Monday Make: Magnetic mustard!

Hi, did you have a great weekend? I hope so. Ours was good but mega-busy, my in-laws were up for a seed sale at Waddesdon Manor (my father-in-law has his own business as a heritage seed merchant, and Mr Cardigan works for the family company too. If you or someone you know is a gardener then check them out online and on Twitter). The weather was terrible on Saturday but beautiful on Sunday, ideal for getting outside and walking with the buggy in the lovely grounds of Waddesdon.

I wanted to share with you this quick little make that I did over the weekend. I love some of the classic designs that are still used in food packaging here in the UK. Some of them have barely changed from the Victorian originals. However, Mr Cardigan tends to get a little annoyed at the number of golden syrup tins and the like that clutter out home, so I am always on the lookout for ways to put my hoard to good use in the home. Useful and beautiful, that's the dream!

What you'll need.

All I did was to super glue these little magnets onto one side of this empty Coleman's Mustard Powder tin, wait for the glue to dry and voila! A handy magnetic container for your fridge or (in my case) boiler. I have used mine to store drawing pins for the pin board opposite, but it would also be a great place to keep a pen to go with my shopping list here.

The great thing is that you can use different sized tins (and more magnets and glue) depending on what you want to store. I have a beautiful Spanish paprika tin that I'm going to do this with, and it would also be great with those larger decorative tins of olive oil you can buy. This project really couldn't be simpler, quicker or cheaper to do, so do have a go yourself!

This said, I made a couple of mistakes which you can avoid... The main thing that I did wrong was to stick the magnets on the wrong way round (dur!). Only one side is magnetic so do check that the magnetic side is facing out before you glue them. If, like me, you stick the wrong side, I simply prised them off with a knife - be careful! - and glued them back the other way round. Since you don't see the magnet side it doesn't actually matter if the tin is chipped, its just a pain to change them. I also didn't put enough magnets to the back to start with, so the weight of the drawing pins meant the tin slid down the front of the boiler. Again, this is easy to fix, just stick on some more magnets until it holds in place!

I hope this little make inspires you to get sticking this week!


PS. I love this shopping list pad, we are now on our second. There is also a meal planner pad too which between them go a long way to helping me keep organised. Both are by Knock Knock and are available to buy on Amazon.