DIY Craft Measuring & Mixing Kit

While getting ready to work with some Shapecrete for our Cheng Concrete Build Night , I dug a plastic 1 gallon jug out of the recycle bin and started rinsing it out, the usual 3 fill and dumps to rinse thoroughly. While on the 2nd fill, it occurred to me that I'd need some additional measuring and mixing resources, too. As there's no better time than before you begin a project to collect all the resources you'll need to do it, and because, as we all know, one project almost always leads to another - I ended up making up a nice Craft Mixing & Measuring Kit that I think will come in handy for many things, and save my kitchen measuring and mixing tools from further demise.

You'll need:

• At least a 1 gallon plastic jug
• A couple or three plastic drinking cups (they come in handy for many things! See also InstaCool Cup and DIY Nightshade )
• Measuring Cups
• Scissors
• Sharpie

Fill and empty three times - at least that's the old rule of thumb I learned working at a photo lab right out of high school. It's stuck with me ever since and does seem to to do the trick.

Cut the jug up as high as possible near the handle.

Remove the label on the jug, keep the cap on the top and now you also have a scoop - or a urine collection device, whichever you need. Hopefully you'll stick to a scoop for your craft needs.

Now you can measure off your plastic tub, so you'll be able to properly mix whatever it is you're mixing - from sand to clay to concrete mix or paints and washes.

Start by filling up your jug with water and then pour that into a big measuring cup to learn the actual volume of your container. This one filled up to a bit over 8 cups. So I poured out that extra bit, and poured exactly 8 cups into my container and marked the fill line with a Sharpie.

I wanted my container marked in two cup measures, so I poured off two cups of water, and then marked accordingly. You could also mark off by single cup measures, and increments of that, if so inclined.

Use the flashlight if it's hard to see where the water level is.

To make a smaller wet measuring cup, do the same thing with the small drinking cups: Fill, then empty by a half or quarter cup as desired, and mark accordingly.

Dry and wet measures are slightly different, and while sometimes it won't make any difference to your craft project, sometimes it may. So I made a dry measuring cup by filling a standard kitchen measuring cup with sugar, dumping it into another cup and marking the fill line.

Then I removed a half cup of sugar, and marked that line.

There you have it! A nice DIY Craft Measuring and Mixing Kit that you don't have to worry about ruining (because you can make a new one anytime!) and that's easy to use and clean. I also cut down another plastic drinking cup for a small mixing container, for things like glue or paint.

It's also all stores together nicely. Add some wooden chopsticks for stirring sticks, stack it all up for easy storage or easy transport. Even with the chopsticks, it all fits inside the container, too, with the scoop inverted over the top, easy peasy!

Now go mix something up and make something cool!