Stamp Organization: Part 1 - Stamp Drawer Maps

Every crafter who uses rubber stamps has their own way of storing and keeping track of them.  I found that as my collection grew, I needed both a place to store my stamps, and an organization system so I would know what stamps I had, and where they were.

Back in the day, Ikea used to sell boxes like this:

They came in various sizes and drawer combinations and widths.  First they were ready-made units.  Then the sizes changed slightly as the wood shell and drawers became thinner and slightly more flimsy.  Then Ikea went back to the sturdier version of the wood, but flat-packed the unit so you had to construct both the shell and the drawers yourself.  I have all three types in my craft room.  My only regret is that I only have one more unused flat-packed unit stashed away...

Each drawer in each unit is mostly full of stamps, with a few drawers dedicated to paper or supplies.  In all, I have about 65 stamp drawers, each numbered. 

Each drawer has 2-3 layers of stamps.  

When I first started storing stamps in these drawers, I made a small attempt at grouping stamps by category:  sentiments, tea, moose stamps, etc., but I quickly found that a category didn't fit neatly in a drawer.  I either had wasted space in a drawer, or not enough.  And if I used multiple stamps in a project, I didn't always remember what drawer they had been in, or how they fit in the drawers.  As a result, stamp clean-up from a project took forever.  And when I had friends over for craft parties and pulled out lots of stamps from many drawers, it would take me over an hour to put them all back.  Hence the stamp drawer map project was born...

Focusing on one drawer at a time, I pull out all of the stamps and make sure they are arranged in a way that maximizes the drawer space.  If there's a gap, I sort through the newer stamps in my collection that haven't yet found a home to see if they fit better.  Once I've settled on the arrangement, it's time to document.

For each layer of stamps, I draw a pencil outline, and then stamp each stamp in its place.  Each layer has its own page.

 

Once the maps are complete, I cross-reference them against my full stamp catalog to make sure each image has a drawer number next to it.

In some ways, this mapping process, which has been going on for quite some time, seems like overkill.  But as tedious as it all seems, my maps make stamp clean-up easy.  And the mapping process has given me a chance to look at all of my stamps and think about how I want to use them. In some distant future, after the mapping project is complete, I want to challenge myself to use each of my stamps for a card or somesuch.  If I can't figure out how to use it, maybe I don't need it.

65 stamp drawers.  41 mapped.  24 to go...  Summer project???

In my next Organization post, I'll show you my stamp catalog.

 How do you keep track of your rubber stamps?

Bunny!

I used to love this time of year when I was a kid because this is the season when all of the stuffed bunnies would appear in stores.  They were always my favorite.  I have other animal predilections now, but I suppose some habits are hard to break.

Stamps:  Bunny with Radishes by Endless Creations
               Happy Spring by A Muse Artstamps

I don't go in for cute stamps much, but I couldn't resist this adorable bunny I found at the Heirloom Productions show in Allentown last weekend.  I paired it with a spring stamp I've had for ages.  The bunny stamp comes with a reverse image so your bunny can be on the right or left of the vegetables.  Before I realized that the stamp was called Bunny With Radishes, I assumed those were carrots underground.  Hence my color scheme.

This card is amazingly bright, which is really odd for me.  After I stamped and colored the image, I wanted a bright background paper to pick up the color of the carrots, and then another base color that would keep the mood and subdue the orange slightly.  I have an old swatch book from Marco's Paper that is a great source of card stock in colors I'm not likely to have, like these, which fit the bill.  The swatch book was spiral bound, once upon a time, hence the slots on the left side.  I taped a ribbon down with double-sided tape, the product with which I cannot live without, and attached a plain, white card on the reverse as a writing surface.

To trim down the orange mat under the bunny image, I used another great find from the Heirloom show:  Perfect Layers.  I don't quite know how these work yet, but they are ruler shaped with a lip at a specified distance.  The lip buts up against your base image and allows you to trim an exact border.  I used the smallest 1/16" edge for this card, and it worked!

Here's an image of the same stamp from the Endless Creations site:

 Here's another which shows the reverse bunny image.

Note that both of these images have the same vegetable coloration as my card!

I hope the bunnies stay out of your garden this weekend!!

Just what we need, another blog...

I came up with the harebrained notion of starting another blog this week.  If I'm very lucky, the three of you who read Festive Yet Tasteful will have found your way over here.  If I'm even luckier, a few of you will have found your way here from other places.

Why another blog?  Is anyone reading blogs anymore?  I am.  I do.  And, like any other blog reader out there, I'm always on the lookout for blogs that resonate with me, make me think, entertain me, and give me ideas.  One category of blogs I'm always searching for involves one of my favorite hobbies:  card-making and rubber stamping.

Don't get me wrong - there is no shortage of blogs on this topic.  And no doubt there are some blogs out there that match my interests, learning goals, style, etc., but I can't seem to find many of them.  It seems like the craft bloggers out there all represent craft products or companies (which makes me slightly jealous), and while these bloggers make lovely things, they always use the latest products and are demonstrating the newest tool or the current fad.  I don't live in that world.

I've been playing with rubber stamps for over twenty years now, and it's long since I've purchased any kind of greeting card at a store.  I make all of my own birthday cards, thank-you cards, holiday cards (75 is a lot of holiday cards to make!), and have even sold sets of blank cards on a very small scale.  This is all well and good, but I also work full time, have a house and a garden to care for, a hobby of dancing and dance calling/teaching that often takes me away from home, not to mention a set of people I love spending time with.  But amidst all of the craziness, I value the time I spend in my craft room, and miss it when I don't make time for it.

So what is this blog all about anyway?  This space is the reports and the musings of a reality-based crafter.  There will be lots of pictures, and no doubt at the edges of all of them you will see my very messy work table, and far from pristine, and not even a little bit styled-for-photos craft room.    I love and purchase new craft products like anyone, but the truth is that I have a huge collection of rubber stamps and supplies that I love and want to return to and use over and over again.  And, unlike my perception of the field, there are styles and tools and techniques that have been out there for a long time that I haven't even gotten to yet.

So, read on.  I'll talk about my never-ending quest for product organization, show you cards I made and how I made them, talk about new things I bought, and report on outings to stamp shows and stores, and on, and on. 

With this blog, I hope to fill my own gap, and in doing so, connect with like-minded others out there.