Ink is one of the fun components of card making – and very easy to collect. Storage solutions for inks are not as easy, and I am often jealous of the availability of products from places like Organise More etc, which are often featured in US craft rooms. Getting them here to NZ however, is another story – shipping costs were more than double the actual shelving cost!
So, I had to be a little more creative with my ink storage. I started out on TradeMe – searching for spice racks and display shelves. Facebook destash groups were another place I found a bargain.
These were great when starting out, but of course, my stash has outgrown the little shelves I had!
A quick search on TradeMe has shown a seller in Whakatane making small Ink Storage shelves – ‘smartart35‘ for anyone interested – these are apparently very easy to put together and are much like the Organise More shelving the US crafters enjoy.
With Distress Inks having over 60 colours in the range alone, plus the matching Distress Oxide release, and various other company’s ink ranges in different shapes and sizes, I needed a new solution for my growing stash.
I found these Media Stix on Amazon.com (designed to hold DVDs). They are lightweight, a relatively small package to ship, and easy to screw onto the wall. You get four Stix in each pack, and they click together to create two tall Stix like I have here, having a total of 60 slots. I purchased two packs.
They hold all my different ink pads – from the square Distress ink range, to Catherine Pooler’s oval ink pads, Gina K’s slightly rounded lidded pads, the Delicata inks with the lip on the lid, and Memento. They do hold the Stampin’ Up! pads, but I found them to stick out too much for my liking and weren’t a particularly tight fit.
The ink pads slot in and out quite easily and each have their separate slot. This was important to me, because if something is difficult to get out or put away, it simply won’t be used, or enjoyed.
Other than my handful of Stampin’ Up! ink pads and collection of various black & embossing inks, I like to collect mini ink cubes from other companies – such as Catherine Pooler (my absolute fave!), Gina K Designs, Ranger Archival, and Hero Arts.
I mostly use these for stamping sentiments/images etc, not really for those highly blended backgrounds.
The trays are felt lids left over from a bunch of felt boxes I purchased from Kmart when I was sorting out my smallest daughter’s bedroom & toys. I love that they slide in and out of my shelving so nicely!
Daubers, Foams and Brushes
There are lots of ways to store the little foams and daubers – for a while at the beginning, they were just chucked in a wee drawer! However, I have since learned it is not cool to contaminate different ink pads (especially Distress Inks and Oxides), so I wanted a better system to keep my foams in particular, organised.
Some crafters keep them in little compartment boxes, others pop a Velcro dot on the bottom of their ink pads to store the foam.
I created and printed off a chart for my Distress Inks with grid lines large enough to hold a Velcro dot underneath the heading – basically three A4 landscape pages. I printed a matching chart for the Oxides, and laminated them.
They’re hung on the wall next to my Distress Inks held in the Media Stix – this is such a simple solution and particularly easy to find the correct foams, and put them away!
I have seen similar charts stored in ring binders with the same Velcro dots – this may work better for you.
So far, I only have a foam chart for my Distress Inks & Oxides. I don’t often use my other coloured ink pads for blending, mainly because I collect minis rather than full size – that is just personal preference.
Taylored Expressions Blender Brushes with Caddy 
Finger Daubers in clear plastic boxes.
I keep my blending brushes on the big dresser behind me, they are sitting directly beneath my Distress ink in the Media Stix on the wall. I use the Taylored Expressions coloured brushes exclusively for Distress Inks. There is one brush for each colour family and it works really well – if you need to clean your brush, simply wipe the bristles on a baby wipe. These brushes have a spinning caddy (sold separately), and they sit on the dresser behind my table. Taylored Expressions have also brought out a rubber caddy which you can simply jam your brush handles in and it stores your brushes and other tools upright (shown to the left in the photo).
I found the dauber boxes at my local Scrapbook store, Scrapbook Central in Petone, and they hold 30 daubers each. I have two different coloured sets of daubers (black for distress inks, and clear for the distress oxides, thereby keeping the risk of contamination low).
Tour my craft room – you can check out how I store my stamps & dies, inks, tools, cardstock and pretty colourful things too!
For more in-depth information about the best value supplies for your craft table, from cardstock to the handiest tools, check out my Best of the Basics series.
Thank you for visiting – I hope you have found the above information helpful in your card making journey and craft room organisation. Feel free to message me if you have any questions.
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