How to organize messy quilling strips

This "before" shot is so typical of our quilling supply box, isn't it?

Here it is all cleaned up (on the right hand side). Past blog readers may recall my quilling storage box custom made to fit my Ikea drawers. After inheriting Aunt Berni's quilling supplies, I realized I didn't have enough spare room in my box and needed to condense it in my existing box trays.

Mail Holder

We recently returned from our first cruise (Celebrity Reflection), which was a great experience after I got over seasickness from the choppy waves. I wish there were more craft activities on board, but it wasn't that kind of cruise.

We received maps, notes, agendas and such daily, so I wanted to keep them visibly accessible yet tidy on our compact table.

I saw this benign coupon book and immediately thought of Allison Patrick's Phone Book Letter Holder, shown in Ann Martin's book, All Things Paper. Made in a minute without any glue, this was the perfect paper-based feature piece for our stateroom.

Loved using it! I even pretended to pull items out only to put it back again, just for the sake of using it. In high school I thought I wanted to be a secretary because I enjoyed organizing things and being efficient. I still get a thrill when I see something tidy, fun, compact, and made from what was on hand.

Quilling Paper Storage

I recently built a new storage method for my quilling strips out of foam core. It's 27.5" wide x 10" long x 1.75" deep and fits in my Ikea shelf drawer. I like seeing and choosing from the whole range of colors at a glance.

I use scrap paper to "belt" the unruly waves so they stay orderly. To allow for different amounts of paper I ordered online, I varied the gaps between the 1/4" foam core divider walls. Notching a half moon out of the sides allows me to lift each layer up. Then I put elastic bands around each layer to keep them from doing any accidental back flips.

I used to throw all the leftover bits into a bin, but found myself literally looking for a needle in a haystack, only to find what I wanted after I cut a new strip. Now for the smaller scrap pieces, I enjoy using my binder method. It's compact and I can quickly see what scrap I can use up before pulling out a new strip. It takes some time to put them in, but it saves much more time when finding what I want.

If a finished shape isn't quite to my liking, I'll store it in a fish tackle box like this and use it up some other time.

OK, I know I'm not the only one out there who likes to organize. What's your favorite storage method?

Kite Ribbon Storage Hanger (SVG, DXF, PDF, MTC files)

I don't have ribbon fever, but I do save the ones I'm given with gifts because they are still re-usable for other gifts or even my cards.

I used to save the scraps in small plastic bags to keep them from fighting, but when I'd discover it wasn't long enough, I'd have to re-ravel it – or if it was right, I'd have to deal with all the kinks.

So I made my own with 4 layers of cardboard (the thickest my Silhouette can cut) and glued them together for strength and rigidity. You can also use poster board, chipboard, cardboard, even cereal boxes - whatever your machine or hand can cut. I added white vinyl to the two outer sides (before cutting) of my cardboard to give myself a neutral, white background, but I can imagine my kites and their ribboned tails against a light blue sky background too.

I love how the ribbons are stored with thicks and thins in orderly columns. Threading the ribbons through the 3 lines was quick to do, but also quick to remove too! They don't slide off (unlike my shirts on plastic hangers) and I can visually guage the length, color, width at a glance for my project. It now hangs in my craft room closet, kink-free!

I'm offering my Kite Ribbon Storage Hanger in the following formats: SVG, DXF, MTC, and PDF (for hand cutting if you prefer).

Quilling Paper Storage

I’m kinda late for an Earth Day posting, but better late than never.

I had a stack of plastic sleeves for negatives (remember those days?) that I couldn’t bear to toss in the landfill, so they took up space on my shelf for years. Now they are a valuable quilling strip organizer!

I used to have a box of half used strips that was more mangled than Medusa on a bad hair day. After detaching another new strip from the pack, I’d turn around and find I had a half used one I could have used up. Now I keep similar colors/weights on a page and they don’t argue with one another.

The block of pink you see on the far right (below) is a sheet I cut with my die cutter. I leave the ends intact so I snip off as I go. I find this method much easier than the lock of hair that has a life of its own.

 

Enlarge the thumbnails for a larger image.

1) You will need a 3 hole punched sheet of cardstock, plastic negative sheet, scissors, and double-sided tape.

2) Tape along 3 sides of the plastic sheet, avoiding the holes, which are placed towards the bottom of the page. The holes will be flipped to the back. My plastic sheet divider happens to line up right at the edge of my sheet, where it will be folded to the back. Peel the wax on the left and adhere to the page. Allow the holes to extend past the bottom of your page.

3) Flip over. Remove the tape near the holes and adhere.

4) Now strips will not fall out. Remove the remaining wax.

5) Add just one more strip of tape as indicated.

6) Adhere and you’re done.

Another storage method I use for quilled items I decided not to glue on a final project is a fish tackle box. I got this for under $7 at Canadian Tire. I like the blue dividers which allow me to decide the compartment size.

 What's your favorite storage method for quilling?

My New Craft Room

Here it is, all shiny and new - to me anyway. It's all messy with a laptop, die cutter, printer, and paper everywhere already, but at least I remembered to shoot it in it's pristine shape. Here are the nitty gritty photos so I can remind myself how much it took to get it here (and save poor hubby and me more work).


Amazingly, the never-unwrapped hutch was still available after a month sitting on Craigslist Free listings because it had no matching bottom. The L-shaped desk was quite pitted, but fixed easily with wood filler, then rough sanding prepared it for primer paint. An ironing board is great to hold furniture at eye level. Great thing about moving is all the extra cardboard lying around to be used as a drop cloth for paint. Oh Martha, your robin egg blue just screams "craft with me".



So what's up with the utensil tray? We were very lucky hubby's work had these offcuts of acrylic sheets at exactly the right height - kismet, I know! Our previous kitchen drawer allowed for a 2-tiered tray to divide the large and small spoons and forks, so we had to find a new solution for this tray. I love how the acrylic seamlessly divides and concisely uses space. The chopsticks and teaspoons are tamely corralled with a U-shaped bent piece. Yup, you guessed what I'll be using to divide all my supplies! More to come one day.

Compact Craft Storage

We’ve finally moved and now I have my own craft room. This was my “before” storage for pencils, pens, felts, scissors, blades, erasers. I trimmed down a magazine file cardboard box from Ikea and cut salvaged foam core sheets (would have been trashed from a sign shop) for dividers. It all fit in the tall drawer of the Effectiv shelf from Ikea and I wish I had taken a photo of everything I managed to store in there before the move. Compact yet visible and quickly reachable.

For my various rolls of adhesive, I stacked the smaller rolls on a tiny tube and gave it a bottom – which all fit inside the large tube holding the larger rolls. Who doesn’t love a 2 for 1 deal?

Scored these 2 shelves off Craigslist (actual photo) for $50 each – can you imagine my drool over those drawers? When we got them home, I realized they belong in the Ikea Museum of Real Wood – what a find! During a recent garage sale hunt, I found a .25 cent miter box (helps you cut wood at true angles) which will help me make wooden dividers for each drawer so my pens and utensils can lie flat.
So although I enjoyed being creative in my small space, I am looking forward to having luxurious storage soon.

Quilling Strip Storage with Pushpins

A rat’s nest no more – I finally found a method of viewing all my strips at one time. Push pins on foam core help stretch out my poor pretzeled strips. I can access any color and not worry about re-bagging or unintentional crimping from a lid of a hastily packed box. Perhaps I might even label the brand and color along the side. No wonder I’ve been called OC…