repurposed fridge magnets

Have you ever had that stuff called "fridge poetry" on your fridge at home? I had it for years and years, providing much hilarity at parties particularly after everyone had had a few - especially since someone had gifted me with the smutty version of fridge poetry.

In the time period since I first acquired the fridge poetry, I have moved apartments... er... six or seven times due to either wanderlust or the inevitable discontentment that comes from being a tenant advocate who is also a tenant! (I prefer the wanderlust reason myself - it sounds far more sweeping and majestic than "this landlord is never going to fix anything, so I might as well just move").

The last time I moved (which was a happy move in that we were upgrading to acquire a 32 foot balcony plus a second bedroom which has become the stash/craft room, library, etc) I finally said to myself "Enough!! I'm not putting up this fridge poetry ANY MORE!!". However, hoarder little me could not bear to toss it out. It sat in a tupperware container for some time and then I decided to deal with it once and for all.

So - here's what I came up with, about a year and a half ago:

Warning: due to the smutty fridge poetry used in part in this piece, viewer discretion is strongly advised regarding the resulting subject matter! ;-) don't say I didn't warn you!



The Box That Dreams Are Made Of!!!

Detail Shot:

You will note that I made no real attempt at creating poetry and that for the most part the words were placed at random (I really wish I had saved all the great stuff people had "written" over the years. I started to then lost the scraps of paper I was using to write them down during some move or other).

Please note also the very pleasing "sepia" effect on part of the fridge poetry. Second hand smoke can be a wonderful dyeing medium, I've learned. Looking at this box "in person" I could actually tell you which of two sets of fridge poetry each individual magnet came from, based on how nicotine-stained it is.

Smoking is SO glamorous! (any Canadians here who remember that poster campaign back in the 80s with the really ugly photo of a person with about 100 lit cigarettes jammed in his/her mouth, surrounded by smoke? Peculiar that I took up smoking approximately 35 minutes after first seeing that poster at the high school - it stressed me out!).

But I digress. To make a lovely heirloom poet's box, simply glue fridge magnets onto an old shoebox. The lovely sepia effect could be accomplished as well without years of smoking - by painting the magnets once dried with contact cement, which will also produce an extra layer of adhesive.

And now it strikes me that I could have made my life much easier by using a metal box. Oh well. This will give me an excuse to try to find the petty cash box at the office, as I just remembered I have more fridge poetry in sepia/white, pink and lavender as well (the latter two being queer fridge poetry). "Really, I wasn't stealing the money... I just wanted the box to use for another craft".

Hmm.