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1. When you organize your dies do you store them by brand (ie. MFT, PTI, Memory Box, Cheery Lynn, etc) by keeping them all together? Or do you store them by theme? For example keep all your grass dies together, etc, regardless of who made them.
2. But then you have the stamp set that have dies to go with them, do you organize them and store them separately?
Just trying to get ideas and figure out what would be the best way to go.
I am storing mine in the SU long wood empty boxes they now sell, by theme.
However, it is nice to organize by company also, if you do challenges. These boxes are
deeper for wooden stamps, so you could put in envelopes to categorize company
__________________ Carolyn
my avatar: (such desparation), Dear God, if you can't make me thin; make my
friends fat"
First, I am not organized YET. I know it's an ongoing process but, except for my inkpads and most of my solid cardstock I have to start!
That said, my plan for embellishments and dies is to organize by broad themes (nature but probably a separate "container" for flowers; shapes but probably labels will be stored separately; alphabets, etc.)
I also plan to place some sort of note (a label or Post-It) in the container holding the stamp set listing all coordinating dies and punches.
While most of the work isn't done I have spent a lot of time thinking about how I work and what term enters my mind when I'm looking for something. I would think large circle vs. Spellbinders so shape make sense for me.
I was thinking about organizing my die by themes but have a master catalogue with all my dies organized by company name so I wouldn't buy the same die twice. it would help me to know which ones I have and which ones I don't.
It seems easier to organize the physical dies to match your master catalog, since you have a starting point.
While having it organized by manufacturer prevents buying the exact same die it wouldn't necessarily prevent buying a similar die (for example a grass die from two different companies). Sometimes this might not matter but how would you know without a theme "index"?
Right now I store mine kind-of by theme, since I don't own a lot of dies:
...Circles, squares, ovals, hearts...including scallops
..."Fancy" shapes... like the spellbinders labels
...Shape type...like flowers, and clouds, and grass, etc
...Dies that go with stamp sets
Brands are mixed together.
I have my dies sorted by themes in the EZ Mount Magnetic System. Any stamps that go along with them can be kept on the back side of the magnetic page. I also have all my dies, punches, embossing folders - and pretty much everything else - listed on databases in my computer by name and manufacturer so I can easily look them up when I order online.
I have my dies stored according to company/manufacturer. I also store my stamps, ink and paper this way too. I don't catalogue anything. I have a binder near full of empty pages for a catalogue. After doing about ten pages I realized I would probably never ever refer to it.
I'm not short on space, but I had no organized system that was easy to use, especially my die collection. I needed something that was uniform, easy to find, easy to get at and easy to put away. My other criteria was that none were to be stored in binders or stacked on top of each other.
I selected a shelving unit in my room that I devoted to dies, embossing folders and punches. In my mind those things all go together. I then went on a search for the right basket to fit in the shelves and fit the different dimensions of the various dies. I finally found what I needed and bought eight baskets.
Basket 1 - embossing Folders all brands (near full)
Basket 2 - Sizzix steel rule Bigz (near full)
Basket 3 - Sizzix Bigz L and On The Edge (half full)
Basket 4 - Sizzix Misc, Eclips stuff and some odd sizzlets (Half full)
Basket 5 - Spellbinders basic shapes in original packaging (half full)
Basket 6 - Spellbinders Label shapes in original packaging (half full)
Basket 7 - Spellbinders Shapeabilities in original packaging (Half full)
Basket 8 - all other various wafer thin dies. This basket neatly holds four SU! 6" x9" clam shells. Each clamshell is labeled with two company names and holds their corresponding dies.
I bought trays for my punches, got some extra shelves cut and the trays act like drawers. Easy to pull out and easy to put away. There is enough room along side the baskets to accommodate the few Bigz XL, and decorative strip dies I own.
I've had this system for over a year and it has served me well, and when I moved house it was so easy to transfer to the new room.
When devising this system I kept in mind that I might need room for expansion. Most of the boxes are half full for this reason. I just purchased my first Pop'n'Cuts dies, but before I did that I looked long and hard at my storage. Would it fit in easily with what I already had? Yes and no. Would it need it's own category? Yes. Could I make some small adjustments and still keep the system functional? Yes. Since it ticked nearly all the boxes I went ahead with the purchase.
Stamps with matching die sets? I haven't figured out how to fit that in so I'm staying away from them. Thats the same approach I have other sections of my room too. I figure out if it'll fit in before I buy.
This has been a fairly lengthy explanation of my system, and I know a lot of people think in categories of themes, not brands like I do. I am a messy and untidy crafter and will often leave my dies out on my table and between my (s)crap. But when it comes to tidy up I can get things back in their right place fairly quickly. It works for me.
My paper on the other hand is getting a bit out of control, lol.
My dies and stamps to match are stored in the SP Binder System, stamps first and then the magnetic page with the dies on it. I like to have my matchy match supplies stored together like that.
Then for stamps without dies, I have other SP Binders just for stamps.
Then for dies without stamps, I have another SP Binder.
We just came out with pink ones so I might swap out some of my other colors for the pink ones lol.
Right now I store mine kind-of by theme, since I don't own a lot of dies:
...Circles, squares, ovals, hearts...including scallops
..."Fancy" shapes... like the spellbinders labels
...Shape type...like flowers, and clouds, and grass, etc
...Dies that go with stamp sets
Brands are mixed together.
Same for me but I don't separate sets that go with stamps and I have sections for:
Jennifer McGuire had a post a few days ago about how she organizes her dies. I'm at work so I can't include the link but it seemed to meet a lot of the needs we all have. She also does something similar for her stamps.
I found that the common denominator in organizing my dies was that they all had a name or title. I store them in alphabetical order in a Steelmaster 5x8 card file I found on eBay. I purchased some 4x6 Graffix chipboard (Amazon), 4x6 magnet sheets -adhesive and some plastic sleeves. I use my label maker to print the Title ( actually... A 2-3 letter company name, I.e., PTI, TE, SU,MFT, etc) followed by the title/name. I pretty much know what stamp sets have coordinating dies, but I also have that info in Evernote when I log my purchase in. The vinyl pouch helps keep my dies in tact so they don't accidentally fall off in the drawer. It's a little expense to protect my investment.
Its the not the physical form of storing your dies, but its an excellent idea to help keep things sorted when they fall into different categories or you quickly want the name of the stamp set that goes with that die.
Evernote syncs with your desktop. laptop, even your cell phone, so if you are out shopping or doing a project and want to recall which grass dies you own, you can just bring up a visual.
For Each die you have, you create a note, the note can consist of an image and/text.
The note can also be tagged.
Using EVERNOTE will definitely help you!
- you can tag each (DIE) note (or type within the note) the company SU, MFT, PTI, Memory Box
-You can TAG (DIES) notes by theme, nature, grass, winter, flowers, etc
you can just have a basic TAG theme, but you can also put detailed TAG theme within that one like a subfolder example Birthday, under "Birthday" tag, I have a tag for "cakes" , a tag for each " balloons", "candles", "birthday sayings"
-you type in your DIE note that it has a coordinating stamp set and the name of that set, thus you can store all your stamp sets together even though it goes with a Die that is stored elsewhere, some stamp sets have a punch that coordinate too
-you can type as little or as much info as you want for each NOTE, so if that note is a STAMP SET, you can also type when you bought it , how much you paid, what shelf you have it stored on etc, which die that coordinates with it, THEN I would use TAGS for themes, and punches
Physically I tend to keep all my Dies in one area, I only have the Stampin' Up! sorted separately in a different box but same cupboard (actually an old microwave stand) because I am a hobby demo.
I have lots of punches, all stored in the same area, all the stars together, all flowers together, etc and they go with several different stamp sets, this is were tagging in EVERNOTE will come in handy, I am planning on setting up a main tag called PUNCHES for stamp sets, and then having each of my punches as tags listed under the main punch tag (like Birthdays explained above)
in Evernote also in the NOTEBOOK area, I have a Notebook for the Punches (so I can actually see the image of each punch within that is called a note) it is like files in file folders
SO currently I have a Notebook called Stamping Supplies
under that I have other Notebooks called
-Colour(still debating on this, thinking of Cardstock, ribbons, brads)
-Dies
-Punches
-Stamps, under STAMPS NOTEBOOK I have a pic of each stamp set called a NOTE, then the notes are all tagged under themes, then I want to tag the coordinating punches to those stamp sets
I hope that kind of makes sense Just check out the website above and there are a lot of good threads on SCS too! It is definitely worth reading about.
So when you are searching for a brand or theme, or specifically grass or the stamp set or punch or Die that coordinates, as long as you have tagged it you will have the info you are looking for that day.
Thanks for the shout-out, Doris. So glad to hear you found my post helpful.
My jaw dropped when I saw my blog hits! SCS is so awesome.
I've got another article to go out next week on using Evernote to help organize all the stamping/scrapping ideas we find everywhere. I adore it!
Smiles,
Pam
I know I know more on organizing dies but�..
