In the interest of full disclosure, I will tell you up front that this was not the idea that I mentioned in my post about making your own "stampin' spots". I planned to make a little "ink dresser", with drawers that fit ten cubes each and would sit nicely on a shelf or desk and look oh-so-cute. I had the drawers figured out and a couple of them made, but hadn't started on the shell to slide them into. A trip to the grocery store sidetracked that plan, and what I'm presenting here is the new idea...
I shop at Wegman's - a regional chain that carries a wide variety of items besides groceries, and brings in things from various places that you might not expect (one of my daughters lives in the wine country of California and was giddy when she spied her favorite craft beer from a small brewery there in our store all the way out here in central New York, for example). But, I digress...
Wegman's is currently having a sale on storage/organizational-type items, and I spied these:
They are Really Useful Boxes - specifically Really Useful Pencil Boxes. If you can't find them locally, I've got you covered ('cuz I'm cool like that). Go HERE. Lots and lots of other options available at that link (and it's good for US and UK), too... One of the reasons I abandoned the earlier plan in favor of the new one is that - while the lids close fairly tightly - they are not "airtight", and I didn't want to risk having them drying out too quickly. This new plan essentially locks them in a little more securely.
I bought a couple of the pencil boxes ($1.99 each) to test my plan. The "drawers" that I made did, indeed fit inside the box as a second layer, so I can get twenty of the DIY spots in one of these little really, really useful boxes! Lookee:
Yes, there is some wiggle room, but I'm totally fine with that, as I need to be able to get the little things out of the box without swearing - there's room for my fingers to get in there and grab ahold. Ditto on the space around the "drawer", which is now - obviously - a "tray" instead.
I made the drawer/tray from matboard. I bought a "value pack" at Hobby Lobby. Here's a link for one similar: Mat Board Value Pack. The one I bought is 11" x 14", but you'll have less waste if you go with the 8" x 10", anyway... Cut a piece 4" x 7 1/2" and score 1/2" all around. To score mat board, you actually cut through several of the layers, while leaving some intact, so you can fold it up more easily. Cut away the corners completely, so you have something that looks like this:
When you fold up the sides, the cuts are on the OUTSIDE, and the intact layers are on the INSIDE. I just used Scotch tape to tape the corners (going for function here), but you could go all crazy with your washi tape if you wanted to up the cuteness factor...
A couple of things you need to know: This plan will ONLY work if you use the smallest of the boxes that come in this set (of which there are only 16):
If you use the larger ones (which are still quite small, just not as) then you will need to scope the other Really Useful Boxes link above for a size that works, or - easiest solution - leave them in the case they came in! I checked to see if Darice offered the mini boxes by themselves, but couldn't find any. An alternative that looked promising were these:
You may not even need a case of any kind, as they appear to stack quite nicely. If you go that route, or if you buy the uninked cubes or ready-made, already-inked "spots" (like the Hero Hues), there are a couple of other options; Back when I had all of Stampin'Up!'s spots (which I gifted to a friend who was just starting out in the stamping thing), I had them in the little carrying case pictured above. Here's a partially-filled one, so you can see, sort of:
They all just stack in there and the whole thing sits upright on a shelf like a little suitcase (It would work that way for the boxes that come in it, as well). There are 24 spots in there now, so it obviously holds quite a few. The most obvious downside is getting the little cubes in and out. I found it kind of a nuisance, anyway...
Another option would be to re-purpose the clamshell cases that Stampin'Up!'s wood-mounted sets used to come in:
The one pictured above is the 6" x 9" size. Twenty-four cubes fit in there just right! (Any guesses as to which of the above cubes has seen the most use, lol?) Just in case you were wondering about size comparisons, here's a visual for that:
I think I've just about covered the whole shebang on this topic, so I'm going to stop now! If I've overlooked something or if you still have questions, shoot me an email! Happy Valentine's Day, have a fabulous weekend, and thanks for stopping by! (And if you're in an area buried under snow, my sincerest sympathies - we're digging out, too...)