Storing Stickles … it works! It actually works!

I found this idea on Pinterest about … oh, I dunno, …  a gazillion years ago? – maybe.  And although I thought it was a good(ish) idea at the time I found it, I put it into that category folder inside my brain of:  “Good looking Pinterest ideas which probably don’t actually work in reality”.

How wrong was I!!!

It really does actually work!
I can’t believe it!

I already had one of the required perspex/acrylic certificate ‘stands’ so all I needed was some velcro.  Do you think I could find this simple thing anywhere?  It was rarer than Gold dust here where I live.  However, a leaflet left in my mail box came at just the right time.  Lidl were having packets of it in their stores, amongst the crafting specials,  the following week.  I couldn’t believe my luck, neither could I believe how cheap it was when I went in to buy it.  They had white or black, and I could have either sticky backed self adhesive, or the unsticky type.  I decided upon the self adhesive and crossed my fingers that it was the ‘self adhesive’ which actually stuck to things!

I cleaned up the certificate holder so that it was sparkling clean (to make sure that I gave the self adhesive Velcro a fighting chance), and then sat working out where I should stick the Velcro for maximum bottle storage.  I’d noticed that the idea I’d seen on Pinterest had only shown three rows of bottles, but when I measured up, three seemed so very far apart, and had such a waste of space in between the rows, so I inserted a sheet of A4 into the certificate holder, but left just a smidgen of the edge sticking out along one side, so that I could make a little dot at the points as I measured them.

I worked out that on an A4 Certificate holder (which mine is – but check the size of yours or check before you buy one, as there are various sizes) – If you measured one centimetre down from the top of the paper and draw a straight line across the paper, then from that line measure 8cm down and drawn another line, and do it a further two times.  You should then have four lines.

Then … cut four lengths of the hooks side of some of your Velcro, in the WIDTH of the perspex stand.  (I used black but you can use any colour you like).  Insert your piece of paper with the lines on it, back into the stand and lay it on your desk.

• It helps to leave the ‘foot’ of the stand hanging over the front edge of your desk so that the stand lays completely flat.

Using your drawn lines on the paper as the centre marker for the middle of the Velcro tape, stick the hooks side of the Velcro to the perspex certificate holder/stand and press down firmly to make sure that it’s adhered in all the places along its strip.

• I would use the hooks side of the velcro on the stand, –  and the eyes side of the velcro on the bottles.  (The eyes side is much softer to the touch, so it will be more comfortable for your fingers, – so put the soft side of the velcro on the bottles.)

Do that four times, so that you’ve got all your lines ready and waiting for your bottles.

Now … get all your bottles of Stickles out and count them.  Cut that amount of little bits of the ‘eye’ side of the Velcro – roughly about one centimetre wide strips –  and when you’ve got them all ready … lay your ruler down on your desk in a comfortable place that you can lean over and look ‘down’ on the rule.  Then taking one bottle of Stickles, lay it next to your rule, with the bottom of the bottle at the 2.5 centimetre measurement.  Where the beginning of the 1cm measurement sits (not quite half way on the bottle), that’s where you’re going to put the bottom of the little Velcro strip you’ve just cut.  Apply it.  Press it down firmly, then hang it on your new Stickles Storage System!  Repeat for the rest of your bottles!

A slightly blurred, but closer up view.

VOILA!  A Pinterest ‘make’ which actually works!

This works SO well for me, as I’m one of those crafters who, if I put things away in boxes or cupboards, ‘out of sight’ means ‘out of mind’,  and I forget them.

• I know that the detailed instructions I’ve given to make this,  might make it sound complicated.  Nothing could be further from the truth.

This is the most simple thing I’ve ever ‘made’ in my life.  It’s so quick and easy that I really don’t feel I should be ‘pleased’ with myself for doing it.  And, I’m not.  I’m more ‘pleased’ to have found something on Pinterest which actually works, and I also wish I’d have had a go at this a long time ago.

Oh … and if you look closely, you’ll see that there are two bottles of Dovecraft Glitter Glue hanging on the stand too … which shows that even with slightly bigger bottles than the Ranger Stickles, the measurements I’ve given still work.  I think that because the stand (and most of these types of stands)  tilts back slightly, it means that the bottles actually hang just a little proud of the stand at the bottoms of the bottles (yes, the bottoms – not the upside down tops, – if you follow me),  and this means that taking a bottle from the stand is easy to do.

Before I go … 

I know my blog has been rather quiet for a couple of weeks … life just kind of gets in the way sometimes.  But I’ve been crafting and do have a few things to share.  I just have to find the time to load the photos and crop/re-size them.

Thank you so much for coming to share a bit of time with me.  I’m so thrilled that you’re here, and I thank you from the heart of my bottom for coming.  It reall does mean so much to me that you pop by for a visit, so: Thank You. xxx

Wishing you a truly blessed rest of your day!

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