Monday, May 30, 2011

Organizing Stamps: A Repurposing Adventure

I'm big on the three R's: re-using, re-purposing and recycling. When I can, I do the first 2, and if not I move to the third, which is almost as good and great for most of the post consumer waste we produce in my home.

Getting to the point of this post.... I have a fairly big collection of stamps, wood mounted, unmounted rubber and acrylic. Their home has been an old shoe boxe, a plastic container and a plastic bag and and sometimes just a pile somewhere on my shelf. It is not a very user friendly way of storing, but for a time I had resigned myself to spending 10 minutes looking just so I could use it...or not using them at all because it was easier to write in a sentiment than look for the pretty stamp.


So, we all have had or have CD's or leftover jewel cases from moving the CD's to better storage. I have transferred 98% of our music to the iPod and external hard drive so the CD's cases were pretty much useless. I gave a bunch to Goodwill a few years back, but I would rather get to re-use them when I can. Those cases now provide my stamps with better storage, storage that works because:

A. It is see through.
B. It is flat.
C. Because it can be stacked!
You have to remove the middle insert that holds the CD, it's a matter of wedging your finger in there....
Then it just pops right out. Recycle the insert and the paper.

I then put the stamps in, I obviously removed the underside acetate but kept the acetate that has the image printed (though some don't come with printed acetate), you can always stamp it with Stazon onto leftover acetate to have it be visible.
Then you can pop them into a clear plastic shoe box, or favourite CD case storage, had I kept those DUH, I would have put them in those racks for easy access, but this works just as well.

This works with these red rubber stamps too, the lid closes without a snap because they tend to be slightly thicker than clear acrylics.

That's it, onto the shelf they go. Now I need approximately 10-20 more cases for the other sets that don't yet have a home.

So there it is, my stamp shelf, notice the binders....those will eventually also end up in jewel cases but that's work for another day yet. I won't show you the rest of my craft room...it is not yet been subjected to the organizational treatment!
So, weather to save space or save your sanity, or both...this is a great way to keep your stamps organized and make use of something old and almost obsolete!


I am linking this post to,
The DIY Show Off
A Marvelous MessSmiling Sally Keeping It Simple  http://linda-coastalcharm.blogspot.com/The Shabby Nest Chic on a Shoestring Decorating
Punkin Seed Productionsmonogram

Thanks for stopping by, cheers,
Viviana

12 comments:

SmilingSally said...

Love that touch of blue.

Happy Blue Monday, Viviana.

Linda Bob Grifins Korbetis Hall said...

have fun with your stuff.
elegant blue.

Anonymous said...

Brilliant! Thanks for sharing!

Chubskulit Rose said...

Gorgeous shots!

Please come see my Blue thanks.

deb said...

Great idea!!
*hugs*deb

Madison said...

What a great idea. Very clever.
Madison xxx

Lauren @ My Wonderfully Made said...

Oh my goodness!! What a great idea for storing these! I am SO going to do this! Thanks for posting!

Mrs. Nancy G said...

Awesome recycle. I store my stamps this way too.
:-)

ArtfullyJune said...

CD cases are a great way to store stamps - I store a lot of mine that way.

I do want to add a bit of caution however - I see on one of the pictures with the red rubber stamps that some of them are near the edge and look like the 'lip' of the case is resting on them. It is the first set in the clear shoe box, two stamps on the left hand side of the case.

I know you said the case doesn't click shut because of the stamp thickness. About 6 years ago I bought a stamps set from someone who stored her stamps that way and one of them ended up with a permanent 'dent' in one of the stamps. :( I tried a bit of heat and have stored them for years without have any pressure on it and no change, the dent is still there so a part of the image doesn't stamp.

Happy stamping - easy storage makes it so much more fun!

Vivianapachecofineart said...

Hey June, so I went and took a look and I fixed this by turning any stamps that were not inside the case over so if they get any marks it mill be on the other side. There weren't many since I did end up moving some(the ones in the picture were separated already), but thank you for the heads up. I love this storage system though, does it ever save time when looking and I actually haven't misplaced any lose stamps since!!!

Lisa~ said...

I know how to use the clear stamps on the clear blocks, but how do you use the red rubber stamps that don't have a block on them?

Lisa~ said...

OK, I just found a tutorial that shows one way to do this: http://mypapercreations.blogspot.com/2008/08/tutorial-preparing-unmounted-red-rubber.html#

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