Last Updated on May 6, 2025

Motherhood Journal Jar

A motherhood journal jar is a beautiful, thoughtful and affordable gift to give to the special mom(s) in your life.

This is a memorable Mother’s Day gift that both you and your mother can treasure for years to come.

Moms have a lot of great advice and also have a lot of stories and memories to share. When we’re young, we don’t always appreciate that, but when we’re older we wish we had.

With this journal jar gift, you can capture all of that from your mother, so that later on, you can look through this jar and seek her advice or simply get a peek inside her own journey through motherhood.

Jump to:

• What are the Benefits of Journaling for Moms and Their Families?
• Creative Ways to Customize Your Motherhood Journal Jar
• How to Make a Motherhood Journal Jar
• Ideas for Leftover Craft Supplies
• Additional Mother’s Day Gift Ideas

What are the Benefits of Journaling for Moms and Their Families?

Journaling offers many benefits for moms, whether they’re navigating early motherhood, raising teens, or managing work-life balance. It also helps the family by supporting emotional health, communication, and overall well-being.

Here are a few of those benefits:

Stress Relief and Positive Role Modeling

Expressive writing is a tool for reducing stress and improving mental health by being able to process emotions and clarify thoughts.

Moms can write down what challenges they had for the day and how they dealt with them, which can serve as a reminder for what worked and what didn’t. She can also write down the good things that happened that day to look back on and lift her spirits when it’s needed.

Children who see their mom journaling learn that it’s a healthy way to express emotions and manage stress. They see that mom feels better after writing her thoughts down and that might make them want to try it too the next time they’re having a rough day.

Legacy and Connection

Journals can serve as cherished keepsakes, fostering a sense of connection across generations. It allow others to glimpse inside your thoughts and feelings about everyday life and special moments, and gain some wisdom from them.

The handwriting itself is a unique, special thing to treasure—have you ever looked at someone’s notes or letters and thought, “That handwriting looks effortless!” that each stroke of the pen shows their confidence in putting thoughts to paper. Plus, there’s just something special about seeing your loved one’s handwriting—it’s hard to describe, but it’s just a wonderful feeling when you see it.

Memory Preservation

Moms are so busy, it’s hard to remember all of the details about what happened in your kids’ lives. As the kids get older, they may start asking about what life was like when they were younger.

So, a journal can help capture milestones, funny moments, and daily details to create a treasured personal history of your children’s lives.

Creative Ways to Customize Your Motherhood Journal Jar

• Add Hand-Lettered Labels: Use a paint pen or label maker to add a sweet phrase like “Mom Moments” or “Reflections in Motherhood.” You could also tie a mini chalkboard tag around the neck with twine where you can write “Open When You Need a Boost.”
• Ask the Kids for Ideas: Give the kids some colorful paper strips and either have them write their own questions and prompts to add to the printed ones, or if they need help, ask them for their ideas and write them down for them.
• Add “Surprise” Encouragements: Mix in uplifting notes like, “You’re doing better than you think” or “Pause. Breathe. You’ve got this.”
• Faith-Based or Spiritual Additions: Add Bible verses or affirmations tied to motherhood if faith is a central part of your journaling.

Materials Needed

You don’t need very many supplies to make this jar and you probably already have most of them in the craft supplies in your home—if not, they should be easy to find online or in a craft store.

• Chalk acrylic paint: I used Waverly in Celery (you can find it at Walmart), but you can use whatever brand you want in whatever color your mom would prefer. You will need 1 – 2 ounces of paint for the two coats.
• Paint brush: For the distressed look, use a 1-2 inches wide flat, bristle brush with natural or synthetic bristles.
• Jar: You can use whatever jar you have, but a 16 ounce (pint-sized) mason jar would have enough room for the journal prompts.
• Burlap flower: A 2-3 inch flower would fit nicely centered on the lid.
• Burlap ribbon: A 1.5 inch ribbon would offer a subtle band around the jar. You could also use a 2-2.5 inch ribbon if you wanted a more prominent rustic look or wanted to glue embellishments on it like a flower or tag.
• Hot glue gun: You’ll use this for attaching the ribbon and the flower.
• Scissors: Any scissors will be fine. You’ll use them to cut the ribbon and the journal prompts.
• Paper for printing journal prompts: Whatever paper you have in your printer will be fine.

How to Make a Motherhood Journal Jar

Gather your materials and in an hour or less, you’ll have a very special gift for the mom in your life.

Step 1: Paint the jar

Brush two coats of chalk paint over the jar, allowing time to dry between coats (about 10-15 minutes).

Don’t be too meticulous about coverage if you want the distressed/aged look. You want to see the brush strokes on the glass.

Allow the paint to dry completely before moving on to the next step. If you want to speed up the drying time, you can use a fan or a hair dryer on low setting to help it dry faster.

Step 2: Wrap Burlap Ribbon

Wrap the burlap ribbon around the center of the jar to measure the correct length. Cut it so it slightly overlaps at the ends (about ½ inch).

Apply a thin line of hot glue to one end of the ribbon and press it onto the jar. Wrap the ribbon tightly around the jar.

Glue the other end of the ribbon where it overlaps the first, pressing down firmly. If needed, use clips to hold in place until the glue sets (about 30–60 seconds).

If the ribbon is wide or stiff, add small dots of hot glue every inch or so along the back side to keep it flush to the jar.

If you want a removable option, you could tie the ribbon in a decorative knot or bow instead of gluing.

Step 3: Attach the Burlap Flower

Glue the burlap flower to the jar lid. Alternatively, if you’re using a taller jar, the flower would look pretty centered on the burlap ribbon. 

Step 4: Add the Journal Prompts

Fill in the form below to download and print the motherhood journal prompts. Then, cut out the provided journal prompts, fold them, and put them in the jar. 

Step 5: Ready to Gift

Voila! You have a lovely Motherhood Journal Jar ready for gifting. Add a nice pen and journal, and your mother (or a special mother in your life) is all set to write down her thoughts and memories to preserve for her children.

Ideas for Leftover Craft Supplies

Now that you’re done making the jar, you might have some leftover craft supplies. So, if you’re still in the crafting mood, here are some other things you can make using these same supplies.

Chalk Acrylic Paint

You can upcycle old or dollar-store frames with a distressed chalk paint finish. Then add a picture of you and your mom in the frame.

Terracotta or ceramic pots look great with a chalk paint makeover—add a stencil or freehand label and write “Mom” on it or some phrase she’d appreciate.

Jar

Fill a jar with your mom’s favorite hot cocoa mix, tea, cookies, bath salts, or layered candies. Or, you could make a second jar for her and write things you’re grateful for about your mom on strips of paper and let her know she can pull one out every day.

If your mom likes to craft, you can give her the gift of time spent with you making something fun and cute with the leftover mason jars.

Burlap Flower

If you’re giving your mom any other wrapped gifts, you can tie the flower on or tape it on as an extra decoration. Also, if you’re giving her a handmade card, you could stick the flower on the front.

When you cook dinner for your mom, you can scatter the flowers on the table runner or attach it to a napkin ring.

Burlap Ribbon

You can use this as the ribbon you wrap around any gift boxes you are giving your mom. If you’re giving her a present in a gift bag, you could tie the handles together using this ribbon and tie it into a pretty bow.

The ribbon is also great for making other craft projects like wreaths, candle holders centerpieces, photo frame accents, scrapbook or journal accents and ornaments.

Additional Mother’s Day Gift Ideas

If you want some additional ideas about what to give or do for a mom for Mother’s Day, consider some of these gift/activity ideas:

• Tickled Pink: Easy Gift Idea for Mother’s Day: This pink themed gift bag is such a cute and easy gift idea for Mother’s Day!
• Mother’s Day Printable Gift: Surprise Mom with a thoughtful keepsake! This free printable Mother’s Day survey is a fun and easy way for kids to express their love, she’ll want to keep it forever.
• Where to Take Mom for Mother’s Day: Mom spends a lot of time working on the house—give her a break on Mother’s Day and take her out. Here are some ideas of where to take mom for Mother’s Day.
• Mother’s Day Breakfast: Kids wake up early to surprise their moms with a special Mother’s Day breakfast. Here are some easy recipes they can make that you’ll actually want to eat.
• Handprint Crafts for Mother’s Day: These are fun and easy crafts for kids to make and they make a unique and personalized gift for mom that will become a beautiful keepsake.
• Meaningful Mother’s Day Ideas That Don’t Cost a Fortune: Discover heartfelt ways to celebrate Mom with these meaningful Mother’s Day ideas that are thoughtful, creative, and affordable!