ProMarker Storage

Welcome back!

Before we begin, I need to inform you that this project is NOT my original idea. This was an idea I saw on Karen Church's blog. She makes so many different things out of Foamboard!! When I saw the ProMarker storage she had made I instantly knew I wanted one just like it.

When it came to actually making it, I found I needed different measurements as my shelves are different to Karen's. I have the Billy bookcases from IKEA and had a shelf already set up for where theses were going to go. I did some measuring and some calculating, and Himself got used as my personal 'maths checker' to check that I was going to cut at the right sizes. I knew I only had one shot at this as I had a very limited amount of foamboard left over from some display boards I was making a few months ago.

So here's how I did it:

To make ONE storage rack measuring 13"H x 4½"W x 6"D cut the following pieces:

Side panels (Cut 2): 13" x 6"
Shelves (Cut 5): 4½" x 5½"
Top (Cut 1): 4½" x 6"
Back (Cut 1): 13" x 4½"

I found cutting these items was easiest with a quiltering grid ruler and a sharp craft knife. You also need a pencil for marking up.

(I also cut a little trim for the bottom, but didn't use it in the end!)

Mark up where your shelves will go on your two side panels. I spaced them about 2½" apart. I also offset the back to be ½" lower than the front so that the ProMarkers don't fall off the shelves. Leave a ½" gap at the back of the shelves so you can fit a back panel. I marked up my shelf groove using a piece of foam board to make sure how they would fit. You also need to mark up at the top of each panel so that the top piece can be fitted later. Make sure BEFORE YOU CUT, that the side panels MIRROR each other.

Now, here's the messy bit! Using scissors, craftknife, ruler, spoon, chisel or embossing tool cut and dig out the grooves for each shelf, stopping a ½" away from the back edge. It makes a bit of a mess, but it's well worth the effort! Make sure that you LEAVE THE OUTER SKIN of the foamboard intact! Don't forget to also 'dig out' for the top piece to be fitted.

Once each shelf  and the top slot is dug out it will look like this:

 See, I've put this piece upside down by mistake, but by a happy accident it lets you see what I mean by the 'top slot'!

 Now, add in your shelves. Karen said she used a Hot Glue gun, but that it something I don't possess so I just used my Tombow wet glue. It worked a treat with no problems or issues!

Next, I took the Back Panel and marked up on 3 sides the thickness of a piece of foamboard (about ¼"). Dig out the 3 marked sides using your preferred tool as you did for the shelves.

Now put all the external pieces together! First make sure the shelves are firmly glued into position on both side panels. Next glue in the top panel and follow it with the back panel. This is what the rear of the unit looks like once it's all glued.

 And here is the front elevation, with some markers in situ.

Here's the two I made sitting nicely inside the shelf area I had allocated for them. They leave enough space for my Stampin' Up! markers too. Now all I need to do is finish 'labelling' the colours on the end of the markers to make it easier to see which colour I'm pulling out!

I'm very pleased with the result, even though I was initially worried about my maths. Maths is definitely NOT my strong point at all and I was worried that I would mess up completely. Karen's measurements are quite a bit different because she had a different sized space for them to occupy and also because she made her storage for her Copic pens. In the end I think my maths wasn't too bad and I'm very happy with the result!

Feel free to make your own as long as you credit Karen with the original idea. I know a lot of people out there are looking for suitable storage for their markers and this is an ideal solution!! Let me know if you do make one ... I'd love to see pictures and know how you got on with the construction!!

See you soon!

WOYWW 25th April '12

Ooh wow, it's Wednesday again! I know I say it every week, but it really has gone fast hasn't it? It never ceases to amaze me how quickly the week goes!!

So, if you're here from Julia's WOYWW then take a pew, you've been here before and know what to do. While you're at it, put the kettle on and help yourself to a cuppa. If you've wandered in here from Shimelle's latest class, then Welcome! This is a Meme I take part in most Wednesdays where we share what's been on our workdesk each week. It's free to join and we'd love to see your desks too!! Jump in any time on a Wednesday (or sometimes even a Thursday if you're a little late!!) and show us what you've been up to.

Now, to my desk....

Remember this?

Well, I did warn you that it wouldn't stay like this for long!! Here's what it's like today...

Take a closer look...

Okay, it looks like things have been dumped and not much crafting has been done. Well, that's where you'd be wrong! I've been crafting up a storm and loving every minute of it.

The inkpads are what's left over from my last crafty project. Some swaps that I did for a training event I went to on the weekend. The returned swaps are in the ziploc baggy waiting to be found a permanent home. The Stampin' Up! carrier bag has got all the goodies that I got in training. We did loads of crafting and I still came home with loads of the kit left. So I shall be having a play later tonight once I've finished blogging.

You can also see the latest copy of 'Simply Homemade' magazine which I've just started subscribing to. The subscribers gift was a large number of Letraset ProMarkers, which I hadn't tried before. Suffice it to say, I'm addicted!! I've been buying them left, right and centre since I got the free ones. I love my Stampin' Up markers, but they work on a completely different technique and produce a completely different effect. I'm loving the difference and think both sets will complement each other nicely. So far, I've bought quite a few to add to my collection so I've had to make some storage for them. I'll post tomorrow to show you how I did it!!

The other thing you can see on my desk there is my new phone... er, tablet.... okay, I'll call it a 'phablet' then.  It's the new Samsung Galaxy Note and it's huge! It's also amazing, awesome and brilliant. Okay, so I'm just a gadget geek, but I really do love this phablet.... or should that be fablet?!

So, what have you been up to on your desk? Show us! Join in at Julia's and let us see. I'm off to Julia's now to add myself to the list and have a hop around some of the other desks. See you tomorrow when I post a mini 'tutorial' on how I made my ProMarker storage!! (I actually remembered to take photo's throughout, for once!)

See you soon!

WOYWW 11th April '12

Good morning! I can't believe it's Wednesday already, again. These seem to come by so quick now! My friends tell me it's a sign that I'm getting older.... one even told me that "Life is like a loo roll, the closer you get to the end the faster round it goes!". My days are numbered, I fear!!

Anyway, if you're here to see what's on my Workdesk... I'm afraid you might be a little disappointed. My workdesk hasn't seen any crafting in a week! There is a good reason though as you will see in a minute. First, lets have a reminder of my little space....

Hmmmm, yes, the less said about it the better. It's cramped, cluttered, got waaaaay too untidy waaaaay too quickly. There's not enough storage and the printer keeps getting in the way. OK, this photo doesn't really show it at it's best does it? Let's get a better picture instead.... how about this one?

Oooh! That's a bit better! It's clean, tidy and uncluttered. It's had a fresh coat of paint too (although none of the pictures I took really did the colour any justice.) The only problem is.... there's no craft stuff!! Himself and I will be using it purely as a computer desk from now on. My shelves in the alcove now store my filing instead of buckets of stamps etc.

So nice and clean and pretty! So, do you want to see where I'm working now?

Here's a sneaky peek...

Ooh I'm in a naughty teasing mood! Sorry.... here's a few more photo's.

This is the sight that now greets me when I walk in the door.

The anticipation of being able to sit here and craft is nearly killing me! I haven't been able to do any crafting yet because Himself and I only finished it very very late last night... or maybe I should say very very early this morning!

As lovely as the desk is, it's the shelves that really make me happy! I can have ALL my craft stuff accessible and I've still got some room to grow! Yay! These shelves fill up the whole of one wall, and I couldn't actually take a photo of them in one go...

The left side.... and....

The right hand side!!

As you can see there are still a few things I want to do in this room. We need another office chair for the 'computer' desk. A few items that have ended up on TOP of the shelves (thank you to Himself as I can't reach up there!) I shall have to ask him to get them down for me so I can find an alternative home for them. I also want to build/find some storage for my ProMarkers as they're currently dumped in that expanding blue bin on the shelves. I have another shelf to put up in the little alcove above the buttons, I need to build/find some way of storing my ribbon reels AND I need to make some curtains. I have some fabric in my stash I just need to sit down and do it. What's the betting that there's still no curtains/blinds in 6 months time?

So what do you think of the room? I was thinking about experimenting with a little video so I can show you around personally. I've never done that sort of thing before... shall I give it a go?

Fancy seeing some desks where *real* crafting has happened in the past week? Head over to Julia's blog and have a look at some other people's creations!

Meet Polly!

I have a new addition in our 'family'... Polly the Pocket Rocket!

Unfortunately PAT1 (as my Citroen Berlingo was known) was coming up for some very expensive repairs and what with finances being tight and already having to spend a fortune on hubby's car; part of which you can see in the picture; we decided that throwing more money at a car that was expensive to tax, insure, maintain and keep supplied in fuel was NOT something we wanted to do. I loved the space in my old car, but since weeself is now walking age and potty trained we don't really need the space to carry around pushchairs and changing bags like we used to. 

Polly is small and perfectly formed. She's a Vauxhall Agila and has a 1.2 Petrol engine. She has alloy wheels, aircon and tinted windows. She beautiful and I am in love with driving again for the first time in years!!

Anyway, I just thought you might sleep better knowing this information. LOL. 

PS. This weekend I'm starting 'Operation Craftroom'!! A trip to IKEA tomorrow and lots of painting and flat-pack assembly is on the cards for the long weekend! Pictures will follow once its all done. I promise!

Magic Stripe Blanket

I posted on Facebook last Sunday that I had finally finished the project I was working on. After 5 weeks of work it was finally done! Yay! Immediately, I had requests for pictures. I know! It's a week later and I finally got photo's done this morning!!

I must admit that I spent a whole week just looking at it, and stroking it. Everytime I did, I got that lovely happy feeling of seeing a project finished. Have you ever had that feeling? That slightly smug, puffed up, happy moment of joy? I love that feeling and I love seeing my hard work appreciated. So I was very happy to see that two girls rather enjoyed snuggling up under it this week too... even though we've had gorgeous weather that meant blankets weren't necessary. They still loved getting all cosy under their new blanket. It melts my heart, it really does. Especially when the weeself gave me a big hug and told me that I was 'the best Mummy EVER'. It makes 5 weeks worth of work well worth the effort.

So, I guess you want to see it too?

Ok, that's just a teaser... here's the whole thing on my sofa.

Doesn't it just look soooo inviting? It just makes you want to curl up on the sofa with a book or a good film!

The only problem is that I apparently need to make another one because these two little monsters aren't keen on sharing it!

I took the finished blanket to the Stitch'n'Bitch group on Tuesday and Karen took this picture which shows it  in all it's glory (excuse the awful picture of me looking fat and frumpy!)

To make this blanket I used approximately 800g of Double Knit yarn from my scraps basket and from an unfinished Granny Hexagon blanket that I didn't fancy finishing. Remember this one?

Yes, that crumpled, tatty attempt at a hexagon blanket at the bottom of the pile! Well, I undid the whole the thing and then rolled it into a ball. I added to it from the various left over balls of yarn that were in the bottom of my basket and, once the ball was big enough, I started hooking. A chain of 202 stitches first and then straight into Treble stitches (that's Double stitch for all you US peeps!). Each time the yarn changed colour I made sure that the knot was pushed through to the 'wrong' side and that the loose threads were stitched into the work as I went along. I don't think my sanity would have survived having to go back and stitch them in individually after the blanket was finished! To finish, I put a Half-Treble edging around all four sides and a scallop shell trim on either end.

I had planned on taking a couple of weeks break from crochet to concentrate on a Crosstitch project I started nearly 8 years ago. It has been boxed and shoved in to several garages in at least 5 different houses over the years and I finally hauled it out last week. I did manage to get *some* done before I made the fatal error of going in search of a yarn shop I'd heard about in Glasgow. Hmmm, they had some bargains on and I ended up walking out with a bagful of lovely colours. I managed to resist crocheting anything for, oooh, about an hour and a half... after which I gave in to the call of hookyness!! I love these colours, but I think one of them might be 'not quite right' so I might be taking it back to exchange it for something else. Can anyone guess which colour I'm returning??

A hearty 'Well Done' and a virtual pat on the back for anyone who can guess correctly!

Speak soon!!