Project Organisation

Hiya everyone :)

I am currently doing the Project Organisation Challenge Course at The Scrap Rack. Wow it has some great ideas on organisation. I have already "purged" 250 - 300 12x12 papers. Most of my papers are sorted into colours already :) so that helps. I have a christmas draw. I also have in a separate place baby and birthday themes.

I have started with my stamps though as these are the things that usually end up spread from one end of my table to the other. I think I currently have 30 or 40 sets on my kitchen table. EEEK

I have not started cataloging them yet. I have just started sorting them into themes. I had them in an overflowing box lol. This is what's in my box after doing at least that many sets if not more yesterday. I originally had them sorted by brand. Now they are sorted into themes ready and waiting :)

To find what I wanted I had to go through ever single stamp set. Very hard when they were jammed in and there were a bazillion on top lol. This invariably led me to pulling out loads of stamps for a project just so I didn't have to go back again!

So far I have these themes:
*Wedding/Love
*Birthday
*Baby/Children
*Alphabets/Numbers/Month sets
*Christmas (that's a big one lol)
*Halloween

I have these waiting to be sorted to be rehomed. The theme specific sentiments are with their respective stamps.

*Flowers
*Flowers and Sentiments
*Mixed Sentiments
*Flourishes and Sentiments
*Flourishes
*Journal Blocks
*Borders
*Butterflies/Bugs/Animals
*Tim Holtz/Steampunk/Vintage

Then I have a bunch of  of stamps I don't know how to categorise lol. They include some that have a mix of everything, sentiments, flowers, swirls, crowns, guitars, bugs, you name it they have a bit of a few of them lol... I can do a flower/sentiment/bug/animal section I guess but what about the rest? Argh lol

One step at a time.. I am sure it will come to me. I just don't want to take my stamps out of their respective sets and store them specifically by theme lol. I like to keep them with original packaging so that makes it harder.

I am storing my stamps using sheet protectors and three ring binders. Three to four ring work best as there is less pull on the protective sheets. Now I only had two binders like that and one is being used for Lifestyle Crafts and Quickutz Dies, so as a temporary measure I have used book rings :) Five rings for each separate set.

Four sets of inkadinkado in a sheet protector works brilliantly! Others I work with til I get a fit I like.  The smaller recollections and stampendous sets I store sideways four in a sheet protector. I do them back to back so there is a front side and backside. I use a small amount of repositionable tape inside the top of the sheet protector to keep the stamps in in case I knock my folder over.

At some point I will stick the stamps to backing paper so they don't move about but I am trying not to bite off more than I can chew right now lol..

I can tell you that I can already see that having my stamps sorted by theme as much as possible is going to help me greatly! I can just grab a folder for the specific items I am looking for rather than searching through my brands to find what I need! Less searching time and more importantly Less Mess!!!

I will add some photos of the storage soon :)
Happy Scrappin'
Purple