Hi there!
A couple of months ago I was fortunate to get a craft room again, after our eldest son moved out. It is a good sized room which is great. Getting it set up and organized is an ongoing project. Recently I spent some time organizing some of my stamp collection. It is now much more user friendly and I have already used them much more than I was because they are more accessible.
So I thought I would share with you how I organized them in case this is something that you are struggling with too.
I picked up these fabulous stamp sleeves by Avery Elle from ScrapMuch? {actually the ladies special ordered them in for me and I know they would do the same for you;)} I had done a bit of research before requesting them, but was still pleasantly surprised at how great they are. They hold a lot too.
I was mostly focusing on the stamps that are on the desk in the photo above, these are stamps that I have slotted for use while scrapbooking for the most part, like stamps to add details to backgrounds.
And the stamps in the top drawer in the photo below. This drawer is slightly larger than a shoe box and it is crammed full of stamps in all kinds of packaging and sizes. Which makes storing them a challenge.
In order to make it easier to see the contents of the sleeve, I knew I wanted to add a white cardstock insert. I measured the sleeve and trimmed down some inexpensive cardstock so that it was slightly smaller than the sleeve.
This what they looked like with the inserts.
Then I got busy popping in my stamps. In some cases it was as simple as sliding in the whole stamp set, on the acetate that came in the original packaging. Stamps like this one from Lawn Fawn, didn't even need a "cheat sheet" because they have black colouring on them. I slipped the label from the packaging in behind the white cardstock, in case I needed the information for future use.
And this sleeve with a mixed bunch of foam cling stamps, is easy to see what is inside as well.
But some of my stamps, I have had for a long while and no longer have the packaging. Plus the stamps are designed such that it is hard for me to tell exactly which ones they are once inside the sleeves.
So I turned to Google for some help and printed images of the stamps, to put into the back of the sleeves. In some cases I was able to download the package label, so I have all the information, other times I was only able to get an image of the stamp, but that is okay too.
You can see that I was able to put two stamp sets into the sleeves for some of my stamps. And I have a bit of room in some of my sleeves to add in another stamp or two.
Some of my stamps are just random small singles, so I grouped similar stamps together and stamped their images onto the cardstock insert that I put into the sleeve for a quick visual reference.
I have a few stamps sets with coordinating dies. The dies also slipped right into the sleeves, keeping them organized together.
Look at this large pile of Ziplocs (my old not functional system) I have to reuse!
I also have an empty bin and drawer!
All these stamps now fit nicely into one bin! I originally bought two sets of sleeves and they come 25 to a pack. I have a few sleeves left, which is perfect since I just bought new stamps! I know I will be ordering more.
It is really nice to get this project done! I am slowly working on organizing more of my scraproom, so I may have more shares in the future.
Thanks for stopping by!
