I’m LOVING Sale-A-Bration this year! Because the Blendabilities Markers sets are included as free items, I now have ALL the colors. Yes! I’ve wanted to learn to use alcohol-based markers for years, and I bought a few random brand X ones at craft stores over the years, but I never had the colors I needed to color my stamps. Very frustrating… I finally gave away the ones I had to a friend who would use them. Stampin’Up! solved my dilemma, though, when they brought out the markers in their ink colors.

 

So you would think that I have been coloring every spare minute over the past  few weeks, right? Wrong… I keep thinking, “I need to get out those markers and play with them. Now where did I stash them when they came in?”

 

It’s a cliche that I’ve proven over and over throughout the years: out of sight out of mind. If I want to finish a project, I need to leave it out where it can call to me visually. Likewise, if I keep my paper and ink stored away, I am not very likely to be inspired to use it. For this reason, I keep the most current Designer Series Paper plainly labelled and stored on my desk where I can quickly pull it out.

 

Over the weekend, I decided to search out a way to have all the markers in plain sight on my desk. An Internet search revealed a number of options from a very pricey (but attractive) wood display box to plastic ones that would stretch over a good distance of my desk. Sigh.  Then I saw an image from a Anne Hayward’s craft blog of one made out of cardstock. What could be better than saving $$ and getting to make boxes?

 

To make the interior boxes, I used cardstock from a stash of 12×12 cardstock that I should have already given away since I’ve used Stampin’ Up! paper almost exclusively for several years. To strengthen the box, I reinforced the interior boxes by attaching a piece of cardboard to the bottom of each one. (I used the cardboard backing from last year’s Valentine DSP. (Yes, I’m one of those people who saves nearly everything. 32 years of teaching will do that to a person.) Then I decided to attach thin cardboard to the bottom, back, and sides of the assembled box and secured it by wrapping packing tape snugly around it. The decorative paper covering is from Under the Tree DSP. It is a nice neutral color that won’t show dust (wink) and is thicker than regular DSP. (BTW, this paper is on sale for less than half price while supplies last!)

 

What do you think?  I’m proud of the results myself. The box is strong enough to withstand being moved around and doesn’t look out of place next to my DSP stash.  If you haven’t found a way to keep your Blendabilites handy, visit Anne’s blog for the instructions. (She even has a PDF that you can download.)

 

Thanks for stopping by. I’m going to get back to my markers now. I stamped off the images from Giggle Greetings this morning to practice on. What fun!