Check Out My Moves!

**Update: Come see new and updated photos of this project HERE! :)

Does anyone else feel like their spice cupboard and/or baking cupboard is full to the max? Or overflowing, even? I used to dream of a spice rack that would allow me to have all my spices organized and at my fingertips. 

And then I got one. And it collects SO. MUCH. DUST.

SO.

I have been saving and washing Emily's baby food jars ever since we got back from Florida in order to do this:

(see that dusty spice rack????)

In order to eliminate all of these from my spice cupboard:

I still have some spices left in my cupboard, but I ran out of magnets, so I was only able to make 10 jars.

These took a bit of time, but very little skill. 

Obviously.  

I just collected baby food jars, rinsed them out, and pulled off as much of the label that I could. Then I popped them in the dishwasher (the lids, too). I didn't worry about the sticky spot left over since it would be covered by the paper/cardstock I wrapped around the jar.

I had some nice powerful magnets. I got mine from some store on ebay. 

To eliminate any need to coordinate colors on my part, I used the DCWV Latte Mat Stack, with its coordinating solid mat stack to decorate the jars. I had bought them a long time ago when I was on my paper kick. It was fun to be able to use them for something besides eye candy!

I Mod Podged 1" strips of paper around the jar. The Mat Stacks I had were 8x8, and I found that a 1"x 8" strip is the perfect size to wrap around standard baby food jars. I Mod Podged them to the jars, and then covered the strip in Mod Podge, too, to give it a nice finished sheen and to make sure the end of the strip wouldn't ever start peeling up. 

I made the labels out of two circular pieces of paper. I used a half dollar for my big circles, and a quarter for the cream colored circles. Hi-tech, I know. I wrote the names of the spices on the cream circles and let them dry for a bit, just to ensure they wouldn't bleed at all when I put Mod Podge over the top. I the glued the big circle to the bottom and let it dry a bit. Then I covered it in Mod Podge and put the cream circle on it, let it dry, and then covered the whole thing in Mod Podge again. 

Now for the magnets. The ones I had were smaller, so I used two on each jar. Kirby is a genius and pointed out that if I just hot glued the magnets straight to the lid, they might not end up being level, which would make the magnetic bond with the fridge weaker, and could even cause the magnets to pull free from the lid. So we got out an old card table and I stuck the magnets to it, put hot glue blobs on those, and actually set the lid (with the jar attached) on top of the magnets. That way, when the glue hardened, the magnets would be perfectly even. Worked like a charm. That wouldn't be an issue if you had magnets with a nice big radius, though. I reinforced the magnet by putting a ring of hot glue around the edge of the magnet. 

Whew! That's quite an explanation for a project that requires little skill!

So far I am loving it. It's SO easy to find the spices I need. No more rummaging around like a mad woman. Plus--my fridge is right next to our stove, so it is the most convenient spot to keep them!

I LOVE being able to see the colors and textures of the different spices through the glass. 

Yes. I am a texture junkie.

This is the less-than-creative way I'll have to keep them most of the time, or the cupboard can't open all the way.

It feels so great to finally have finished a project that's been on my to-do list for a while now.

Okay, so I'm wanting to make more so I guess I'm not technically FINISHED, but you get the idea...