Getting organized in the New Year-a caddy for my pens

Hi everybody! Hope you had a wonderful holiday season; as my first post for the new year, I decided I'd jump on the storage and organization bandwagon! I really needed to get my favourite pens, markers and pencils all in one place, and this awesome tool caddy is the perfect place for them (I made one for my paintbrushes LAST year!)

I used this gorgeous, delicate Heartfelt Creations paper; I love the soft colours and the Scripture verses that are included in the paper pad.

Once I chose the papers, I painted the edges of the caddy that would be uncovered with a light wedgewood blue acrylic paint, then cut the papers to fit each piece, just laying the pieces on the reverse side of the paper and tracing around them. I then sanded and inked the edges a bit before gluing them on. I also inked the edges of the fussy cut verse before attaching it to the front with foam tape.

The leafy swirl I cut into two pieces, one for each end of the caddy-I love how easily these chipboard embellishments can be cut to fit whatever project I'm using them for! I painted them with the wedgewood acrylic before heat embossing them with distress embossing powder. they were then lightly rubbed with soft blue ink.

I diecut the flowers and layered the 3 sizes after inking the edges and shaping them. The trick to shaping them I learned at a Heartfelt Creations workshop at CHA a few years back (although my tools are much more makeshift than theirs were!) I placed the flowers on my mouse pad, then used the round end of a crochet hook, placed it in the center of the flower and gently rotated it in a small circle until the flower sunk in in the center and the petals curled outward. Once they were glued together I added some antique gold microbeads in the centers.

I love to fussy cut and these papers had gorgeous vines that were perfect to add to the top of my caddy; a soft bow finished it off.

I hope you enjoyed seeing my project; I'm looking forward to how much more organized I'll be now....actually I think it just might take a "smidge" more than a caddy to make me stay organized, but hey, it's a start, right???

Happy New Year and have a terrifically creative 2018

GYPSY SOUL ITEMS USED

Tool Caddy

Leafy Swirl

OTHER ITEMS USED

Heartfelt Creations 12x12 paper pad-
Countryside Evening collection

Ranger Distress embossing powder-Pumice Stone
Versacolor Ink-Polar blue
Versamark Ink
Ingvild Bolme Ink-Old Road
Aleene's Tacky white glue
microbeads
foam tape