It feels great to have everything in order, especially at tax time. Some of the most difficult things to keep up with are all of those receipts. The easiest thing I've found to keep your receipts in one place is a receipt stick. You can go to any office supply store and pay from $10 to $25 for a receipt holder, or you can make this one with leftover items that would go into the trash for absolutely free. The choice is yours.
Instructions
1. Start with the largest lid. This lid should be 3 inches across or larger, and it needs to be one-third to one-half inch deep. Wash it thoroughly, and make sure it's clean and dry. Scuff it up real well on the outside and around the inside and outside of the sides. Don't worry about the inside bottom as that won't show at all. Place the lid face down on the piece of old scrap wood. Poke a nail hole through the center of the lid. Don't make the hole without the wood as it will prevent the top from laying flat, and it needs to do that in order to work.
2. Cover the end of your hammer with a piece of thick fabric like a towel. This will prevent the hammer from marking up the lids. If the nail hole makes either lid a little uneven, turn it upside down on the scrap wood, and gently tap it with the hammer until it's flat. Be careful not to ding it up with the hammer. Use a very gentle touch. Make sure that they're as flat as you can get them.
3. Put the two jar lids face up on a piece of newspaper. Spray the sides and top with spray enamel or flat black metal paint, holding the can about 6 inches away. Spray lightly and evenly. Let it dry according to the directions on the can. Take your sandpaper, and lightly sand the lip of the edge. Turn the lids upside down, and spray the inside sides very lightly. Let this dry. If you missed any spots, put a second, very light coat on evenly, and let it dry again. Don't repaint over wet paint. Always let it dry in between as it sometimes covers better than it looks like it did after it dried. Also, it's very easy to get too much paint and make a drippy mess if you don't let it dry between coats.
4. Lay the small lid down, and fill it up with some modeling clay. Don't push it in too tightly because the nail has to go through that. This gives it weight to stand properly. If you want to use sand, put a small piece of scotch tape over the nail hole (on the inside so you won't mess up the paint). Fill the smaller lid almost to the top with sand. Just leave a little bit of space in the lid so that the nail will have enough space to slide through. If you use the sand, put the larger lid on top of it and flip it over. Take a little bit of white glue, and put a bead of glue evenly around the lid so that the sand can't escape, and let it dry well. Modeling clay is much less trouble, though.
5. Take the filled lids, and slide them onto the nail so that the nail is on the bottom of both lids. It should slide through with a little pushing. It has to go through the scotch tape and then the sand or clay. You can file the sharpness of the nail down a little bit if you have kids but it's smarter to leave this up high out of reach, like on the fridge, if there are little ones around. Your spindle is all done, and it looks just about as professional as those at the office supply store.
Tags: nail hole, office supply, office supply store, scotch tape, scrap wood
