Christmas Jelly - Neighbor Gifts

I'm breaking tradition this year at our house. Every year in the past, I've made a cookies and candies to give to our neighbors, friends and our kids church teachers. The list of people on the the treat list keeps growing and growing. I love baking - but not necessarily in huge quantities.

This year our raspberry plants would not stop producing. I froze raspberries, I made jam and syrup and fruit leather with them. Then it came to me - I could use up some of the surplus of raspberries we had and at the same time eliminate some of the stress I would surely feel in December. How would I do this? By making jam and jelly for our neighbors ahead of time, instead of the plate of goodies that I end up making the week right before Christmas. Another plus - I won't have as many treats around tempting me.

I ended up making both grape jelly and raspberry jam. I just followed the directions on the package of pectin, but if you'd like more of a step by step then click the links above. Want to make jelly, but don't have grapes to juice - you can just buy 100% grape juice from the store!

Today, I'm going to show you how I packaged them. Super simple, yet it ended up so cute!

I only have pictures of the grape jelly. But I did the same thing with the raspberry jam, I just used different paper.

1 - Gather up your supplies - you will need a few sheets of coordinating scrapbook paper, glue stick and twine.
2 - Trace around the canning ring onto the paper.
3 - Cut just inside of the pencil line and place it in the ring and screw onto the jar.
4 - Cut out tags - I used my silhouette, but you could use a tag punch or even cut them out by hand.
5 - Glue the smaller tag on top of the larger tag and hole punch.
6 - Attach the tag with a piece of twine.

It does take time to make jam or jelly. However, to me it's worth spending a little more time now to be a little less busy in December.