Organized my Tim Holtz Distress Inks or Things That Make Me Happy

Sometimes it's the little things that can make one happy. I've wanted to label all my Tim Holtz Distress Inks and change the way I was storing them. I knew I wanted the labels to display the color and on all 4 sides but I just never got around to it. 

I try to organize my work space in a way that creates an easy work flow. I had the Distress Inks in plastic storage boxes but I would have to pull out a whole pile to look through to find the right color. When I say I wanted to create an easier work flow I remember reading that this is one way to organize your studio, products, etc. Basically that is the general way that my studio is set up but it still needs tweaking and this is one of those TWEAKS ;)

This side of my studio stores most of my inks, paints, stamps,  and tools for most projects. It is directly in back of my project table and within arms reach. I don't have to get out of my creative mojo to look for something I need. I LOVE my Ikea Expedit shelf and I have found various inexpensive baskets and containers to hold my supplies. The stamps are organized by designer, paints & inks by company. 

I found some Avery labels and swiped the ink color on the labels needed. I hand wrote each label because I wanted to get to work and knew that it would take time for me to get to a laser printer. I love how the labels took the color!

I decided to label all  my favorite colors first knowing that I would get bored doing it.  This was a real eye opener when I realized which colors I use the most. At this point I stopped for the evening.

When I started back up I went ahead and again did the colors I like the most out of the remaining inks. You can see the ones I left for last...lol!

I chose to label all 4 sides because when I clean up I don't want to waste time looking for the side with the color. It was worth the little bit of extra time! Now I had to find a way to store them. I looked online for storage ideas and realized I didn't want to spend the money {would rather by supplies} or take the time to make one. There are some great storage ideas on line but I went "shopping in my house" and came up with 2 different containers just perfect for the task at hand! The smaller one contains my favorite 21 ink colors...yippee...and it will sit on my project table with in an arms reach. 

The remaining 27 ink colors will be stored on a shelf in this miniature armoire. Both of these storage containers will eventually get altered but I can live with them for now.

I figure the entire project took about 7 hours over a 3 day period. Here is the link to the chart provided by Ranger Ink if you want to do this yourself. It must be printed with a laser printer, an ink jet printer will not work as the words will smudge when you apply the color.

I hope this gets you thinking on how your craft area is organized. Do you have any tips or suggestions?

Thanks for stopping by!