Keeping Track of Your Stamps!

If you are just starting out with rubber stamping and you only have a few stamps, you may not think it’s all that important to have a filing system. Trust me, it is! Because when your little hobby grows into a full blown obsession, that shoebox you were using to store those 20 rubber stamps you started with are not going to hold the thousands of stamps you have managed to purchase through the years. You need a filing system!

Here are a few ideas you can consider.

First, you are going to need some place to store your rubber stamps. If you’re lucky, you can ask your handy man husband to build you some shelves to hang on the walls. For me, this was not a good option. My studio room was added on to my house and three out of the four walls are windows. So, I went to the next best thing. I began purchasing the seven and eight drawer Iris carts. You can place two layers of stamps in the smaller drawers and up to four layers in the larger drawers. Believe me, you can get a lot of stamps in those carts. If you plan on having layers of stamps in the drawers, place them first in the Lucite picture frames that you can purchase from places like Target or Wal Mart. It is so much easier to pull out a tray of stamps then to pick up each stamp individually to see what’s under it. Place your stamps into categories such as holidays, people, backgrounds, etc. Next, label your trays and drawers with the category and numbers, #1, #2, etc. Once your stamps are put into your Iris carts, you are ready to begin to catalog them. Here are a few different options for doing just that.

Three-Ring Binder- You can purchase a three-ring binder from any office supply store, or discount store. Fill binder with white card stock and dividers. Each time you purchase a new stamp, decide what category it will go into. Stamp the image on the card stock. Next to the image, list the manufacturer, the price, etc. and the number of the Iris cart where it will be stored. You can now take your binder with you the next time you go shopping. This is a good way to alleviate buying duplicate stamps.

Index Cards & Recipe Box- This method is pretty much the same as the three-ring binder. Stamp your image on a 3”x5” index card. List all the information about the stamp on the card. Separate the cards into categories. Keep them filed in a small recipe box. Place the recipe box onto your work table for easy access to all your stamps.

Photograph Your Stamps- Place your stamps in Lucite frames. Place the frame on a table and take picture of the tray. Print out the pictures and label which drawer the stamps will be stored in. Keep pictures in a file box or three-ring binder. Another option is to create a folder in your computer and keep the pictures and information in that file. Be sure to back up all your information on a disk.

There are a number of ways to keep track of your stamps and supplies. I have just given you a few tried and true ways that stampers have been using for years. If you need more information on this topic, try searching the internet. There are thousands of articles written about this topic. I can never stress this topic too much. If you are just beginning to get into rubber stamping and scrapbooking, start keeping track of your supplies now! It may not seem like a big deal now with your 20 or 30 stamps, but when you are into the thousands, you will thank me!

Thanks for joining me. Until next time…

Crafty hugs,

Lisa

Stampin’ Queen Creations

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