Organize Distress Ink Colors

Hi everyone!  My name is Natasha and I am so excited to be sharing my first post with you!  A big THANK YOU to the wonderful girls at Simply Renee for inviting me to be a part of their design team.  I am truly honored and I am excited to be able to share my work with you!

Aside from being passionate about scrapbooking, I am also an organization fanatic!  I am constantly rearranging and organizing my scraproom and trying to find new ways to store all of my goodies.  You can imagine the joy I felt when I received my Clip It Up Mini and Upper Tier Add-On!  I immediately tore open the box and assembled it in less than five minutes.  I now have several Clip It Up products and am amazed at how organized my supplies are now.  The Clip It Up products will even impress an organization junkie like myself!

Today I would like to share a project I made that also plays an important role in my organization.  I tend to use a lot of Distress Inks on my layouts, and I have a complete collection of all the colors.  To help me match the correct ink color to my layout, I created a little card catalog for my Distress Inks.

I used blank 4x6 index cards and I inked and stamped each card.  I then labeled each card with the name of the color.  This makes it easier for me to choose the right color for my project.

Originally I had these index cards stored on a mini carousel, but I found that the constant removal and replacement of the cards caused them to tear.  So I decided to make a little card catalog using a wooden box.

I purchased this unfinished wooden box at my local craft store.  It is very reasonable in price and perfect for altering.

The first step is to remove the hinges and all of the hardware from the box.  If the box you are using is not unfinished, be sure to sand the surface before staining it.

Using a brush, apply the stain in the direction of the wood grain.  After coating the entire box, allow the stain to penetrate the wood for a few minutes.  Using a clean cloth, remove any excess stain.  Allow the box to dry for a few hours.  If desired, repeat this process to achieve a darker color.

After the box is completely dry, replace the hinges inside.  If you are planning on decorating the outside of the box with paper, it is best to replace the external hardware after the box is complete.

Now comes the fun part… the decorating!  The possibilities are endless when altering a box.  You can use paper, flowers, bling, lace… basically anything that can be glued down!  On my box, I decided to do a little lacing using eyelets.  On most of my work you will see that I LOVE to lace and that eyelets are one of my favorite embellies!  But how do you lace on a box?  Below are a few quick tips on how to do it.

I used a border punch to create a guide for the placement of the holes.  Using a removable tape (painter’s tape works best because it will not damage your project), carefully tape the guide to the box.

Because I am using 1/8 inch eyelets, I drilled holes into my box using a 1/8” drill bit.

Place an eyelet in each hole and gently hammer each eyelet in.  I would suggest placing a scrap piece of paper on top of the eyelet first to prevent chipping the color off of the eyelet.

You can use ribbon, floss or twine for your lacing.  On the lid of my box, I also added mulberry and ceramic roses.  All of the chipboard elements, including the vine you see here, are made by The Dusty Attic.  I altered the vine chippie using ink and glimmer mist.

The chipboard trim on the sides of the box were inked, painted with acrylic paint and misted with glimmer mist.  The metal feet by Tim Holtz were inked with copper alcohol ink to coordinate with the colors of my box.

As you can see, there are so many possibilities when it comes to altering a box.  Just let your imagination run wild!

The 4x6 index cards fit perfectly in my box.  I have also made a card catalog for my glimmer mists as well.  You can use this idea to organize your stamps, quotes, photos, recipes and anything else you can think of!

Before I go, I just wanted to share how I use my Clip It Up Wall Mount.  I installed it over my desk so that I can clip up the items that I am using on my current project.  This clears up A LOT of space on my desk allowing me more room to create.  As organized as I may be, I tend to find my desk overloaded with supplies when I am working on a project.  With the wall mount, I can see all of the items I intend to use.I hope you enjoyed my card catalog.  I had so much fun making it!  Have a fabulous day! 

Natasha

_____________________