Organizing with Distress Oxides and Tools

Okay, Chris! You asked for it, and here it is! A post about how I am organizing and using my new Distress Oxide inks and tools!

I had to clean up my craft space before I could show all of you. And yes, this is about as clean as it gets. Don't judge!

I don't like to spend a lot of money on organizational tools. That's money that could be used for other things, like stamps and dies and pretty papers! Instead, I try to use what I have: Ball canning jars, cute boxes that my Starbucks mugs came in, coffee mugs, and vintage items like shelves and hat racks.

Occasionally, I will find some cute items at the Target Dollar Spot, like these polka dot tin pails.

After I purchased my Distress Oxides, I made a color swatch. I used PTI's Warm Wishes stamps and stamped them on small rectangles (maybe 2 x 3 in) of card stock, which I later strung through ribbon. The coffee cups are Distress Oxide colors, and the coffee travel mugs (on right in photo below) are Distress Ink colors. If you see a stripe under the mug, that is the corresponding marker.

I grouped them by color families, and then hung them at the top of my hat rack. I pull these down all the time!

You can probably see the bottom row of the hat rack contains my Papertrey Ink color swatches for both the inks and card stock. I am not a crafter that has to own all sorts of inks from all the companies. I am pretty happy using my limited palette.

So how am I storing my inks? Well, I'm currently using what I have, which are the IKEA Raskog plastic shelf inserts that I already owned.

Is it the most functional and easily accessible method? No. But until I find something cheap, this is what is working for me now. I grouped them by colors and stack them on top of each other.

Now I am going to state right up front that I LOVE my Taylored Expressions blender brushes! The size, the shape, the colors, the blending abilities. Worth the money! But what I do not love? That spinner carousel. I put that thing together so many times, and watched several YouTube videos, and it always ended up looking like this:

If you just barely touched one brush or tried to put one back in, it was like dominos and the whole thing collapsed into a wobbly mess. I mentioned it on Facebook, and a lot of folks had the same experience. TE shared a link of a video where someone used Super Glue on all the parts, and then cut clear acrylic sheets to wrap around the base, and then created a clear acrylic handle, and then...

Uhm, nope! Not gonna do that. Sorry! I could probably send the whole thing back, and I am sure TE would make it right. But for now, I did this:

So much easier. Do I care if {gasp!} they are touching? What if I cross-contaminate the brushes and the colors? Oh no! Wait. This isn't the Ebola virus, people. They are brushes. And they can be cleaned. End of story.

I also use sponge daubers occasionally to apply the ink to the stamps. Betsy Veldman uses this method at the Greetery, and I like the look. She recommends some expensive daubers on Amazon, though. I found a package at Hobby Lobby on an end cap for under $8.

I used my label maker to classify. No, I don't have one for every color of Distress Oxide. Instead, I have general color groupings, like light and dark brown, light and dark blue, reds, pinks, yellows, oranges, etc. I clean them off as best I can between uses. Again, no one will die because I used Fired Brick ink AND Festive Berries with the same dauber.

I keep them in this little Target tin bucket, and I hang the tins from S hooks off the top of my Raskog cart.

So there you have it! This is how I am currently storing and using my inks and ink blending products.

I hope that helps!

If any of you have awesome suggestions for organization, please let me know!