From Christmas Tin to Travel Bin

I was cleaning out a cabinet the other day, and I found this tin that someone gave me full of cookies at Christmas.  Well, you know I can't just throw something like this away, so I put it on the counter and decided to use it to hold all kinds of fun stuff for Russ to use while we are in the car. 

I decided that I would paint it (so it didn't look so Christmas-y), and immediately I thought of the left-over chalkboard paint hiding in the back of the closet.  So, I took some sandpaper and buffed it to make the paint stick better, and then I grabbed the chalkboard paint and  painted the lid while Russ used craft paint on the rest of it (I can't paint without him).  I used the chalkboard paint on the inside and the outside of the lid. 

 

After the lid was painted, I thought it looked like a road, so I painted some yellow lines on it.  Then, I went digging through Russ' room and found a few little plastic cars we won in the arcade.  I took a strip of magnet, cut small pieces, and stuck them to the bottom of the cars.  Now, I had a racetrack with cars that would stick to the tin so they wouldn't fall off and get lost.

The only thing left to do was fill the little travel kit with fun stuff (including chalk, fruit snacks, pad and paper, etc.) and put it in our car.

I'm really happy with what we ended up with, and my son has really enjoyed having something new to play with in the car!!

(Wanted to say he doesn't have his seatbelt on because this was a staged pic in my driveway.  Notice the open door.  hehe)