Saturday 26 September 2009

Promarker Storage.

One of my fabulous team-mates at Passion for Promarkers, Ida sent us a link to Camilla's fantastic money saving idea for Promarker storage. Those of you who know me well, know that I have been trying to find a cheap and effective way to store my promarkers. When I only had the 92 pens, they were easy enough to store in little galvanised planters that I'd bought in Asda, but with the addition of the 56 new colours, the planters were threatening to take over my desk.

I love Camilla's idea, and it got me thinking. I would have to travel to Edinburgh or Glasgow for our nearest IKEA, and lets face it, I'm not gonna travel all that distance and just come home with a DVD rack costing under a tenner am I?? 
So, I'm on a bit of a budget with it being close to the end of the month and the fact that we've forked out for a plasterer AND a new puppy this month, so this is what I came up with...

This unit stands approximately 34cm (roughly 13.5 inches) high, 20.5cm (8 inches) wide and 15cm (6 inches) deep so it takes up minimal space while still giving you quick and easy access to the pens. This is the thing that really put me off buying the Letraset wallets - the fact that I would have to buy umpteen of them, unzip them every time I wanted to use the pens etc etc.



 This second pic gives you a better idea of the size, that's a 30cm/12" ruler next to it.


 So this was how I spent part of Friday afternoon. And this is how I made it...
I bought 2 sets of stacking DVD/PS2/Wii/game storage trays from dvdstoragetrays shop on eBay  plus I used 7 empty DVD cases - I used the ones without the DVD tray part (you know the bit inside the case that holds the DVD in place) that I purchase from Jetcase to store my unmounted stamps.
Anyway, I cut the spine from each of the DVD cases which gave me 14 shelves. So I assembled the storage trays, inserted my shelves and then got to work adding the coloured sticky dots to the ends of all 148 promarkers - ugh!!

The rest of Friday afternoon was spent at Tiger Tiger in Aberdeen, the reason being I was a finalist in a competition that one of the local radio stations, Original FM, was running for a long weekend in New York. Unfortunately I was knocked out in the 2nd last round, but hey-ho, it means I won't miss the kids parents nights, or Willow's consultant appt, or have to cancel my bodyshop party. 



8 comments:

DawnMarie said...

Oh you are offy clever Mrs, currently my promarkers/copics are stored in pen pots so I know what you mean about them taking over your desk. Bad luck on the competition, I've been lucky enough to have been to New York, you will get there one day I'm sure. Oooh a bodyshop party eh, I worked for them for 10 years and did'nt know they did parties. Have a great weekend. Hugs Dawn Marie.xx

Kath Stewart said...

clever debz and I bet you are one happy bunny now you have sorted out your storage.....great idea...big hugs kath xxxxx

Jenny S. (UK) said...

Fabulous, thanks for sharing. I too didn't want to travel just for a small purchase. Have checked out eBay and they are on their way. Such a very clever idea.

Diane said...

Brilliant idea!!!

Anonymous said...

What a very good and cheap solution for all of us promarker lovers. I was thinking about the cases esp for them, but they are too expensive and bulky. This is fabulous. I'm going to have a look at where you got them and order some tomorrow, otherwise I will spend all my money at the SECC next month. xx Doreen

Jean Buchan said...

I just found your site while looking for ideas for Promarker storage. What a great idea! I will be following your great example. I'm also going to take time to look at your tutorials. I too live on the North East coast of Aberdeenshire, but a bit further north than you, beside Fraserburgh.

Anonymous said...

hi debbi iv just found your site for the promarkers storage and was wondering if theres any way you can email me the right couler pattern for promarkers im going give the storge thing a go so i can store the samll amout pens i have for now befor it gets to big for my wee craft shed...hpe to here soon..email me at handygift@live.co.uk ..im from falkirk in scotland go the scots....lol

Anonymous said...

Hi Debbie, I am fairly new to Promarkers but I have found they seem to procreate and I now have too many for my meagre Letraset wallet, so finding your blog was brilliant! Thank you for the great idea, I reckon I can just about squeeze a dvd unit in my wee crafting area in the spare room! I'm going to email you to ask if you could send me the chart you use for the "shelves" I'm already out the door to buy some white sticky dots to mark all my pens :-)
Karen x

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