Went to AC Moore Again and got some Marker Storage

First, it's been a busy few days, so I'm really sorry I haven't been to visit. Hopefully I will get around to see you guys in the next couple of days.

Anyway, the lady at the cigar shop who has been saving boxes for me finally got two more of the Robusto boxes. She wants me to make two more jewelry boxes for her like the first one I made, so I think I will be very busy trying to get those done. I did manage to get the cover finished on the album for the cigar box I posted the other day, and made a few pages for it, but her jewelry boxes will have to come first.

I make the dividers out of basswood, which I used to get at a local craft store, but unfortunately, the new owner is not good about ordering things, so we had to go all the way to AC Moore for basswood.

While there, I got this marker storage tray from ArtBin. (It's the square thing with the Spectrum Noirs in it). Some of you will probably remember that I talked about ArtBin's wonderful customer service a month or two ago. Their customer service was even better than I told on my blog. I don't want to say what they did for me, because there are so many people who might take advantage, but I will say that they are an unbelievably good company!

The storage tray has clip things to hold it in place about half way up the inside of the Double Deep Super Satchel, the Super Satchel Semi, or the Marker Storage Satchel. To use the markers, you can place the satchels vertically without them falling out of the holes, so you can easily see and reach your markers.

My Copics are still in the 36 marker case, which exactly fit into one of the divided cases of the Super Satchel Double Deep. I don't have a large selection of markers yet, so I keep my one Copic Refill, and the Copic Syringe things in another compartment, and 6" origami paper and paper stacks in another compartment.

The double deep is exactly the right height for Copics and Spectrum Noirs, so they won't fall out when carrying it. It is too short for things like distress markers, but I would rather have the exact fit for the markers I have the most of than have it deeper and have the markers fall out of the slots.

AC Moore also had Spectrum Noir pens on sale for $7.88, so I bought a pink set and a blue set. I like my Copics better, but I have to send away for them, and they are more expensive. At this price for the Spectrum Noirs, I couldn't pass them up!

They also finally had the refills for my ATG, so I got two of those!

Then there was the Managers Special on a portable file folder thing with 300 sheets of 12x12 Nicole CS. I hesitated on that one, because I'm really fussy about my paper, but a lot of it wasn't bad. I really wanted the zippered file folder thing though, because I've been trying to figure out a place to keep my Christmas papers. I figure I'll keep only Christmas papers in that, and it will free up space for the paper I use the rest of the year, as well as keep the Christmas paper protected.

I also really wanted something easy to carry when we go out to New York at Christmas time. I usually go wild buying paper that isn't sold at JoAnns and AC Moore when I get out there, but it's always a struggle to get it home without messing it up. I will be able to take the paper out of it when we go to visit, then put all my new paper into that to get it home safely.

It was a fun trip!

ArtBin Wonderful Customer Service

When I get great customer service, I like to tell people about it.

Sunday I bought the ArtBin Double Deep Super Satchel. When I got home and put the dividers in it, it was missing one. The store where I bought it is three hours away, so returning it wasn't an option.

I just called the 800 number on the label, and within just a minute or two I was speaking with a real person. There were no numbers to push, just a very short and polite recording, then I was on hold for less than a minute, and a very nice girl came on the line. She got my address and is sending a replacement divider right out to me. She is even packaging and shipping it herself. Calling ArtBin, (Flambeau is the name of the company), is just like calling a very small personalized company. I love dealing with companies like that!

I forgot to mention that the ArtBin things are made in the US, so that makes it even better for those of us on this side of the pond!


This is my pitiful little collection of Copics in the double Deep Super Satchel. I have two Copic 36 pen storage units. Each one fits perfectly in one section of the case. I found out that if I put the bottoms and tops of the cases in seperate sections, I haveroom for twice as many Copics, and my few Spectrum Noir pens fit in the divided tops along the edges of them. Then I have my one refill and some of the Copic Syringes in another section. It's pretty empty now, but someday it will be full! :-)

ArtBin has just made a pen holder satchel, and sells some dividers which fit this bin as well as the pen satchel. The dividers are like the cubed things for the flourescent lights at Home Depot, but are designed to fit these satchels perfectly and lock into place. I'm getting some of those soon, to replace the Copic holders.

I love this, because I can carry my pens around , and they stay in order perfectly, and right now, I will be able to put other things in here as well!

My narrow ribbon organization

A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned a tutorial here on storing narrower ribbon in empty Tic Tac containers.

Last week when we got off the island, I bought two four packs of Tic Tacs, and filled eight containers with ribbon.

Today, I got off the island again, and bought eight more. Here is a picture of what used to be sixteen spools of ribbon. They are all protected in the containers so they won't get dirty or unwind. They also take up very little space. Of course I need more containers, because I have a lot more ribbon, and a bunch of embellishment that would fit in those containers! The holly one near the center had a little bit too much ribbon, so I couldn't close the little snap top, but it's still protected and takes less space, so I don't mind.

Now we need to figure out a way to get Tic Tac to make some kind of candy and sell it in at least 1" wide containers so we can store wider ribbon!