Storing all my pens has become a major endeavor. First of all I want to be able to see them all and reach the one I want without having to fumble through a bin or drawer. I know I'm not the only one that has this problem because I see other doodlers, zentanglers and alphabeteers asking each other how they store their tools of the trade so I thought I would show you what I ended up doing.
I need all my money for more pens so had to come up with something that didn't cost me any cash. So recycle, right!
I had some left over wallpaper, the heavy kind that is actually paint-able, but any wall paper would work. So would a magazine page, brown paper bag or your scraps of card stock but those all need to be glued and the wall paper comes with it's very own glue that actually sticks! Next was a clean tin can. Not the one from soup, they are to small, mine were from Hunt's spaghetti sauce actually, it is 5.75 inches tall and 3.25 inches wide. As long as it is tall enough that your pens don't fall out while on it's side use what you have.
Measure the paper a good 2.5 to 3 inches wider than the can is long. In my case, 9 inches for my 6 inch can. Cut that strip out of the wall paper.
Wrap the paper around the can and cut the length so there is an inch of overlap. This really isn't rocket science and I know that you can figure this out on your own.
Now the really easy part. Wet the wall paper and fold it over on it's self. Sticky glue side to sticky glue side. I'm not sure why, but when you wall paper your walls they always tell you to do this so I did it to wall paper my cans!
Roll the can in the wet wall paper making sure that you push out all the air bubbles and wrap the can as tight as you can. Leave paper over hanging both the top and bottom of the can equally. Don't worry if you don't get it exactly in the center, as long as you have some on each end.
Tuck the wet wall paper inside the can. This is going to help hold the paper around the can and it will also protect your pens and fingers from any of those sharp edges that some can openers leave behind.
This is what it should look like once the top is all folded in.
Make it nice and smooth.
Now the bottom edge. Take your scissors and cut from the end toward the can.
Don't go past the can.
Cut all around the edge. These cuts look like they are about half to 3/4 of an inch apart.
By making the cuts your paper will over lap nice and flat and since it is pre-pasted wall paper each section will stick to the one under it as well as the can.
This part isn't necessarily but if you don't mount your cans on the wall you may want to finish off the bottom. Just trace the can and cut out the circle slightly inside your line. Wet the circle and attach to the bottom of the can.
Tidy Hey!
Since we are all so creative, we can't leave it just plain. I took some ribbon and some adhesive. I ran the sticky line of glue down on the back of enough ribbon to go around the can then wrapped the ribbon around the top edge of the can. If you wanted you could color coordinate your cans. Blue ribbon for your blue pens, red ribbon for your red pens. Get creative!
Here is a picture of the tools I used. Wall paper, a recycled can, scissors, a ruler, masking tape only if your paper doesn't stick right away and you want to hold it while it drys. I got pretty good at making these and didn't use the tape for the last batch. The ribbon and glue to stick it to the can. Washi tape would look great too. At the time I did these I didn't have any so improvised.
A finished can of lovely Tombow markers!
I took my DH's handy, dandy, power drill, added an extra long bit driver and a screw with a large head and screwed these papered cans to the wall by my work space. If you look closely at the picture you can see the screw in the center of the can holding my glue. If you don't have power tools, no worries, you can use a screw driver. It just takes a little muscle to push the tip of the screw through the bottom of the tin can and hold it while you get it mounted on the wall but You can do it!
Now go make your creative space tidy, yea right, well organized at least and let me know if you have any other ideas for organizing your work space.
Thanks for visiting, bye for now.
I had some left over wallpaper, the heavy kind that is actually paint-able, but any wall paper would work. So would a magazine page, brown paper bag or your scraps of card stock but those all need to be glued and the wall paper comes with it's very own glue that actually sticks! Next was a clean tin can. Not the one from soup, they are to small, mine were from Hunt's spaghetti sauce actually, it is 5.75 inches tall and 3.25 inches wide. As long as it is tall enough that your pens don't fall out while on it's side use what you have. 
I took my DH's handy, dandy, power drill, added an extra long bit driver and a screw with a large head and screwed these papered cans to the wall by my work space. If you look closely at the picture you can see the screw in the center of the can holding my glue. If you don't have power tools, no worries, you can use a screw driver. It just takes a little muscle to push the tip of the screw through the bottom of the tin can and hold it while you get it mounted on the wall but You can do it! 
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