12 x 12 storage and magazine rack.

Hi all, really quick post to show the easiest 12 x 12 project there is.....a wooden pallet rack that can take 12 x 12's and magazines, or indeed anything you crafty lot hoard these days. (Yes i know what a craft room gets like!).

So we have our humble wooden pallet....doesn't matter if some of it is beat up like this one, you're only using an end of it...

Cut off an end that is two slats thick, you can do three if you want but it's a little too deep to get the paper out....

Either leave it like that and give it a sand, or give it a little wavy effect with a jigsaw, i also carved a few notches around the edge and used a hole saw too as i like the way the colours show through from the papers and mags....like i say though, give it all a sand otherwise you WILL get splinters off of these rough pallets...

Once thats done, give it a lick of paint, and hey presto.....one quick and easy storage idea...

I fogot to say, i have'nt done it here, but don't forget to put some sort of base on the bottom, otherwise your papers will fall through....i didn't bother here as i wanted to blog it quick.

Of course you can fancy this up as much as you want, stamp on it, paint on it, do whatever you want. If it's too rough a project too have in your craft room, maybe use it in the garden or shed.

Just an idea.

Hope it gives you some ideas.....take care,

Calv.

Welcome....to "Inky Cottage".

Hi everyone....over the past week I've been working on a project i have been meaning to do for ages. Storage for my mini ink pads.

I usually have them lying around, or shoved in a basket where i can't see them properly, so i did what any good crafter would have done.....gave them a home. Not just any home though, i gave them Inky Cottage! :)

I wouldn't mind living there myself! Inky Cottage was made with the stunning TwiddlyBitz Chipboard - Christmas Advent House Kit from Karen at Charmed Cards and Crafts. Thank you Karen :)

As soon as i saw this kit in Karens shop, i knew it would be great for storage. As you can see, as well as it accommodating the eye shaped ink pads perfectly, my Twinkling H20's were having a sleepover too!

I did this in crackle paint, then brushed randomly with Distress Ink to dirty it up a bit. I wanted to get the feel of a lovely cottage that you might stumble upon deep in the woods. That's why i added the bits of twig on the roof to look like there were roots and ivy growing over it.

There are so many uses for this, i tried some of my smaller wood mounted stamps and they fit lovely in there as well. You could make boxes for each hole, and fill them with crafty stash, brads, buttons etc.

I reckon it will look quite nice up on my scrap room wall....what do you think?

Thanks for looking. :)

Easy way to display your makes.

Hi everyone :)

Quick post tonight, or should i say this morning! The clocks have gone back here in the UK, so we get an extra hour asleep or so they say, however as i sleep about as well as a.....well something that doesn't sleep very well, so i guess that means another hours crafting! :)

I am having trouble finding places to display some of the makes that i keep. So tonight i knocked up this super easy hanging storage for them. (I've led it down to photograph as i haven't decided where to hang it yet).....



How much easier can storage get eh? Just a few wooden clothes pegs, stamped on with black archival ink using a stamp of your choice (i used a large journey stamp with lots of postage marks and writing on), then thread some string or nylon cord through the metal spring like i have done.....



I am going to leave my pegs as they are, but you can colour them as you wish. Here i used red pepper alcohol ink to give it some colour....just be careful not to ink the inside where the peg grips your make, it could leave a mark.



The great thing about this, is that you can hang them anywhere. Under existing shelves between the brackets, across doors and windows, wherever you feel like it.

It's only a very simple idea, but the pegs have potential to be artified up to the max if you wish.

Another great hanging display option are these lovely little wire hangers which i purchased from Jennie at The Artistic Stamper. There is also another style too which has a book plate on it for naming if you wish.

Ideal for giving a nice antique "arty" feel to your work.

I hope it proves useful to someone out there. Thanks, and Nite all. :)

10 minute storage project.

Ok heres a quick and easy storage idea for you to try if you're bored and have no place left to store your little bits like brads, eyelets and so on.

All you need is three things.....piece of wood, some nails or brass panel pins (they look nicer), and some small grip seal bags.

The pics here are self explanatory, but I'll run you through it after.....





Ok i know it looks basic, but it works, cost me nothing as i found the wood and nails in the shed, the grip seal bags are part of batch of thousands i got off eBay once. A lot of the things you'll see me make out of wood may look basic, but i tend to stumble across an obstacle, then go and knock up a crude solution to help me out. That basic model can be expanded upon and decorated however you want.

Ok, quick step by step....

1. Get your wood and sand it so the edged and surface are smooth. This bit just needed the edges doing. You sand it because this storage can be handled and moved if you wish, you don't want splinters before you start crafting.

2. Best way to get the bags to lie straight on the board, is to first lay your first two bags on the wood where you want the first row. Nail through the top of the bag, above the grip seal. Don't nail right the way through, leave enough nail out so you can double bags up if you want. Your first two bags are now hanging in place.

3. Leave them in place, and position a new bag underneath, leave a few millimetres or so space in between, and nail your next bag, and so on. By leaving the already nailed bags up, you can position the next bag more accurately.

4. You can now slip your bag back off the nail easily.

Very basic i know, but effective. What i like about this is....

a) You can make it as big or small as you want.
b) It's portable, so you can bring it to your work space if you wish rather than going back and forth to get different bags.
c) Due to the clear grip seal bags, you can see everything you have to play with. How many of you have stash hidden away and never used because you can't see it?

There is no limit to the adaptions you could make to this. Stick another row of nails halfway down the hanging bag if you wish, you will double the amount of bags you can hang off this, the top bag will just lay halfway over the lower bag.

Decoration is easy too. I left it bare just to show you quickly, but you can paint it, stamp on it as i did here with StaZon, screw it to the wall, put a cord on the top and hang it somewhere.....the choice is yours.

I just thought I'd show you something you could make in 10 minutes from a few bits in the shed.
Night all :)

Handy mobile paper storage idea.

At present i do not have anything to carry 12 x 12 papers in. If i go to a shop it was always a bit of a pain putting the papers into a plastic bag, especially if they were bought singularly. They could end up bent or damaged by rain due to our lovely weather here in England.

For a temporary measure though, my girlfriend Maddy gave me a spare laptop carry case that she had lying around. She suggested sticking a couple of bit's of mount board in it, and sandwiching the 12 x 12's between them. It works perfectly! Cheers Maddy x.



I use a backpack a lot, and i would dearly love to see a craft tote bag designed in backpack form. Something big enough to carry 12 x 12, but have all the storage compartments to house your crafty stash. This would also allow you to carry it hands free so you can carry the rest of the mountain of goodies.

I know there are tote bags already on the market, but to be honest none of them appeal to me. I would like something a little more manly than pink or lilac please, and if brown has to be the only colour tote bag designers can come up with, could they please make it just a tiny bit funky?

Before anyone mentions the camofladge options, i spent enough years wearing the stuff to stop my backside getting shot off in the forces, so i'd rather not go down that avenue of fashion thanks. :) (Yes i know, i'm too fussy). Don't get me wrong, i can be the biggest girl at times when it comes to colours and crafty items, but just once i'd love to see something that a guy would'nt be embarrassed going to a craft workshop with!

Something like this.....


...but with crafty storage and wide enough for 12 x 12's.

Another handy storage container i use a lot, is the plastic cases from the Ferrero Rocher chocolates. It's the box with 16 chocolates inside, unfortunately though.....and i know this will really put a dampener on the idea....you have to eat the choccies first!!! :))))))



Being perfectly clear, they are great for storing bits in. I use them for tools, embellishments, i love the fact you can see everything inside them. Last night i discovered that they are a great fit for the Tim Holtz Distress Ink pads. Arrange them how you want, they can fit eight pads into each box.






I'm hopefully going to build some custom fit wooden storage for these this week, so I'll post some pics when it is done.

Wall mounted magazine rack/12 x 12 storage.

Heres a piccy of a magazine rack i made for my girlfriends craft room, she needed somewhere to store a few of her current crafty mags.



I would like to point out that i am not a carpenter in any way shape or form. I just measure the wood, and tack/screw/stick it together in more or less the shape i want it. What i'm saying is, most people out there could do this with a few tools. I bored loads of holes in the front not only as feature, but so the colours of the crafty mags would show through. It works sometimes. :)

This was a first effort so it wasn't perfect, you can adjust the measurements to fit 12 x 12 papers, all you need are two sides, a front and a back. I am making some more but with a nicer design to them, a bit of a curve here and there made with a jig-saw. The holes were made with a hole-saw, you can get them cheap at most hardware shops.



I used 3mm MDF board for this. Cheap and easy to work with. Make sure you glue it as well as screw it, those magazines and paper stacks can weigh a fair bit when they mount up.

Ribbon storage tip.

I've spent the last half an hour sorting out a ribbon jar that was hiding away at the end of the craft table. Jammed full of ribbons, so they were mostly out of sight and therefore, mostly unused.

However i recently saw a girl demonstrate a great ribbon storage tip on YouTube, all you need is a book ring and some paperclips or safety pins.





Now the few strands i had are hanging straight instead of crumpled in a jar, on show so i can see what i have......and it adds colour to my craft room.

Great cheap little tip!