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I never thought I would separate my SU! sets but today I took that big step and, boy, does it feel good! Now I feel they will get the love and attention they deserve. (Before, it was too overwhelming to find the set I was looking for.) Now, I am sooo glad I did it. I can't believe I waited so long!!
LOL, I used to store mine that way, and the only reason I went back to storing in sets is because I signed up to be an SU demo. It really helps to store like stamps together, such as all flower images, all occasion images, etc.
One thing I will caution you about...quite some time after I separated the sets I sold several sets. Fast forward several years and I came across a single stamp I could not identify. Eventually I found that it belonged to one of the sets I'd sold, and I had no way to find the person that had bought the set. I felt terrible!
So, if there's a way for you to keep track of all of the contents and what went with what set, that's so helpful. I realize that may not be accomplished easily now that they've been split...
I started doing mine after I quit as a demonstrator. It's much easier to find just what I want when like images or like categories (Christmas, Halloween, etc) are altogether. Not that I sell my stamps yet, but when I do separate them out and they're mounted to the wood already (most of mine I never put on the wood), I pencil in the name of the set of the stamp or stamps that aren't with the others from the set. I also have a picture inventory of what stamps go with what sets so I can put them back together if necessary for selling or if one of my stamping friends wants to borrow the set. I'm in the process of finally separating the unmounted stamps from the wood blocks they were supposed to be mounted to. It feels great.
Thank you for your input. I already have 3 binders of pictures of all my sets so if I ever need to make them back into sets I should be able to. Now I would like to take this organizing thing one step further and put all like words and images together. With over 500 sets that looks challenging. Well, I guess I got something to look forward to this winter! LOL
Thank you for your input. I already have 3 binders of pictures of all my sets so if I ever need to make them back into sets I should be able to. Now I would like to take this organizing thing one step further and put all like words and images together. With over 500 sets that looks challenging. Well, I guess I got something to look forward to this winter! LOL
Yeah, my total is like that, too, plus tons of totally unmounted stamps, cling ones, etc. I felt the same way before I started getting rid of the SU clamshell cases & blocks. Thought there was no way I could get through them all. I just worked on it a bit at a time, 10 minutes here and there when I could. I had a mess while that was going on, but I could deal with the mess knowing that I was finally getting to my final goal. There's still some tweeking I need to do to my system before it'll totally suit me, but it's finally getting there. Amazing how the creative juices start flowing again when it's easy to see all the stamps I actually have and can find them.
I started doing this about 6 months ago and it has made my samping so much easier. Since I am still a SU! Demo, I don't do the current sets, but since I don't sell my retired sets, I have started doing them. Not sure how many sets I have. I really don't want to count them, I could go into shock.
__________________ Jac-ee Former FSJ Founding Coach and SU! Demonstrator, now crafting for myself. "There is a fine line between 'HOBBY' and 'MENTAL ILLNESS'"
I started doing this about 6 months ago and it has made my samping so much easier. Since I am still a SU! Demo, I don't do the current sets, but since I don't sell my retired sets, I have started doing them. Not sure how many sets I have. I really don't want to count them, I could go into shock.
Tee hee... this made me giggle!
I'm curious how you ladies are now storing your still-wood-mounted stamps, now that you've separated them from their original set ... are you keeping them in clam cases still, just divided by season, sentiment, etc, OR are you doing something totally different? (Not looking for unmounted storage responses ... wood mounted only at this time.)
I am still keeping them in the clamshells. I put labels on the ends of each clamshell which tells me the category then they are stored in larger brightly colored soft-sided bins. It is quite a colorful display. I have all of my hearts together, then halloween, fall, thanksgiving, winter, etc. My brain told me how to organize the stamps logically. I couldn't organize them by set names anymore because I couldn't remember them. I feel so satisfied with the end result. Sometimes I think I love the organizing betther than the stamping! LOL:rolleyes: I will still keep the binders with pictures of the complete stamp sets and add new inventory to it, but I love that I will now just go to the images I want and see them all right there together.
I originally intended to only separate multi-occasion sentiments and images and then I went to far. I started splitting up everything. Now I have a mess because I got stuck wehre I couldn't put any more together and had a lot of misc stamps. So I started putting the sets back together and now I'm in the process of finishing the upstairs of my home to make a huge stamp room and I'm pregnant, so I need to get something figured out before I move my room in a month! YIKES!
This has probably already been answered, but I couldn't find it. Is it safe to store the clear stamps in cd cases? Some of my stamps are sticking to the clear sheet that they came with so strongly that I almost tear some up pulling them off. In fact, I think I did pull a tiny corner off of one of my stamps. I notice they don't stick to the cases that strongly, but they are stored nicely.
I am buying some of the Aleene's Tack it over and over for my rubber stamps. Was using double-sided tape, but that has gotten to be a pain.
Last edited by hoptownracer1; 10-12-2010 at 11:02 AM..
Reason: forgot something
Is it also safe to store the clear stamps in the dark colored dvd cases? I'm trying to make due with materials I have on hand. As I am tired of spending $$$ on this hobby, with the exception of a few stamps. ;)
I found the answer I was looking for on YouTube.com. I just love youtube. One of the posters showed where the cd cases were actually melting her clear stamps ($1 stamps from Target), so I think to be safe, I'll just store the rubber stamps that I coat with the ATIOO in the cd cases, and leave the clear and dollar stamps that I have stored in the card guard pocket pages in the binder with the clear backing they come on. The rest I am leaving in the clam shells they came in. Guess I could always take them off the clear sheet and cling them to the clam shell inside if that works. Hope my rattling didn't confuse anyone.
I found the answer I was looking for on YouTube.com. I just love youtube. One of the posters showed where the cd cases were actually melting her clear stamps ($1 stamps from Target), so I think to be safe, I'll just store the rubber stamps that I coat with the ATIOO in the cd cases, and leave the clear and dollar stamps that I have stored in the card guard pocket pages in the binder with the clear backing they come on. The rest I am leaving in the clam shells they came in. Guess I could always take them off the clear sheet and cling them to the clam shell inside if that works. Hope my rattling didn't confuse anyone.
think you could post the link to that video? i'm curious to see...
Here is the video I was referring to; she discusses the stamps melting around 5:40 if you want to fast foward to that point. YouTube - My Stamp Catalog
I am going to store my rubber ones in the cd cases after I paint some diluted ATIOO on them.
There is also a video where a woman is storing the clear ones in binders in the photo storage sheets. I think I like that system best for the larger clear ones, and using the baseball card storage sheets for the small ones. As I do buy a lot of the dollar stamps at different places, I want to be sure they won't be ruined.
Last edited by hoptownracer1; 10-12-2010 at 04:41 PM..
I am still keeping them in the clamshells. I put labels on the ends of each clamshell which tells me the category then they are stored in larger brightly colored soft-sided bins. It is quite a colorful display. I have all of my hearts together, then halloween, fall, thanksgiving, winter, etc. My brain told me how to organize the stamps logically. I couldn't organize them by set names anymore because I couldn't remember them. I feel so satisfied with the end result. Sometimes I think I love the organizing betther than the stamping! LOL:rolleyes: I will still keep the binders with pictures of the complete stamp sets and add new inventory to it, but I love that I will now just go to the images I want and see them all right there together.
I am doing the same thing! I love having my stamps seperated. Of course, there are always going to be excpetions but overall, I am super happy with this! When I was a demo, I actually bought a bunch of the extra large jumbo clamshell boxes and they fit perfectly on my shelf I have. I just print out on a piece of copy paper what is in the box (Halloween, Christmas, Christmas sentiments, Solid Floral Images, Line Art Images, Love Sentiments, etc) and cut it to size to fit in the end of the box.
I actually seem to use my stamps more this way because I dont think in "sets" I think "I want a floral image with an Anniversary sentiment". So I pull those two boxes.
Some of my clear mount stamps I have left in sets tho if they are tiny images or hostess sets. I bought tons of the SU DVD cases for those tho since I rarely buy wood mounted stamps anymore.
The part I bolded in your post, 3dognite, is EXACTLY me too!!! LOL
I separated mine several years ago, mostly because the clamshell cases are such a waste of space and hard to store efficiently.
I make a key to each set, either from photocopies of the labels before I mounted the sets or just on scrap paper as I was entering the images into my personal catalog. The key is stored in the clamshell so if I want to reassemble the set I can easily figure out which stamps are needed.
It's so much easier to find what I want because I store the stamps the way my brain thinks of them.
My friend is a demo and was just looking through my stamp cabinet. She was shocked that I broke up my sets. It was funny to see her reaction. But then again, she thinks of them as sets, not individual images, and only works with current sets. Her supply is a lot smaller than mine because I am not forced to stop using retired sets.
I'm curious how you ladies are now storing your still-wood-mounted stamps, now that you've separated them from their original set ...
I am not using the clamshells as they take up waaaaaaay too much space and I am in the process of unmounting my sets, but for the ones that I have separated and are still wood mounted, I am storing them on the clear acrylic picture frames, when turned upside down they have about a 1" lip and make a great tray that wood mounted fit in perfectly. And they stack great too! I put labels to identify what is in each tray. Birthday, thank you, best wishes, graduation, good luck, etc.
You can get the frames at Ms, Js, WM, pretty much anywhere they sell frames, but thte best place I've found is thrift shops. They are usually around $1 or so, and I don't care if they are scratched because that is the bottom for my purpose. They also come in various sizes.
Another option I sometimes use, for those catagories where I don't have a lot of stamps now but have no doubt I will be adding to it, is the whitman candy boxes and tins. These work well too becuase of the uniform size, shape, and stacking ability. I find these at thrift stops too, especially after the holidays. I keep checking until they are around $1 too.
__________________ Jac-ee Former FSJ Founding Coach and SU! Demonstrator, now crafting for myself. "There is a fine line between 'HOBBY' and 'MENTAL ILLNESS'"
Hi yall! Not sure if I'm allowed to post this in here or not - if not PLEASE forgive me!! I am cleaning out my craft room and had decided to unmount all my SU stamps - so I bought a bumch of EZ mount and a ton of clear CD cases only to decide after sitting on them for over a year that it ain't gonna happen....soooo...I need to get rid of these things...if you are interested please PM me! I'd be glad to work up good deal for ya! Again...sorry if my "need to get rid of" post isn't allowed here!!
Hi ladies!
I posted a few photos of my recent "separation" project.
I must say, I never thought I would do this with anything other than total generic sentiments, but now that I have I LOVE it!!! Not only is it saving me OODLES of space, but already, in just a couple of days, I have used more stamps that haven't seen daylight in years, simply because of the convenience and change!
I have seperated some of my SU sets - anything that didn't have to belong together like the backgrounds or sentiment sets, and anything that had a lot of different images like a set that had a bird and a butterfly and a flower and a sentiment. I used a fine tip permanent marker to write the set name on the side of each block. I store my loose stamps in Iris Cart drawers by category (flowers, leaves, animals, etc). They do get a lot more use this way.
Separation Anxiety......
YouTube video
