Filing Stamps with words
 

How do you ladies remember what word stamps you have and where they are? I have some of mine sorted by thank you, sympathy, friend, etc.
However those are my non-Su sets. I want to put word sets together in a drawer, but how do I find what I need? I'm used to opening a drawer and seeing individual stamps looking at me. I needed to put my stamps back into boxes to organize them to sell some of them. Now I need to find out how to organize words and sayings if they are in boxes. I need an EASY system to do this. Any ideas?

My word stamps (the non-SU ones) are kept in 11x17 clear box frames. One box is labeled "Occasions," and that includes any holiday-related sentiments that don't otherwise have their own box (i.e., Christmas, Birthday) because there are so many. There's another one labeled "Misc." that has quotations and such that aren't really meant to say anything specific, lol...like the kind you use to make notecards or something that isn't occasion-specific.

I don't have anything quite so fancy as a log of my stamp sets like so many people, but I imagine I'd set it up in pretty much the same way.

I have just one section - called "sentiments" which contain any set that is only that. The exception to this is my christmas sentiments, which are included in the christmas section.

I have my stamps organized in clear snaplock cases. I have a spreadsheet and if I'm looking for a particular sentiment and want to find it quickly, I just pull up my spreadsheet and that will tell me exactly what box it's in. I would suggest maybe partitioning your drawer off into sections and labeling each section. Then you can keep track of what types of sentiments go where and find them more easily.

HTH

My non-set sentiments are organized by reason: like sympathy, get well, kid sayings, nature, you get the drift...
My holiday type ones that only work for one holiday are filed with the rest of my non-set holiday stamps.....ie; Christmas sentiments are with non-set Christmas stamps.
All my stamps are in clamshells and I find this works well for me.

Almost all of my stamps are unmounted and I have made a index binder of my stamps. Each of my sets is pictured by theme or subject, but I also put a picture/scan of each of the sentiments and have them filed by occasion or theme. I have a 31 divider tab thing in my index for the sentiments, and I use 28 of the tabs. It is great to be able to see at a glance every sentiment stamp you have for each occasion.

all my sets (unless i have had them for only a short time ) have been broken up...
so I have lots of 11X14 clear "frames" i flip upsidedown and use as Trays...

so happy birthday has a tray, thank-you has a tray, humorous things that really don't fit any category have a tray, Sympathy is mixed in with Encouragement and thinking of you type sentiments. I also keep some of my most favorites of sentiments on a stand on my main stamping table and on top of the Rolling Iris carts under the table i have an old wooden printers tray that holds alot of frequently used and small sentiments ( such as A Muse )

DH (bless his heart) suggested I make a paper index. We wrangled the idea around for a bit and this is what I decided on. I store my stamps in a 15 drawer blue print file. Some drawers contain only a single category (i e "People"). So, I take all my people stamps and stamp them on sheets of plain ole copy paper, using a dye ink. It dries quickly and the stamp is easily and quickly cleaned.

Then I assign each stamp a number, ie P-1, P-2, etc. I mark that next to the impression and also on the back of the stamp using a Sharpie. I put the sheets in page protectors, one facing each way, and use a tab on the side to indicate the various categories.

So, when I'm looking for a stamp, I flip to the section and choose the one I want. By the number, I know which drawer it's in, and I just scan over them till I find the number. I try to keep them roughly in numeric order so it makes it fairly quick.

Another advantage to this system is that I can take the binder to shows with me so I don't end up with duplicates (already found a couple of those) and I can use it at my computer when I'm shopping online as well.

It's going pretty quickly, too. I hauled them out last night while watching TV and in two hours managed to get 3 categories indexed. So, I'm hoping to get this project done within the next couple weeks or so. Then, when I get new stamps, I can add them to the existing sheet, or simply add a new one and pop it in the binder.

Sentiments have their own category, and I just pick out the one I want for any given project.

Here's another vote for the clear acrylic box frames. I have a wire mesh paper tower like this . . . http://www.kaboodle.com/reviews/23-t...r-tower--black . . . that I didn't really like for paper because I dinged up the corners all the time. An 11 X 14 frame fits great in each slot. I took all the sentiments out of my sets to put all the birthday words together, all the get well words together, etc. I even broke up sets like Little Layers to put, for instance, the ornament with the Christmas stuff and the fish with the summer stuff (I know! I broke up the sets, but they still stamp! ;)).

Marking a spot to read later. Y'all have some excellent ideas!