A Really Useful way to store you Promarkers

I've been looking for the prefect storage for my growing collection of Promarker Pens for a while now. I initially had them in a set of small drawers from Poundland but my collection soon outgrew them and I wanted a more organised way of storing them. A friend showed me this solution for Copics & I decided to adapt it for my Promarkers. This is the result:

Several people have asked me for instructions so here goes.

You will need:

1 - Koi Carp Filter Grid.
       - this comes in 16" x 27" sheets & can be found on Ebay

       - one sheet is enough to make one storage box (2 sheets gives enough for 3 storage
         boxes)
       - You can get it in either square or diamond cut. There's very little difference in how
          many pens you can house. I used the diamond cut.

2 - 9l Really Useful Box - this will hold the Promarkers nicely. If you want to put the lid on 

      to transport your Promarkers buy the 9XL Really Useful Box as this has a taller lid.

3 - Marker Pen 

4 - Snips from the tool box

5 - Stanley Knife

• Line the koi filter grid on top of your RUB & with a marker pen mark where you need to cut.

• Use your snips to cut the grid where you've marked. Remember it's better to cut it slightly too big then trim it down later rather than cut it too small.

• Use your stanley knife to trim it exactly to size. Check it as you go. I cut mine as a snug fit so it holds itself in place in the box without the need for fixings. If yours doesn't fit snuggly you could always use silicone or similar to hold it in place.

• Repeat to make the second layer of the grid making sure the holes in the grid match up to the holes in the first piece so the Promarkers will sit straight.

• Put the first layer of grid into the Really Useful Box & push it down until it's about 1 inch from the bottom. Make sure it's level.

• Add the second layer pushing it in about an inch from the top of the box.

• Add your Promarkers & you're good to go

The exact number of pens you can fit in will depend on where you cut the grid. On the first one I made I left the black edging attached which was nice and easy but I realised it took up an extra row that I could be filling with pens so when I remade it I cut the edging off & was also careful where I made the cuts on the top & bottom too. It's only a small difference but might be important to you. 

With the Black Edging attached                                                    Trimmed on all sides

I've created blank grids for both versions and a layout guide for the version without the black edges. 

You can download them from the links below, print them & colour them in so you have a reference guide.

Promarker Storage Layout

Blank Promarker Storage Layout

Blank Promarker Storage Layout (for grids with the black edging left on)

Hope you find it useful

Lucy x

My stickles storage solution

You know how satisfying it is to have a craft space and have all the matching things in one perfectly placed spot, well within reach of the crafting hand? Don't deny it, I know I'm not the only one!

Anyway, I have been in a never ending process of sorting out all of my crafty goodies but still keeping them at arms length. You know that you use more when you can get to them easy. I have a few essentials that I just can't put away as I use them so often so they are pretty much always cluttering up my desk. I tend to use glossy accents on practically very project and if I use any glitter I find stickles so much easier. So I decided to have a look (on Pinterest of course) for a solution to store my stickles and I found this post:

So I decided to make it. It looked easy enough.

Since I am not in the states anymore I found it a little more difficult than usual finding the acrylic stand. You can get it from almost anywhere in the states but here I had to do some searching to find a cost effective solution. I first went to staples but they has only one option, and that was expensive. They did however have mini versions so if you don't have as many stickles you could always do one of those! Well, I finally found one in Rymans, for around £4. So much better cost wise. Then I just got some cheap sticky Velcro from wilkinsons and went to work!!

The plan was to lay my strips across the board which took a bit of fiddling because rather than measuring (who measures???) I laid the strip across, cut the length I wanted and used that to measure the rest of them. Then I placed one of the bottles on the board at about the location I wanted it to sit and stuck down my Velcro strip. To help me place it straight, I used my cutting mat and grid to line it up. I then proceeded to repeat these steps until the board had all the strips I needed.

Once I had placed all of my strips onto the acrylic board, I then cut squares of the attaching side and stuck them one at a time to the frame. I peeled off the sticky bit and then stuck my stickles bottle onto that with the label facing outward at the height I wanted. For the next one I did he same but I lined it up with the one next to it so I could be sure that each bottle had the Velcro stuck in the same spot and would be even and straight all the way across.

I purposefully kept the gap between my top strip and the second strip a bit closer together as I wanted to be able to attach my larger bottles of glossy and/or crackle accents as well. 

As you can see, I don't have nearly as large of a collection of stickles as the person from the inspiration photo but at least I have room for more! With this being an acrylic frame you can leave it as is, with nothing inside and looking like the stickles are floating....

....or you can add any decorative papers you may have in your stash. You finally have a use for some of those pretty papers that you buy and are too pretty to cut up! Yes, I know your type!

 

 

 Now, this doesn't necessarily have to be used for stickles. You could also use it to store your foam distressing pads like I've shown below! Think outside the box and you can come up with anything!!

 

Go easy on me as I've only written one tutorial ever before. I hope you enjoyed (and benefited) from this tutorial!  

 

Have a crafty day!

~Sam.~