Storing unmounted stamps

[cobismom]

Here I go again....I just can't seem to find a way to store my unmounted stamps that works for me. I have my wood mounted stamps all arranged in pizza boxes, with a coordinating 3 ring binder of the stamp image and a coordinating box number.

NOW, my unmounted ones are in a three ring binder, but not all are POSH and some aren't on nice cardboard backing, so they don't fit well into the plastic sleeves. I got 30 CD cases from SI, and they are find, but they take up as much space and are as difficult to manage as the pizza boxes. I have some rather large stamps, and if they are padded in the back, they won't fit in the CD case. So I am back to baggies for those.

HELP! I'll try anything once....and see if I can make it work. Or tell me to just start stamping and not to worry about how they are stored. I can take it!

Thanks so much!!!!

Cathy J cobismom

[stampingground]

Well, first of all Cathy are your UM stamps on EZ mount or something similar so that they will cling to a hard plastic surface? If so, the 3 ring binder does very well as long as you use the plastic boards like Dee's UM sets come on. They sell them at SI separately (5 in a package, I think) and they work very well. You just have to decide how you want to divide them. I put all my Posh in one section, all the alphabet sets in another, Close to My heart in another and on and on. You don't have to have any sleeves or containers for them because they just stick to the plastic board and you just remove and replace as needed.

I hope that helps give you an idea on one thing you can do. You already have the binders, so it would not take much expense to do it that way! I'm sure you'll hear from others with some good ideas!

[loosluck]

I also use the boards from SI, they are great. I also stamp my image with stazon, heat set and never have to look for them again. I also have used the plastic cases from my sizzix dies., you can fit stamps on both sides and they close easy. I use my dymo label maker and put the names of the set on the side facing me. It helps. Mary

[stampire]

I store all of my ez mounted um's on the lightweight binder pages that I get from Sunday. I think they are the best way to store my images. I couldn't imagine having all of my stamps in those little CD cases. I'd go nuts. Plus, like you said, larger stamps don't fit. My UM's are stored in drawers right near my stamp desk. That way I can reach over and find the stamp I want. I have them in very colorful drawers with individual labels on each drawer to tell me what is inside. I have very simple categories like Dragonflies, butterflies, bugs, leaves, flowers, holidays (that includes sheets of valentines day,easter,thanksgiving,christmas and birthdays) oriental, backgrounds, textures & collage. I then have drawers of my largest company collections like Posh, Hero Arts, Magenta & Anna Griffin. I have a three ring binder with my images stamped and tabbed in the same categories. My mounts are all in the top drawer. I am proud to say that I have finished unmounting all of my rubber stamps that I plan to unmount. I took me countless hours and about 100 sheets of ez mount foam, but it's done! Now I just need to stop buying stamps! LOL! Like that'll happen. I just bought two new stamps (unmounted) at the convention last Saturday! Oh well, at least I have to slow down, I'm running out of drawers and EZ mount. :D

[lovetostamp]

I store my UM's (all on EZ mount cushion) in binders. I do separate out the Posh ones because I have sets and another binder of singles. Then I have the rest sorted by theme; backgrounds, sentiments, design elements, floral/leaves, people and so on. I can generally have 3 or 4 categories per binder.

The UM's are stored on the white panels that Sunday sells (these are just like the ones that Posh sets come on but they are blank). I like this way of storing my UM's. I'd have too many CD cases to go through otherwise and that would drive me crazy too. Whatever works best for each person! :)

[i.r.stamper]

Ok, mine are all in ring binders...and one mess of 'em is in one of Dee's acrylic holders. BUT...I've never liked the SOUND of having my EZ Mount sheets sitting in drawers. It seemed to me like it would be too hard to find that particular image that I wanted. I'd have to go through all the sheets stored in each drawer...too much organizational trouble for the Queen of Chaos.

HOWEVER...I've now seen Jil's method of storing her EZ Mount images...I WANT ONE TOO!!!*ROFLMBO* Seriously, she's dismounted almost all of her wood mounted images (and she had a TON of wood mounted images!!!) and the amount of space she has saved is simply miraculous! Add to that the fact that the way she has them separated into catagories and stored on the Sunday storage sheets...I simply couldn't believe how easy it is to find one particular stamp in her storage cabinets. It's actually WAY easier than the way I have to look through my specially designed stamp cabinet! WAY easier!*LOL* Jil...we need a pic!!!*VBG*

[Inkycat]

Mine are in three ring binders on the storage sheets that Posh provides and/or Sunday International sells separately. When Dee taught here, I did use her demonstration stamps from the acrylic storage holder, which is the way she prefers to store her stamps. I still have many unmounted stamps to MOUNT (I have all the supplies, just need to get "around to it"!). I will likely keep my wood mounted stamps intact, as I don't have too many of those. The problem I am having is that three ring binders take up a lot of space in my "theoriginalscrapbox.com" crafting table/cabinet and are kind of heavy/unwieldy on the lightweight shelves. I may have to go beyond the confines of my cabinet into storing stuff b-e-y-o-n-d it. (Yeah, well, I already have had to do that with some stuff, like my big table paper cutter and some other items!) When I got the cabinet a couple of years ago, I thought it would take me a l-o-n-g time to fill it up. W-r-o-n-g!!! :p ;) :o

[stampire]

Ok Char-
I've taken pictures of the UM's inside my drawers & will have my hubby upload the pics when he gets home from work later today. I have a picture of the drawers I store them in and a pic of a sheet of images. The drawers each hold 8 sheets of images. It's really easy to find any of my images with this system.

[Bln]

Jumping in with a question: How have you indexed your UM on the boards from SI?
I have done mine on laminated tag board and then in the pocket sheets (for trading cards and pics) so I have an index card right in the pocket with the stamp co., number etc. of the stamp. I am wondering how to put that down with a lot of stamps on the same board?