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I have been mooning over the catalog and making lists, then erasing things and then adding things. I have so many stamps already (although not nearly as many as some!) that I am trying to be ultra choosy. Also, I have gone a bit <ahem> overboard on the ol' Papertrey ordering lately! I'll definitely get that anniversary set!
How do you decide what sets to get and which will just end up taking up space? I find myself drawn to Fabulous flowers, but I think, how many times will I really use that flower?
I also need to learn to use the B/S/T baord and get rid of the two stoage baskets full of stamps and stuff that I have eliminated from my stash.
It takes me a while. Usually I make a list of what I want - then go back and look at the stamps again. Most of the time I end up getting something completely different.
Right now I am about to place an order. I am mainly ordering punches and accessories - then I'll get two of the sale-a-bration stamp sets. I find that I really don't need that many stamps - and I don't have that many anyways! I'd rather have the accessories.
I sit on my lists for a few weeks or even months. I study my stamp inventory notebook, compare sets, see if I have something similar enough to make a new one unnecessary, or if the new one needs to replace an existing one that I don't use/like anymore. Most of the time, what I have is sufficient, but looking at the new stuff--and what people are doing with it--gives me ideas to breath some new life into my old stuff.
For instance, Nichole's new PTI paper made me think, What do I have like these colors? I realized that I have cool caribbean and river rock that have been languishing in my stash. They aren't the SAME as her colors (and her paper, if it's like the stampers select white, is to die for!), but I won't be buying hers until I've used up the SU and by then I may be onto something totally different, or I may decided to get the PTI colors. Just have to wait and see how I feel then. But I can wait.
I hear you on the B/S/T forum. I've got a ton of stuff to list there. Never have done that before, but it's time to purge!
This is a hard question! I'm one of those bad "gotta have it all" kinds of shoppers. When the new catalogs come out, my wish list is huge so I break it down into several orders that I can space out. I know if I get too much at once, a lot of it will just sit unused. Usually, by the end of a catalog, I've managed to order about 90% of everything I really wanted and then the cycle starts all over again!
It is quite fun to collect money after you've sold a bunch of stuff and makes a "wish list" turn into a "buy list" -- so I recommend looking at what you haven't used in quite some time, sell, and don't buy similar looking stuff!!
__________________ Dear Paperlicious is my blog...with a series on how I'm learning to improve my cardmaking by studying others.
I, too, try to make a list, wait a while, then go back over it after checking out the gallery and looking through what I already have. I often find that after the inital excitement wears off, I can differentiate between sets that just look new and exciting and sets I'll actually get a lot of use out of. For example, when I first saw Always I thought I had to have it. Now that I've been looking at it for a while, I've realized that I'm really only drawn to the bird image and the way the font looks (not what the sentiments actually say). I don't see a lot of versatility in that particular set (for my needs), so while I may buy it used somewhere down the road, I can't justify paying full price for it. KWIM?
Lately, I have been looking up all of the sets I want in the gallery before I buy them. If there are a ton of samples with a lot of variety, I am more likely to buy that set. If there are only three pages worth of cards that all basically look the same (which was the case when I "researched" If The Halo Fits), I will probably pass on it. I am trying to cut back on my stamp purchases and want to be able to get the most use out of a set as possible.
I usually go through the new cattty and make a list then go through it several times and pick my favourites. Of course when I look through the gallery here it gives me more ideas. This time around I'm on a quest for more masculine stamps as I always lean towards the flowery sets(not the greatest for male cards).
I, too, try to make a list, wait a while, then go back over it after checking out the gallery and looking through what I already have. I often find that after the inital excitement wears off, I can differentiate between sets that just look new and exciting and sets I'll actually get a lot of use out of. For example, when I first saw Always I thought I had to have it. Now that I've been looking at it for a while, I've realized that I'm really only drawn to the bird image and the way the font looks (not what the sentiments actually say). I don't see a lot of versatility in that particular set (for my needs), so while I may buy it used somewhere down the road, I can't justify paying full price for it. KWIM?
I realized that I only liked three images from that set, the bird, the heart and the berry branch. Do I really want to get the set (11stamps, I think) to get those three images?
One set that I was on the fence about was boho backgrounds, but the gallery convinced me that I would use it a lot.
I agonize over the catalog and make list after list. Then when I finally have or go to a class I end up falling in love with what my fantastic demo has use and buy it then and there. You would think I would have learned to give up on the list by now
I usually make a list after looking through the catty three or four times. It's very easy to think I want something, but then when I look at it a few more times, I quite often talk myself out of it. For example, I had every set on pages 106-109 on my wishlist but ended up just ordering two of them.
Another factor for me is that I am a scrapbooker more than a cardmaker. So a set has to be a good match for cards and scrapbooking in order for me to buy it.
And I rarely buy everything that's on my wishlist. I'm able to choose what I want most and live without the rest. One thing that helps me is that quite a few of the sets I like from previous cattys have not retired yet.
__________________ Julie my gallery
I can do all things through Him who strengthens me. Phillippians 4:13
Like many others have mentioned, I'm into list-making. It's funny how I change my mind over time! I start out with a huge list and from there make new lists---if an item keeps making the new list, then it's probably a go! Also, love to browse the gallery---I'm not always the most creative and need "inspiration" from all of you talented stampers out there!
I love the pti stuff - but I still love some su ones - I tried buying to demo - but now I buy what I want - it is tough though -there is so much fun stuff now!
I make my list and then check out that stamp in the gallery. See what others have done with it and try to think of what I would do with it. The problem is that I have added to my list more than taken things off of it! lol
I wasn't going to get the Always set but after seeing what people here have done with it...I want it!
I open a spreadsheet and enter every single set I want. Then I rank them by desire - 10 for gotta have it no matter what and 1 for eh...if I see it on ebay fine... or for example if I only want one stamp in the whole set. (I do this not only with SU! but with all the companies I want to buy from.)
Then I set a monetary limit and all the most highly ranked sets get priority etc. Then I eliminate sets, going by fonts (I don't like the hand-written look), how easy it would be for me to draw the images instead, or if there is a similar set somewhere else on unmounted rubber or better yet, photopolymer (clear stamps), which is my preferred stamp material.
How do you decide?
