Alcohol marker storage sleeve - quick, simple, extremely cost-effective

Hi there,

today I've got a quick and simple little tutorial for you!

I've been looking for a way to store my alcohol markers for a while, and I wanted a solution that didn't require much time or money in making, didn't take up much shelf space and was see-through (a deal-breaker for pretty much all store-bought options). 

So this is what I ended up doing!

You need: one of those inexpensive plastic sleeves you store documents in (I used Din A 4, but you can adapt pretty much any size), a pen, a ruler and a stapler. 

Draw two lines parallel to the margin WITHOUT the holes, one 11,5cm and one 12,5cm away from the side (that makes two parallel lines 1cm apart, just to be clear).

Cut along the 12,5cm line, cutting BOTH sheets of the sleeve at the same time. Keep the part WITHOUT the holes, discard the rest.
Cut along the 11,5cm line next, but this time, cut only ONE sheet. If one sheet is 1cm shorter than the other, it will make it easier to insert your pens in the end.

Next, draw a line every 2,5cm; this will leave you with a row of squares which are 2,5 cm wide and 11.5/12.5cm tall each. You do that along the entire width of the sleeve. For Din A4, you will end up with a total of eleven pen pockets plus a little leftover end (don't cut it off, we'll attach a piece of ribbon later).

Now, staple along the lines! At least 4-5 staples per line (more if you want more, feel free ;-)
Once you get further towards the middle, you might have to roll up your sleeve so it fits your stapler (see photo).

To finish, you can (optionally) staple on a piece of ribbon that allows you to roll up your pen sleeve and tie it together.

Et voilà - eleven of your pens have just found a new home:

This is what it look like rolled up and tied together:
(Oh no - it just struck me that I'll make another one and tie up all my shades of grey, and that sounds KINKY!)

Of course you could use a sewing machine instead of a stapler, but I really wanted to show you the quickest possible way I can think of!

In fact, this project started out as a prototype for a pen sleeve I want to sew myself one day when I have more time and patience for that sort of thing. But sometimes, having a quick, cheap and still practical solution at your disposal is just what you need in order to keep both cost and time investment at a minimum (maybe you've been there, too).

This thing cost me less than 0,10€ and less than 5 minutes once I had the idea.

What do you think? Let me know if you try this out. 

Now go grab that stapler,

love, Kat