DIY Distress Ink Pad Storage Spinner Tutorial!

Not long ago I got heavily back into my watercolor painting again!  I really enjoy the art journaling and recently the Bible Journaling!  Through finding inspiration for watercolor on Pinterest, I discovered how some people used their distress ink pads and markers for traditional watercoloring! I was very intrigued!  I did more research and discovered several artists who are especially good at this!  I'll list them in a bit.  Now I have all of the ink pads and all of the markers!!  Up until the writing of this post, the 1st 3 months of the 2015 colors have been released!!  A while back I wrote a post about how I'm storing all my art pens, pencils, markers, etc.  But I needed a really great & compact way to store my ink pads!  So, of course, I head over to Pinterest and go on the hunt for DIY Distress Pad Storage!  I saw lots of good ideas, but the one I liked the best was made by Jenny Potter over at Jens Joint.  It was just the one I wanted!  So I downloaded her PDF of supplies and measurements.  I did have to make several changes b/c her spinner went 11 shelves high and I needed mine to go 16 shelves high in order to accommodate all of the 2015 releases.  But my individual slots are the same size as hers.  Also, being that it is considerably higher I was concerned about it being top heavy & wobbly so I added some reinforcement pieces to handle the height.  I'll explain more below.  I also added a velcro feature to hold my sponge blenders too!   Jenny did a video series for her spinner I think there are 5 parts that she recorded live as she built her spinner.  The last one shows her assembly process.  It was very helpful.

To start, I followed Jenny's supply sheet and I made 64 of these little slots, cut from 12x12 black medium weight chipboard.  They are cut 8 1/2" long by 2 5/8" wide.  Then scored at 1" - 4 1/4" - 5 1/4".   Next, from black cardstock I cut 64 hinges at 1" by 2 1/2".  Then scored down the long middle at 1/2".  After scoring everything I glued the hinges on and then started gluing the columns together 16 high.  I used clips to hold them together tightly until they dried.  (clipped on both sides).  The shelves look a little wobbly after glued together but they will straighten up after we add the side panels.

Here I assemble my interior side panels.  They go on the inside and won't be showing so no need to cover these in pretty paper.  These pieces are all 2 5/8" wide.  The long piece of chipboard is 12" tall (which is the tallest size possible).  So I had to add another piece of chipboard that was about 5 1/4" tall and glue them together so that the piece would be as tall as my columns, which is about 17" tall.  The 4 bottom left pieces are black cardstock and I use them to help secure the 2 pieces of chipboard together.  You'll need a total of 8 of these panels.  4 for the inside and 4 for the outside.

I glued the 2 pieces together end to end.  DO NOT overlap.  Get glue on the very ends.  And press together.

Next, I glued the smaller hinge on top and did the same on the other side.

Then I glued the larger hinge on both sides as well. 

You can see here the side view of your new reinforcement panel.  Nice and sturdy!

Here is me holding up my reinforcement panel to see how it's gonna do!!  Getting excited!!

It's gonna be great!!

So, I glued all of my re-inforcement panels on to the right sides of my columns.  I held it on with small clips until it was really dry. 

Next, I covered the 4 remaining panels with some pretty paper.  I used my score tape here so that it wouldn't crinkle the paper with glue.

Here you can see how the columns straightened up once the reinforcement panels are glued on?  They'll straighten up even more after the pretty panels get glued on the other sides.

My next step involves some pink velcro!!  I only used the strip that is the stiff loop side.  I cut it into small pieces about 1/2" wide.  16 of them.  I also snipped off the tiny corners to make it more rounded.  No purpose for that, I just like rounded corners!  I used Ultimate Glue this time b/c I know these sponges can stick really good to that velcro!  I covered the backs with glue and used my bone folder to wipe of the excess glue from around the little velcro piece!  This is gonna be so cool!  Oh, I spaced the velcro pieces like this.  I measured 1 1/4" from one side and glued the out pieces along that line.  Then the other on a 1/2" line from the same side.

Here is what they will look like!! Fun!  Also, I missed a picture in here but get all of your velcro glued on and THEN glue on your outside panels to your columns.  So each column will have a black column on the right side and a pretty paper panel on the left side.

Now it's time to start thinking about putting everything together.  It may be an overboard move, but I decided to get a 1/2" dowel rod.  My husband widdled it down just a smidge to fit it into the center of my plastic spinner very tightly.  The spinner is 5 1/2" wide.  Btw, these spinners are somewhat hard to find, but Scrapadabadoo has them in stock here.  My spinner spins while the dowel rod stays still in the center.  I just thought this would help with the stability of the whole project while also provide a pick up handle at the top.

Next I have 4 pieces of 6" square medium weight chipboard.  I made sure I was dead center and cut a 1/2" hole to fit over my dowel rod.  I glued 2 of these together to made 2 total pieces from the 4.  Extra sturdiness!!

Here I am just trying things out to get a feel for my next step of gluing the columns together.  I slid 1 of the 6" square pieces down the rod and clipped my columns on.  Oh boy!!

Here is another overview shot.

And another overview shot showing all 4 columns! Now time to take them off and start gluing!

I started the gluing and squeezed the glue on like you see below.  I did not apply glue to that inside edge as you see b/c it won't be sticking to anything.  That part will be standing against the dowel rod.

Next, I mashed it down onto the black panel of another column.  I held it on here until it was pretty good and dry! 

Here is  a top view of this piece glued on.

I did this for a third column and mashed it onto this piece.

For the last column, you'll need to glue both sides where they meet.  Make sure it glues good in all the places!

Here are all 4 columns glued together! Make sure they are good and dry!

I noticed that some of my columns didn't match up to my tallest column.  =(

I layed on my top 6" square piece to see how it's gonna do.  You can see daylight through that gap!!

So I cut some chipboard pieces and filled in the gaps all around!  NOTE:  At this point, I have not glued the 6" square chipboard bottom to the spinner or to the column piece yet.  And I have not glued the top 6" square chipboard to the top of the column pieces yet either.  There's still a few things to do before we glue it all together! =)

Next step, cut 4 pieces of chipboard 6" x 2 1/4".  Then cut 4 pieces of your pretty paper 6" x 4 9/16".  Using the score tape (b/c I don't want the paper to crinkle with glue) tape one side of the chipboard, stick the paper on and then fold it over and tape the other side as shown.  Do this for all 4 pieces.

Here are all 4 pieces wrapped in pretty paper.

Since my square is exactly 6" and my 4 pieces are exactly 6" long.  I trimmed just a slight (maybe 1/8th of an inch off the end of each piece so that they would overlap on 1 side so everything would fit perfectly on top of the square.

I glued these pieces like you see below.  Make sure the glue is dried really good before you move to the next one.

After those 4 pieces are really dry it's time to glue them onto the square.

Then lay a few books on top of your square so that it all drys perfectly in place.

After that dried very good I placed some glue along all of the inside corners as you see.  Then I ran my finger down each side to smooth it out.

I really didn't like the rough edges showing so I decided to add some pretty trim!!  I measured some pieces and layed down some glue!

I trimmed the trim!  Then glued the ends really good!

Now it's time to add the top shelf to the top!  Lay down some glue and make sure it's sticking evenly all over!

So here we have some more rough edges showing, yucky!  

So I picked out some pretty blue ruffle trim and glued it on! 

 Now it's time to focus on our spinner and final assembly!!  Our 1/2" dowel rod after slightly shaved down on the end with a knife fits very snuggly inside the center hole of the spinner.  Don't shave it too much b/c you don't want it to be too lose in there.  Do a little bit at a time and keep checking it!  We reinforced with some super glue around the wood.  Be careful not to do ANYTHING to cause your spinner not to spin.

Then we added a little glue to the top side as well.  Be careful!

Next, my dear husband drilled a hole in the top where I will screw my pretty knob on for the very last step.  The blue tape you see on the drill bit is where we measured the length of the knob so he would know how far to drill down.  Be careful and drill straight!  Of course, this step is entirely optional, you don't have to add a knob on top!   One thing you might be wondering is how are we going to spin it if we glue the dowel rod to the spinner.  B/c the the center of the spinner as well as the bottom side of the spinner does not spin.  Only the top piece of the plastic spins.  The knob will only serve to pick up the entire unit to move it around.  To spin you just touch the unit and slightly push it!

Now it's time to glue the base onto the spinner.  I traced a pencil mark to make sure I glued inside the lines!

The slide the chipboard down the dowel rod and smoosh it to the spinner.  Then turn it over and look at your squished up glue!

Now glue the other side of that same chipboard!! Almost done!!

Then slide your entire unit down the dowel rod and onto your gluey chipboard!!  Make sure it has full contact and drys good!

Now for the last step!!

Screw on your pretty knob!!  EEeeks!! All done!

And here it is!!!!!

Top shelf with pretty knob on top!

Currently I have ALL colors up to the January 2015 release of Cracked Pistachio.

Love my little velcro foam blenders sticking right to the side next to it's ink pad!!  The glue held on tight as can be and didn't pull at all!

And there is plenty of room to hold all of the 2015 releases with 4 extra spaces beyond that!

I made some labels for you.  One label goes across the entire page and will wrap around your Distress Ink pad.  I printed on 28lb copy paper, which is just a touch thicker than regular copy paper.  I got a ream of Hammermill from Walmart.  When you print, just make sure your settings are set to "borderless".  I made trim lines for you too!  I used my foam blenders to ink on the colors!!

UPDATED:   As of this posting I have the 2015 Jan Feb Mar Apr May colors on this list.  Cracked Pistachio, Abandoned Coral, Mermaid Lagoon, Fossilized Amber, and Twisted Citron.  As the new ones come out I will update the PDF's. 

• Sheet 1 PDF
• Sheet 2 PDF
• Sheet 3 PDF

I hope ya'll enjoyed this loooong tutorial!  Thanks to Jenny for the inspiration!

If you are interested in the Documented Faith facebook group, everyone is welcome to join us!

Oh, and if you enjoy using Distress Ink in a more traditional style of watercoloring, then you've got to come over to my Facebook Group  Distress Ink for Watercolor! We'd love to have you join us!

My Personal Links:

Tiffany Doodles Links:

• www.TiffanysGarden.com my crafty personal blog where you'll find my watercolor painting, bible journaling, Distress Ink stuff and organizing my craft stash!
• www.TiffanyDoodles.com where you can find all of my drawings that you can color yourself!
• @Tiffer73 Instagram - ALL of my art and craftiness!!
• Distress Ink for Watercolor Facebook Group If you like to use your Distress Ink in a more traditional style of watercolor, then come join our group!
• My Watercolor Painting Facebook Page
• My Sewing and Crocheting Facebook Page