Hey Ya’ll! Been missin’ me yet?  Me too!    🙂

I’ve been really busy working on new art ideas. I am an artist and also quite crafty.    😉    I have been working more with my paints recently. In my artist world I came upon a fantastic little quart (or so) bottle with gesso. The art store I bought it from bought these jugs and filled them with gesso. That way a customer could come back in for refills of gesso! Clever! In my own starving artist need I decided to just buy a gallon of “Kilz” style primer and fill the jug myself. After many, many times of use this jug would build up the primer on the screw rings and lid thus becoming nearly impossible to open!

I’ve had the jug long enough that the lid attachment finally broke. Can you see what I mean about the buildup?  Well, recently I had an epiphany. Honestly, I get tired of scraping that stuff off the rings with a sharp knife. AND I really don’t know why I’ve never thought to do this before!  I use plastic shopping bags all the time under my artwork while I’m painting or gluing. Much less expensive than wax paper!

Now I want you to know I’ve seen people do similar with gallons of house paint and such. It just never dawned on me to do the same thing on the smaller paint bottles and jars! AND this is MUCH less expensive than saran wrap too! Looky here:

I simply cut a piece of plastic shopping bag big enough to fit plenty over the opening. Since I already use the bags for everything else I figure why not this?  TADA!!  It works!

It works like a dream! Each time I open the jug, I like to pick up the “gesso” that’s on the plastic cover with my paintbrush so as not to waste any.   Yep, I can be overly frugal sometimes. However, frugality is not necessarily needed with making plastic covers for the paint bottles. Just throw the cover away after opening and apply a new one each time. With the shopping bags being abundant in the USA it’s quite easy to acquire a pile of them in just one trip to the store! I’ve since cut numerous squares of plastic to use on this jug. Just clip with a clothespin or small binder clip and stash in your art box.   🙂

I hope my little light bulb moment helps you too! Have fun being creative. I definitely do!

Until next time ~ Enjoy!

Bonnie