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Update: I abandoned my accordion folders and just threw all of my clear sets into a men's shoe box from the Container Store (bigger than a regular shoe box). This is working much better for me, so I'll probably refrain from buying a bunch of Tim Holtz holders until I overflow this box (currently it's about half full).
__________________ aka Sue. Or Sue-odd.
No blog for me. My gallery chronicles my card-making successes and mishaps.
I think most of us have been where you are! I remember the first time I heard of people unmounting their wood-mount stamps - I thought they were nuts. No way would I ever do that. Well, eventually I did unmount everything. Then I remember hearing of people splitting up their sets and organizing by category. Gasp! No way could I split up the sets. Such horrible sacrilege. And yet, I'm in the process of doing just that. And my stamps are so much easier to find now. Choosing just the right stamp for a card I'm making takes almost no time at all.
Chris, thank you so much for sharing your system. Your instructions are very easy to follow and the photos are the best! I've been thinking of splitting up my sets for quite some time, but the task seemed so overwhelming. Thanks to you, I think I can do it! LOL I love to organize and look forward to the day I can see all of my flowers together as a group instead of wasting time searching for them in several different places. I really admire your courage. You did a fantastic job. Thanks for giving us hope that it really can be done.
Deb
Where have you bought your acetate from? I went to Michael's tonight, and there is none in stock in the city, and no plans to get more.
I went over to Staples after that, and the only thing we could find were transparency sheets for printers - I don't think it is thick enough for me to slide into page protectors easily.
Anyone have an online source that will ship to Canada?
ps - I just sorted all of my thin dies onto magnetic sheets that I bought at the dollar store, cut down to fit in the page protectors for the 8.5 x 5.5 Martha Stewart binders that are at Staples. Love it! Now I want my clear stamps in matching binders...
I use the Tim Holtz unmounted stamp pockets. They are ment to go into the binder, but I got a bunch of the refills and put them in a pretty basket. They are nice and thick, they hold that stamp sets in place nicely and I can easily flip through them to find what I need. I have tried a few other options in the past and this is by far the bast for me.
I love those pockets too but refuse to by the expensive Tim's binder.. I would like to find some cheaper binders...any suggestions? I bought a small binder at Staples but it is a bit too small..
__________________ (picture of my beautiful Cockalier, Bonnie)
Remember~
"Today's mighty oak is just yesterday's nut that held its ground!"
As of today.. mine are all in binders..one big one and the rest in little binders... in Martha pockets.. yeah!.. so good to get all my unmounted stamps organized! done done and done!
__________________ (picture of my beautiful Cockalier, Bonnie)
Remember~
"Today's mighty oak is just yesterday's nut that held its ground!"
I think most of us have been where you are! I remember the first time I heard of people unmounting their wood-mount stamps - I thought they were nuts. No way would I ever do that. Well, eventually I did unmount everything. Then I remember hearing of people splitting up their sets and organizing by category. Gasp! No way could I split up the sets. Such horrible sacrilege. And yet, I'm in the process of doing just that. And my stamps are so much easier to find now. Choosing just the right stamp for a card I'm making takes almost no time at all.
I hear you Chris! I unmounted for space...to buy more stamps of course! I have a great organization system for the cabinet that everything I have is in, but I'm getting over the sacrilege of splitting up my sets. Pretty soon I'm sure I'll do that too. Just not completely there yet.
Since my cabinet has my storage in 9x11.5 drawers, the Tim Holtz pouches, much as they are a PERFECT idea, won't work for me. I'm leaning to using the EZmount mini pages, so I see a bunch of those in my future.
So, I just have to ask you some details...
...I see from your blog pics that you don't seem to sort florals (for example) down into types, like two step, solids, outlines, etc. I have mine sorted that way right now, and like it because I can see different sets that work well together. Is that an issue??
...I see that you keep your leaves and stems for a particular floral with the flowers they go with. What do you do with the butterfly? Or the watering can? (for example)
I didn't see them online either, but I was determined to find something that would work, so I went in the store and just started looking.
I actually have tried one out and it seems to be working well. I had been thinking about what to stick my stamps to and came up with glossy photo paper. I put the stamps on it last week, then went on vacation. I just tried them today and they came off just fine. I think once I get the cardstock in there too they will work out really well.
I imagine the Tim Holtz folders would be studier, but for the price I am sticking with these.
I tried several different ways to store my cling stamps before this system that I have now. I bought a bunch of white 3-ring binders and heavy acetate 8.5x11 sheets. I seperated all my stamps by catagory like animals, bugs, birthday, baby etc. I made tabed sheets out of cardstock and just put them in this way. The acetate holds the stamps well and I have not had any stamps fall out. I love how easy it is for me to find stamps now. I hope that helps!
My system seems to work well, so I will share it with you. A few years ago I invested in an A5 laminator and a bit later an A3 laminator. They were not expensive and the laminating pouches are not expensive either. I unmounted all my rubber stamps and collected up all my acrylic stamps before I lost them. I use acrylic blocks with Tack'n'peel, so just one at a time I stamped out each stamp onto cheapy office black ink onto printer paper that is about $3 per ream. I then cut a square or rectangle around each of the images. Once I had enough to fill an A3 sheet I would laminate it through the laminator. Then I would cut around the paper image by about 1/4 inch.
The acrylic stamps cling to the laminate really well, and for the rubber stamps, I applied a little repositionable tape to the back and stuck them to the laminate. Each laminate then gets put into a pocket on a sheet that is normally used for trading cards. I also have sheets that have six pockets to a page and one that has four.
Some of my larger sets that were on an acetate sheet already are put into A5 pockets that have a zip like closure across the top. I used some sticky back plastic (like Contac) and folded it in half and punched two holes for the rings of the folders.
All of these are stored in two ring folders. (Lever arch)
I also use a tab system with each of the themes (animals, art, vintage, oriental, sentiments etc) and they are stored this way. I have three folders.
As I buy new stamps, I use the A5 laminator and put them straight away.
I use the laminators for other things and my grandsons use them for school things so they have been a real investment.
