Breaking up is hard to do! :)

[klh54]

So has anyone broken up their stamp sentiments according to sentiment? I mean like putting all their "thinking of you" stamps in one collection, "Happy Birthday" etc.
And for that matter breaking up their sets and putting them together according to theme or subject?
I have inventoried my stamps (for the most part) and still find it difficult to find what I'm looking for in a timely way! I've labeled all my stamps by manufacturer and subject but maybe it's just me gettin older and hatin to waste time lookin fer stuff, ya know?!! LOL
What have y'all done with yours?

[gregzgurl]

A lot of people do break up their sets, and a lot of people leave the sets intact, but create an index (like a Rolodex or card file or binder) with the images separated by category. They note which stamp set/manufacturer/whatever the particular image belongs to so they know where to find it. I have a Rolodex, myself. I had all of my stamp sets broken up, but didn't like that system, so I put them all back together again (yeah - waaaaaaaaaay too much time invested in THAT project!) There are several threads over in the Mission Organization forum, if you'd like more info. Here's an excellent one to start you off:

Help me put together a catalog of my stamps by bellasaluto at Splitcoaststampers

Good luck with that!

[Juble]

I broke all my wooden stamp sets up and love it. I cataloged each set, broke them into various catagories that work for me. I put them into stufftainers and then numbered the containers. Then cataloged the numbers to the container and put the cataloged sheets in a file folder for handy reference. Hope that made sense. It's an easy system for me, not necessarily for everyone. I can not bring myself to unmount my wooden stamps; just can't do it. I ended up with 33 containers that house 176 stamp sets. That's my system for what it's worth I keep clear and cling stamps in these containers also but I don't break up those sets.

[Jana Z]

I have all of my sets broken up. So much easier to find what I am looking for, so I love it! I have mine all in binders, as my wood are unmounted and I use a lot of clear.

[winnieu]

I have all my sentiments broken up and in shallow patent drawers by occasion,holiday or company. I love having all my birthday together and not have to dig. It makes it much easier for me.

[spginjax]

If a set is all sentiments, I left it alone. But all of the others I divided up into groups like birthday, thinking of you, thank you, love, christmas, etc. Works much better for me!

[Phantom]

I know a lot of people will do that and they are very happy with it, but it won't work for me, at least for the images. One reason is that I tend to think in terms of companies anyway, and also the stamp sets tend to complement each other within a company (at least the ones I use).

Also... in trying to sort by themes, I think there would be some overlap and then I would simply drive myself crazy.

I don't think I'd try to do that with sentiments either -- quite a few are geared specifically to the images in the set they came with. Maybe the generics. . . Happy Birthday, Thinking of You. . . . I could see doing that.

It probably helps that I don't think I have the massive quantity of stamps that some people do. I've purged my collection over the years and now it's much more manageable.

[sf9erfan]

Ack! I never break up my stamp sets. Ever.

But on a related note (and what I thought you were initially talking about from the title) I DO cut apart my sentiment stamps. :-)

[jessicak]

I am in the process of breaking apart my stamp sets and putting all " birthday, trees", etc. into each container of their own. I have stamped since 1990, so I have alot. It just doesn't serve any purpose to keep them together after you have seen the set stamped together for so long. After breaking up the sets, you can sort of think outside of the box with the stamps and get a new perspective with them! It's like having new stamps again!

[sprtchick]

If I did that I would not be able to sleep. Lol. :-)

[fairsinger]

Quote:

Originally Posted by sprtchick

If I did that I would not be able to sleep. Lol. :-)

I feel the same way! I'm not sure why I feel that I must keep my sets together, but if I discover a stray stamp on my craft table I cannot rest until I've found its appropriate home! I admire those who are able to break their sets up, but I just haven't been able to do it myself.

[terry serman]

I put all my sentiments together by b-day, ty, get well, etc. but leave the rest of the set intact. It really makes things much easier for me!

[lutheran]

I used to break up all my sets but I quit doing it to make it easier to resell whole sets. I do have a box with just birthday images and sentiments and another box with just "other" sentiments just as thanks, thinking of you, etc. When you are doing a card in a hurry, like on the way out the door to a birthday party, it makes for very quick stamping!
Mary Beth

[klh54]

Quote:

Originally Posted by gregzgurl

A lot of people do break up their sets, and a lot of people leave the sets intact, but create an index (like a Rolodex or card file or binder) with the images separated by category. They note which stamp set/manufacturer/whatever the particular image belongs to so they know where to find it. I have a Rolodex, myself. I had all of my stamp sets broken up, but didn't like that system, so I put them all back together again (yeah - waaaaaaaaaay too much time invested in THAT project!) There are several threads over in the Mission Organization forum, if you'd like more info. Here's an excellent one to start you off:

Help me put together a catalog of my stamps by bellasaluto at Splitcoaststampers


Good luck with that!

Thanks for the link!! Very interesting information...and very time-consuming process! what was I thinking??! am I ready for this? Lol.

I'm thinking that for me since I've tried the organizing by stamp set/manufacturer/theme and it hasn't worked for me, that I may try breaking up my sets.
I guess I'm more of a words girl so I'm looking for an easy way to find my sentiments over anything else.

Thanks for the good luck wishes!

[fionna51]

I have broken up all my sets into categories. Because of my storage, I did it all at one time :shock:

But I am still working on
... index sheets for the individual cards that my stamps are clung to.
... trying to decide on where to put about 30 sentiment stamps. Do you ever wonder what they were thinking about when they created some of those sentiments?
... trying to find one stamp that likely got misplaced or lost. Not that it is a GREAT loss but I'm obsessive enough that it bugs me. It's a "sending" stamp. Just the one word and I probably wouldn't use it much. But still....

I'm really liking having my stamps like this. I'm much more aware of what I have. For example, when I had my stamps by set, I had about 4 baby sets in that drawer. I thought I needed to find some good ones. But when I took my sets apart and put all the baby images from other sets in that drawer, I'm shocked! So many to choose from!

Same with my sentiments.

I love having my stamps this way.

[klh54]

Quote:

Originally Posted by fionna51

I'm really liking having my stamps like this. I'm much more aware of what I have. For example, when I had my stamps by set, I had about 4 baby sets in that drawer. I thought I needed to find some good ones. But when I took my sets apart and put all the baby images from other sets in that drawer, I'm shocked! So many to choose from!

Same with my sentiments.

I love having my stamps this way.

This is what I'm thinking!!! Thank you for the confirmation and I'm glad to know someone else has done this!

[staceylovespaper]

It took me 2 tries to beak up all my sets. The first try, I broke up only a handful of sets and I had stamped each set onto cardstock so I could put them back together if necessary. That lasted only a few days.

Then I tried it again a few weeks later. At that time I bought stufftainers and followed a post here. I labeled the side with my label maker with categories like nature, line art flowers, thank you, birthday, Christmas, Halloween etc. They are all neatly lined up. It has been about 2 years, and I still love it. I can not imagine ever keeping my sets together.

I am currently working on my clear/cling stamps. Once those are all taken care of, I am going to start unmounting my wood sets.

[cobby]

I've considered it, but don't think I could do it. I get flustered when a friend borrows a stamp set to take to her house, then only needs one or two stamps out of it; so she brings the rest of the set BACK to me but those one or two stamps are floating around "loose" at her house. Makes me crazy!!!

However; I have considered redoing my "catalog" of stamps. The one I have now is on full size 8 1/2 x 11 copier paper and I stamped out all the sets, labeled with company and name of set. I put as many sets as I could on one page. I have all the papers in a 3 ring binder in page protectors and I divided the sections by company name when I had enough of one company to justify doing that.

I have been thinking about converting to a Rolodex like gregzgurl mentioned above. I checked out her post and pictures. If I did a rolodex and put one single stamp image per card; I could divide them up into themes that way. I could still store them by set, keeping them all happily together and just make a note on the rolodex card what stamp set the image belongs to so I could find it easily. But that's about as far as I think I could go in regards to breaking the sets apart in any way.

[Inkin One]

Quote:

Originally Posted by sprtchick

If I did that I would not be able to sleep. Lol. :-)

buwahhahaha ..this cracked me up ..and sums up my thoughts too LOL. I can't even mix colored pencil brands much less my stamps HAHAH

[jeanstamping2]

No no never have I ever broken my stamp set's up. I bought them that way.

Beside they get lonely...Cause their stamp mate is gone.;)

[Rachelrose]

I have some resistance to breaking up sets. I really think I'd be better off with an index with refs to what set things came from. But I can't decide whether to do a rolodex or a file card file box. Or a binder.

I just finished switching all my stamps from CD and DVD cases to storage panels with indexes, so the prospect of embarking on another major organizational project is daunting. I think that's why I'm dithering over exactly how to do it. But I know an index is in my future. Unavoidable. It would really improve the way I work, being able to easily see what I have in any given category.

[gr8cards]

I have broken up all of my stamp sets and I think, for me, it makes the most sense. I have them all in 5 x 7 plastic boxes from Uline and marked thank you, trees, animals, flowers, birds, birthday, etc. It might not be for everyone, but once I took the plunge, I have never been sorry.

[geogymnast82]

Most of my sets are broken up but not all. If I tend to use most stamps out of a set together because of the theme or artistic style of a set then I keep it together. Like SU's Crab & Company - I don't pull out the Santa hat and put it in with my Christmas stuff because I tend to use that particular stamp mostly with other images of that set (or when I use it for other cartoon/line drawing sets, I still remember to look in the Crab & Co set). My other shell, beach sets are stored along with Crab & Co. If I have a set that is all sentiments, then I break that set up into particular sentiments (like birthday, get well, thank you, etc.) My most recent purchases haven't been broken up yet and that has already created problems. I was making my daughter's valentines and knew I had a particular "happy valentine's day" style stamp but it wasn't in with my other hearts, love, valentine's stuff. Drove me crazy looking for it until I found it. It's now where I should have been placed right after I purchased the set. It's just easier for me to find things when the sets are broken up.

[Jill with a G]

I just did this very thing! I sorted by Occasion, and although it took some time to sort, I do like this method better!. My old method was very dis-organized. My old method, I just put stamps in a clear shoe box and labeled the boxes by number. Then I indexed the stamps by box number. Problem was, all kinds of stamps were in any box. My Christmas stamps were in too many boxes. My Birthday stamps were in too many different boxes. So I did the sorting by occasion. I made a new index in a 3-ring binder, and now all my sets are mostly together by theme. It's working for now, and I like that I did this! I have stamps from all over. Hero Arts, Stampendous, Studio G, Michael's, Archivers, Penny Black, Lockhart, just so many miscellaneous neat stamps and sets. I did not break up my SU stamp sets though. I did sort them together as close as I could by theme. It's really helped having them sorted together by theme.

[Oddesigns]

I break up all of my wood sets for two reasons:

1. My brain thinks by category, not set
2. The clamshell cases are a nightmare for my storage system.

Mostly #2, because I don't break up my cling sets.

I have an image catalog to keep track of what I have. I also put a copy of the label sheet in the empty clamshells so I can easily restore the set at a later date if I want to sell it.

[kmatuschka]

I broke up my sets and unmounted all my wood stamps and LOVE it. I never thought about cutting up the sentiments, but seeing the pictures in the post from sf9erfan, I think I'm going to do that.

[BathBelle]

Reading through this thread does it ever seem to you that us crafters enjoy organising just as much as crafting?

[klh54]

Quote:

Originally Posted by BathBelle

Reading through this thread does it ever seem to you that us crafters enjoy organising just as much as crafting?

Yup! I enjoy the organizing because it helps me craft better. There's nothing that kills my creativity more than having to hunt through my cabinets, shelves and drawers for something I KNOW I have!! lol- so being organized means I get to spend more time being creative and less time being stressed about not being able to find something.
But the funny thing is while organizing I could just swear I have a particular item but what I've come to know is that just because I SAW something in the scrap store or online doesn't mean I bought it!! hahaha

[Allistamps123]

I have broken up most birthday and thank you and all occasion sets. I'm not comfortable doing it. I too think in terms that they belong together!

I do get better use out of these sets, but these are all I am splitting up . Theses are wood mount sets. I won't break uo my clear mount (most my sets are SU).

It gives me anxiety to break them up ;). Yes, I agree...stamps from broken homes get lonely! ;)

[maggimay456]

I broke my sets up and have never regretted it. I store alot of them in those clear plastic photo frames (that I buy at second hand stores) on shelves. Easy to take the entire catagory out and see what I need. Before I broke them up I put an abbreviated name of the set (mostly use SU sets) and numbered them 1/4, 2/4 etc depending on the number in the set. I realize that is time consuming to mark the ends but if I end up selling the set I can easily match the sets correctly. Also I make a photo copy of the stamp set to put in my binder. Now I am just trying to figure out what to do with the clear sets as I always forget to use them....out of sight...out of mind for me! Any suggestions???? thanks

[Mrs Noofy]

I keep all my sets together. All sets are catalogued before they even see ink and if by some chance I want to use a sentiment from one set for a long period of time I jot the name of said set on the side of the wood. It it is an unmounted set then I write on the side or top with my micron. I also make a small notation in my catalogue that I have removed it. (I record if I lend a set also). Way too OCD for you? ..well lets just say I haven't lost anything yet! LOL

[tina van-eick]

I do keep my sets together. I've inventoried, like you stated, but don't bother looking at that. Yes, it might take a little time to look for the stamp you want, but I must admit, I have fun rediscovering the stamps I have when I have to really search. I do have a general idea where most of my stamps are though, so I don't have to search too long.

[Kristy Tyra]

hehehe It is funny how so many of us think alike. At first I would never separate a set. Now, (many years and stamps later) it is rare that a set is together unless they are acrylic sets nicely organized together. I just got done mounting all of my unmounted rubber on cling cushion, so it's time to reorganize again. "A crafter's work is never done"...

[Rebecca Ednie]

When I unmounted my SU! stamps, I took generic sentiments and moved them to one section. But specific sentiments like 'howdy cowboy', stayed with the cowboy stamps. But now that I have so many stamps by other companies, I keep them together. If there is a generic stamp I know I'll use a lot like thinking of you or thank you, I put a little note on the case next to the name.

[shazsilverwolf]

I did this with mine over December- I'd had a fall & fractured my shoulderblade, so wasn't much I could do, lol. I also un mounted all my wood stamps, while I was at it. So they are sorted by theme- floral, backgrounds etc. And all my sentiments are sorted by theme, Birthday etc. I discovered I have no less than 13 Thank You stamps- Doubt I will ever be THAT grateful in my life, rofl! Oh, and I have since acquired two more, in sets free with magazines! What is it with people? Do they see a space in the corner of a stamp set & think' we'll just put a Thank You stamp there, everyone always needs one of those'. The only ones I haven't split up are Tim Holtz, but they have a binder of their own anyway. I've found this a much better system, as I don't have to hunt through various sets to see if i have a suitable sentiment, or a sentiment in a font/style that fits my project. I have them stamped onto Index sheets in the folder, and one of these days I am going to scan these in, and print off A5 size for storing in small binders to flick through. I did do this once, but as I re-organised, a lot of stamps are in a different place now.

[cjkr]

I broke up a few of my sets and loved it, so I did the all the rest. I have them in drawers by occasion/holiday/theme, and it is ever so much easier to find what I want. I have a catagory called "miscellaneous sentiments" since some don't fit easily into any of the catagories. I also have a notebook where I have indexed all the sets that I can reference if I need to. I keep all my stamps from all the different companies together. I am not an SU demo, so this works best for me.

[Cathy4]

I, too group stamps by category, but I also write in pencil on the side the name of the set, my name, and 1 of 6 and so on...this way I can put them back together if I need to....sell them? never! I love them all to much! I found I would forget about 'words' when left in the set,thus not used!

[snowowl]

Almost all of my stamps are Stampin Up and I keep them by category (Floral, Trees-Leaves-Pine, Hearts, Christmas, Easter etc.) in those plastic drawers using the back of a business size card (have a lot from a former business) marked with category stuck in front so I can read it thru the plastic. I keep my stamps together in their clamshells with other brands in the same drawer.
Haven't separated the sentiments yet but am strongly thinking about it.
I also have an index card file with name, # of stamps and a copy of the set. I also (ok, I'm a former bookkeeper) list the date of the set, what page in the catalog(s), price and when it retires. Yah, I know!!!
I also love organizing. Feels so good. Now, if I felt that way about cleaning the house!
Sue

[Vitt]

I must be partly OCD because when I go to garage sales and see a lonely SU! stamp, it makes me crazy. I wonder where is the rest of the set? LOL Since I have classes I like to use one set on a card and my customers are more likely to purchase the items for it.

[jaustic]

Well girls, here's another way to think about it-sometimes I group by holiday (ie. Christmas), sometimes by category (I have all my trees and leaves together), and sometimes it's a mixture of the two-for example, I keep all the hearts together, even though they could be in the Valentine's category. But I keep many of the SU! word and sentiments sets together because they're all the same length or 'shape'. So, when I'm designing a card, I'm looking for a word that fits the space as much as which particular word. Hmmm, wonder why it takes me half a day to make a card...