Organizing My Stamps

I had purchased some of the stamp storage sheets from Stamper's Best when I bought my birthday presents there. I bought them because when I was doing my Christmas cards I found it was hard to look at everything that might go together since I had the stamps separated by theme on CD cases (such as all the Christmas decorations in one case and all the Christmas trees in another). I found, after doing all the cards, that I had missed one of the stamps from a Stampin' Up set because I hadn't thought to look in one of the cases. Because of this, I decided I wanted to try organizing a different way and the storage cards seemed like a good idea, it would make it easy to flip through all my stamps. I discovered, as I was organizing stamps onto those first cards I bought, that some of the clear stamps I own had started sticking to the CD cases, almost bonding to them, so I decided to move all my stamps to the storage cards.

I put the storage cards in 12 x 12 page protectors so that if a stamp comes off, it won't get lost. The pages themselves fit in 8 1/2 x 11 page protectors but when I put any stamp mounted on foam cling on the pages, they no longer fit. I only ruined one stamp taking them out of the CD cases, which was a really small number, given how many stamps I own. I had previously, a few years ago, ruined a couple stamps when they stuck to the CD cases, but somehow had never connected that the CD cases were causing the issue back then.

I bought both the clear and colored storage sheets for my birthday to see which ones I liked better. I like the colored sheets better. They are a little thinner than the clear sheets, since they are laminated cardstock but it was hard to tell what clear stamps looked like if there were some on each side of the clear sheets. It didn't take nearly as long as I thought it might to change the stamps from the cases to the sheets, which was nice.

I bought this organizing rack at Costco to organize my bills, but found that I only had 2 folders I needed to use, so I decided to use this organizing rack for my stamps and use a smaller organizer I had sitting in my craft room not being used for bills. I also am going to use a paper holder I had siting around from Cropper Hopper (like this one) since I have a few more pages that aren't in the holder above and trying to force them into it made it too hard to be able to flip through the pages.

Some of my saying stamps. The computer is from Stampin' Up's Computer Quips set. We're all computer geeks in my house so when I saw it a few years ago in the catalog, I knew I had to get it.

Some of my animal stamps. My husband loves polar bears, so I bought these two polar bear stamps years ago when I saw them. The blue stamps are from The Angel Company, which I understand went out of business. That's too bad, I really like their stamps.

I've been buying a lot of costume stuff for Steampunk costumes, so I've also been buying gears and Steampunk related stamps. I even made a Steampunk Mardi Gras mask at a mask creating party before our friends' Mardi Gras party this year (I put a picture of it at the bottom of this blog post in case anyone wants to see my mask). These are my gear/Steampunk stamps with shape and scrapbook related stamps behind them.

My flower stamps with flourish stamps behind them. I mounted some of my clear flower stamps (from the Build a Flower set by Katie Pertier and marketed by Autumn Leaves) on foam cling so I could use them with a stamping gear by Inkadinkado I bought at Joann's. (This round set is the one I got.) I tried the stamps on with the gear without them mounted on foam cling, but because there's a raised area at the edge of the block where it attaches to the gear, it didn't work because the stamps were below that raised area. I think the gear is perfect for getting the petals exactly where I want them, so I mounted just the petals on the foam cling. I over-estimated how much foam cling I needed last year when I was replacing the tack-it-over-and-over glue I was using to coat the back of my unmounted rubber stamps to get them to adhere to the stamping blocks, so I had plenty left to do this small project.

My food and liquor related stamps.

This is how many CD cases full of stamps I used to have. I bought 23 storage sheets between the two orders and I already had one storage sheet I had gotten for free last year with an order, so I have 24 storage sheets. I think I still have one empty one, so this whole CD tower was consolidated down to 23 storage sheets. Not bad!

The mask I made at our friends' Mardi Gras Party

Me in the mask I made, wearing one of my corsets and a bolero jacket I bought to go with my corsets.

My birthday presents from Stamper's Best

This year I bought myself a bunch of stamps from Stamper's Best. I had dressed up in a Steampunk costume a few times over the last few years so I bought some Steampunk stamps.

I also bought two types of the cards to organize the stamps (the clear plastic and the laminated cardstock) to see which I liked. I was storing them in empty CD cases but I now have so many it's hard to see what I have. I discovered I like the laminated ones better because I have a bunch of clear stamps and it's hard to see what is on each side with clear stamps and the clear sheets (as you can see in this picture). I want to put the stamps on both sides so when I ordered more, I got the cardstock ones. I noticed my clear stamps were sticking to the CD cases and were hard to get out, so I'm putting all my stamps on these cards.

I also got a few other stamps. I love the saying on the coffee one and the alarm clock one (You may have to click on the coffee one to see the saying. It says "Coffee gives me unrealistic expectations of productivity). I loved the Japanese star background stamp and the Christmas ones. I also loved this beach chair stamp. I figured it would work well for beach pictures from several of our vacations.

I also got a camera stamp as a free gift. I love it! I had thought about getting a stamp set with a camera in it but I didn't think I'd use the other ones, so this is perfect!

Mounting my stamps on the cling sheets from Stamper's Best

I took pictures of how many stamps I had to mount, how I put them on the cling sheets and a few as I made progress. I stopped working on the project since I had some work stuff taking up a lot of my time (mostly adjusting to a weird new schedule) but I am done except for cutting out the alphabet stamps I have. I just need to decide if I'm going to continue using the CD cases or if I want to buy some more binder sheets and organize my stamps that way. I like the feel of the cling sheets better than the bare rubber and Arlene's Tack it over and over I was using before. The cushion on the stamp really makes a difference when using my acrylic blocks with the cling sheet mounted rubber.

Starting to put the stamps on the cling sheets.

I discovered when I went to cut out the stamps that I had put them on the cling sheet too close together. You do have to leave enough space between the stamps to easily by able to move your scissors. It felt like wasting the sheets when I started, but it made a huge difference when I was cutting the stamps out. So that's my one piece of advice, leave yourself enough room between the stamps to cut everything out. : )

More of my stamps on the cling sheets.

Even more of my stamps on the cling sheets.

Some of my stamps cut out and on the binder organizer sheet, ready to put into the CD cases I use for organizing right now.

A few more of my stamps on the other side of the binder organizer sheet.

The basket full of stamps cut out from the larger cling sheets but needing to be trimmed closer to the rubber. Next to the basket are some of the CD cases I'm using to store my stamps right now.

Some of the thank you and sentiment stamps I own before putting them on the cling sheet to mount them.

Some of the stamps on the binder organizer sheet before putting them in the CD cases I use right now.

Almost done!

Another Fun Mail Day

I bought some other papercrafting related stuff the other day and it came today.

First was this paper holder. I bought a bunch of paper over the holidays when Joann's had their Die Cuts With A View paper stacks on sale. I now need to go through my old paper and decide what I'll actually use and what I should either sale or give away. I bought the paper holder because I have a feeling I'm still going to need room, regardless of getting rid of some stuff.

Next was this Provo Craft Cricut tool kit. I don't have a Cricut, but I do have a Craft Robo, which is close, except instead of cartridges, you can cut anything that you load into the Craft Robo program. This tool kit came with a bunch of stuff I'd been wanting to get for a while: a bone folder, a few tools to get stuff off the cutting pad that is sticky, a scraper to clean scraps off the cutting pad. I also like the scissors and the fact it comes in a cool little carrying kit. Makes it easier to keep track of. And Amazon had it for $10, which was nice. I also got some Cuttlebug embossing folders. I love both of the ones that have ornaments and both of the snowflake ones. The bird one and plaid one are pretty good too. The name of this set is "Winter Wonderland." When I was looking for the names of the folders I already had, the one with the hanging ornaments was one I really wanted to get. (a better picture at Joanns.com)

These are Cricut pads that will fit in my Craft Robo, since the cutting pad I have is pretty much hashed. I'm hoping that if I have new mats and the tools that I'll start using my Craft Robo again.

Lastly, I bought a 50 pack of page protectors for my 12 x 12 scrapbooks, since I'm out of them besides the few in different scrapbooks holding places.

All in all, a very fun papercraft mail day. I look forward to playing with all my new toys and not having my paper organized in stacks on my window seat.

My Stamper's Best Haul

I ordered some stamps and stamping accessories from Stamper's Best last week and got the shipment today. I'm impressed by how quickly they got everything out, especially considering that my order qualified for free shipping. Free shipping at some places takes forever. Here's a few pictures with my haul in them. : )

The main reason I ordered was to get 10 of these cling sheets. I've been using Arlene's Tack It Over and Over glue on the stamps I've unmounted wood blocks. While the glue works fine, it's sometimes hard to get a good, consistent image with just the rubber. It works better if you stamp on a mouse pad, but I don't always have a mouse pad with me. So I'm going to convert most, if not all, of my unmounted rubber stamps to the cling sheets.

Operation Write Home asks that we stamp the back of the cards with their symbol. If you don't have a stamp, they have to stamp the back of all the cards before sending them out. Stamper's Best gives you a free unmounted stamp with their symbol on it. So glad I can now stamp the backs of the cards I'm sending in instead of making more work for the people who box them up.

I ordered this bat because I thought it was cute. I also loved the spider web background stamp. Not sure why I like the spider one so much, but I do.

I loved this birthday small stamp set. Not sure why the love stamps went with it but I really liked them. For the slightly larger stamps, I paid 50 cents for them to be on the cling mount to begin with. I figured I paid $2.75 for each sheet of the cling, so if the stamps were 4 x 6 or larger, it'd make sense to pay the 50 cents instead of using 20% or more of the cling sheet. That was my thought at the time anyway. Not sure if it really was cheaper, but it definitely is easier.

I got the "Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year" stamp to put on the inside of any Christmas cards I do. I have very few saying stamps that I would put on the inside of cards and I thought this one was good. I loved this ornament stamp. It's so beautiful. I love the ornaments and the way it was put together.

Lastly is the free stuff that Stamper's Best sent. Their site says that they send a free gift with every order, so these ones are mine. I got a binder sheet to put the stamps on to organize them in a three ring binder. I'm trying to decide if I'm going to go to this method instead of the CD cases I have my stamps in right now. I'm glad they sent me a free one so I can see if I like them enough to invest the money into changing over to this set. The other free item I got was a Super 8 Movie Camera stamp. I like the look of it but am unsure what I'll use it for. I guess I'll have to play around and see. Nothing like a challenge. : )

This is my first order from Stamper's Best and all in all I'm impressed with the shipping time and the quality of the products. Thank you so much for your good service.