Stamp Organization *REPOST

Hi! My name is Anne and I am excited to be here! My blog is called Confessions and Scrap and is where I share all of my deep dark secrets.

I have another Confession to make today... I am a craft-a-holic! *giggle* Actually, I think you probably would have figured that out on your own, but it is cleansing to say it.

Like most craft-a-holics, I have supplies everywhere. I have a craft room (used to be the guest room, but I finally decided to take over a few months ago) but I still dont have everything in here... some is in the coat closet, some in the storage down stairs, some is even in cupboards in the garage! *GASP*

But my main effort lately has been to get everything in one place and make it work, organized and efficient. (Yes, I used the word EFFICIENT in a post about CRAFTS.) Today I want to show you what I did with my Rubber Stamp Sets. You know the ones, they come in plastic cases from those stamp parties like Stampin Up and Close To My Heart... and they are all so dang cute that you find yourself ordering way more than you could ever use on a regular basis... and then you have to figure out WHERE to put them and HOW to remember what you bought???

For right now, I confiscated these two 4-drawer dressers from my daughter's room. They are shorties, not like normal dressers and are the only parts left from captain's beds the girls had years ago. 8 drawers total, and 6 of them are F.U.L.L. of stamp sets.

Seriously. How did it get like this? I only bought ONE stamp set that first night, really!

The drawers dont open all the way so they are annoying to use for much of anything, but they open the perfect amount for the stamp sets! Look:

Isnt that great! There is nothing better than a drawer (or 6) full of stamp sets -- until you want to use ONE very SPECIFIC stamp and you cannot find it! Enter the Magical Stamp Index Binder!!!

This binder helps me remember which sets I own so that I dont have to sit among piles of stamps looking at each one. You wanna see inside?

I started with cardstock, a hole punch and the rounded tab punch from Stampin Up. I made dividers with headings for the kinds of stamps I buy.

Then I stamped each image on copy paper, keeping the sets together and slid them into page protectors.

In the lower corner I wrote down the name of the set, some copywrite information, and the size of a box the set is in.

I labeled each of the drawers with a size and sorted out the sets by box size. Whew! Now I can find them easily! Right?

Almost, but not quite... Can you tell these apart?

They all look the same, dont they?

They are all labeled. Yep. But even up close it is still very difficult to tell what the clear labels say. I have to squint, lean in close, touch each case and stare at it for a few moments before it sinks in what it says. With 6 drawers just like this, searching for a specific stamp set takes forever. So enter my trusty...

LABEL MAKER!!!!!!! (again.)

I cant help it. I know I label everything, but man, the white backed labels really make it so much easier to read and I find what I want. I almost feel comfortable having a friend come stamp and scrap with me because we could finally find things! Whoo hoo!

Now that that's done, I am going to work on my inks and papers. Join me over at Confessions and Scrap to see what else I have been up to!

This post linked to Works For Me Wednesday.