It's official my crafting room is in much need of a major overhaul. I can't find anything easily, so rather than crafting being a joy its becoming a challenge.
I'm very lucky to be the proud owner of many many many stamps - have you got a great system for storage you can share?
I realise that I may have to use a few types of storage to cover those small one-off stamps to sheets with a collection of stamps.........any help/advise greatly appreciated
Many thanks in advance
Lou x
I wouldn't say it's the best system but this works for me - I have my cling stamps on A4 laminated sheets of card which I store in ring binders. I like to keep sets together but some people like to store according to type eg sentiments, flowers etc. If I have several sets from a single manufacturer I keep them in the same ring binder. Small stamps get put together on a sheet. I find it easy to flick through the ring binder when I'm looking for a particular stamp or even just for inspiration.
I had a friend who didn't bother with ring binders but just had her laminated sheets upright in a RUB so she could flick through them easily and pull out what she needed.
I found a good storage solution, old CD cases, take out the black plastic disc holder and then put your stamps on each side of the case. I put sentiments in a couple of cases, xmas in others and so on. You can see what you have at a glance and group them according to the theme.
You can label the spine and store them on a shelf and see what you have easily.
You can buy empty ones really cheaply or raid your old CD stash:)
Thanks both for sharing your storage techniques. I think I'll give both a go and see how I get on.
Lou x
The majority of my clear stamps are now in stamp storage pockets from Avery Elle.
I use the Tim Holtz punched sleeves which are a lot thicker for my small collection of cling background stamps.
For a visual idea it's worth checking out Jennifer McGuire's blog posts and YT organisation videos.
She is super organised and obviously cardmaking is her job so there's a lot of money spent on making her organization work for her, but there are good tips and ideas that you can tweak to meet your needs.
I don't use the exact same storage boxes, etc. as her, but the wallet system is definitely a great one to make your storage more uniform. I've also found that TK Maxx has been selling some good clear boxes like fridge binz in their kitchen section and have a container from there to hold my newest purchases on my desk so they are in easy reach and reminding me to use them before filing them away with the rest of my supplies. I also like the Variera boxes from IKEA's kitchen section as they're a nice size for being able to flip through larger stamp sets in particular.
I also got a label maker and boy, does it make things faster for finding and organising your stamp sets.
I've also recently started to add my stamps and dies to an Evernote system so that I can do a digital search of my stash when looking for a specific sentiment, image or die. It also should prevent me from accidentally purchasing something I already own or have from someone else. In theory! ^_^ I'm really wanting to keep on top of this, so when I buy something new I add it to evernote straight away and if I use something old that's not in the system I make sure I add it before putting it away again. This really helped me out when searching for a particular word die at Christmas. It is also handy for inspiration, as you can paste in images of projects you've seen and save them in the note.
I am definitely no expert with evernote but I'm getting better and just using the free version. :)
I have way too many stamps to organise in separate envelopes, etc. Instead, I have four large plastic bins that I sort as follows: sentiment stamps, favourite stamps (that I use a lot), and two that are just general. I also tried the Tim Holtz storage binder but it's so full now, it won't close. I tried storing them individually in CD cases, but that was a nightmare having to pull out each case to find the one I want. I also have around 60 sets of Stampin' Up stamps that are in the boxes in which they came, but each box is labeled. I'm embarrassed about how many stamps I have -- probably a couple hundred. Lots of them have never been used but seemed like a good idea at the time! When I want a stamp, it's so difficult to find the one I want. I hope someone can find a better way other than building a barn and putting them all on display! :wacko:
I just put mine in some storage boxes from ikea.
I can flick though them all to find the one I want to use
I have some of mine in Avery Elle pockets, and some in DVD cases. I have put pieces of card to fit the Avery Elle pockets so everything looks uniform (OCD here) and the CD cases I stamped the stamps out onto blank sheets of paper and made them fit in the cases. I really need to list them so I can find what I want as its frustrating when you have loads. I store them in two trolleys from Hobbycraft along with my inks, and yes I have way too many but love them. I can attach pics later if anyone is interested.
Someone gave me an A4 folder with sturdy clear A4 pockets and I slide the the stamps in their packaging into the pockets, it's cheap and quick and works well for me. I did have everything in a four drawer cabinet but that was too much bending, then in RUB boxes but too messy: so far this is great.