Preserve those beautiful memories of the summer by displaying them in an adorable beachy summer vacation photo jar. Use a mason jar or any recycled jar to display your vacation photos in this fun coastal home decor idea.

Vacation Photo Jar

---

I absolutely love taking pictures of the kids at the beach. They are just totally free and happy which is the absolute essence of what summer should be about. Aside from displaying these photos in these beach frames with a cottage style look, I thought jars would be a great idea.

The smallest of my four kids are best of buds and I love this picture of the older one helping the smaller one a couple of years ago. I wanted to display it as a reminder and this photo jar came to mind. It also gave us an opportunity to use our new Cricut Maker to create a fun little vinyl decal.

Materials Needed:

---

• A large glass jar (I used a 24oz pickle jar)
• Everyday Vinyl in white
• Cricut Maker or other precision cutting machine
• “All You Need is Love and the Beach” project template in Design Space
• Sand, clean and dry
• Photo of choice, printed and cut to fit inside the jar
• Sea shells
• Faux greenery
• Cotton corded rope in white, 1/2″ thick
• Transfer tape

How to make a Beach-Themed Photo Jar

---

Preparing the Jar

Thoroughly wash out the jar and remove any labels. If warm soap and water doesn’t remove the labels entirely, a product such a Goo-Gone works well. Put the clean jar aside for the time being.

If you have a Cricut Maker, Silhouette or other precision cutting machine, you can create a fun vinyl decal to stick on to the mason jar such as the one we applied to ours.   

Open the Design Space site and upload the “All You Need Is Love and the Beach” project template. You may need to search the name on the design space to find it. You can also use just about any quote or beach related template you prefer!

Following the instructions on the screen, select “Customize” to adjust the size of the phrase in order for it to fit on the mason jar. The original pattern is sized to 10.6″wide x 6.9″high which is too large for this photo jar project.

In the toolbar, adjust the width of the template to 3”wide x 2” high or another suitable size to fit your own jar.

9) Add in the seashells.

Click “Make It” and select Everyday Vinyl from the list of materials.

Place the white Everyday Vinyl on the standard grip mat and load it into the cutting machine.

Cut out the phrase on a piece of white Everyday Vinyl using your Cricut Maker or Silhouette cutting machine.

When done cutting and mat is unloaded, weed out the decal discarding the excess vinyl and keeping only the lettering needed.

Apply a piece of transfer tape to the lettering and remove the backing from the vinyl.

Apply the vinyl transfer to the bottom third of the glass jar and carefully remove the transfer tape.

Assembling the Photo Jar

---

1. Fill one-third of the jar with clean, dry sand.
2. Cut down your photo of interest to a size that will fit well inside the jar and place it standing up in the sand. Insert your faux greenery in front and in behind the photo.
3. Add in the seashells or you could also use other embellishments such as seaglass or beach stones.
4. Tie some decorative cotton rope around the neck of the jar for an added touch.

And that’s it! You have a beautiful and original way of displaying your Summer vacation memories. I may actually make a few more of these to create a whole little summer vacation photo vignette.

We enjoy collecting beach stones, driftwood, sea glass, and seashells. We’ve used our finds to make all sorts of beachy decorations for the home including this beach-themed air plant terrarium, DIY pebble art, DIY driftwood signs, and this driftwood crab wall art.

More Mason Jar Project Ideas

---

• Make Mason Jar Canisters for your bathroom or kitchen.
• Turn recycled jars into pretty Striped Beach Luminaries.
• Make pretty Hanging Mason Jars for your home or patio.

This post originally appeared here on July 10, 2019.