As most of you know, I’m not very good making my own designs. I had previously made one of the 72 pen/marker holders from the GF Catalog, but I needed one to hold 83 pens. I didn’t want extra holes, which I have a whole line of on the 72 one for one set of my pens. So using the same style, I tried making my own from scratch - and surprise, surprise, it actually turned out!
But I did have to make it twice, because on this first one, although I had the length of the sides correct, I forgot to adjust for the thickness of the board, so my wood piece was too thin. Then I tried a piece of my thick acrylic, and it worked perfectly! So I got it all put together, put all my pens in and…oh dear, one hole short! Ugh! I though I could use my dremel to just make another hole, but the drill bit wouldn’t reach the second board (hence the tiny hole in the lower right corner).
So I made it again, this time adjusting for the width of the boards for the sides. I made it just a fraction too narrow, but with just a very minute amount of sanding, it fits nice and snug. And this time I remembered the missing hole!
Pens are all nice and secure now. I like it sitting on its side so I can see the colors. Plus isn’t there something about they should be stored sideways instead of upright? At any rate, I am now a happy camper, and feeling more easy about designing things I need.
More things I’ve made this last week. The bookmarks are leather and for me, the keychains were for a customer.
Now I’m working on a cutting board for our neighbors. Have I said how much I love having a GF, and this community? I do!!
I need to make a better pen holder too. I can’t count how many times i got tired of looking for what i need and just dumped everything out on my desk. It’s on my things to do list. The keychains look great! I love the layered colors! Are they painted or just multiple layers of colored acrylic?
The keychains are colored acrylic. I did find, because of the style of font, that I was afraid of it breaking if the initials got knocked around, so I cut them out of thin clear acrylic as well, and then just pieced it together. The only one that doesn’t have clear is the red/white/blue one. (That’s my favorite!) I had to make sure to use a large piece of transfer tape on top before I removed anything from the crumb tray so I wouldn’t loose any of the tiny pieces. That was a pain, and very time-consuming to do. But it all worked out, and had she not been a regular customer, I doubt I’d do this method again, at least with the swirly font.
I know you can see the 3M tape on the clear pieces, but my customer didn’t care about that at all.
Very nice job on that marker holder! Don’t you just hate it when marker manufacturers make non standard set sizes? Or even worse, when they issue a set then a considerable time later they issue new colors, one at a time… (I think someone should give a stern talking to Tim Holtz, I had my ink pads all organized before he did that.)
I agree!! One set was 36 markers (fantastic!), but the other was 47. Talk about an odd number! And I just ordered a set of white/black markers because they get used the most. In fact, I have a set I colored the other night, but I can’t finish it until this weekend because I need the white marker and mine is totally empty. Wonder if I thinned down my acrylic craft paint (if needed) if I could just refill it? Hmm… that would definitely be cheaper than buying new markers all the time.
Although right now, I do have the extra 82-hole one! 
