Tutorial of the Week: Organizing your Stickles, Perfect Pearls, alcohol inks, etc.

Good morning, everyone!  It feels like forever since I’ve written a blog post…2 weeks is close enough to forever, isn’t it?  Well, I had to scoot out of town to see family, and I am finally getting back into the swing of things… (I say as I sit here frantically typing away at my keyboard at midnight!!!)  But, alas…I do not want to disappoint…it is definitely time for another tutorial!  This week, I thought I would throw something a little different at you that we all love to do…organize our scrappy supplies, of course!  So, let’s talk Stickles, Perfect Pearls, alcohol inks and all the other little bottles of the like 🙂

I currently have all of my Stickles thrown in a plastic drawer (you know…those plastic towers of drawers…).  I do try to keep the drawer somewhat organized by adding a few chipboard dividers.  The same thing holds true for my Perfect Pearls and my alcohol inks.  Here’s the thing, though…I don’t like it 🙁  First off, it’s a pain to reach all the bottles way in the back of the drawer without removing the whole drawer from the tower that houses it.  Secondly, Stickles and Perfect Pearls really should be stored upside down.

So…what to do?  Well, I started by scouring the internet…and found some seriously awesome ideas while I was at it 🙂  Here’s what I found:

Purchase and Go

If you have a little extra money after spoiling yourself with the latest crafty products, or just want something that you can use straight out of the box so you can spend your time crafting instead of building organizing solutions, these solutions are for you!

Art Bin Glitter Glue Storage

If you are crafty, you’ve likely heard of Art Bin.  They have all sorts of different sized bins with inserts for organizing a ton of different crafty items…including this handy, dandy plastic organizer for all your Stickle needs 🙂  One of these puppies holds a whopping 64 bottles, all for under $20!

Creative Touch Dazzle Caddy

If you’re looking for something a little more portable, I found these pretty sweet little Dazzle Caddies from Creative Touch 🙂  Each caddy holds up to 10 bottles, but here’s the cool thing…each caddy has a clear lid that won’t fall off when traveling with it.  Creative Touch also sells a small zippered tote that will hold up to 4 caddies.

Quick Tip:  The 3-pack of these caddies is quite a bit cheaper at Scrapbook.com 😉

Stamp-n-Storage Stickles Storage

If you’ve never heard of Stamp-n-Storage, I’ll just say…”You’re welcome!”  These guys make storage solutions for your ink pads, markers, punches, and more…including Stickles 😉  They have 2 options for storing your Stickles…

1. a small 8″ x 4 ¾” x 13 ¼” cabinet that can sit on your desk or mount on the wall, and
2. a 9″ x 10 ¼” square tray that fits nicely in a drawer and has a small peg handle for easy holding.

The little cabinet has 4 removable shelves that each hold 8 bottles.  The drawer tray is quite a bit more compact and holds up to 45 bottles.

Acrylic Nail Polish Storage Tiers

All of the previous suggestions have been specifically made for Stickles storage, but that doesn’t mean that’s all that’s available for storing these little bottles.  Stampin with Faith suggests using those little acrylic tiers made for storing nail polish.  You can pick one of these babies up from your local dollar store (…I’ve seen them in mine, anyways).  They are a great inexpensive solution.  The only thing I’m not sure of is how well they would work for storing your Stickles upside-down.  If nothing else, they’d be great for your alcohol inks 🙂

Get Crafty and Make Your Own

If you’re looking to be a bit more creative, or are just on a tight budget, here are some ideas for all you do-it-yourselfers 🙂

Desktop Photo Frame

This is definitely one of the easiest and cheapest do-it-yourself Stickles storage solutions.  You’ve all seen those inexpensive clear photo frames, right?  Well, all you need is one (or more) of those (depending on how extensive your Stickles collection is), and a bit of Velcro.  Just add Velcro strips to to the frame and a small piece of Velcro to each of your Stickles bottles.

You can take this idea and modify it to produce a few variations, as well:

• Velcro the bottles to the bottom of a shelf
• Velcro the bottles to a wall instead of a picture frame (or just hang a frame on the wall to save the paint 😉 )
• Velcro the bottles to the lid of a shallow plastic container to make this solution portable.

Cookie Sheet Storage

This is very similar to the Velcro idea, but you won’t have to worry about any sticky glue residue from the Velcro strips if you plan to mount this under a cabinet or shelf.  All you do is screw a cookie sheet to the underside of a shelf and glue a magnet onto the bottom of each Stickles bottle.  This would work equally well on a wall, but I would put the magnet on the side of the bottle instead of the bottom.

PVC Couplings

Now, this next solution might just be my personal favorite…all you need is a bunch of PVC couplings and some glue!  The great thing about this idea is that:

1. it’s really inexpensive,
2. it’s really quick to make,
3. you can build it to whatever size you like and expand your storage as your collection grows, and
4. it can stand on your desk, in a drawer, or even packed into a plastic container to take to crops 🙂

Heidi Sargent created a great YouTube video right HERE giving you all the coupling sizes and instructions on how to put this together 🙂

Styrofoam Lazy Susan

If you want to get a little more extravagant, you can always create a Styrofoam insert to fit onto a lazy susan tray.  You will just have to drill holes to suit the Stickle bottle tops so they will stand in the Styrofoam.

Portable Lunchbox

For something really quick and super portable, just buy a small alterable lunchbox from your local Michaels and fill it with your Stickles.  The only caveat here…you’re going to need 35 bottles of Stickles to fill the box to keep them all standing up properly (unless you make some spiffy dividers from chipboard, but I’m not going there…that’s what I want to get away from 😛 )

This is, by no means, a complete list of every single idea ever realized by anyone on the planet, but I think it’s a pretty great list in any case.  I think there is a solution for everyone, whether you have a small fortune or just pennies to spare.  There are solutions that hang on the wall, fit in a drawer, sit on a shelf or hang within reach 🙂  I hope you find something that works for you!  Cheers!