SU Marker Storage Idea

Modifying a Stampin' Up marker case into a display holder for your work desk (scroll down for more pictures):

I am always looking for new and different ideas for storing art supplies in my studio.  One of the goals in storing and organizing is to make sure supplies are easily accessible.  I've come up with a great storage solution for my SU Markers by modifying the original case they came in.  

Now let me start by telling you that I bought my set of markers from SU a very long time ago, so they are the old style.  And they came in the case way back then.  I don't know if the case has changed with the new style markers but I thought this tip was worth sharing anyway.

Inside the box of markers, there are clear acrylic pieces that make it so each marker has it's own little "hole" in which to live.   I took those out of the box- it's several pieces that once they are confined in the box, stay together nicely.  When you remove them from the box, the come apart into several pieces.  This is very easily remedied by just wrapping some clear packing tape around the outside to hold them together.  

At this point, you can just set the nice acrylic holder on your desk and it looks very nice.  I wanted mine to tip forward so I could have easy access to all the colors.  What I did was use two triangle pieces of foam.  This foam is the kind that you can heat with your heat gun and press into a texture and use that as a stamp.  Remember that stuff?  I actually found a big bucket of it in the toy department years ago that was being sold as bathtub blocks.  I bought it and both my son and I had new toys!  (My son is in the military now... it was a long time ago!)

Once I found my two pieces of triangle foam, I attached them to the front of the acrylic holder with ATG tape.  This allows the holder to tip forward as pictured.

To finish it up, I created a chart on white cardstock that fits nicely on the front of the foam.  This hides the foam pieces and gives me a visual of the marker colors and guides me to where they are located in the holder.

I know that the common wisdom is to store markers flat so they don't dry out, but I've had my markers this way for years and years and they are holding up great.  I don't use them a lot, but when I do, they still work perfectly.

I wonder if the new SU marker packaging allows you to do this?  Or maybe you can find an empty case on ebay?