied and enlarged this map from one of the tube maps we got at the subway station.