Spicy AND Crafty

When I decided to re-organize my spices, I discovered I had already started without knowing it.  My marash pepper and my star anise were in 125 ml mason jars and I found the wide openings quite handy.  When the idea to paint the lids with blackboard paint turned up on Pinterest, I knew I'd found the perfect plan. I added the link to my board titled "Things I'd love to make but probably won't".  Looks like I was wrong!

The first step was to head to our local Michael's store which I did with a bit of trepidation.  One person had told me they spent $24 on a small container of blackboard paint and I was trying to keep the cost down.  The only blackboard paint they had was spray paint, which seemed like a great way to paint my lids and it cost a mere $12.99.  I had eight jars left from the peach marmalade I made last year but I needed a couple of dozen all together.  I headed to Superstore for more but discovered that mason jars are a seasonal item so I'll have to finish my project once the strawberries are ripe.  

Back at home I discovered my daughter had conveniently left her drop cloth on the back deck so I laid out the lids and sprayed them with two coats of paint.  Of course while I was waiting for the paint to dry, I discovered a blog that shows how to make blackboard paint.  

Whit and Whistle used white chalk to label the jars, but with the way things get moved around and piled on top of each other I thought the chalk might get smeared or rubbed off all together.  It probably makes it easy to re-label if you stop using a particular spice, but with all the tomatoes I can, I have lots of extra lids around that I save for things that don't need to be hermetically sealed.  When I was in Michael's I discovered  Sharpie Paint Markers and decided to try one of them.  I think they work quite nicely. You might wonder why I didn't just buy a bottle of black acrylic paint at the dollar store if I wasn't going to use chalk.  I did try that and discovered it doesn't give the nice finish that the blackboard paint does.

The last step is to put them in the kitchen drawer, right under the counter where I do most of my prep for cooking, not where they used to be, in the drawer beside the stove where they can get heated up and lose their powers. One thing seems to lead to another and from the look of this picture, I need to paint the inside of my kitchen drawers, but that's a project for another day.