I do a lot of hand projects, from art to electronics. All of these require tools, and some of these tools cost a lot of money. This one, however, does not. My latest and greatest 'tool' in my shed is this large plastic bag that was on the bottom of a mattress that was recently delivered to my building. When I took a closer look at the tossed-away protective sheet, I noted it was a light, but tough plastic weave, very similar to Ikea shopping bags. It looked waterproof and strong.

I set it aside while I tried to imagine new uses for it. As I was working on my new bookbinding project, I needed to apply spray mount to a bunch of small pieces of cardboard and paper, but didn't want to leave a huge mess of spray mount everywhere, nor did I happened to have lots of newspaper to lay out and protect any surfaces from wayward spray mount. This huge plastic bag sprang to mind. I pulled it out, and quickly laid it out on my desk with the opening facing me.

Here I have it setup on my desk as a quick spray mount booth, using my arm lamp to hold the front of the bag open.

Plenty of room to work, plus it keeps all the runoff in the bag (so to speak). When I'm finished, I can simply fold it up and put it away until next use. The spray mount leftovers are never enough to 'seal' the bag shut (but it is sticky in there).

Folded Away for Next Use