Travel Spice Rack

I spend most of my 'free' time planning trips with Mr. Nunn or the grandkids (WCG's).  We often stay in rental or vacation condos, and I like to cook simple foods there.  I thought there must be a way to bring spices along so that I'm not relying on pre-made packets of spice mix or buying whole bottles for one or two uses.  I looked on the internet and found that there were some travel spice kits ranging from about $13 to $30.  So I looked it up on Pinterest and found this idea pinned from the Handy Hausfrau.  Simply decoupage little labels to the top of  a pill sorter.

I believe my first pill holder cost me $1 at Walmart.  It's pretty cute.  But I wasn't crazy about the assortment of spices I picked, even though they are often used in my cooking.  I had 2 forms of garlic and 2 forms of cayenne pepper.  And I wasn't crazy about this: You can see the letters denoting days of the week from the inside.

So I started over and it took me an hour, including  removing the letters and taking the pictures.  The longest part of this process is choosing what pictures to put on the labels.  Handy Hausfrau used vintage labels.  I found my girls on Etsy and borrowed them and gave them each a spice name.  I like the way the names corresponded pretty well with the spice or herb she covers.  It might be cute to use an iconic travel sight for each spice (Tower of Pisa for basil?)  Or your own family photos.  Here's how to do it:

1.  Remove the letters using fine steel wool.  I read on Pinterest that you can use rubbing alcohol, and that may have worked, but all I got was a dim pink spot on the cotton, and I knew it would take too long. HH used a nail file.  I tried that but it sure did rough up the plastic.  So I used steel wool and it turned out beautiful and smooth and was super fast!

You can see here where the red ink is stuck in grooves left by the nail file.

2. Measure your lids.  Mine were 1 1/8 x 1 3/8 inches.  I used Publisher to get the labels sized perfectly.

3.  Use a font that is easy to see when very tiny.  I ended up using Bradley Hand.  

4.  I tried 2 printing options.  The first time I used regular office paper and that worked out fine.  The pictures were a little dull looking though.  I had to tell my printer not to "photo fix" which means duller colors.  The second time I didn't 'photo fix' and I used matte photo paper.  They turned out much more vibrant, but the paper bubbled a little and that's annoying!

The top row is on regular paper.  The bottom row is on photo paper.

My final project.

Here are the labels I made....