More tips from my (diminishing) pile of post it notes LOL
- Use a see through, pocket organizer (used in closets to store gloves, shoes, purses, etc.) to store some of your art supplies. It holds a tremendous amount of “stuff”. You might be able to find one at a thrift store for just pennies, so check it out.
- Modular, hanging shoe/sweater organizers with shelves is another idea for storage, especially if you live in an apartment or have a minimum amount of space for storing art supplies.
- Re-purpose a counter top paper towel holder for ribbon, yarn, etc. Slide the spools of ribbon onto the dowel and voila you now have a counter top ribbon dispenser.
- If you are even just slightly handy with a sewing machine, make a fold up, portable organizer with zip lock bags and fabric. If you don’t want to go to the bother of cutting fabric, a ready made placement works great. Click here for a pattern and how to instructions.
- Got an old 3” school binder hanging around not being used? Purchase some large pencil organizers to fit the three ring binder and use them to store ink pads, chalks, pastels, drawing pencils, tubes of glue, eyelet punches, paper piercers, etc.. It’s amazing how many of these organizers you can get into a binder!
- You can make your own binder organizers with Zip Lock bags. Just take the gallon sized bags, fold over the ends (the bottom of the bags) a couple of times. Sew twill tape along this edge to reinforce it. Punch holes into it with a three ring binder punch. Great for storing cut outs, collage images, small bits of scrap paper left over from a project.
- Use empty cassette tape holders/CD holders to store smaller stamps, postage stamp embellishments, etc.. If you have one of the old wall cassette/CD storage holders, you can keep them all neatly stored on the wall next to your art table.
- If you own one of the die cutting machine, use old floppy disc cassettes to store your dies and/or small die cuts you have cut out.
- Use a plastic, portable file folder box with file folder holders for storing card stock, paper. An old file cabinet works great for not only storing paper but as a place to keep all of your art supplies together in one place. Large glue bottles, spray paint cans, gesso, oversized bottles and tools such as a hot glue gun, soldering iron, heat gun and hair dryer will fit nicely into the drawers if you partition them off with the adjustable drawer partition in most file cabinets.
- A heavy plastic hairdryer/curling iron rack that mounts on the wall is handy for storing your art hair dryer and (depending on the size) a soldering iron close by. Check out the different types of bathroom holder racks to find one that can hold your heat and glue guns.
Storage Tips from blog readers…
A BIG thank you goes out to all for submitting their tips for this week's edition of Thrifty Tuesday Art Tips. Each of them will receive a zip file of old scanned photographs as a thank you gift from me.
Lela of Striving for Simplicity says "I keep my flowers, brads, eyelets, and buttons together by color in bead boxes. I got the boxes on sale for $1 each. I keep my works in progress in plastic beach tote bags. I can grab a tote and have all of the parts and supplies in one place."
Darlene of Articulation says "I have found through many years of not doing the right thing for me that I finally have a great studio and can find 98% of what I want to find. The reason for this is clear containers, iris carts and more, more, more clear containers. Large, small, drawer boxes and containers!!!
Round laundry baskets are great for long sheet of handmade papers or anything long that you can wind up. Altoid boxes for beads and embellishments, glue item on the outside.
Magazine holders for tablets of watercolor, sketch and other art tablets."
Debbie Baker of My Abundant Life says "My number one storage solution is zip-lock plastic bags - I have a large cane basket (well several actually) that is full of these bags - each is filled with items of a particular sort - white laces, paper scraps, small fabric pieces, trims, ribbons etc etc and it makes it very easy to see them but to also control them, both of which are extremely necessary for creativity, at least for me."
Alex sent this tip: Harbor Freight Tools has a plastic container w/a lid that is attached and lifts. Inside there are 9 or 12 small plastic boxes w/lids. Some are round and some are square, depending on your needs. It is 5X9. I paid about $3.00 each.
Dee says "I save the cartons that you get bottles of Starbucks Frappicinos in and use these to store my pens and markers, and decorative scissors etc.
Cindy of Cynthia Powell had a very useful disposal tip for those sharp knife blades...
"I use an old medicine/prescription bottle to collect dull pins & exacto knife blades that can’t go directly into the trash. When the bottle is full, it and the contents can be disposed of safely.
Well that's it for today!
NEXT WEEK: Playtime! A BRAINSTORMING GAME Stop by for the details. It will be fun and sure to generate lots of ideas we can all use in our art.
Have a great week... see you Friday!
Sharon
