Handbook Stamp Organisation

Last year I introduced you to some of my stamp storage solutions. I showed you how I keep my rubber stamps in a fishbowl and my acrylic stamps mounted on plastic panels in a folder. But as I keep on accumulating more and more stamps I need to decide whether I'm sticking with the same system or whether I try something new. Some of the Studio Calico girls demonstrated how they keep theirs in a Handbook and I figured that was definitely worth a go. So let me show you how I've organised mine.

I have one of the 'old' Handbooks. Studio Calico are just about to release their new model but it's not on the shelves yet. I'm looking forward to checking them out given I've completely filled this one up and I'm thinking this is the new direction for me. In this one Handbook I have managed to store every single acrylic stamp set I've received in my Studio Calico kits and classes over the past year. Trust me... that's a LOT! I'm not going to show them all here, and I haven't counted, but we're talking about an average of 5 sets a month for 12 months!

In general terms the stamp sets come in only a handful of sizes, and the Handbook page protectors only come in a handful of sizes so my goal was to figure out which stamps were going to fit in which protectors. Some were obvious because they were both exactly the same size, such as the 2x2" pockets above, and the 6x8" pockets below.

It's mainly the alpha sets that come in the 6x8" size, and these two are amongst my favourites. You can see here the 'So Fancy' set and the 'Kit' alpha. These easily slipped into the pockets, and even though the backing paper hangs out the top just a smidge I don't mind.

The 4x6" sets didn't cause too much of a challenge either, as again there are matching 4x6" plastic pockets available. The openings are at the top which means the stamps fit in sideways.

What I had to do to make them fit though was to slightly trim down the backing paper so it was the same size as the stamps. I trimmed the bottom off so that the title (and designer if it's included) is still visible. Then these slip easily into the pockets.

Once again, the 3x4" stamp sets were easily stored in the corresponding pockets, and likewise I had to trim down the backing paper marginally so they would fit in. Occasionally during my time as a Studio Calico Creative Team member the stamp sets were shipped to us without any packaging, and on those occasions I just used a scrap piece of paper (left over from a watercolour experiment) as my backing paper so they were still easily visible. 

But this is where we reach the stage where the stamp set size doesn't exactly match a specific pocket size and I had to work out what I was going to do. Firstly, there are quite a few 1x6" stamp sets in my possession and I ended up stacking 4 of these on top of one another into a 4x6" pocket. You can see what I mean in the picture above. This is slightly problematic because the only way to reach the stamp set down the bottom is to take out the other 3 sets first. So it's a bit fiddly. But I couldn't figure out any other solution.

And the last very common size of stamps are the 2x3" sets. What I did here was to use a plastic sleeve that started off as two 4x6" pockets and run it through my sewing machine to sew vertical lines at the 2" and 4" mark. That divided the pockets into 2x3" sizes and I can now store six sets on this one page.

Well I hope all that makes sense? If you have any questions about what I've done, or about any of the fabulous stamp sets you can see here then please ask!

Storage Solutions: Stamps

Oh ladies! Do you know I had this post done up months ago and then just forgot to post it?! Like seriously... in January I took these photos! But I guess things like this never age, so I thought I'd post it now regardless. It's a bit of an insight into how I store my different types of stamps because like many of you, I have quite the stash of stamps!

First up, it's my collection of rubber stamps. Now I'm not discriminative enough to say that I prefer rubber stamps over acrylic. I'm sure there are many places you can go to find out the pros and cons of each. All I know is that I was lucky enough to have accumulated a reasonably large collection of rubber stamps when I was on the Evalicious Design Team and I store them all in a fish-bowl I picked up at a discount shop.

I decided to have them all loose and individual stamps, so even when I received actual packets of stamps I simply just emptied them into the bowl. And yes, I also store my StazOn Ink, an acrylic block and a notebook in the same bowl. I figured it was easiest to have everything I needed for using the stamps all in the one spot.

And what's in the notebook you're probably wondering? Well in order to keep a record of which stamps I owned, and what they were called I stamped each of them in the book and labelled them first before I popped them in the bowl.

I also found that this was a great way of finishing my scrapbook pages too. Whenever I'm getting close to done with a layout I'll flip through the book to see which stamp might finish it off nicely. I find that's easier than searching through the actual stamp collection.

Alternatively I also find that if I browse through the book it often inspires a page right from the beginning. As you can see, many of the stamps are great journaling prompts. I'm not sure if this video will work, but it shows me flipping though each page for you....

When it comes to my clear or acrylic stamps I've got a different storage solution.

In this ring folder (nothing special.... can't even remember where I got it, but it certainly isn't scrap-specific) I keep all my Studio Calico, Kellie Stamps and other random acrylic stamp sets all in the one place. They're all mounted on Storage Panels which I bought from here.

Now acrylic stamps sets come in a few different 'configurations' as you know. It's hard to see in this picture, but if the set comes mounted on clear plastic with a printed black image then I'll trim off the backing and excess plastic (if it's attached, or simply pull off the backing plastic if it's not) and then simply stick the set as a whole, down onto the storage panel. The acrylic stamps themselves are what cling to the plastic of the panels.

But sometimes the sets come mounted just on clear plastic, and as the stamps themselves are clear it can be very difficult to see what the image is. Just like my notebook for the rubber stamps, when I'm scrapping I want to be able to quickly browse through the folder to find what might work on the page. I don't want to be squinting and holding my head sideways to first work out what the stamp even is! So for these ones I first give them all a test-stamp with black Staz-On Ink which leaves them all 'stained' black.

I'm not fussy about the idea that the stamps might be somehow ruined by this process. In fact, I read once that it's actually quite an accepted practice for priming your acrylic stamps so they stamp clearer images in the future. So I figure it serves two purposes!

Once these stamps are arranged on the Storage Panels I take a permanent marker and write a note about the name of each set/stamp so I'll know for future reference.

So that's my method of stamp storage, and it works for me. But I'm sure there are lots of different options, and I'd love to hear about what you do. One person who has quite a lot of insight into how you can organise your Workspace is Marcy Penner. Which is why she's the perfect candidate to be teaching the upcoming Studio Calico Class of the same name ;-) (did you like that segway? hee hee!)

I got really excited watching her video promo explaining what she's going to teach. It's all about having a system of organisation that works for you. Preferably one that's both beautiful but more importantly, functional. Check it out HERE.

And if you're thinking of signing up for the class, then you might want to take advantage of the corresponding shop offer for 10% off class supplies. It includes the stamp Storage Panels I was talking about earlier amongst other things. So I personally can't wait to take this class. Maybe I'll see you there!