Storage Wars

Hi everyone,



Today is a quick post in reponse to demand for instructions/tips etc on the storage units that Emma and I have been talking about for a few days.
I originally saw a post on them for copic markers on this blog here...Copic storage unit  but we have changed the instructions slightly as we found it worked better for us



I decided it might be a good way to store my assortment of pens so enlisted the help of my trusty best friend and partner in crime, Emma and we decided we would have a go!
It uses A2 sheets of Foam core board.. I found 20 sheets on ebay for £23 delivered and thought that was a fab price. It also came the next day!  The shop i used is here....   SBS consumables on ebay





Right so there we were.. picture the scene armed with a hot glue gun, a ruler (well technically a tape measure and a straight piece of metal) a pencil, a craft knife and the foam board......


To make either unit pictured below we cut...

a) 2 pieces measuring 21"x4 3/4"
b) 2 pieces measuring 20.5" x 4 3/4 inches
c) 6 pieces measuring 13.5" x 4 3/4 inches

The original instructions we found used more pieces and slightly different construction instructions so i will tell you how we did it...

Then you need to decide what you want to store... this bit was far from technical for us as we grabbed a spray ink, a distress stain and a distress ink and kind of guessed by eye.

The b and c pieces will form your grid so using a B piece mark where you want the VERTICAL WALLS ... we measured it very accurately (not) but popping a distress pad on the foam and marking where it ended. Then do the same on the C piece to create the height of each cubby - we used the rough guess and pencil line technique as before hehe.

Then you need to cut slits in the B and C pieces to allow them to slot together. The cuts need to go half way to the width of the piece and be the width of the foam board (in our case 5mm) (we worked this out to be about 6cm - we couldnt half the inches) remember to cut from the front of one piece, then the back of the piece it will slot into!

This needs to be done for all the cubby holes you are having.. and the beauty of this unit is you can change the gap sizes to suit your needs. We cut one piece then used it as a template for the other pieces. Dont forget to leave 2 C pieces uncut as these form your sides!!

So now you have lots of foam board cut and no idea what happens next.. congrats you are at the same place we were!

hehe the good thing is thats the most technical bit over. The construction is easier.


Simply slot all your slitted pieces together to form your grid. Then using a hot glue gun and sticking a side at a time simply build the edges around it. The sides stand on the top of the bottom board. If your cuts arent perfectly straight you may need to manipulate slightly to get it to all stick flush but thats the beauty of the board. And thats it!

We used another sheet of board to put a back piece on ours but thats entirely personal choice. We just stood the completed cube onto a sheet of board, cut it at the right width, left a small bit at the top as a ledge and stuck it to the back with glue.

We know ours arent 100% straight but hey we built them and are pretty darn proud of ourselves... of course we stored everything BUT pens in them so will need to make more

Things we have learnt along the way

* The glue is hot! very hot... do not rub it with your finger cos it burns and blisters when it sticks to you
* Steel tape measures hurt when they retract with your finger inside them whilst you laugh at your friend burn
* Blood doesnt wipe off foam board very easily (see point above!)
* These units are addictive and you will want to make different size shelves to fit everything you own
* They will hold more than you think!!  (the CD's at the bottom of unit 2 store my unmounted stamps)

I hope this helps and you will have a go yourself. To make 3 of these units ( 2 of unit 1, and one of the other - all with backs) we used 11 pieces of board but have loads of scraps spare too so could use them.. I estimate we would get another 3 units from what we have left from our 20 sheets.. so potentially 6 storage units for £23.. thats £3.83 each!!!!!

If you need any more tips or anything from my instructions explaining please do get in touch!