A girl, a box and a hot glue gun

Or, as I like to call it, Craft time with Alison.

I'm often bitten by the crafting bug. Especially when I want something new, but can't justify the expense. Somehow repurposing something makes it seem like I've gotten something new.

Sometimes my ideas work and sometimes they're a big dud.

And then all the money I poured into the supplies goes to waste, meaning I probably should have just bought what I wanted in the first place.

I try. But Martha I ain't.

When we lived in Georgia, I saved some boxes that individual bags of pretzels came in.

I used the boxes to organize things in my HUGE walk in pantry.

They were functional, a good size and shape, but not very pretty.

Let's be honest, unpretty things are of no use to me. ;)

Shortly before we packed up and moved here to Virginia and I was faced with the decision to throw the boxes away, I had a light bulb moment.

"I should cover them" I thought. But what should I use to cover them?

Something pretty, of course.

And durable.

And easily cleaned of fingerprints.

My first idea was contact paper, but I couldn't find any that was very attractive. Nothing spoke to me.

Wracking my brain and wandering the aisles at Wal Mart, I came across the wall paper section. I must admit, that for it's intended purpose, I'm not a huge fan of wall paper. It's too permanent. And often overwhelming. Flowers, stripes and country apples are all perfectly lovely, but not when they're covering every square inch of your walls. Psychedelic nightmares.

Despite my less than warm feelings for wall paper, I found a border that fit the bill. It was nice looking, kitcheny/food themed and cheap. Let's face it, as much as I like pretty, I like cheap even better.

I also purchased some coordinating ribbon to complete the look. That sentence sounded like it came from a women's magazine.

While I often feel crafty, I'm not always successful. My spirit is willing but patience level is low and my execution is often weak. Thankfully, this was a very simple task. I wrapped the boxes with wall paper border, securing it with my mini stapler and hot glued some ribbon all around the perimeter of the top edge.

Staples and hot glue speak my craft language. Simple...and easy enough for a first grader.

Well, maybe a second grader, because I'm remembering back to last month's 100th day of school poster. Caroline tried to operate the hot glue gun, got some on her finger, freaked out and then proceeded to wipe the hot glue on ME. Perhaps she'll graduate to hot glue proficiency next year. Or the next.

No pressure.

Here is the final result. I didn't take a before picture because I did these about nine months ago and I didn't have a blog then. Maintaining a blog inspires you to take pictures of all sorts of random things. I really did just start out with a box that said "Snyders of Hanover pretzels" or something to that effect.

I keep them in my (messy) tea/spice/catch all cabinet by the stove. I keep my pot holders in one, pens/tape/misc junk drawer type stuff in another and various kitcheny things that I seldom use in the others.

And this concludes Craft Time with Alison.

The neighborhood girls had Craft Time with Caroline this morning. I should have taken a picture of the mess that activity yielded. SCARY.

Last week I spent quite a bit of time scraping glue off the floor because they made houses out of popsicle sticks.

I wised up this morning and put down some newspaper for them to craft on.