Strawberry Jam {forever}

When I say strawberry jam, it comes out to the tune of "Strawberry Fields Forever" I just can't help it. The Beatles possess my mind.

Now your thinking it that way aren't you.

For the bridal shower I hosted last week, {which I am completely overwhelmed with the amount of interest in, Thank you so much people of the internet! I love you!} I gave strawberry jam as favors to my lovely guests.

In this post, I will show you how I made the jam, and how I decorated them. 

They were super cute.

Especially when they were all lined up ^^^like so.

I love things all lined up. I really do.

This was actually my first time making jam. Growing up, my mother made various types of jams; but I had yet to participate in such activity. 

Armed with a couple flats of overripe strawberries, several boxes of jars, pounds of sugar and my mamma at my side; the adventure began.

Shopping List for this project:

canning jars, with sealable lids

overripe strawberries, tops removed

granulated sugar

Sure-Jell Pectin

The jars I bought were half-pints from Wal-Mart, made by their own MainStays brand.

I decided on these jars, because first of all they were cheaper; but also because I am not particularly fond of that quilt print on the other jars of that size. 

If you want to make less jam though, get the Kerr jelly jars; which are like 4oz's or something.

To see the instructions, and correct measurements; go to Sure-Jells site right here.

But here is the basic rundown:

Core out all the strawberries, and either mash with potato masher or lightly pulse in food processor. (don't puree it!)

Measure it out into a large measuring bowl. 

In case you were wondering, I did not suddenly get married. That is my madres beautiful hand.

Pour berries into saucepan, and pour in pectin. Bring to a rolling boil, pour in sugar, bring back to a boil  and pour into jars. 

Voila! 

You have jam!

Boil in a canner, then lay those hot-potaut jars out to cool.

In a row. because things in rows are cool, remember.

That one jar needs to move a little more to the left. You have no idea how much its bothering me right now.

OCD much?

Anyway...

Repeat this process several times, until you have all your jars filled and strawberries gone. I think we ended up doing like five or six batches to fill about forty jars. (each batch filled seven half-pint jars)

So let them all cool down completely, stare at the beauty of them for awhile; then its time to decorate.

To make these little jimmer-jammers super cute, I stuck on a label sticker, covered them in fabric, tied them with twine, and attached a tag.

The labels were super simple, and just stated the type of jam and the date it was made. I apparently did not take a photo of that, but here is the jpg of it:

To cover the ugly gold jar lids, I used a floral fabric to match the rose theme, and cut them into circles. I believe they ended up as a four and half or so circle. (I just cut a demo with paper around the jar, until I found a size I liked.) To keep them from raveling, I cut the circles out with pinking shears.

The pink floral fabric came as two fat quarters, which I found and fell in love with--but it was not enough to cover all forty jars, so I found the white fabric which is pretty similar. Each half yard made twenty circles.

The most difficult part of this whole shebang honestly, was tying the fabric onto the jars.

Silly, I know.

But it was some tough stuff.

I ended up putting a rubber band around the fabric, then tying the twine over it. It worked pretty well, when the rubber band wasn't flying off into my face. 

Battle wounds, ya know.

The mini spoons, as I mentioned before are from Ivana's Gifts N' things on Etsy. The owner of the shop is so sweet, and the price was amazing. I will definitely be buying from her shop again, in the future.

Fun Fact: I can never spell definitely. I have to look it up every time. Its weird, really.

The tags, my sister whipped up and printed out on butcher paper; to give it a little bit of a rustic feel.

They say "spread a little love" and the name of the bride and groom on the bottom. The tags are two and a half inches tall, and fit the jars perfectly.

So my friends, that is that.

I will continue to post some more tidbits about the partay, as the week progresses.

Again, thank you so much for the love and support! I really am so overwhelmed with the amount of visits to my site, concerning this party.

Its really giving me an itch for another one. Party fever they call it.

To see more of my party inspirations, and a bunch of other stuff...follow me on thee Pinterest.

As always....Enjoy!