Monday, May 30, 2016

Stamp Organization - done - YAY!!

I've spent months organizing and cataloging my unmounted stamps, and I think I'm as done as I'm going to be at this point - someone asked me to share my system, so here we go! I'm really happy with this so far - it's wonderful to be able to have everything in one system that is searchable, so I can access and use what I have!


I got this little shelving unit at Goodwill, and it works so perfectly in my little space - the boxes are double-stacked with a sheet of cardboard between them for support. These are all my unmounted image stamps and most of my clear stamps, sorted by category... I do have my Impression Obsession and Power Poppy clear sets stored separately, but they're indexed along with the others in Evernote.


The boxes I used are from Clearbags - they are 5 7/8" x 1" x 8 7/8" Crystal Clear Boxes, and they're just the right size to accomodate 2 half sheets of plastic, with stamps on both sizes (with just the thicker EZMount, they only hold 3 layers of stamps; if there are thinner stamps like the clear ones or the thinner EZMount, 4 layers will fit).


Here, for example, are the contents of the Bunny2 box. My daughter and I stamped all the contents of each box, and then scanned them (these are the images on the sheet to the right)...


...then in my photo editor I clipped each image, cleaned them up, and saved them as separate files.


I pulled these files into Evernote one at a time, and then was able to tag them with all the tags I might use to search for that particular image, including the company who made it, and the box where it is stored. For example, the image above is tagged Asian, Bunny, Bunny2, Our Craft Lounge, Rain, and Umbrella. By clicking any of those tags in the menu to the left, I would come up with a search in which this bunny stamp would be found. Here's the search using keywords Bunny and Umbrella - and apparently I have 4 of those! :)


I can add notes or thumbnails of the cards I've made with each stamp, and I may do that at some point. For some I've added a direct link, which is a great resource when I need to link up a stamp or set in a blog post! Right now I'm happy to just be able to search for images. I can even search multiple tags at once. Say I wanted to find all the sentiments that I've designed for Impression Obsession that have a theme of courage - I can click on the tags for dkdesigns, Impression Obsession, sentiment, courage, and I'll pull all those images up at once. There are 14!


An alternative to stamping and scanning each image is dragging and dropping images found online - that's nice for current stamps and new purchases.

I got the plastic sheets at MyBinding.com, and they're 20mil report covers - very heavy and sturdy. Regarding the issues we've all heard of with stamps reacting with plastic sheeting... these are not acetate. I have had some of the stamps on the sheets for almost a year, and I've checked and rechecked them to see if there's any evidence of reaction with the clear stamps and EZMount foam, and I don't see any issues at all. (In contrast, there was visible clouding on the CD cases within a month or 2.)


My sentiment stamps are indexed in the same way, but I stayed with the CD cases just so the stamps were in smaller batches. As I mentioned above, I have noted a reaction between the EZMount foam and the CD cases, so each of those is lined with a plastic sheet.


A closer look at the labels....


Each case has an index inside it, which was scanned and each image separated like I showed above.


Here's what it looks like inside...


...and the sentiments can also be sorted by their tags. The only sentiments that are in with the other unmounted stamps are ones that would only be used with stamps from that category (you might have noticed there was a sentiment stamp in with the bunnies - it says "Somebunny thinks you're special!" so I would obviously only use that with the bunnies.)

That's all I know! I hope that my system gives you ideas for ways to organize your stash. I wanted to have a system and index that was accessible - like a library - in the hopes that someday I could have an open studio with room for friends to come and stamp a card for someone they care about. Who knows what the future holds! I'd just like this collection to be a blessing beyond what I'm able to do with it... and I felt like this was a good first step.

Thanks for peeking in!

Thanks for stopping by!

16 comments:

  1. Gorgeous Dina... that was a lot of work. Is that bad for the clear stamps and EZ mount - reacting to the surface of CD cases?

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  2. Great guns...you are so smart. Wish I knew how to do this. Maybe someday my mind will get around to understanding this tech world we are living in.

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  3. What a lot of work Dina! I can TOTALLY UNDERSTAND wanting to be organized & even have others come in to stamp too. ;) What a blessing you can be with all this organizing! SUPER JOB!!!! ;)

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  4. When you sign up for Evernote, do they send DETAILED HOW TO instructions????? Was it difficult to learn? I love the ability to cross-reference an image and be able to find it multiple ways. Thanks so much for this info -

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    1. I didn't find it difficult to learn, and I'm probably not even using all the benefits of it! The cross referencing and the multiple tagging are so great. For example... this week we have a challenge for I.O. that involves animals - so I clicked both those tags and could instantly see all my options. So easy. It was a lot of work to catalog it all, but now... I'm so happy with it.

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    2. Elaine: I don't know if the link will work in the comments section but I found a video tutorial on YouTube for organizing scrapbooking supplies using Evernote:

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zaz_egF6Ek

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  5. I am so envious of the amount of stamps that you have. A woman after my own heart.

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  6. I just started using Evernote a couple of weeks ago and started with my die collection. I have pretty much been working at it non-stop whenever I have free time. It's sad but some of the dies in my stash I had forgotten about!! I should have done this much, much sooner but I'm glad it is finally getting done!! Next will be my stamp collection (oh boy....lol). Despite the chore that it is, I LOVE Evernote and will be packing away my file folder catalogs of all this stuff when I'm done. For some reason, I still can't part with the old paper system just yet but, at least I won't be tripping over it!!

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    1. I did my dies too - it is worth all the effort!

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  7. This so totally gives me hope :) ( my sorting and un-mounting & tagging in evernote is underway) but, I am lazier than you are and putting things in as whole sets the way I bought them for the clear sets. the thing I am not real sure about yet is re tagging them with what each sentiment in the set says. so far only doing really different ones if the whole set is mostly birthdays or mostly sympathy they just got that main word for a tag. the best part about seeing your system for me is that you DO have clear stamps and Cling stamps on the same sheets. Thanks for sharing this Dina

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  8. Looks good, Dina! I actually think you have more stamps than me...and I can see why evernote is good for you. I'm more into actually looking at the index sheet in my pouch of stamps, which are sorted kind of like your boxes.

    I'm super-glad to see your system, though! I like seeing what works for others.

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  9. Thanks so much for this post! Since your post on Splitcost a few weeks ago I did download and start scanning sets in and making tags... OH MY is this GREAT!!! I think I'll do all my sets with images in them first that will be easier for me to make TAGS... Then I'll have to start with all the WORDS.... OMG..... Now this I think I'll have to scan each verse one at a time to TAG them right.... I am so Thankful to you Dina for this post and answering my email too... I still may have a few questions, but this Evernote is quit easy to use... Thanks Again I've been looking for something like this for YEARS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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    1. Oh, I'm happy for you! It has been such a great system for me, and well worth the effort. I stamped full sheets of sentiments to scan, and then grabbed each one individually (selected, saved as a new image) to input into Evernote. I have just over 1300 tags, which is a little insane, but that also includes the labels for my boxes, company names, designers, etc. Do let me know if you have questions!

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  10. Thank you for posting your system. It is inspiring & makes me want to try doing this.

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  11. I like your system, what a lot of work. Great job. I have a question about the plastic sheets. Are they difficult to cut ? Thank You.

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    1. The ones I got are a little thicker but I was able to cut them pretty easily with my guillotine cutter. Just have to hang on to them because they like to slide with the blade.

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