Snack Bag Floss Keeper How-To

We all have our little troubles, the faucet that won't quite turn off, the wiper blade's on the car that just smears your windshield, the closet shelf that keeps toppling over. None are serious, and in fact we probably don't even think of them unless they're right there in front of us. That's what my floss keeper has been to me.  The thing is- I love it. There's nothing quite like it, it was my mother's from the '80's, and it's slowly been falling apart. Disaster! I use it everyday and it's been impossible to find a replacement. Granted I haven't looked everywhere, but I have looked. What I've found are trapper keeper type books with places for the floss, or little white cards to wrap the floss around and then clip together. I hate taking the time to wind those things and really just want to flip through the colors, grab my floss, snip some, jam it back into the bag, zip it shut, and be done. It's worked perfectly for me, alas.

The solution? If you can't buy it, make it. Easy enough to buy a pack of ziploc snack bags but punching the holes proved to be a problem. I've tried normal hole punches, I've tried my trusty crop-a-dile, I've tried poking, in each case the plastic just tore. I had to let it go- UNTIL I bought my new Cinch machine. The first day I got it, I gave it a whirl and it worked!!! So in honor of this triumph I thought I'd do a little how-to for you. In case you want to make your very own. ***
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Snack Bag Floss Keeper How-To

Tools and Material
Box of Snack size Zip Bags
Cinch machine
Scrap pieces of cardstock
Two round holders that clip shut

Step One: On your Cinch machine, pull out the #2  and #11 . The rest of the knobs should be pushed in, so that they don't punch. Then, place a piece of cardstock in the machine as shown.

Step Two: Select 3-4 snack bags and flip through them to make sure the corners are not folded in. Hold them together so their directly on top of each other.

Step Three: Place in Cinch machine atop of cardstock. Carefully place a second piece of scrap cardstock atop this pile.

Step Four: Lift up the top sheet and make sure that the snack bags are positioned correctly and that they are all the way back and flush against the Cinch.

Step Five: Then holding down on cardstock/bag stack with your left hand to keep it from shifting, pull down handle on Cinch.

Step Six: Pull bags out, and repeat with 4 more until desired number of bags have been punched. Tip: They will sometimes shift and the holes don't always punch evenly. Pull those bags you can't use out and stick them back into your snack box. As long as you're not putting liquids in them, they can still be used as snack bags. Clip bags together with circle clips.

Step Seven: Jam it full of floss and enjoy!!!!




***I wouldn't recommend you go buy a $80 machine just to make a floss keeper, however the Cinch does SO much more too. Stay tuned to this blog for future Cinch projects. :)