PROMARKER STORAGE SOLUTION

Really excited about this (perhaps that makes me a bit sad!) so thought I ought to share it with anyone who's interested!  I've 'acquired' so many Promarkers, and recently (well yesterday!) Flexmarkers as well, I desperately needed to sort out some sort of storage for them.  I had started off by using a plastic tub/tray which fits in the Ikea units that I have in my craft room and, for a while, this worked OK.  When I bought a set of 'skin' colours, I put these in a smaller plastic container which I stored on top of the other pens in the tub.  This was OK but as I got more pens, it was difficult to find the colour I wanted to use as there were a couple of layers and they were hidden by the others.  I transferred them all to the lid of a 12" x  12" plastic storage box and this was OK for a while. Then I recently fell for the new Spring limited edition set of Promarkers (which I got at a good price with free P&P) which made my collection too large to continue to store as I had been doing.

Well, I looked on the internet and saw lots of different suggestions, the best one being a large metal case intended for storing CDs, but this was another expense (on top of all the other craft stuff I've been buying - don't tell my husband!) so I needed to think again.  I wanted something that would store them neatly but that I could transport to where I wanted to do my colouring - usually downstairs in front of the TV in the evenings! - but also if I was taking them out with me to a crafting session somewhere.  I wanted each pen to be easy to get out and put away without being too fiddly (eg fitting into an elastic loop) and easy to see what colour I wanted at a glance.  The Flexmarkers that I bought (Set 1 & Set 2 - again at a very good half price down at Martin's Paper Unit in his closing down sale) were just what I had been looking for - some lovely pastel shades and the 'brush-type' nib on them works excellently in colouring smaller areas accurately.  These needed to be stored alongside the Promarkers, if necessary with them, but ideally separated a bit so I could grab them easily.

SUDDENLY a Eureka moment!  In the corner of my craft room on the floor I noticed a container that I had bought several years ago but hadn't really ever used properly.  This could be my storage solution!  It has lots of pockets both round the outside and inside and might work.  It also has a sort of turntable base so you can spin it around to access things easily and it has a couple of handles so that it can be picked up and carried around. 

I got all the pens out (current count around 70!) and tried them in the pockets.  There was room for all of them round the outside of the container with space to spare, so I got some small round stickers and coloured them in with the Promarker colours (Flexmarkers are already supplied with these - not sure why Promarkers aren't!).  I stuck these on the ends of the pens and then sorted them into colour families to put into the pockets around the outside and, very conveniently, the Flexmarkers fitted into the pockets above so I could sort the pastel shades into colours next to their matching Promarkers.  The Blender pens slotted into a couple of the elastic loops around the top, as did the fine nibs & caps.  Great!

Promarker Storage

Then I thought, what about the middle of the container.  There are another load of pockets around the inner edges, plus space in the middle for more!  I took my waterbased markers (Tombow and Marvy Le Plume - remember those?!) from their home in another Ikea tray and put those in the inner pockets, and there was also space for my two waterbrushes.  - AND still more space left! - so I  added my tin of Inktense pencils and another pack of watercolour pencils and tucked these into the centre section.

Promarker Storage showing inside

I gave it a try last night and I LOVE IT!  It sat next to me on a laptop tray on the settee and I was able to see all the colours at a glance and to get them in & out of the pockets easily.  PROBLEM SOLVED AND AT NO EXTRA COST!

NOTE: For anyone interested in the container - the label says 'Scrappin' Sweet Nothings' but I'm not sure if it's still available.  I ordered it online from a company called 'Your Touch of Craft' but I think they don't exist any more.  Good luck with finding one if you love it as much as I do!!