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Feather your nest- Spices revamp

By on August 30, 2011 in Home, Tutorials and Patterns

 This project came out of frustration over every spice I needed being M.I.A. the moment I need it. My pantry is pretty but the shelves are way deep and everything in there gets lost. For the past few months I have been working on solutions to get it all organized but no matter what I tried those darn little spice bottles were always falling through my slatted shelves or just plain missing. I also dislike the fact that all the bottles are different and after seeing the prices at Ikea for little bottles I started thinking of a better cheaper way.

Baby food jars! Yes, that would be perfect but we do not have a baby eating baby food and have not bought any for the past 4 babies anyhow. I posted a wanted add on free cycle and a very cool girl wrote me to tell me she had 40 which was the exact number I needed.

 so of course, I cleaned out the jars really well

 placed them on newspaper outside

 and sprayed away.  All I had was matte white, which I am not crazy about because you can’t really wipe them like semi gloss but I forsee painting them a vintage mint tiffany blueish shade of mint green (I know what it looks like, I just can’t describe it) in the very near future so I will at least get my spices done and in the drawer for now.

 for some reason the expiration date pops up once the paint is dry but I was going to cover the tops with labels so no biggie.

I used these Martha Stewart stamps I had in my stash and stamped the design onto label paper and then traces circles around each one and cut them out.  I have a few circle punches but they were too big or too small.  It did not take that long and now all my spices are in one drawer and they look better too.  We grow the majority of our spices and these jars are so easy to just open up and add the dried herbs to.

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Feather your nest: Chalkboard label spice jars tutorial

By on May 4, 2011 in Home, Tutorials and Patterns
Time to face facts, my nest needs some feathering!  Yours too? Spring is the perfect time to add some personality to your nest.  In my not big enough kitchen, I am constantly going from the stove to the pantry, back and forth to get what I need so I decided to put the spices I use most closer to where I use it.  I found these cute little bottles at my last trip to Ikea and started thinking how to write on these.  I love chalkboards so I started looking for some chalkboard labels and boy are they expensive.  Michaels here I come and here is what I came up with.  The initial cost is about $10 but I have enough materials to make about 100 or more labels.

1. You need to get this adhesive backed vinyl.  I found this one from Cricut but I don’t see why regular black peel and stick vinyl wouldn’t work except that it would be flimsier.
2. Chalk marker (also found at Michaels)
3.  Paper punch or scissors

 Cut out whatever shape you would like to use as your label.  If you do not use a punch then I would cut out my shape from paper first and then use that as a template to cut your vinyl.

 Write on your label (its easier than writing on it once it is on the bottle)

Peel off adhesive backing and stick onto your bottle.

There you go now its cute and organized. You can’t tell from the picture but this is the area under the exhaust vent over my stove.  The best part is the chalk marker is erasable of course.

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