Stampin' Storage

The debate has been going on for ages: are rubber or acrylic stamps better?? Stampin' Up, the company I demonstrate for, has solely been rubber-on-wood for all it's years of business. But, acrylic does offer the benefit of being stored FLAT, as it doesn't require a wooden block. The downside to acrylic is that often times, the images aren't as crisp or detailed, and the acrylic can yellow over time.

Stampin' Up has finally found a solution! They're offering their new stamp sets in a rubber-on-acrylic blocks option! YAY!!!! That means that all our wonderful Stampin Up images can be stored in their lovely DVD-sized cases.

So...I am doing a HUGE re-org of ALL MY STAMPS! My friends, Tammy & Janet, are die-hard acrylic stamp fans. They decided to separate ALL of their hundreds of stamps by CATEGORY and store them. They separated all of their sets and stored them so that they can find them and use them in fast, creative ways.

Over the last few days, I've been contemplating separating all of my stamps into categories. It's been a difficult decision, but I think in the end (Tammy really convinced me of this), having them organized by category will help me use my stamps in a more innovative way. Instead of always reaching for a set, and being limited by what that specific set inspires me to create, I will be using my stamps all equally. In other words, whether it's a cheap stamp or a "special" expensive stamp, I will use the images for whatever need comes in my creative endeavors.

The choice to re-organize my stamps is just one of the steps necessary in the complete process. Here are the steps:

1) Make a decision and categorize all the stamps

2) Peel all rubber/wood stamps off by putting them in the microwave for a few seconds, then peeling off the stamp image

3) Mount the peeled rubber stamps on EZ Mount (http://sundayint.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=349) and then cut out all the images (this could take a LONG LONG TIME!)

4) Buy new cases from Stampin Up and label all the cases (I have created a word document that beautifully fits, after some trimming, into the cases, showing the categories of the images inside. Let me know if you want a copy and I will email it to you!)

5) Put all the stamps away and admire the beautiful collection!

Yes. This is a HUGE project. It will probably take me months. But, I will definitely share with you pictures of the finished product - which will save me MOUNDS of space!!!!

A little side note: this is SO LIKE ME...obsessively creating a big organizing project like this in JANUARY! LOL!

Alright...to save you some work, I will share with you my categories and sub-categories for organizing. Hopefully, taking the few minutes to type this up will help SOMEone out there save some time!!!!

Each case has a title and a color. The color is the category, and the title is the specific sub category (what's inside the case). So, here's my list:

PURPLE (SHAPES, PRETTY STUFF, BACKGROUNDS, BORDERS): Circle Images, Houses/Buildings, Borders, Flourishes, Fleur de Lis/Medallions, Stars, Hearts, Backgrounds, Feminine (shoes, purses, etc)

GREEN (NATURE, TRAVEL): Flowers (outline), Flowers (silhouette), Foliage (trees, grass, etc), Beach/Ocean, Animals, Travel/Explore

PINK (WORDS, OFFICE): Office Style, Quotes, Words (small, not otherwise specified), Words (big, NOS), Words (circle, all), Journaling Blocks

YELLOW (CELEBRATIONS, SENTIMENTS): Birthday words, Birthday images, Cakes/cupcakes, baby/pregnancy, christian, for you/enjoy, friends/hello, love/wedding, sympathy/apology, parents (mother's day, etc), invitation/party, graduation/school, celebration/congratulations, thank you, welcome/home

RED (HOLIDAYS, SEASONS): winter/snowflakes, autumn/thanksgiving, halloween, valentine's, christmas words, christmas images, easter

BLUE (ALPHABETS)

And, that's it! Have fun organizing!!!