Stamping Resource Notebook

[weims]

I am trying to be more organized lately. I want to use what I have, and not buy new, but if I don't know what I have I cannot know what I need. I found a composition book I altered years ago (and badly at that) and am using it now to organize all my stamping supplies and thoughts. I am a list maker, so there are a lot of lists in there.

I have already listed out, by month, all of the birthdays, anniversaries and holidays I may want to recognize, with room for more. I wrote down my 2013 craft goals. I have pages for my SU wish lists (regular catalog, spring catalog), lists of any consumables I get from SU with item numbers and prices so I can reference them quickly. I downloaded a list of all SU colors (current and retired) so I can see at a glance what pens and ink I have. I have my Spectrum Noir swatch chart in there.

[Rachelrose]

This is the kind of organization I am focused on myself right now, Diana. Not so much how to store supplies, but easy access to an overview of what I have. I like some of your list suggestions!

[edie453]

Great ideas. I'm doing some of this already, and I think I like what you're doing even better. It fits my low-tech, easy to use, grab on a whim impulses. LOVE lists...mine are now on various computer files. I see a change in the next couple of evenings. Now to find my horribly altered composition book.

[Rachelrose]

My latest organizational thing was a color tag ring for all my Distress Inks. I posted about it on the forum:



Ideally, a list of all the colors available, with the ones you own already checked off (plus reinkers) would be a companion. I'm going to do that next and file it in a binder (I like a binder rather than a notebook so I can remove and insert pages).

But the ring is easy to take to my worktable and flip through.

I am now going to make a ring like this for my cardstock.

[shazsilverwolf]

I'm doing the same sort of thing with my rubber stamps. i unmounted all the wood mounts recently, and although I had been, keeping a record of my stamps by stamping on A5 sheets & storing in ring binders, I sort of fell behind, and have not kept it up to date. When I unmounted, I stamped all the stamps on an A4 page, to go opposite the stamps. Now I need to scan all those sheets in, and print off in A5 size, not only so I can see what I have without going through the actual stamps, but as they are now all stored in Ring binders, I realised I would never be able to prove what I had, if, heaven forbid, we needed to make an insurance claim. We document everything else of value via photographs- Hubbys power tools, computers etc, so I think my craft stuff needs the same treatment. Can you just imagine trying to get an Insurance company to believe the value of your stuff? My other reason is slightly more shocking, to me. I realised while doing this, that there were a huge number of stamps I bought because I loved the image, and still do, but this cataloguing is the only time some of them have been inked! I need to be able to jog my memory a bit more often, rather than using the same stamps so regularly.

[stampjg]

Diana, that is a great idea. I don�t currently have one place for my card and supply lists. Birthdays/anniversaries always �surprise me� when they pop up on my computer, so I need another system.

I have made one recent change that is working so far. I installed a magnetic white board in my craftspace. I tacked up a couple of ideas to try next, wrote a motivational quote and started a craft wish/shopping list. I need a bigger white board�lol!

I also like Rachelrose�s idea of swatch tags for inks. I currently use a binder with separate pages by ink brand, but it isn�t working well. It gets buried on my craft table early in the process or I remove the page and can�t find it later.


I love to hear how people are organizing their ideas and supplies.


Stephanie

[weims]

I think I also want to list all the stamps I have, and a list of retired stamps I'd like to get sometime.

[Makalah]

I included a list in my notebook of all my Stickles colors, including putting a dab of each color in there. it helps to see it on paper, rather than just in the bottle.