Tea tin tidying tutorial

If I haven’t mentioned it before, I am a tea junkie.  I must have my little pot in the morning before I can function.  It’s not so much about the caffeine as it is about forcing myself to slow down long enough to sip a pot’s worth of tea.  It just might be the only time of day that my brain isn’t going 80 mph.  Here’s the problem though:  we have VERY little storage in our kitchen, so all of my teas just sit on top of the refrigerator in some glass jars or in the paper packages I bought them in.  It’s not so attractive to look at, and when your space is small, I feel like the things that you must look at should be a little cuter simply because you have to look at them.  Here’s my solution:

Fabric Tea tins

Materials:

Small glass jars or tea tins

Pinking shears

Fabric scraps

Matte Mod Podge

Foam brush

Acrylic paints

Take a scrap of fabric and cut enough to wrap around one of the glass jars plus a little bit extra.  Use the pinking shears to cut along the bottom and top of the scrap.  Using the brush, paint a thin layer of ModPodge on the outside of the jar and attach the fabric, smoothing as you go around the jar.  When you get to where you started, fold over the raw edge (that’s why you cut a little extra) to finish the “seam.”**  You can add fabric to make the tops of the jars a little nicer, or you can paint them with acrylic paints.  Seal the paint with a couple layers of Mod Podge.  Fill the jars with your tea and enjoy how pretty they look the next time you make your morning cuppa.

**You could put some more Mod Podge over the fabric to make it nice and shiny, but note that it will make it feel a bit crunchy–you can sand some of this sensation off with fine grit sandpaper, but not all of it.

                                      Before

 

                                      After