A Little Storage

Have you noticed that crafters (and maybe all hobbyists) are always working on storage solutions? We have an idea, we reorganize, we sort things by use, then we sort them by color, we sort them by size, then we do it all again. It's a road that never really ends.

This box was the packaging from a set of cards from Costco. I didn't have any ideas for it, but it just seemed too handy to toss when the cards were gone. Meanwhile, I've been struggling with my stamp storage. I like to use clear acrylic stamps. They are easier to position than traditional rubber stamps and take up much less storage room. But, I've wanted a good way to keep them and be able to see them.

Last year at school-supply stock-up time, I copied what my sister's new storage plan and bought a big stack of clear binder pouches. They are made to hold your pencils in a three ring binder but are perfectly size to hold a sheet of stamps. It works well because I can keep from loosing any little pieces and see what I have when I flip through them. I put the pouches in a three ring binder, but they were way too fat for the spine, and that made them unwieldy.

This box became the impromptu solution. I used an X-acto knife to remove the center partition (and stuck the point of the knife directly into my index finger - ooouch!). It left an unfinished seam, but if I like the use of the box, I can recover the inside someday.

Now I have my stamps, my acrylic mounting blocks and my stamp cleaner here. It fits in the hutch of my hobby desk, isn't too cumbersome to take along to crops, and has been easy to use so far. It may turn out to be just a stop along the storage road - we'll see!

I've been inspired by these posts on scrap organization:

Celeste, last week's host of Write.Click.Scrapbook. talking about sorting by color
Noell of Paperclipping gives a video tour of her scrap room
And Melissa writing at Write.Click.Scrapbook starts with carving out a space and continues with a series of several great posts with pictures, links and ideas.