(and actually find them when you need them!)
If you are into stamping I’m going to guess that you have a ‘few’ stamp sets!
Once you have a collection of stamps it becomes harder and harder to remember what you have, and then to find it when you need it.
I have a great system for organizing stamps. Most of the stamps I own are from Close to My Heart*, however the same methods work for all kinds of stamps.
You need storage for the following items:
- stamp sets: acrylic, wooden block, different sizes, etc.
- ink pads: dye ink, pigment ink, distress ink, Staz On, etc.
- sponge daubers
- acrylic blocks
- stamp cleaner and scrubber
Here’s a peek at my main stamp storage area. (Please remember, I’ve been scrapbooking for years and I am also a consultant… my supply area is large, but the same ideas work for smaller areas too!)
You’ll need a place to store your acrylic blocks. Keep it simple and find a container that ensures they are easy to access.
Ink pads need to be organized also. Sort them by types of ink as you need different kinds of ink for different projects.
Organizing your sponge daubers will allow you to reuse them rather than disposing them. You’ll always have the right colour available.
Find a storage container for your stamp sets. Take notice of the coloured dot on the outside of the box… this is important!
Each of the stamp sets contained inside the box have a matching colour of dot on them. This makes it easy to put your stamp sets away.
But… what about finding the sets you are looking for? Create yourself a STAMP INDEX!
How to create a stamp index:
You’ll need:
- a binder
- coloured dots – you can purchase coloured dot stickers for this, or make your own 😉
- tabs for the binder
- photocopies of each stamp set
Take a photocopy of each stamp set. Add a coloured dot to the page to indicate which storage box you can find this stamp set in.
Organize the photocopied sheets by categories. Use categories that make sense to you.
Here’s a list of the tabs in my stamp index:
- alphabets
- word puzzles
- frames
- words
- numbers and symbols
- boys
- girls
- babies
- flourishes
- travel
- Christmas
- holidays
- nature
- floral
- backgrounds and borders
Using your stamp index you’ll be easily able to find stamp sets you are looking for!
Now you can organize your stamps and find them when you need them!
What else would you like to organize?
Do you have any scrapbooking questions? Leave a comment, I respond to comments as quickly as possible!
Let your creativity shine!
Alice.
* I am an Independent Consultant for Close to My Heart in Canada. Links will take you to my shopping page. If you are looking for a consultant in the United States visit my friend Kristie HERE.
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This. Is genius. I can do this!
Thanks! Another tip is that when a stamp set falls into two categories put a photocopy under each category, just make sure you mark which box or drawer they are in. Works great for stamp sets that combine a few themes.
LOVE the photocopying idea! I will use this– saves MUCH time stamping out each image! Thanks Alice. I really love your posts- and this is a GREAT idea! Happy Thanksgiving.
Thanks Ali! My first thought was to stamp them too. This is SO much faster! Happy Thanksgiving to you too!
I am wondering if you have a good idea for ribbion. right now I have them in boxes and I am always surching for a certion ribbion.
Lol! I had the same problem Bobbie! I finally have a system that works for me. Check out this post: How to Organize Ribbon: https://scrapbookwonderland.com/how-to-organize-ribbon/
I mounted vinyl rain gutters with end caps on my walls for ribbon storage! Works great.
It is 02/15/2016 and I just found “How to Organize…” and I LOVE Everything you shared!! I am out of state at this time, but I can’t wait to get home and start working on my room. The only problem I see, is that I a have a TON of Punchases!! I am not real sure how I am going to tackle that task, but I will do that task last. Again, Thank You for sharing everything.
It took me a while to get all of the copies made for the index book but it really does help and I grab it often! I would suggest grabbing a box/bin/laundry hamper to collect and gather your stamp sets in. Then you can sort them into piles of what you think might go together for categories. Try using mine as a starting point but adapt them to your collection. As I went through I pull out sets I knew I would never use and I put them in a give away box I keep in my scraproom all of the time. It’s very full right now, so I should probably empty it out.
Alice, I love your storage solutions. One question though, I would really like to find the same storage containers you have used for your stamp sets – they look ideal. Do you have a name or link to where I can purchase these? Thanks so much.
Hi Joanne,
These containers are from Close to My Heart. I’m a consultant with them in Canada. My online shop is http://alice.ctmh.com
Click on “Shop” in the menu.
The smaller boxes are called “My Acrylix Organizer” item code: Z1038
The large boxes are called “Large Organizer” item code: Z1834
And if you’d love something to organize pocket cards the “Medium Organizer” is perfect! Item code: Z4139
If you are in the USA you can order through my friend Kristie’s site using the same directions! http://kristiesloan.ctmh.com
great ideas!
Thanks Kim!
This is a great help. I actually have my SU stamps organized pretty much this way. I’ve been procrastinating on all my loose, misc. wooden block stamps and various others. This post has actually gotten me excited about organizing them. Thank you!
Yay! That’s the best thing you could tell me after reading my post! I LOVE inspiring people!
My question is this: Do you keep all of your “sets” intact or do you separate them out into categories, i.e. you have 3 or 4 sets, each one has an animal in it, do you take the animals out of the set and put them in their own category? Right now I keep mine as the “set” they come in, I collect primarily “Lawn Fawn” stamps and I have over 150 stamp sets, a few are of other companies. It would really be hard for me to do that. Thanks for your help!
I keep mine in the sets as sold. Sometimes I make two copies of set and file it under different categories so I can find them easier! It depends on how I expect to use the stamps. A good example would be an alpha set that includes greetings or flowers. I’d probably file it as an alpha but include a copy in the floral for reference. Hope that helps Wendy!
Appreciate your ideas and that you share them, thanks a lot! At this point to catagorize, photocopy, note/record stamp location sounds like a career move (lol) but unless I do something soon I won’t be able to find anything!
I completely understand! I suggest working in batches. Another handy thing that can be helpful is having a kid that would like to use the copy machine! 😉
Also, if you can sort before you copy it’s a bit easier because you aren’t dealing with the copies AND the stamp sets. Once you get started it’s kind of rewarding.
I used to have reference sheets like this but it was heavy to carry around and got burdensome then I discovered Evernote it us AWESOME for searching for specifics (you can put as many tags as you want per stamp set). I highly recommend it! Check it out!
What a great idea in this digital, carry your phone EVERYWHERE, age! Thanks for sharing this techy version of my stamp index Janet!
Alice, I also have mostly CTMH stamp sets, I tried organizing them in a different way, but after reading your post I’m inspired to try your system. I have my notebook, a ream of paper (LOL) divider tabs (guess I’ll need more), now I just need the time. Will try breaking it down into manageable chunks of time. Thanks so much for the advise. JUDY
I hope you’ll come back and share what works, and any tips you find along the way Judy! If something doesn’t work please let me know and I’ll try to troubleshoot with you!
I love your ink pad storage. I have been looking for a carousel that would hold 60 ink pads but haven’t had any luck. I was wondering where you got yours. Love your organization ideas.
That’s Close To My Heart carousel and it is no longer available to order. I’m also a consultant.
You’re right Laura. Thanks for popping in to share! It is the old ink carousel from CTMH. Terry the one thing to watch when looking at an ink carousel is that they are all different sizes, just as the ink pads are. It is VERY difficult to find one that fits ink pads from different companies. This one doesn’t fit the Stampin’ Up inks, or inks from other companies. If you have inks by mainly one manufacturer that’s usually the best place to look.
I just saw on Pinterest where someone used Media sticks. You can attach them to walls and they hold ink pads. They are for DVD’s so they hold all kind of sizes. I think they are adjustable also. You could probably find them on Amazon or I was Target had them. I dont know if you still need this info, but thought I would put it out here. Love all your organization ideas. Very helpful as I am I am just starting to organize my craft room.
At last – someone who organises stuff in a way I can understand (why do so many people over-complicate things?).
I wonder if you can suggest a good way to find ‘words’ please. I stuffed all mine into a ‘word’ drawer which really wasn’t working for me (too many!) so I put them onto laminated sheets, and now I can’t find them if I need them. Help!
Maggie (in York, UK)
If you have a lot of word stamps I’d find a way to separate them into categories, just like the images are. Maybe something like: Dates/Time/Months, Words of Beauty, Words of Inspiration.
Then, in the drawer I’d separate them with some kind of dividers according to the category. The most important thing is to make sure you can find the stamp when you’re looking for it, so try to think of how you use them when you sort them into categories. Best of luck Maggie!
Love what you did wiyh your stamps. I had some of the ideas myself, but you added to mine. Thanks
Well, wouldn’t you know it: I search for a site to find “stamp categories” and the first one I pick is from a CTMH consultant! (I was a consultant way back when.) I am currently deeply organizing my supplies (again) (for the last time, dangit) and your organizing ideas are PERFECT for all my CTMH products! I’m a happy girl, now! Glad I found you–thanks for sharing!
Lol! I’m so glad you found this Michele. It really works for me!
Love your organizing! Lots of good ideas. I have a few that I pefer but I plan to use parts of your ideas to make things easier.
Ok…maybe I am just not seeing it…but how are the wood block stamps working into these storage boxes? I still have many on wood bock that I use all the time. Could you possibly post a photo? Thanks!
I also loved your filing system. I have a good system for my individual wood block stamps, but what I need is a filing system for the stamps I get from the individual companies. Yours will work well. I have 2 questions though, 1) where can I find all those different color circles and 2)what do you do with the dies that go with those stamps?
Denise, we also have a ton of wood block stamps. Can you share how you store and organize yours. Mine are in plastic rectangle storage with handles, but there are so many! Help
I cut the coloured circles out of cardstock and used a small X-shaped Xyron to make them into stickers. You can buy coloured dots from office organizing stores to skip this step!
This is perfect! I know what I will be doing this weekend, organizing stamps. Thank you for sharing it!
Sounds like a productive way to start the new year! Happy sorting!
Majority of my stamps are wood mounted stamps and don’t know where to begin on organizing or storing them. Your talking way over 200 individual stamps. Do you think I should remove the stamp off the blocks? If so, what would be the safest way to do it?
Please help as I am re-doing my craft room and I have boxes of wood mounted stamps everywhere.
I still have quite a few wood mounted stamps, but I probably would never pull them off the blocks. I photocopied the wood mount ones and they are in my stamp index binder and I have the stamps in drawers. I’m lucky to have space to keep them as they are. If you do decide to take them apart I know I’ve seen posts about people who’ve done it, so I’d look for some specific advice from someone who’s done it! I would recommend pulling out any stamps/sets that you won’t use to get them out of your space, it’s amazing how much better it is when you have only things you want to use!
If you are looking for storage solutions for ink pads, punches and ribbon, check out the site http://www.stampnstorage.com. They have great products made of wood that work with many companies products. Check them out.
My problem is the wood mount stamps from Stampin’ Up. They are difficult to store.
Just started scrapbooking a month ago and was wondering what you do with non-ctmh stamps that might not fit into the containers. I haven5 bought a container yet but would want one that works for all of my stamps
I photocopy them to add them to my binder and put them into a drawer with coloured dots. If you don’t have a drawer, perhaps a plastic bin they can stand up in?
This idea just showed up in my Inbox on a pinterest post for organizing stamps. Thank you SO much for sharing it. I love the “dot” idea. It’s so much better than using my label maker for everything.
Kind Regards.
Jane / California
Thanks for telling me about that Jane! I’ve had this system for several years now and it’s still working well. Best of luck!
Just wondering if someone like me that has tons of wooden stamps, how they store them and organized? Don’t necessarily like the way I have mine organized right now; in medium plastic bins by subject but they are all overloaded.
Love this idea! I have tried different systems and they always seem to be lacking with not remembering which or where the set I want might be. Your system is going to fix that and I love that you photocopied the set rather than hand stamping, which would have taken forever. Thank you for sharing.
What size/dimensions are the boxes you have them stored in? I went to your site and looked at the item and it doesn’t list the dimensions. I already have some that may work.
Thanks,
Lisa
I pretty much have mine organized like you. My question is do you keep your stamp sets together or separate them ? Ex: kids, holidays, birthday, words etc. my issue is I don’t remember what verbiage comes in which set unless I pull out my book.