Jolly Little Jellies

Hi friends, I'm here today with another episode of Make + Save for Papertrey Ink. With my Make + Save posts, you'll get great gift ideas that you make at home...and save money. Today it's all about the jelly. I love to can fruits and veggies, especially if they are harvested from our summer gardens. This year we had a bumper crop of jalapenos. Gallons and gallons and gallons, they just never stopped producing until the cold weather came. I used up my last few jalapenos and green peppers just last week while making homemade jalapeno jelly. I love to see that festive green color shining through the jars.
Homemade jellies make great gifts for the holiday season. Whether you need a hostess gift, teacher gifts or maybe you just want to take a great appetizer to a holiday party....my decorated jars and gift sack will be unique and much appreciated.
I found some really cute jars this year at Walmart in the canning section. I picked up some of the 1/2 pint jars and adorable gingham lids and white rings. They're cute enough by themselves that I didn't want to add too many embellishments.
I die cut some Rick Rack felt and tied little snippets up in Pure Poppy and Chartreuse Vintage Buttons with Rustic Cream Twine. These were adhered to the jar lids with pop dots.
To make labels for the jars, I die cute Papertrey Adhesive Sheets with the label die from Tea for Two. The *homemade* and *jelly* sentiments are from Just for you and Fruitful. I've been using the adhesive sheets a lot because they already have adhesive on the back that you peel off and they're also thinner than cardstock and will mold around curved items like jars.

The word *jalapeno* was stamped with individual letter stamps. So that the lids could come off with ease, I finished the jars off with Luxe Satin Ribbon just below the lids. So cute and quick too. Love.
For the packaging, I used a Large Coffee Sack that I embellished with more Luxe Satin Ribbon, some craft store ornament sprigs and a Small Clothespin from my Etsy shop. The stamped portion was made using Tiny Treats: Christmas (the gingham print matches my jar lids so well). I used the mistletoe image and drew in some jalapeno peppers on the sprigs using a fine tip Copic multiliner pen. Those are great for getting a fine line width that matches the stamp set. I colored these with Copic Sketch markers in red and green.

Using felt and a new Limitless Layers: 1-3/4" Circle die, I layered my stamped image onto the die cut gingham label image. These were adhered to a Dainty Doily from my Etsy shop and then adhered to the bag front with pop dots.

To make the gift complete, I always include a stack of crackers and a block of cream cheese along with the jar of jelly. To serve the jelly, simple lay the block of cream cheese on a decorative plate or tray. Dump the jar of jelly on top and serve with crackers. If you want to be really generous, you could also give the recipient a pretty plate and a spread knife along with the food goodies. Tip: Thrift shops have lots of plates, trays and silverware that you could stock up on all throughout the year.
I hope you enjoy Jolly Little Jellies. For a complete supply listing, instructions and one click supply shopping visit the Make + Save section at Papertrey website. This link has all of my Make + Save projects to date. Thanks for stopping by!

Note: Jellies like this one are plentiful by doing an Internet search for jalapeno jelly. There are lots of variations using berries and different seasonings.