Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Work It Wednesday - Jan. 21


I've been reorganizing my stash of supplies and thought I'd share a stamp storage system that has worked well for me. For about a year now, I've been storing my stamps in binders.

This is not a new concept or idea. In fact, I know many other people who do this too. However, since it is Work It Wednesday I thought this idea might be one that could help you work your craft a little better as it has certainly helped me. I don't have a ton of stamps but finding the ones I did have was becoming a problem. I'd have to dig them out or search for them in piles and that just wasn't working. Putting them in binders helped me to 1) - better organize them. 2) - Helped me remember what stamps I have. And 3)- It takes up less space in my room.

To make this work, I grabbed two binders - one for Alphabets and sayings and one for designs. I also used page protectors, cardstock and a little scotch tape.

Here's what I did:

On cardstock, tape down the edges of the plastic sheeting that comes with your acrylic stamps. Place stamps in their places and then cover with a second piece of plastic sheet. Label as needed and slide cardstock into page protector and add to binder.

To use the stamps, you simple turn the pages until you find the set you want to use and then slide the cardstock out of the page protector, remove the stamp and craft away.

While I have mostly acrylic stamps, you can do this same thing with wood mounted stamps, you just need to remove the rubber stamp from the wood block (see below) and then stick it to the plastic sheet. You can then use it on your acrylic stamping blocks as needed.


This is pretty simple, and since all wood mounted stamps are currently on sale for 50% off this is a good way to stock up on some cool designs but also to save space.

Another way to use rubber stamps without the wooden mount is to buy a converter kit - these are awesome! We actually have a hard time keeping these in stock and if you are interested you can read up about them here.

Enjoy!
Amy

2 comments:

Mona said...

Now is when I wish I was just starting up a rubber stamp collection. I have way too many stamps on wooden blocks to even begin to think about converting them. Lucky for me, my darling hubby build walls of shallow shelves for me and I have my stamps stored so that they are clearly visible. Well, that's not completely true since the various
'holiday' sets are stored together in drawers and only come out when it's time for them to play. The binder idea is certainly one I'll consider though for the clear acrylic stamps.

Mrs. Fence said...

I agree, Mona! I have way too many wood mounted stamps to start removing them. I store mine in pizza boxes. I just label the fronts so I can tell what's in each box. It's inexpensive and the 12 inch size fits perfectly on my book shelves. This is a great idea for acrylic stamps.