Stamp storage - clip it up versus a4 binder

[colleym]

Hi everyone,


I am going to be getting a garden craft shed so should have more space and want to sort out all my stamps. Can't decide between the clip it up ( could look messy ) or a4 files. I am thinking of getting the original scrapbox, so could also use the draws in there. Does anyone have either or any recommendations?
Please help !!

Thanks in advance
The Undecisive one

[Eileen C]

I have neither - I use A5 storage! When I was looking at rationalising my stamp storage I was quite shocked to find how many stamps I had, so I tried to make an economical and flexible (i.e. expandable!) storage system.

I use A5 sheets of card from Rymans, stamp according to sets or themes and them laminate them. I laminate a second plain sheet (when I had my old laminator with a carried I just bonded an empty A5 laminating sheet). I stick / cling the stamps on the stamped sheet, place on the plain sheet and add a sellotape 'hinge'.

I label with a category (e.g. 'Flowers 2' or 'Sentiments - mixed sentiments 4') along the long edge and file them in a Really Useful 9L XL box. Or two. Or even just possibly three (hangs head in embarassment)

I'll try to take some pics. It's not glamorous, but it does work, and makes it easy to grap a few sheets to take to a crop (they fit in a popper file in my tote) and also to find the stamps I want. Occasionally I redo sheets if I get more than stamps of a sort (eg my 'miscellaneous section) but the effort and cost of doing so is minimal.



ETA: Actually this set shows how I've moved one of the swirls to a swirl page

[Jimjams]

Oh this sounds interesting Eileen - One of my 2012 goals is sorting my stamps to be able to find them more easily and therefore use them more often and they must be easily packable for a crop - so photos would be brilliant!

[Eileen C]

Ooops, huge photos, will try and modify!

ETA: Still big but at least they are separated

[Jimjams]

Thanks Eileen - now a bit small as I'm not quite sure what the hinge and plain sheet is for ... protection?

[jay670120]

Some of my friends stick their acrylic stamps into clear CD cases then you can use a CD storage box to store them in. They can be labled too. This works well for all the smaller (cd or less size) stamps.

[colleym]

Ooh, thanks for info.

[daisychain888]

I currently have my stamps stored in several A4 binders using the same principle as Eileen (laminated sheets etc); it was great when I first did it but as the collection has grown a little () I don't find it works as well, so I personally wouldn't recommend it now.

I am due a sort out and will either go down the same route as Eileen with some kind of file system or now that the CD case idea has been pitched I might use that instead!

[Mrs Cheshire]

I've got a desk top organiser similiar to this that I store my stamps in. don't have that many though!

[colleym]

I have tried the cd storage in a drawer and flick through them, but I have too many stamps and it is taking up too much space.

I also like the original packing sometimes, so possibly laminate, then glue dot on back of original and stick it down a possibility.

[Nerlly]

I have tried the cd storage in a drawer and flick through them, but I have too many stamps and it is taking up too much space.

I also like the original packing sometimes, so possibly laminate, then glue dot on back of original and stick it down a possibility.

It depends, as I think you said earlier, where you're going to put your stamps. Drawers tend not to be big enough, unless you've got a filing cabinet, lol.

I use A4 ring binders which works for me because I have an Expedit unit and so access is from the front. Baskets or boxes wouldn't work because I would have to pull them out, take the lid off, blah blah blah. But if you have top access then boxes, preferably not stacked, would be fine.

Like you, I keep the original packaging. I don't stamp my own index sheet because it takes forever and doesn't really help if you're putting the stamps on top of it. I have plastic sleeves from Ryman's - they do stronger ones, and come to think of it I bought some recently and have no idea what I've done with them! I laminate loads of A4 copy paper, trim a little off the long edge to make more room, and stick the stamps to them in their original sets. Then I slip the index sheet in front. If it's a small A5 index sheet I staple it to the laminated A4, at the side or the bottom so it doesn't interfere with removal of the sheet from the pocket.

My stamps are stored by manufacturer, which makes it very easy to start up a new file if the others gets full. Originally I started with 'rubber', 'clear' and 'words', but have now added individual files for PaperArtsy, Crafty Individuals, and some mixed files for other manufacturers. I can see my Artistic Outpost stamps getting their own file soon, too!

I also started - but haven't really kept up with - a recipe-box with index sheets for all the stamps in it, filed under image type. This is very time consuming but does become more useful as your stamp collection grows. So, for example, if I wanted a swirl, I would look under the 'decorative elements' section at the 'swirls' sheet and pick the one I wanted. You have to put the name of the manufacturer/set on there, obviously.

I store my papers by manufacturer as well. It works for me because I can usually recall a particular design I want to use, and if I can't go straight to it then by having to flip through other papers I often find a better option.

[Weaselwise]

This problem grows like topsy - everybody has their own way of storing their stamps and they are all different - it's hard to know which one to go for. The box my clear stamps is in is groaning at the seams so I really need to do something about it, but have yet to pick one of the methods that appeals to my haphazard way of thinking.

So far I'm using A5 acetate sheets, stamping on the front and clinging them on the back, then slipping them into an A5 polypocket, 'cos the only spare shelf I have available is a little over A5 height... however that could all change... I do rather like Really Useful Boxes (I have enough of them!)

However, methinks this is going to take forever, cos its not just the stamping on the acetates (thats the easy bit!), its the cataloguing of them afterwards that I'm trying to fathom out. I've seen manual methods and computerised ones, and that is what is putting me off doing much more at the moment.

[Eileen C]

The blank sheet at the back is for protection, otherwise small stamps get knocked off when you put them in and out of the box.

I've tried the CD box thing, but I found that quite a few didn't fit in the boxes, and for some A5 sets of stamps you needed at least 3 CD cases. After doing a few sets I was using loads of cases so stopped - although I do use CD cases for my Nesties (except the biggest ones ) I know some people use DVD cases, but it's quite difficult to get them without the spider in.

Caution re using sheets of acetate, especially if you have cling mounted rubber stamps - the acetate reacts with the cling and makes it stop sticking / clinging. I read this somewhere, and checked with the few cling stamps I had which had been, at that stage, put on acetate sheets in an binder, and it is true - my clinging stamps clung no more!

[Alipeeps]

I have a craft stacker storage unit and have all my clear stamps, in their original packets, in drawers in there. I also have all my woodmounted stamps in drawers in there as the 1" drawers are the perfect size to fit the woodmounted stamps and I can open a drawer and see at a glance all the images in there.

For my growing collection of cling-mounted rubber stamps I bought a cheap laminator machine and laminator pockets from WH Smiths and either laminate the original packaging insert with the images on or stamp the images onto A4 paper and laminate that, stick the stamps to the laminated sheet and store in A4 ring binders on my Expedit.

ETA: Re: Nestie storate mentioned above... a fab idea I picked up from somewhere.... in Hobbycraft you can buy rolls of sticky-backed magnetic tape. I stuck strips of this along the side of an Expedit and all my Nesties cling happily to it.

[Eileen C]

I have a strip of magnetic tape in each of the CD boxes. For the few I have which don't fit in CD cases I have them on A4 magnetic sheets in pockets in an A4 file.