Washi tape holder

Today is my last day of vacation. Sigh. My outing this morning included a stop at Caribou for a sparkling green tea lemonade and time to read a chapter of my book and then a visit to a local store called ArtScraps. The name pretty much says it all; it's a little shop filled with odds and ends you can re-purpose into whatever your heart desires. Everything in the store is donated -- by individuals, businesses, manufacturers -- so the stock changes all the time. There are traditional craft supplies, such as fabric remnants, beads, buttons and many different kinds of paper. But there are also more unusual supplies that may challenge your creativity, such as barrels full of bottle tops, empty cassette-tape cases, corks, empty baby food jars and old calendars. Today there were even shelves filled with old player-piano rolls for only $3 each. I'm telling you, if this place had been around when I was a kid, I would have been in heaven.

There are always good deals at ArtScraps. A lot of things are sold in bulk (maybe $5 for a grocery bag full), but there are plenty of little treasures for ten, twenty-five or fifty cents each. Today I bought eight gift boxes (two gold, two silver, four white), some double-sided adhesive tabs, two giant binder clips, two small cotton pouches, a 12" dowel and a 2" square piece of granite for less than $5 total. Sweet! What am I going to do with these goodies? Well, the gift boxes will be for Christmas, I'm going to try stamping on the pouches to make gift bags, and the binder clips will probably be covered with patterned paper to make cute desk accessories or photo holders. But the granite sample and dowel have already been put to good use:

Ta da! I made a holder for my washi tape. As I've started slowly collecting more washi tape, the rolls have been stashed in different places in my craft room. And when they are tucked away, I don't always remember to use them on my cards and other projects.

Now they are together in one place. Even better, they can sit on my table where I will see them and maybe use them more often. And they only take up a few inches of space on the table. Don't they look pretty?

This holder was really easy to make. I think it took me about five minutes, if that. (I swear it took me longer to figure out where I had put my darn hot glue gun.) The first thing I did was add a piece of cork to the bottom of the granite so it didn't scratch my table. I just traced the block on the cork, cut out the cork, covered the bottom of the granite block with Scor-Tape and adhered the cork. You could also use felt or fabric, but then you might want to use a hot glue gun for the adhesive.

To attach the dowel I put some hot glue on one of the ends and then placed it on the top of the granite, holding it for a minute or two while the glue set. I eyeballed the middle, but you could measure the granite and then mark the middle with a marker if you want to be precise. (I also noticed that my dowel isn't perfectly straight, but for a project that cost 75¢, I'm not going to let it bother me.) I added the washi tape, and I'm ready to go!

Where do you find unusual craft treasures? Thanks for stopping by!