Organizing Crafty Stash Day 1—Inks and Coloring Mediums

Are you ready to get organized? We are bringing back our very popular 5 Days to an Organized Crafty Stash. As we know, stampers are always in search of better ways to store products and organize supplies. We’re taking this week to give you tips and tricks and great ideas for making everything easily accessible, usable, and pretty. Each day this week we’ll be focusing on one portion of your crafty stash — from ink and stamps to Die-namics, card stock, and stencils.

Today we’re focusing on inks and coloring mediums. I have a bunch of both, but tend to have favorites that I reach for regularly. The rest are kept handy “in case” I decide to use them once I’m in the middle of designing—because I often don’t know what direction I’m going to go in when I start a project.

Let’s begin with inks. Like many people, I have the ubiquitous ink storage cabinets. They work well for me—take up little space and keep my inks handy. I can’t ask for much more than that :)

First, my MFT Premium Dye ink full size pads:



I store my ink pads upside down and have them labeled accordingly. I also keep the ink refills in the same slot with a small dot of matching card stock on the top—so easy to find the color I want that way. If I have a ink blending sponge for that ink I keep it there as well.

Next, my MFT Hybrid ink full size pads:



Except for Extreme Black, I don’t use these inks a ton so only have a few refills but I label them exactly like the dye inks. I also have my Delicata metallic inks in this section.

I use my MFT ink cubes quite a bit so they are handy, too, and also stored in the Distress Ink boxes by set.

Premium Dye Ink:

Hybrid:

Next, my Distress Oxide inks. I confess I am not a HUGE fan of them but I bought into the hype at the beginning so I don’t have them all and use them rarely. But they’re labeled :)



There are a few specialty ink pads in this section as well, like Versafine, Brilliance, etc.

My regular Distress Inks are in the form of cubes that I store in the Distress Ink boxes. I also use them rarely so the cubes and refills are all I need. I have them labeled by “set” as listed in the MFT store



Next let’s talk about coloring mediums. My most used would be my Copic markers. I keep them in X-boxes right in front of me on my work desk so they are easily reached when I need them. Various Ink Refills are kept in a box in a cabinet, handy if needed.



The coloring medium I use the next often is my Peerless Watercolors. If you have any of these you know they can be a bit messy when colored dust falls off. I created a swatch book that I LOVE. I made the cover pretty with watercolors.

Just inside the cover I created a “Table of Contents” to make it easy to flip to what I want at any time.



I arranged the pages in a rainbow pattern and attached 2” square swatches for each color. I also added a actual color swatch under each color. The pages are laminated so stray watercolor can be wiped right off and swatches are easily removed and replaced.  I love this book. When I used up a color I toss that swatch, cut another and adhere it with tape runner.



You can see it gets a lot of use--almost every time I craft. I can’t imagine not having it—creating this was time well spent and I keep this book on top of my Copic markers. Did I mention that I love this book?? If you want to see exactly how I made it you can find a step by step tutorial HERE.

I have Prismacolor pencils, Kuretake Gansai Watercolors, and Faber Castell Watercolor pencils. They all get used rarely so they are in their original containers on a shelf—handy but not in the way,




I’ve started collecting alcohol inks and supplies but haven’t had a chance to play with them yet so they are all in a basket on a shelf. Hoping to get around to trying them out soon. I also have some gelatos on this shelf. I use them rarely as well, so handy but out of the way.




I also have a lot of Distress Paints and stains, and craft paints, all labeled with a color swatch on the top and in baskets on a shelf. Again, not used often but I want them handy in case I decide to use them.



So, lots of inks and coloring mediums but I tend to use Copic markers and Peerless Watercolors the most so they are right on my desk at all times. All of my supplies are on open shelves where I can see them at a glance. While cabinets with doors would be neater, for me, out of sight is out of mind.

I hope I’ve given you some ideas for your ink and coloring medium storage—whatever you do, the most important thing is that it works for YOU.

Thanks for stopping by! See you back tomorrow for more organizing ideas.