Splitcoaststampers.com - the world's #1 papercrafting community
You're currently viewing Splitcoaststampers as a GUEST. We pride ourselves on being great hosts, but guests have limited access to some of our incredible artwork, our lively forums and other super cool features of the site! You can join our incredible papercrafting community at NO COST. So what are you waiting for?
The thread "when a storage method fails" prompted me to start this thread because I've tried a lot of ideas that were a failure for me and thought it would be great to hear from others about ideas that just didn't work for them. We all know that what works for me will be horrible for someone else but I think it will be fun to share our stories.
Storage Fails:
Ribbon on round clothes pins. Looks cool but all my ribbon was curled like crazy. Very annoying.
Ribbon in a tic-tac style box. OMG it looked so cool so I bought all the little boxes, spent hours rolling my ribbon and stuffing it in the little boxes. The idea is that you can pull the ribbon out of the box. Well my problem was that when I pulled the ribbon out, most of the time the entire roll of ribbon would pop out of the box and I had to re-roll the ribbon. ARGH! so much time wasted and the cost. I'm back to rolling ribbon on pieces of mat board.
Tack it over & over on bare rubber stamps. Spent hours on un-mounting and apply TIO&O only to find that I never quite mastered the right amount of glue so the stamps would only hold to the block for a short time. Not crazy about other methods either so I'm back to EZ mount. However, after several years I found that EZ mount can shrink but I'm sticking with it.
Fine glitter stored in Glad boxes. The lids are not tight enough - can we say I had a drawer full of mixed color glitter.
Totally with you on the TIOO. I too could never get the the right amount on mine, and after a while they started dropping off. I'm trying Gregzgurls method of Ad Tech tape next, just waiting for it to arrive.
My other fail was using magnetic sheets in A5 binders for my thin dies. Worked ok when I only had a few, but got unwieldy as I collected more dies. Using the Avery Elle pockets and magnetic sheets now, which I love. Only downside is that getting them is like finding hens teeth here in the UK.
Scarce hens teeth for the pockets or mag sheets? If pockets, Amazon.uk carries them. And someone posted about other pockets on Ammy that are the same but less $$.
I use mag sheets only for fussy dies so don't need that many - like embedded rectangles/circles/etc. I don't need for a sheet for a single die, or even a couple. Plop in, plop out. : ) But ymmv. (I mostly use a thicker, shorter pocket from SSS for dies a la J. McGuire - don't care if some larger dies stick out the top.)
Back to the bad: hanging ribbon on dowels. First, to get to a roll on the inside, you have to remove rolls on the outside. Second, I don't have many full rolls, but have many strips. Third, I rarely use ribbon. There's such a thing as over organizing. (Confession: when redesigning/organizing the garage, I labeled the phone: PHONE.)
Now it's in a big baggy. If need a piece, I can reach in and get it. If wrinkled I could iron it with a ribbon iron (like a straight iron for hair) that I have never used.
But if I wanted to organize it, I'd get a ribbon box. I saw them demo'd by the owner at a Stamp & Scrap Expo. The ribbon spooler tool winds up the ribbon, and the original reel is tossed. Saves tons of space. There's a wall bar if you want to hang this and other boxes. The owners are such nice people, too.
non craft related, but putting beets in tupperware tub to take to work and realising when your hand comes out of your lunch bag you have beet juice all over every item in the bag, the bag oh and you...
putting sequins into small dollar store pots with lids that require the strength of Goliath to open and when you do manage to get it open you have used so much force the said sequins fly across your craft room in every direction with no hope of retrieval.
non craft related, but putting beets in tupperware tub to take to work and realising when your hand comes out of your lunch bag you have beet juice all over every item in the bag, the bag oh and you...
putting sequins into small dollar store pots with lids that require the strength of Goliath to open and when you do manage to get it open you have used so much force the said sequins fly across your craft room in every direction with no hope of retrieval.
Hahaha! But your room must have looked/still looks so sparkly! ; )
(At a LSS paper mosaic class recently, a boxer rescue group was in the dog supply shop next door. One of the class participants pet the sweet boxer that came with the group and he got sparkly.)
Epic Fail... I bought not one but 2 of the ridiculous
Ribbon storage things that look like a clear soft lunch Boxes with a top that zips shut and has small holes all over them. You take the ribbon
Off of the roll and put it in this container. You pull the ribbon through the holes. The ribbon is supposed to stay neat and organized. You just pull it through the holes when needed. It was supposed to be pretty too,
With all the ribbon ends coming out of the holes. What a mess. The ribbon became A tangled mess that as you pulled it became a tighter and tighter knot. It took me a long time to untangle my ribbons. There was a woman at a crop That was buying 3 of them. I told her my story. Still insisted that her experience With these would be different. I wrestled my ribbon out of these containers,Showed her the mess. She still insisted that these would be perfect for her. So I threw my ribbon in a bag and gave her both of them. She still ended up buying one.
__________________ Bev
Organized People are just too lazy to hunt for things!!!
Last edited by bdeyes9; 12-08-2016 at 10:26 AM..
Reason: Spacing and spelling
It's the pockets I'm finding hard to get. The last ones I bought from Amazon uk cost me just under �12 a pack. The only pack on there at the moment is �28! And ours doesn't seem to have the generic ones either. From searching, it's actually cheaper for me to order from the US, and I've just discovered someone who ships the generic to the UK! Thanks for the heads up on those!
Got it. On the off chance you haven't checked them, Avery Elle ships internationally with a few options. I bought 50 large envelopes from them for $12 U.S. Plus they included a tiny sentiment stamp. : )
This is a fun thread - I love hearing about what "not to do"
Bjeans - agreed on hanging ribbon on dowels. I didn't try it because it looked like a problem and then there would be a dust and fading issue. :(
Funny on labeling the phone: PHONE.) :rolleyes:
Now it's in a big baggy. If need a piece, I can reach in and get it. If wrinkled I could iron it with a ribbon iron (like a straight iron for hair) that I have never used.
shazsilverwolf - "My other fail was using magnetic sheets in A5 binders for my thin dies." I had the same problem of the sheets flopping around so I attached all my mag sheets to mat board (I have a lot as hubby is a photographer). It's working wonderful now.
Stamps and supplies organization chaos! I tried excel spreadsheets, one note, and other apps for organizing, all a total pain in my backside! I was the excel queen at one time, but knew there had to be something better! Finally discovered evernote, thanks to SCS members suggestion, I'm a happy camper now! Super easy and fantastic program!!!
This is a fun thread - I love hearing about what "not to do"
Bjeans - agreed on hanging ribbon on dowels. I didn't try it because it looked like a problem and then there would be a dust and fading issue. :(
Funny on labeling the phone: PHONE.) :rolleyes:
Now it's in a big baggy. If need a piece, I can reach in and get it. If wrinkled I could iron it with a ribbon iron (like a straight iron for hair) that I have never used.
shazsilverwolf - "My other fail was using magnetic sheets in A5 binders for my thin dies." I had the same problem of the sheets flopping around so I attached all my mag sheets to mat board (I have a lot as hubby is a photographer). It's working wonderful now.
Have to add to Bjeans post about ribbons on dowels, my 4 cats would be in heaven!!! I can only imagine the interesting places I'd end up finding my ribbon When I had my original scrapbox, I had the ribbon organizer from them that worked quiet well. I even doubled up some ribbons in one hole. It had a place in the scrapbox, but I don't have a place to ideally put one now that I've gone to custom cabinets. It would definitely take up too much space! I still use ribbons, but have found using paper strips and diecut bows are awesome! I've quiet a few different styles and sizes. I also like stamped thin lines and bows look really nice on cards. There're a lot of wonderful stamps with bows. Coordinating colors using paper, stamps, embossing, and even foiling provide endless possibilities.
I know I could write a book....well more like a series of books on the topic of "what not to do when it comes to craft storage"! :p
Let's see, I've had epic fails with....
Ribbon on a handmade dowel bookshelf "thingy". Do you have any idea how time consuming it is to get off the empty spools when one gets empty in the middle section of the dowel? Not to mention how many different sizes of holes that are in the cardboard spools....which you have to buy different sized dowels to support them on. Oh and let's not forget about the ribbons that come on spools that don't even have a hole in them. Ya know, the ones that you try to poke a hole into the center and it rips or bends the entire cardboard thingy so bad that you "have to" take the ribbon off the dang gum spool in order to use it? Let's not even go into the unwinding off the dowels of the ribbons next to the one you actually were trying to get some off of....or the dust. Ugg!
OR....
What about those zippered binder type "thingy's" that are supposed to hold and store all of your embossing folders? Ya know, the ones that after you buy 5 of them on sale and take them home you realize that they only fit 1 size of the embossing folders? So, the little thin edge folders get stuck down into the pockets, the big ones don't fit at all....and the ones you do manage to get into the pockets end up sticking in them so bad that it takes an act of congress to get the flippin' embossing folder back out to be able to use the silly thing! Epic personal Fail for me!!!
AND....
Let's not forget about the wonderful idea of trying to use cutesy repainted cookie sheets with sheets of magnets attached to them as a way to store your metal dies so you can hang them on the wall to clear up some tabletop space. Yeah, right....NOT!!! This is NOT a good idea for someone who is only 5' 2" and you constantly have to get the step-stool out just to be able to reach your dies that are hanging so pretty up on your wall. Because it you bump one while trying to get to another die.... they can and DO fall off the wall....down behind your cube storage unit and then you have to basically do a room arrange just to be able to move out the cube storage until to retrieve the dies that fell off the wall behind it. By this time, your to "pooped" from all the "gathering of supplies" that you no longer have the energy to craft a single thing!
Can any of you tell that I DO NOT have the patience of a saint? LOL :rolleyes:
Craf-t-Bear I was LMAO reading your post. I remember the magnetic sticky sheet I put on the inside of my cabinets. I had a hard time getting some off too and others flew everywhere. The embossing folder thingy, two of them, OMG they weighed a ton! I missed the pan die storage idea. Thought I'd add, I absolutely hated my stamps in those flimsy CD cases!
Craft-T-Bear, that was too funny! I am so with you on the zippered embossing folder organizer-- had 3-- 2 small and 1 for 5x7 folders. When I had a few EFs it worked. For a week, I was thrilled. Then my collection grew, along with different sized EFs. Even thicknesses varied. Anyone else try to fit the double sided spellbinders folder in there, even just one flap? Talk about EPIC FAIL. Did your logos end up transferring onto the plastic? Mine did. Oh and the ones I did cram in with one flap, had embossed the plastic pocket... well, at least something got embossed. Seeing the folders by flipping through was nice, but it got heavy, was oddly sized and it didn't match my light colored craft room. I ended up storing them horizontally under my paper cart. I'm back to storing my EFs in a pile I can flip through... which is tedious to find what I want, but I haven't found a better way yet.
My die storage is also ever evolving. I bought the large Crafter's Companion binders, which I like, but when you store lots of dies in them, they get very heavy and cumbersome (and if small dies, they pop off). Now I limit the dies I store in those and keep it to stamp and die sets or just stamps. I'm back to using Artbins for intricate dies and a rectangular basket for Nestabilities/basic shapes, which are stored on magnetic sheet inside the original cardboard packaging.
Gdoreen ~ I had forgotten about them embossing the plastic sleeves that they were "supposed to" fit in. LOL
Ladies ~ All I can say about the weight of some of these storage fail ideas is..... Who needs a gym membership? We get enough exercise just trying to gather up supplies to make something. Right? :p
Empty CD cases for unmounted stamp storage... I went down that road and it worked for a while but then they seemed to grow out of control so I switched to the clear avery elle pockets, and, the 5.5" x 8" sheet protectors for the smaller binders. I leave the stamps on the original acetate or cut my own using EZ Mount Stamp Storage Panels from Crafter's Companion. I group like stamps together and label the pockets which are stored standing up in a double wide media box. I'm able to store more stamps in less space.
There have been many fails over the years here! I also had my embossing folders in a notebook with clear pockets which became so heavy I soon gave that up. Now I just have them in photo boxes, left open so I can flip through them ~ loosely organized by type/season, etc.
My spooled ribbons have been on 3 rows of wall mounted gutters, stacked one over the other with space in between and this is my best solution, works great IMO. I also tried wrapping loose ribbon around the old-fashioned round clothes pins and like the previous poster, I ended up with lots of curled up ribbon : (
At present, I'm not happy with my die storage. They are in dvd cases with magnetic strips to hold the dies in place, but they take up a bunch of space; maybe I should try the pockets with magnetic sheets or the Stamp n Storage magnetic storage.
I would also like to go the Stamp n Storage route for ink pad storage, but this all adds up to lots of bucks : ( Presently I have a mish-mash of storage for my (way too many) ink pads:
- a SU carousel - do not like it
- 2 wooden wall mounted ink pad holders that I got for my birthday YEARS ago and the ones that hold the SU style pads is falling apart. Ticks me off, too, because these were NOT cheap.
- my Distress inks stacked on a shelf
- my chalk inks in a basket
Oh, how I would love to have them all organized in matching high-quality, wall mounted storage units. Maybe when I get rich - Ha!
I like to keep all my sentiment stamps close to my table, so they are in clamshells or dvd cases in one of those white plastic carts with drawers. This is not a good solution because the drawers get so heavy, they won't close all the way when I pull them out. I need to start checking the thrift shops or free-cycle for an old, short dresser that I could paint and switch all those sentiments to.
After 14 years, the room is ever evolving. Sometimes it feels like I spend more time organizing than stamping : (
__________________ Claudia Splitcoast Fan Club Member
There have been many fails over the years here! I also had my embossing folders in a notebook with clear pockets which became so heavy I soon gave that up. Now I just have them in photo boxes, left open so I can flip through them ~ loosely organized by type/season, etc.
My spooled ribbons have been on 3 rows of wall mounted gutters, stacked one over the other with space in between and this is my best solution, works great IMO. I also tried wrapping loose ribbon around the old-fashioned round clothes pins and like the previous poster, I ended up with lots of curled up ribbon : (
At present, I'm not happy with my die storage. They are in dvd cases with magnetic strips to hold the dies in place, but they take up a bunch of space; maybe I should try the pockets with magnetic sheets or the Stamp n Storage magnetic storage.
I would also like to go the Stamp n Storage route for ink pad storage, but this all adds up to lots of bucks : ( Presently I have a mish-mash of storage for my (way too many) ink pads:
- a SU carousel - do not like it
- 2 wooden wall mounted ink pad holders that I got for my birthday YEARS ago and the ones that hold the SU style pads is falling apart. Ticks me off, too, because these were NOT cheap.
- my Distress inks stacked on a shelf
- my chalk inks in a basket
Oh, how I would love to have them all organized in matching high-quality, wall mounted storage units. Maybe when I get rich - Ha!
I like to keep all my sentiment stamps close to my table, so they are in clamshells or dvd cases in one of those white plastic carts with drawers. This is not a good solution because the drawers get so heavy, they won't close all the way when I pull them out. I need to start checking the thrift shops or free-cycle for an old, short dresser that I could paint and switch all those sentiments to.
After 14 years, the room is ever evolving. Sometimes it feels like I spend more time organizing than stamping : (
I've always felt that "organizing" is a hobby within a hobby. I've spent many hours organizing, only to re-organize later due to more stuff....or it not working like I thought, etc. I must say, though, that I enjoy doing it. Love touching all my cool "stuff" ! LOL
Stamps and supplies organization chaos! I tried excel spreadsheets, one note, and other apps for organizing, all a total pain in my backside! I was the excel queen at one time, but knew there had to be something better! Finally discovered evernote, thanks to SCS members suggestion, I'm a happy camper now! Super easy and fantastic program!!!
I take pictures of my stamps and die cuts and keep the pictures organized by category. It's always worked well for me, but I keep hearing about Evernote so it must be time to look into it. Off I go.
__________________
Jo
Proud Fan Club Member
...sure it�s got a catchy beat, but can you stamp to it?
life is something that happens only when you run out of cardstock
My big fail is how to keep paper scraps organized so I can use them & not waste paper. I create lots of scraps with my Silhouette! I do use the pieces that are about 5 or 6" in size to cut small things. It is my biggest headache!
I take pictures of my stamps and die cuts and keep the pictures organized by category. It's always worked well for me, but I keep hearing about Evernote so it must be time to look into it. Off I go.
I use Evernote and I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it!
If I'm making a note for an SU set, I copy the index from SSS and put that in my note, and it easily allows me to see my sets as I'm going down the index.
If it's another company's stamp set, I either try to find an image online or I take a pic myself and do the same so I can see the sets going down the index.
I also put in my Evernote each of the stamp set's sayings, and I can then search Evernote for a particular word or saying.
__________________ Brenda
<-My sibling kitties, Milo and Rousseau
Empty CD cases for unmounted stamp storage... I went down that road and it worked for a while but ...
I also tried them years ago and soon found it was going to work for the number of stamps I had, the cases broke easy, and the large sets needed multiple cases. I cringe when I see someone switching to CD cases.
I found the perfect ribbon storage a few years ago. Here's a video on it:
The website referred to in the video no longer exists because the woman who owns the company is closing it down but she still has some inventory she's selling off. See here:
These stories are funny! My organization fail was......trying to organize! I realized I LIKE rummaging through my stuff, seeing what surprises I find. So, I bought an Ikea Expedit shelf unit, a bunch of Thirty-One cube baskets to fit in each shelf cube, and then tossed my supplies into those. There is zero organization to what is in the baskets, but it keeps things neat and hidden (my stamp corner is in our family room) and it fulfills my need for serendipitous finds in my stash. I did formally organize my paper, ink, and ribbon in Stamp-N-Storage units, but even those are a hodgepodge (papers are not organized by color or type and neither are my ribbons).
I did the ribbon on dowels (5 - 6 ft dowels that hung down from the sliding closet doors in the craft room. While easy to access = as mentioned, once that spool was empty, you had to take all the others off to remove it and replace with another.
If you've got wall space - go for gutters...I've got 4 gutters along an entire wall - love it - the spools sit right in them - just pick up the spool and put it back. So so nice.
there's an index with SU stamps we can copy ?? Please, point me in the right direction. Thanks!
11
Quote:
Originally Posted by Paper Junky
I use Evernote and I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it!
If I'm making a note for an SU set, I copy the index from SSS and put that in my note, and it easily allows me to see my sets as I'm going down the index.
If it's another company's stamp set, I either try to find an image online or I take a pic myself and do the same so I can see the sets going down the index.
I also put in my Evernote each of the stamp set's sayings, and I can then search Evernote for a particular word or saying.
After organizing and then reorganizing and yet again reorganizing, I realized my mistake was I could store everything away, but I could not easily take things out, use them and just as easily put them back. This led to taking things out, projecting, and not putting things away. And the mess would continue to grow. I have used several of Jennifer McGuire's storage ideas. I do not use an entire magnetic sheet for dies because the containers with my dies were getting too heavy. Instead, I cut two strips of the magnetic sheets or the magnetic rolls and glued those to a thin plastic sheet, stick the dies to those magnetic strips, place that in a plastic sleeve, place that in a plastic refrigerator bin. I have them alphabetized by categories and/or name of the die set.
I always look forward to the New Year it's my favorite time of the year, a fresh start and time to reflect and review my goals... Out with the old and In with the new, its time to purge and re-organize. I moved in my current residence in April. I still have a few boxes to unpack and I need to re-organize my studio/office... I'm looking forward to the task. I've lived with this for 8mths and worked in as it was set up when I moved in... I need to shift things around for a better workflow and organization...
glad I read this - was just getting ready to mount mine (magnet sheets to hold dies)
to the inside of the cabinet - thanks for saving me!
I tried the magnets on the inside of the cabinet idea. Spent a lot of time picking up fallen dies. Became very frustrating, actually.
Now I cut the magnets to the size of Spellbinders package they used to come in, put doublestick tape on the non-magnetic side and can hold about 4 sets of dies in each package.
I'm glad this thread saved you some time, money, and headache.
__________________ Brenda
<-My sibling kitties, Milo and Rousseau
The website referred to in the video no longer exists because the woman who owns the company is closing it down but she still has some inventory she's selling off. See here:
Thought I'd mention another app for organising here, OneNote, by Microsoft. I started with Evernote, and it works well, but I think it depends how you use it. If you are using a note for each stamp set, it works fine. However, I'm not an SU stamper- I only have 4 of theirs- so tend to organise my pages by manufacturer, so I have a lot of individual stamp images on one page. I found originally, it wasn't possible to resize the images in Evernote. They have added that feature now, but it does not seem to like you moving things round on a page, and it's impossible to place an image where you want it, as opposed to where Evernote wants to put it. Then Hubby suggested trying OneNote- it's free- and like Evernote, works on mobile, tablet & PC. With this, I can resize an image on the page, move the order of images around, and place them exactly where I want them. For me, and the way I store my information, it's much more user friendly.
Shaz, I wouldn't sort by manufacturer, but by category: Animals, Floral, Leaves/Trees, Sentiments, etc. Can you see OneNote working well in that case? Also, I use an iPad and a PC.
OTOH, I'm still thinking I want my stamps and info about stamps together, so am thinking of a hard copy catelogue that duplicates the stamp categories, and just has multiple copies of the same stamp set in multiple categories - with the "odd" stamps circled. So if a floral stamp set had a sentiment, I'd make two copies of the set, put one under Floral, and I'd circle the sentiment and put that copy under Sentiments.
I've been doing a version of this in with the stamps themselves, but it's getting a little bulky, and I have a rule that I can't outgrow my current bins. : )
I don't want to hijack this thread though, so maybe I should start a new one or find one that is applicable. Thanks for your thoughts on Evernote.
bjeans, it's been my experience that putting any sort of multiples on a page is a problem. It may be me- it might be worth asking others who have more experience how they use it? There was an Evernote Tips & Tricks thread on here recently. I also have a hard copy- I keep mine in an A4 ring binder. I have some by manufacturer- if I have a lot of their stamps, Like Tim Holtz, others by theme, so there is some duplication in my system. I also have an index on my pc- again folders for manufacturer and theme. So plenty of redundancy, here, lol. I used to stamp the pages for my hard copy, now I just make up pages using Photoshop, taking the images from my pc. They are not full size, but I don't mind that, as I have a rough mental image of the stamp size by looking at it.
Okay... it's only one stamp set copied on a pocket-sized piece of cardstock, not multiples, unless that's what you mean by multiples?
The set is copied from the printed clear sheet or packaging. For the rare sets that don't have drawings, I would stamp the set.
Theme works. I don't think of manufacturer. I have PhotoShop Elements but wouldn't want take photos and learn to use that too. I live on my iPad and PC but two learning curves makes me itchy. : )
I've never quite been able to understand organizing by the manufacturer. My stamps are all organized by category/theme because that is how I stamp. I'm pretty good at being able to tell who made a stamp but nine times out of ten, when I want a candle it's for a birthday card so I can go to the birthday box #3 where I have candles, packages, and party supplies. If had to remember if the stamp was SU, MFT, etc. I'd never find it. LOL
Bad Idea - Storage Failures
