I had been storing some of my Hero Arts stamps that come on 4x6 cards (as well as Lawn Fawn stamps) in a little box. That worked ok...I had the stamps in the original clear envelopes they came in but many of them had torn or sometimes it was difficult to get the stamps in and out of the sleeve because of the adhesive strip. Know what I'm talking about? It was becoming a mess!
I Googled storage systems and the great Stamping Queen Jennifer McGuire had a nice system where she used 3 ring notebooks and had purchased CD/DVD holders from an office supply store. It looked great but the last thing I wanted to do was go buy more stuff. I wanted to figure out a way to use what I had on hand.
I had a box of 8 1/2 by 11 page protectors and thought there should be a way to easily modify them to use.
The first thing I did was split one down the middle but I thought it would make the stamps too floppy when stored on their end in a binder. And I also thought the top one might fall out of the opening.
So I threw that one out! :)
Then I decided I would make a little slit on the side to slide the stamps in that way.
So....I started with an uncut page protector:
I used a metal ruler and exacto knife to make my cuts both about 5 1/4 inches long.
Then I used the Beast (my sewing machine) to stitch down the middle and to stitch the top closed like this:
And that was it...then I just slid my stamps in the side slits and that was it!
Pretty simple, fairly quick and very inexpensive! I'm happy!
And I finally finished sample swatches for my Tim Holtz Distress Inks. This works great for me because I can just see how the ink looks on white...you know how the colors on the labels aren't quite "true"...this works well!
Happy Crafting and Happy Storage....and if people have great ways of storing things...please share them!
I dont own many stamps but your idea is so cool Susan!!
ReplyDeleteI bought some of those book like storage things and they have plastic sleeves inside that are divided like you made. The only problem I discovered was that temperature affects the plastic and the black ink on the outer part of the clear stamp that shows you what the stamp looks like came off onto the plastic sleeve. Hope you have better luck. I've gone back to storing some in a box.
ReplyDeleteMelissa
"Sunshine HoneyBee"
I love your idea for the pockets in the binder. I do have some of my stamps in binders and then I've got 3 containers on my desk of my clear stamps, 2 separated my manufacturer and the other with a mish mash of them. I'd love to get one of them off my desk but I reach or them far too much.
ReplyDelete