How to keep baggies in your car WITHOUT them hogging all of your glovebox

Make a magnetic busy box!

So the other day I pinned this gem: Build a Monster free printable and I knew right away that A: I wanted to make that, and B: I wanted it to last longer than plain paper in a zippy bag. Because if I'm going to cut out eleven-billionty pieces, it had better dangnabbit* last. So, laminator, you are my bestie (of the moment).

And the idea to make a busy BOX rather than a busy BAG was born.  A box can hold MANY busy bags' worth of projects, and it can have a magnetic top, and the pieces can have magnets, because magnets are cool, and the Wyoming wind of doom won't be able to scatter those many busy bags' worth of pieces to the  far corners of the Earth in a nanosecond. Little did I know that finding a simple piece of metal to go on the top of the box would be next to never-gonna-happen. 

So, after calling a few metal shops, and realizing that just having a sheet cut to fit (seriously, it's one foot by a foot and a smidge, how bloody hard can that be??) would cost upwards of $30 to $ain't-nobody-got-money-for-that, well, $1 cookie sheet and the thought of "how hard can it be to cut down the edges of a cookie sheet?" got together. The answer to that question brings us to "yeah, you should probably just pay somebody to do that unless you're really good with cutting metal."

this $6 box from the office supplies section is handy, not too big, not too small, the inside edge of the lid lines up real nice with the bottom of a medium cookie sheet....

 The dremel wouldn't cut it, the jig saw with a specialty metal cutting blade wouldn't cut it...

the snips actually cut the sides pretty well, but when it came to going along the bottom, well, that was rough. Then, light bulb! Bandage shears, well, they cut everything! But I cannot stress enough how razor sharp the edges are! I dropped the edge (that i removed in chunks as I went to prevent catching my poor anythings on) and it fell about 2 inches and bounced off my foot.  Did you know that the tops of feet will bleed every bit as horrifically as head wounds? Yeah, me neither. So, this is pretty much me warning you that trying to create your own sheet to go on isn't smart. Cheap? Yes. Smart? Well, you may be nominated for a Darwin Award....  moving on....

is that too much glue? maybe some more...

Line your edges once cut (or if you're smarter than I, once bought from a metal shop) with duct tape, just in case the lil bugger manage to disassemble your completed box, because kids, yo, they take everything apart. Then glue the beejeebus out of it, mostly in a vain attempt to stop them from taking it apart. Smash onto the lid, then pile heavy books on top to sit overnight. 

Taking a $4 roll of magnetic self-adhering tape, from the crafts section, snip little chunks and stick to your many, many  laminated pieces. Did I mention that I had to cut these out, laminate them, and then cut the little %$#%#* out again? Otherwise, you'd have unsealed edges, and no one wants soggy pieces because the sippy cup got knocked over.

 I worried that these might not stick well, but that one over there that I got crooked as all get out? Yeah, it stuck well enough I couldn't adjust it. I think they'll do. 

 But, just in case, they too are getting the heavy books overnight treatment. I'll play with this thing tomorrow and let you know how it ends up- either a complete disaster, or, much like my idea of mixing daiquiri mix and ice cream for a drunk milkshake, pure ossim. (I'm really hoping for the latter as there was entirely too much cutting out of things to give up on this one!)

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Results: if you hold the lid up on end, some pieces will fall down, but setting it flat in front of the fan at full blast didn't dislodge them- which is the position it will be used in anyhow, and the effect i was going for (no wind! don't take all the pieces!).

Easy-peasy bandana tablecloth

I made this today in under an hour- I went into it knowing we would likely make a mess out of it at the party this weekend, so I wasn't terribly concerned with making my stitches perfectly straight, or having perfectly lined up squares (note to self: if you WANT very neat lines, DO NOT WASH BANDANAS BEFORE YOU SEW THEM!!)  Karen or Ruby can narrate if they feel sparky, but the jist of it is, line your squares up one by one, sew across so you have 3 strips of 3 bandanas, then join those down the long sides. Poof, magic!  Bandanas run about $1 each, and you can do up any color combo you want, so think of avoiding those icky plastic disposables for holidays and birthdays!