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I have seen a bunch of posts on die storage, but nothing really answered my question ...
How do you know which dies you have? I'm not talking about a list somewhere. I'm talking about stamping a sentiment or image and wanting to use a die to cut it out. It doesn't have to be from a specific set or anything.
I started with using inexpensive thicker cardstock and running each die on it, cutting it to a square or rectangle and punching a hole in the corner of it. I label which set it's from. Then I put them on book rings. I can flip through and lay the opening over what I've stamped and see how it will look. This works for most of the dies ... those with design features on the cut out part - like faux stitching - don't give a true size this way. I only do this with dies that could be a used to make a label or something, so not every die is cut out. A die for a stamped giraffe, for example, is not cut.
Right now, they are organized by die set, but I'm thinking about organizing instead by general shape.
Do you keep anything like this?
I guess I'm asking … if all of your dies are in envelopes or on magnetic sheets or some other storage that prevents you from seeing the actual dies ... how do you know which die you want?
I'm kind of ridiculous (I can recognize), but I cut out all of my dies and put them in those "magnetic" photo pages in a binder. They are organized by type (floral, animal, heart, etc.) and labeled with the manufacturer and name of the set. The exception is all of the nesting dies, which I create templates for. I open up a laminating pouch, trace the inside of the dies, alternating blue and red, then close up the pouch and run it through the laminator. That way the ink is on the inside and won't wear off or smear. The black templates are made with my punches, which I've also laminated.
__________________ ~ Sue Happy for no reason...
The following 16 users liked this post by gregzgurl:
Like Sue, I also cut out a sample of every die and keep the samples in 5 1/2 x 8 1/2 binders by themes - flowers/leaves/butterflies; squares, rectangles, ovals/circles; words; etc. If there are only a few dies in a category, I put them in a Miscellaneous binder. I list the name of the die or die set & the company. I can easily find the perfect die for anything with this system & have used it for years.
The following 3 users liked this post by DianeinSparks:
So, this is very old school but, when I first started using Dies I made this little flip book with a book ring and the dies are cut out of the pages so, I had the perspective to line them up over things.
now a days I kind of remember what I have and I just bring the box of dies to the table and lay the die on top of what I want to cut until I find the size that gives me the wiggle room I need. ( same thing looking through the hole just less work)
I think the idea of a little flip book really only works if you want to do just a few sizes of dies not a whole room of them.
We are talking about sampling sentiment dies right? One of the few things I have not sampled.
I just grab the pouch the dies are in and see which one I want to use as they are organized by subject. I do extra cut sentiments when I am cutting and keep those in small ziplocks for some basic ones. I will do a bunch with different color scraps which uses those up too. The downsize is that makes it so easy to grab and use I might not use the other dies I have. My one tip for this is cut extra punctuation or i and j dots. Too easy to lose.
__________________ Margot
I am a proud fan club member
My dies are on magnetic sheets, in clear envelopes and organized with colored vinyl with types and stapled labels.I have the stamps with the sets. It works for me.
I keep dies that match specific images in the back of the matching stamp’s pocket on a magnet sheet. I can see them because the pocket is clear.
other shapes like labels, squares, rectangles etc I also keep in clear pockets so I can just hold the stamp up to the magnet sheet to see if the image will fit inside.
im not sure if this answers the question?
as an aside, I also keep my stamps, dies etc in a database program on my phone.
I store my dies on 8.5 x 11 medium-weight chipboard, which has been covered on each side with adhesive magnet sheets. This then gets 3-hole punched to go into one of the 3-prong report covers that has a clear front. Each of these "binders" gets a number. I find/copy/paste an image of each die/set into a PowerPoint document and add the number of the binder it's stored in. A bit time-consuming to set up, but I can flip through my PowerPoint to see what die(s) I might want to use, and easily locate them in the respective numbered binder. I keep a printed copy of the PowerPoint document on my desk, again in one of the report covers.
The many "binders" (!) are stored in pendaflex folders in a covered file bin that I have on a rolling dolly from Amazon, so I can just roll the whole thing over to my craft table as it's very heavy (perhaps someone needs to purge and/or stop buying so many dies?!). For dies that go with a stamp set, I keep those with the stamps but still include them in my PowerPoint and labeled "stored with stamp set".
Hope this all makes sense. It works really well for me.
Yet another Die Storage question
