Organization

February  11, 2011

Organizing the stamps.......

Long before Stampin Up released their new and wonderful clear mount stamps I was on the hunt for a better way to store my stamps in my then teeny-tiny scrapbook studio.  I wanted to reduce the space they were talking up and get rid of all that wood. I came across other acrylic stamp sets and loved how they were stored,  the were light as a feather, and they had the ability to be stored flat which made them so much easier to take to crops.  So the search began for a way to convert my red rubber Stampin Up collection into a flat, lightweight product.  I came across a product called Easy Mount which is basically the same product the new clear mount sets are mounted to and the pictures below show how I converted my entire stamp collection. Hope you enjoy!

Here is a picture of how each of my Stampin Up stamp sets are stored.

This is a closer look of the contents of the envelope with everything pulled out. Can you see the clear acetate that the stamp is adhered to? 

Another image here of the underside of the stamp, this is the Easy Mount film adhered to the stamp. Its clingy just like the new stamps offered by Stampin Up :)

  

This is the beginning of me removing the red rubber from its original backing. They are very easy to peel off of their adhesive. If they are still adhered to wood blocks than a few seconds in the microwave will do the trick. I didn't encounter any problems removing my stamps, but just in case I thought I would pass that tid-bit of info on.

This is what the stamp looks like once its been removed from its original adhesive that Stampin Up uses to attach them to the wood blocks 



 And here is the Easy Mount Film. Sticky on one side (very sticky), and clingy on the other.

This is the sticky side of Easy Mount exposed. WARNING! Do not let children or small pets near this stuff! Its that sticky!

                     

 

This is an example of the cases I purchased to store my stamp sets in. Originally I used empty CD cases, but they too become heavy and larger stamp sets didn't fit in them well and the cases cracked easily. These have held  up really well and I love that I can see my stamps through the semi-sheer envelope.

So do you want to know what this cost me to do? For the cases I paid about $5 for a set of 3, or 4. The Easy Mount is about $5 a sheet and you can get a ton of your stamps onto one sheet. And the rest, well that is priceless. Because I am in love with the way my stamps are stored and organized. You cant put a price tag on that :)

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February 3, 2011

The first of this year I finally got my act together and came up with a better way to organize my supplies. I cant tell you how happy I am with it, you know when you have an ah-ha moment! I cant believe it took me so long to get it together. But I think I had a couple of good excuses; 


1) I didn't use my supplies much (so no real urgency to get them organized!)
2) Recent move to Germany
3) I thought I had it all together! :)
4) I'm really a procrastinator at heart......

 So here is a pic of dividers I created in order to categorize all of my stamps... This was done in an effort to save time and keep my sanity, Every time I was creating a project I had to dig through everything I owned. Trust me this is no way to craft and it interrupts your mojo...

In order to find images quickly I created a cross reference binder with all of my stamps categorized to match the dividers. I did this by photo copying the images onto white card stock and placing them in a plastic sleeve. Now I am able to see every stamp I own, its size and I can easily locate it in a jiffy. Initially it took me an entire afternoon, but now when new stamps arrive they are copied and added in a snap. This makes stamping so much more fun and I am no longer frustrated by spending loads of time trying to locate an image.

I also organized my scraps this same weekend, I was on a organizational kick, can you tell? I had my scraps organized in one of those all in one file folders before doing this, and I really hated it. This is the best way for me, it was easy to do and inexpensive. All I did was create a color swatch with my tab punch with each color I wanted a file for and then put the coordinating color in each sleeve. So again I have made a quick reference for myself that allows me to see colors quickly, size and because its such an easy system to use, I always go to my scraps first!