Color Coded Art Supply Holder

Like most kids, mine has a ton of art supplies.  Which is great - creativity, huzzah! But he has so many, without a little organization, trying to find the perfect color makes fun art time frustrating.

I was contemplating a pvc based storage system, when I realized I have all the materials for a zero cost, cute, easy storage caddy already.

Yep, tp/paper towel tubes cut short and the top of a kid sized shoe box.

I figured out how many tubes fit easily around the top of the lid, leaving some space in the middle for stamps/stickers/ephemera, and made a list of colors...

 mixed them in my old egg carton paint palette...

and slapped on the first coat of paint.

One coat was OK, but not quite as vibrant as I'd hoped.  I might go with a primer coat first, if I were doing this project again.

I let them dry for a little while - I used the Kiddo's craft paints, so the paint was dry (or mostly dry) in less than an hour.

The second coat was much better.

I glued the tubes to each other, and to the sides of the box top, to keep the tubes from flying around when the Kiddo grabs for a new color.  I mysteriously don't have any white glue laying around the house, so I went with the wood glue I do have in the garage.

I let the glue dry, and had the Kiddo help me sort his supplies into colors.

Ta Daaaa.