Unrelated.
Tuesday, April 8, 2008 at 11:22PM Two unrelated things today. First, just so you know, Micah's at that lovely "saying 'okay' after the things I say isn't sufficient any more...you must now repeat after me 17 times or until I believe that you really mean it" stage. Fun. In fact, he's taken to telling me what to say. For example...
He coughs (on purpose).
I (as I am expected to do, though I know he's faking it) ask, "Are you okay?"
He replies, "Me okay."
I say, "Good."
He looks indignant and shakes his head. Then he proceeds to tell me, "You say, 'glad you okay'!"
To which, of course, I must respond, "I'm glad you're okay, Micah."
Don't even get me started on how he then corrects me on what I call him. "Micah" is not his name of choice of late. He insists on being called "Little Mike Brother." Yes, really. This kid stinkin' cracks me up and is definitely going to be one who keeps us on our toes. :)
The second thing is a bit of bragging on my part. I'm pretty proud of myself for my stamp storage solution and wanted to share. (Don't listen to Nathan, who will try to tell you that if I spent half as much time *using* my stamps as I do *organizing* them lately, I'd be getting a lot more done.) Anyhow. First there's my cool find for storing wood mounted stamps:
Isn't it cute? I found it at a local gently used kids' clothing and toy store! It originally held a mountain of blocks of all different sorts. I totally did not need the blocks but loved the container so much I had to buy it! It was only $19 and, with my store credit after selling back the blocks and a few other things, was basically free!! Can't beat that. Now, don't pay any attention to the fact that it is currently pretty much full. ;) Actually, I should probably try to stick with the space I have and just purge old stamps as I get new ones. We'll see. :)
Now, my more recent find (which makes me totally happy). I store my clear stamps in CD cases. I'd been keeping the little sheets with the designs on them with the cases. I had them all in little boxes that were pretty but it was a pain to get to them when I wanted to use them (had to move boxes off each other and then look through them all to find what I wanted). I thought about just getting a bigger case that could hold them all so I wouldn't have to unstack boxes. Then, I found this as Walmart for just $20!
It holds 147 cases and spins, just like my Clip it Up!! So stoked about the accessibility! This left me with just one issue...how to remember what all I have so that I actually use stuff more often. (Isn't that always the issue? LOL!) Here's the part I'm particularly proud of...I realized I could make a binder with all my stamp images! Now, I'd had this particular thought before but hadn't gotten around to stamping all the images on paper yet. Though I'd heard of others who had done this, I found the entire task to not quite be worthwhile. I, you see, like/need to be able to lay the stamped image over my project to see how it will fit. You can't do this with the image on paper. But, you can do it if you use Staz On ink and stamp them on page protectors! (Prior to this, I'd been thinking I needed to do it on transparencies, but those can get pricey.) So. Here's what I ended up with:
Another benefit of the page protector route is that I can slip a piece of paper behind it to see the images better but still take the paper out and lay the sheet over my project to see how the image will look and fit. Since I wanted all my stamp images in the same place, I added my clear stamp image sheets also (the ones that come with the stamp sets when you buy them)...just taped them right to the front of the page protector:
So, now I can page through my binder when I'm looking for a particular stamp and might even happen upon something else that works better. Right now I have it sorted by theme...alphabets, words, leaves/flowers, etc.
So happy. :) Thanks for letting me share!
Reader Comments (6)
Forgive me I often stop by and had to comment today.
These are wonderful ideas for storage [great find with the wooden storage shelves] and organizing your scrap stuff is essential!
My hubby would say the same thing about me organizing - but you cant create anything in a mess :o)
i love it, organization is fun! and micah sounds like my 3 year old. always telling me what I am supposed to say. they are characters, aren't they?
OMG, brilliant way to store stamps AND clear stamps. I have 2 EMPTY binders, so guess what I'm doing this weekend?! LOL Great job!
What an awesome idea! I think I will use your binder idea. It's a great idea & so easy! Thanks for sharing.
Lynn
(ScrappinLynn)
that's awesome. are you for hire?
i'd love to have you come and organize my supplies. what do you think?