New Copic Storage courtesy of Jennie Black

Not only is Jennie a wonderful color-er, but she's an organizational nut like me.  :)  I love my Copic wallets but they take up so much space on my desk when I pull out all 5 of them.  Jennie just posted this fabulous idea on her Facebook tonight.  So what else was there for me to do but run right out and duplicate it?!!

The Art Bin Double Deep Satchel was on sale so I didn't even have to use a precious coupon on it.  I was happy to find the bin in clear rather than a color because, well, I am that anal retentive about stuff like that.

A super fast stop at Lowe's for the ceiling grid and a square dowel.  In a totally weird spot so you may want to save yourself some time and just ask for it.  The piece I got was pretty big and I could make another easily.

Here's a picture with it all assembled.

This shows the bin towards the front where I'm storing some of the stuff I like to keep with my markers.  My Various Ink Refill for the Colorless Blender, multi-liners, fabric scraps, tape to mark my markers, a couple of ink pallets and a color wheel.

A couple of things I found when I was putting this together.
- It was so stinkin' simple it isn't even funny!  Absolutely NO technical skills needed.  I did use the saw & miter box to cut the square dowels but those aren't mandatory.  I just used some snips to cut the ceiling grid.  It was just plastic so it was no stress or strain on my hands.

- I found that putting the top grid down to about the middle of where my markers are made it easier for me to pull them out.  Maybe I've got fat fingers or it's because of my fingernails but when the grid was at the top I was just getting the lid.  Not good.

- Because I am anal retentive (or as Jennie said OCD) I had previously marked each of my markers with red electrical tape.  I put the tape in the same place on each marker cause I'm like that.   

- The electrical tape made it a more snug fit into the ceiling grid spaces (could have also contributed to not being able to get them out when the grid was at the top) but because I put the tape in the same place on all the markers I was able to just turn them all the same way and put them in and the electrical tape is just above the grid.  So no more snug fit.

- I had a piece of thin styrofoam-ish board that I put under the bottom grid to keep my markers at the same height.  I wouldn't recommend doing this AFTER you've already put all your markers in the grid.  Just trust me on that.

- Don't leave spaces between your color families.  Just run one into the next.  You'll have some extra spaces but not that many.  Again, just trust me on it.

This definitely takes up less space on my desk than the wallets did.  Packing my markers for class should be A LOT easier.  And seeing all of my colors in one spot, lined up in rainbow colors makes me happy.  :)