ScrapFX: Recycled Rubbish - Desk Organiser

I'd forgotten about the down side of buying a new laptop... not the reloading of all the software, I knew that was going to take a bit of time, but the updating of all the software especially the operating system.

The downloading bit quite happily happens in the background, you don't even notice it most of the time. It's when you go to shutdown and it tells you that the laptop needs to install all the updates that the boring bit REALLY begins!!

In case you didn't know... your laptop, or computer, will not complete the shutdown process until it has installed all the updates. All very well in theory until you realise that the mere 70 odd updates it needs to install are actually going to take OVER NIGHT to complete. And during this installation process, you can't do anything with your laptop... at all, other than keep checking to see if it's done!

And if you are really unlucky, then the same thing happens the following night as well... I must have been really unlucky to have this happen two nights in a row.

The good news... is that not having access to my new laptop, meant I didn't spend all night on it updating and downloading software or playing games on Facebook or googling tutorials or Pinterest.

Instead... I got to spend two fun-filled nights cleaning up the studio. Slow progress I will admit and I still have a long way to go, though I did make considerable progress and I was happy with what I achieved.

When the aforementioned cleaning got a bit boring (as it does), I did squeeze in some crafting to complement the cleaning process.

I'm not a coffee drinker... and my apologies to all of you who are, but I hate the stuff. I don't like the taste or the smell and have been told (to my face) that I actually make a horrible coffee. Of course it may have been that I was making sure I didn't get asked to make any ever again, but you never heard that from me.

I drink, when I'm cold, hot chocolate, chai lattes or soup.

Which means I have managed to accumulate quite a collection of used hot chocolate containers as well as various other containers... like Pringles tins.

I've seen some really cool samples where crafters have recycled tins into desk organisers, so I figured why couldn't I use my stash of chocolate and Pringles tins... same thing really.

I decided upon a collection of three chocolate tins and two small Pringles tins as I figured these would all be a great size for pens, scissors, tools etc on my scrap desk instead of them lying in a pile as they were at the time.

I selected patterned paper from the Basic Grey Eva Collection which I had in my stash. I covered each tin in a different patterned paper.

I then adhered a coloured raffia ribbon around the top and bottom of each tin to hide the silver edges and give the collection of tins a unifying element.

Finally I adhered the tins to each other in the position I wanted them, using double sided foam adhesive. This filled in the slight gaps between the tins. (Each tin had a slight lip top and bottom so there was a thin gap between the sides of the various tins even though the top and bottom were touching.)

Then I filled them up with all the stuff from my desk. I was surprised at how much "stuff" I was able to fit in the tins.

I grouped like things together - for instance all my scissors in one tin with some other bulky tools, pens in another tin, my most frequently used liquid adhesives in another tin.

And then the extra things I added were a selection of small bulldog clips onto some of the tins. I frequently end up with notes on small pieces of paper, layout ideas and I need one place to put them all until I decide what to do with them.

Here are pictures to show you the finished desk organiser: