I made a "Memory Jar" to sit on my son's grave. It is made of a glass jar with weatherproof pop-top. I painted "Chad's Memory Jar" on the outside. I put a stack of 3x3 inch blank paper inside with a pen. I tied a nice ribbon around the neck of the jar and tied the jar to the gravestone. Now when friends and family visit, they can put their memories of him inside.
By vickie guy from Earle, AR
This page contains the following solutions.
I created a nice cemetery garland for my in-laws' grave, using holly branches, various evergreen branches, some bare branches sprayed white, berries, and a pretty bow.
Every year we make grave decorations for our loved ones who have passed away. Here is this year's decoration.
Here are the questions asked by community members. Read on to see the answers provided by the ThriftyFun community.
I'd like recommendations on nicest the artificial plants and flowers to use at cemetery gravesite.
There are different materials used for artificial flowers but it seems the best to use for outdoors may be silk, Latex, and plastic.
Silk is the most expensive and Latex is next but there are also some nice plastic flowers available.
www.amazon.com/
The type of flowers usually recommended for grave sites is the same as types for a funeral: However, people do not always stick to this list:
Lilies
Roses
Chrysanthemums
Carnations
Gladiolas
I have seen some very nice (tasteful) arrangements made from flowers purchased at the Dollar Tree. You just have to be very choosy.
Previous questions/answers on previous postings have some good suggestions:
www.thriftyfun.com/
This site has a lot of information about what may be the best choice:
dying.lovetoknow.com/
I like to recommend using some type of protective spray-on so your flowers will not fade so quickly - especially silk flowers.
there are several excellent YouTube videos showing how to make arrangements.
I need to know how I go about making an old cowboy hat into a decoration that will stand being outside at a gravesite?
By KIMBERLY from Apache Junction, AZ
Have you thought about painting it inside and out with polyurethane, or even clear shellac?
You can try a tiny bit of what you want to try on a small spot on the inside, maybe under the sweat band, to make sure it won't damage the hat.
That was the thought that i had had. Thanks I will try that.
I would hate for it to be damaged by the elements, though in Arizona (I was born there, live in KY now) the most damaging element is the sun. You need to find something that would protect it from the sun, and polyurethane will be damaged by the sun.
If it is really important to you, maybe you could get it bronzed. Everybody used to do that with their baby's first pair of shoes. There are people that still do it. I am a notorious penny pincher and sometimes as much as it hurts, it pays to just spend the money.
Check out these photos.
Each year in November, our community provides the Christmas Wreaths that are placed on all of the headstones of the Veterans and their spouses. The volunteers return in January to retrieve and store the wreaths for future use.
This is a page about protecting silk flowers at gravesites. While they will definitely last longer, the elements eventually will cause artificial flowers to fade and become tattered.