Project Done

This is my second year making jam from Jonathan and Carter's hours of picking blackberries in the summer. We have tons of wild-blackberry-bushes on our property, so it's also a great way to save some cash. This makes a very personal gift, and I love doing it! Jam doesn't go bad after the holidays and is perfect for men, women, children, dieters, non-dieters, etc. My wonderful mom helped me with the jam this year. She now has faith that I can do it by myself :) Or maybe she wants me to do it by myself {hehe}. I want to give you a few helpful hints when making jam.

• Blackberries take a long time to develop into jelly. I opted to make one batch without Sure-Jell, but the other batches definitely had it. As mom would say; when using Sure-Jell, you use more sugar and less berries. Mom doesn't like to use it, but we had so many berries to make that I wanted to get it done.
• You must measure everything. There is no eye-balling when it comes to canning.
• You have to use new seals each time. Feel free to reuse jars!
• This tool and this one make canning so much easier.

Last year I used circles of fabric, but this year I chose a simpler look. I had some red-fabric as scrap, so I thought it looked chique and festive to just cover the top with a red-circle. I also developed a personal gift-tag. What do you think?



How did I do it? I'd love to share:

1. Find a picture you like. For this star, I did a general search on google for "red star" and found this one. I right-clicked, and chose "save picture as." I use this all the time for presentations and virtual lessons.
2. Set up an account with Picnik.
3. Upload your picture. For this one, I chose to "create" and there are a billion different choices you can make. I worked on the coloring first, then added the text.
4. Save. All I have to do now is print these little babies off and tie them on with some festive ribbon. This is an easy way to add some spice to your gift-tag methods! Don't settle for the $1 generic gift-tags, try something new.

Whew...sorry in advance for ruining some of your Christmas gifts from me :) Believe me, the taste of the jam is delightful and will bring your memory back to the days of summer. How psyched was I when this batch made over 25 jars? Thanks Momma.