While most people spend their February showing love and buying chocolates for Valentine's Day, others look at the month a little differently.
I remember when I first found out that February is "National Heart Month." A coworker had a heart attack a few years back and I was shocked. I knew she didn't necessarily eat healthy, and she worked a lot. She was a nurse and had a stressful job, but a heart attack??
I started doing research and found The American Heart Association. Their website had a lot of great facts on heart health, eating, and exercise. I even found out that President Lyndon B. Johnson proclaimed February as National Heart Month in 1963.
Fast forward to 2022, I am now at a high risk for heart disease or a heart attack due having diabetes. So many factors to think about, but where to start? Food.
According to the AHA website (heart.org), snacking is something that everyone does. Unfortunately, we are not always snacking on the most heart healthy snacks. AHA recommends eating seeds and nuts, roasted chick peas, as well as fruits such as apples, and pears.
I often have these snacks in my pantry but forget about them on my way out the door! So, I came up with a craft to keep my snacks organized while sitting out on the counter where I will remember to grab them! This is also a great craft for organizing the kids snacks, too!
Supplies:
-- Wooden Boxes (I used three for mine, but you could use more and stack them to make it taller. I got these from the local dollar store.)
-- Acrylic Paint (I used a vintage cream and black chalk paint.)
-- Tongue Depressors or Popsicle Sticks (You could also pass on these and use a single piece of wood or a paint stirring stick.)
-- Labels (You can use a label maker or buy chalkboard stickers. Then you can use chalk to write the name of the snack on each sticker.)
-- Sandpaper
-- Paint brushes or foam brushes
-- Wood cutting tool (I used handheld diagonal cutters to cut the tongue depressors.)
-- Glue (I used hot glue, but you could also use wood glue. Be sure to allow plenty of time for the wood glue to dry and always be careful when using a hot glue gun.)
First, you want to collect all your supplies. (Image 1)
Next, you will use the hot glue or wood glue to adhere your three wooden boxes together. Be sure to align them from the front of the boxes so that are all even. For the next step, you want to be very careful with any cutting tool that you select to cut the popsicle sticks, tongue depressors, or paint sticks. I used diagonal cutters (and a good amount of elbow grease) to cut the tongue depressors. Each tongue depressor will be approximately 3.5 inches long. I used three tongue depressors for each box. Once they were all cut, I glued the ends on the boxes with hot glue. Hot glue is best for this step because the tongue depressors need to set quickly.
I started on the bottom of the box and worked my way up so that it aligns along the bottom correctly. If you have any of the sticks that end up a little longer than your box, just use the sandpaper to even it up. (Image 2)
Now it is time to paint! Using your paint brushes or foam brushes, paint the inside and outside of your organizer. You will need to allow plenty of time for this to dry before going to the next step. You can also use a blow dryer to speed up the process. I decided to use chalk board black to paint the outside of my boxes. For the front part of the boxes, I used a 'dry brushing' technique. Dry brushing is a technique used with a dry brush and minimal amount of paint. I dry brushed the edges of the tongue depressors, so they had a 'worn' look. (Image 3)
Once all the paint dried, I used the sandpaper to sand some spots so that the white paint shows through. (Image 4)
Once everything had dried, I attached my sticker labels, and filled my organizer with snacks. (Images 5 and 6)
I also found a small wire basket to put on top of the organizer to hold fruit.
Happy crafting!