This is the first of an occasional ‘Hints & Tips’ series and I thought I would kick off with something seasonal.
First and foremost, today’s ‘Tip’ is the perfect excuse to treat yourself to some chocolates; every year before Christmas Nestle release their After Eights Christmas gift tin. The gift tin contains two regular boxes of After Eights which never seem to last very long so my advice is buy at least two gift tins, and two more as a back-up/emergency gift for someone.
For me this started last year when I saw the gift tins on offer in the local supermarket and I bought one and over Christmas, all the mints magically disappeared, and I was left with an empty tin which I put to one side full of good intentions about finding a use for it.
Needless to say, it just sat there and one day after New Year the ink orders started to roll in and very soon, I had a small pile of bottles (mostly Diamine) balanced precariously on the edge of the desk. So, without thinking about it I grabbed the tin and started to put the bottles in the tin and found they are a perfect fit; the picture below has a mixture of Diamine and Berlin Notebook inks, on average the tin will hold four boxed bottles of Diamine or similar.
I recommend keeping the inks in their boxes as this helps to stabilise them particularly when you are transporting them, and I also added a small wedge of cardboard to fill the gap at one end of the tin to stop them moving.
Over the last year I have used this tin to transport inks without any problems, I kept the tin as upright as possible at the bottom of by bag and this seemed to work.
One final thought, Christmas is just around the corner so the tins will not be around for long so buy them while you can.
Disclaimer: All of the After Eights were purchased with my own funds at retail price and I am unable to explain how they came to disappear; my money is on elves.
The opinions expressed in this article are my own; and I am not connected with either the retailers or manufacturers in any way.
The Indian Marmalade Company 