Stamp Storage Organization

The organization of my clear stamp collection has been a project a few years in the making. I’ve intended a certain outcome for quite some time and keep working on it little by little. I think now is the time to finish it up.

After seeing Jennifer McGuire‘s system a few years back I decided to use the Avery Elle storage pockets and purchased them about 3 years ago. I never got around to setting it up until last year when I was refreshing my studio.

Most of my stamp sets were from Papertrey Ink and stored in the CD cases. This worked fine for me, but as I’ve collected other manufacturers, I want one place to store them and less of a footprint than the CD cases took.

So I decided on the Avery Elle pockets and Fridge Binz for storage.

I purchased badge holders to place the stamps on and slide into the pockets. I wanted something clear and sturdy, the idea came to me when I was sorting through some memorabilia and came across large badge holders from a concert. I ordered a large amount through Amazon here.

I know there is a lot of info about different type of acrylics and polymer and what is “safe” to store stamps on, etc. I am not particularly concerned about my stamps lasting forever, so it is working for now and I have not had any melting or warping issues.

One of the challenges for me with stamping/cardmaking is I can never remember what sentiments I have and where to find them. I have a lot of stamp sets that have multiple purpose sentiments. So I developed a symbol system using Web Dings in word software and set up labels to identify the stamp set.

On the label is the name of the set and the manufacturer. Then there are symbols included on the label that identify types of sentiments or graphics included in the set. This has helped me immensely because I can flip through quickly and recognize what sets have a sympathy sentiment or some type of encouraging sentiment.

After getting all the sets labeled, it was time to decide how to sort them.

I purchased plastic folders from the Dollar Tree (they have a few different designs) and cut them into 4 pieces to use as dividers. I rounded the corners at the top and used my Dymo LetraTag labelmaker to add labels to the dividers.

I divided the sets into the following categories:

Scrapbook/Journal

Food

Home/DIY

Flourish

Backgrounds/Pattern

Labels/Tags

Travel

Birthday/Celebrate

Sentiments

Alphas/123

Flowers/Nature

Animals

Christmas/Winter

Autumn/Halloween

Masculine/Boy

Feminine/Girl

Love/Wedding

Baby

It may seem like a lot, but I basically just started organically making piles of stamp collections and then decided on the categories.

So far this system has worked well for me. The bins with my stamp sets sit on the bottom of my cart facing the space where I primarily stand to create.

Due to all the clear components and labeling, everything is easy to spot, and I feel like I’m using more stamps now that I can find them easier.

For a quick video walk through, check out my YouTube channel:

Any questions? Leave a comment.

Roller Stamp Storage – Magnetic Solution

I recently revamped my studio a bit. I had to get rid of some furniture that just wasn’t working. Even though it was good storage, my old computer chest was taking up too much room. Getting rid of that helped me purge a lot of supplies. I replaced it was a wall cabinet. I will do a studio tour soon.

But as I was moving things around, I needed somewhere new for my roller stamps. I have too many to keep them in my Harbor Freight revolving tray.

I read somewhere that they are magnetic, so I thought I would try to find some heavy duty magnets to attach them to the side of my drawers. My drawers are actually a rustic (think industrial farmhouse) sideboard I purchased from World Market that is no longer available.

I ordered some magnets from Amazon that were small and round. Then on Zulily one day I saw the square cube magnets and order them as well. It ended up working better with the cube magnets and I didn’t need to glue them or anything. They are strong enough to adhere the stamps to the sideboard just by the positioning of the cube.

The cube magnets can be found at alaboard.com and I’ve also seen them in Paper Source.

I have a few extra I am using on the fridge.

Happy Stamping!

More Scrapbooking! – Divided Page Protector Style

I am in trouble because I am almost out of this style of We R Memory Keepers divided page protectors and I don’t think they make them anymore! The 8.5×11 does not have enough variety. I will have to start using my WRMK fuse tool more I suppose.

Here are a few more layouts for my 2016 album. I mostly just fill in with some pattern paper or journal cards and add some text to photos.

The square prints were printed from Social Print Studio. I love their thick, matte photo paper. I simply added a few alpha stickers (Simple Stories) and some journaling onto photos.

These photos are a day at the zoo with my nephew. I used this single sheet of paper from Bella Blvd The Zoo Crew collection to make the inserts in middle of page.

A few photos from Easter 2016. I am quite obsessed with the mason jar paper from Echo Park Made from Scratch collection, I think I have 3 more sheets of it in my stash. Very versatile, makes for cute cards too.

If anyone has any of these page protectors they want to sell, let me know.