Previously I posted about my love for my inexpensive colored pencils.
I’ve continued my sketching and coloring habit and I really enjoy it – every evening after I get home I sit for about 15 minutes or so and draw an “object of the day.”
Mr SuzerSpace helps out by recommending random things around the house. I think he finds my drawings entertaining (who else does he know that sketches seltzer cans, spice jars and shoes?), and I am POSITIVE he enjoys how quiet I am when I’m coloring.
The only thing I really don’t like about my setup is trying to find the right colored pencil for the finish work. I had them in an upcycled jar, and that was OK, and I cut some cardboard dividers to try and keep it organized, but it was fiddly and didn’t really work.
So of course I spent several evenings browsing Pinterest and You Tube looking for a new solution.
As always, there was an overwhelming assortment of choices. I was really drawn (see what I did there?) to the wood blocks that had holes evenly drilled across them to hold the pencils. And I have plenty of scrap lumber and Mr. SuzerSpace loves to drill holes in things.
But here’s the thing. I know how to set my expectations. And the possibility of either him or me (or a combination) drilling 50 evenly spaced, perfectly straight, all at the same depth holes is absolutely zero. And I can almost guarantee that we would get tantalizing close to the end and THEN muck it up, leaving us to grumpily try and decide whether to start over again and again.
That’s not going to be good for my emotional health, my marriage or my pencils.
So I continued looking for a simpler option; one that had the possibility of discarding any goofs before assembling the final project.
I spied this video:
And I really liked the concept. I love to make things with paper, it seemed infinitely customizable and I was ready to launch into it when I discovered I do not have any posterboard in the house. But I did have a lot of construction paper, so as I usually do, I heavily modified the tutorial to suit what I had and my patience level and I’m super happy with the end result.
I very much recommend watching the above video (it’s short and doesn’t have crazy loud music or anything). There are some great measuring and assembly tips in it, and without knowing those, I would have definitely had to start over at least once.
In addition to subbing construction paper for the posterboard, I cut my strips of paper shorter than shown in the video. That let me roll them without them spiraling too much, which meant I didn’t have to hide the tubes since they all ended up at the same height.
To my astonishment, my tubes exactly fit a small cardboard box I had hoarded away in the basement (Hi, I’m Susan, and I’m recovering Box-A-Holic!). Exactly 52 tubes fit in the box, and I have 50 colored pencils plus two mechanical pencils. It was like I had a plan all along!
So if you have a pile of pens and pencils that need organization, some paper and glue, watch the video and then start rolling!
