Make-over

We received two of these tins this past week at an event Avi and I attended. Unfortunately, and contrary to appearances, there were in fact no cookies inside. Instead, there were coffee cups that matched the tins and plain yellow saucers. Except, of course, the cups said "Coffee" on them.

Even though the cups were empty.

Anyway, while I am sure DHL is a wonderful company, I really didn't want a cookie tin emblazoned with their logo adorning my kitchen. Alcohol inks to the rescue! Sadly, covering up the portion of the tin I wanted to remain in its original state did not prevent the inks from bleeding into what should have been forbidden territory. My family (have I mentioned how much I love them?) thinks it looks "cool" this way.

I'm still considering the option of trying to remove the inks that bled down below the tape and seeing if I can get a clean, sharp line between the inked area and the yellow. Of course, there are so many other things to do, most likely I won't bother.

I wonder what I'll do with the second tin.

Feeling Crafty

About a week ago, Liat asked if I could make her something that would help her organize her earrings (the kind with the sheperd's crook, not the post kind). A recently purchased jewelry box had successfully corraled most of her earrings, just not the kind with the hook.

I immediately thought of this pink mesh that I saved (Avi was given a bunch of flowers that had the mesh wrapped around the outside of the florist's paper wrapper). But how to mount it so that she could hang her earrings? Liat mentioned that a friend had something that looked like a frame made of craft sticks, so I spent a desultory few minutes today trying to figure out how I could make that work. I quickly decided to see what I could find on the Internet.

I found this! Not only was it the perfect solution, but I loved the fact that she also used a recycled item. Not only did I already have a plain wooden frame (from IKEA) which I painted with acrylic paint, but I found the perfect thing to add as decoration. The colorful tag you see inside the frame is a piece of cloth that came with a pair of jeans Liat bought months ago. Maybe more. I saved it (of course I did), and one afternoon while watching me do art-type stuff in my crafts room, Liat pulled out the scrap of fabric from a drawer and asked if she could paint it with my Radiant Pearls (yes, I still have some, but they have started going bad, so I am gradually throwing them all away).

Over a few such afternoons, she had fun painting the tag, then gave it back to me when she had finished. I knew I would use it for something eventually, and luckily I found it today. She was delighted when she realized I had included it in her earring holder.

It felt great to do something crafty again.