Living with two race car drivers/fans means that I tend to think a lot about cars. So what would be more perfect than a race-themed picnic for Father’s Day.

I started with a clean, new toolbox as my picnic basket and filled it with all kinds of picnic goodies.

The tablecloth is two yards of checkered fabric.

I included a vintage Thermos bottle with matching red, plastic food box that I filled with sandwiches.

I packed individual desserts made of fresh red strawberries, vanilla yoghurt and blueberries for a patriotic flair. I tied a spoon to the bottle using red tuille netting.

For the silverware, I used the Tim Holtz, Tire Tread stamp to create the napkin rings. I used permanent black ink to stamp on remnants of painter’s tarp then unraveled the edges a bit. I wrapped this around the rolled red napkin and attached a vintage red button.

For the racetrack themed centerpiece, I used a glass floral frog as the base and inserted dowels with race flags. You can make a game out of guessing what each flag means.

Because a regular ice chest just would have been too expected for this picnic, I decided to use this old galvanized floral bucket filled with ice to keep the drinks cold.

What a fun surprise for any father to find a picnic packed inside a tool box. This is really “Thinking outside the box”.

Happy Father’s Day!