Saturday, June 27, 2009

Cataloging my CTMH Stamps

This is one job that you really have to be motivated to start! It is a lot of work. Yesterday when I came home from work, I got the bug in me to get my stamps organized so that I would know what I have and can find them when I need them. These are my CTMH stamps. Most of them have been sitting on a shelf in the garage ,mostly untouched because I don't know what I have. I really like these little boxes by CTMH. I am finding that they really are the best thing for storage. I tried these bigger containers. You can see them, but they don't close up like the CTMH ones and they don't stack. I like to keep things neat and use less space. This system just isn't working. At first it did and then I started accumulating more and more.
My stamps are all organized by like kind. So, with each box, I went through my extra catalogs to find pictures of the stamps in that box. I cut out the pictures and attached them to 8 1/2 x 11 cardstock. When I finished I will put a label on the boxes that matches the description in the binder.
I found this cute photo album at Target. It came with magnetic pages. I took them out and replaced them with Page Protectors.I divided up the pages with Index Dividers. I followed along, pretty much, with how CTMH has them organized in their catalog. But, I put them in an order that made sense to me. I started with Sentiments, since these are the stamps that get a lot of use.Followed by the Monthly Word Puzzles. These are great stamps to have because they are loaded with pictures and sayings for each month of the year. There are other Word Puzzles, but if they fell along the lines of a specific Holliday like Christmas or Valentine's day, I put them in that catagory.Next came the Tags, Borders and Misc. This category also includes backgrounds, and stamps with calendars on them. The next set of the stamps were divided by Fall, Winter, Spring and Summer. The Fall stamps include, School, Fall Leaves and Halloween.
Winter includes Snow and Christmas. Following this category, I added Valentine's Day because I have a lot of Love stamps.
The next category is Spring. It includes flowers, insects and Easter.
Next comes Summer. This category covers the beach, Fourth of July, picnic, Hawaii, Trees and Outdoors.
The next category is Family. This is kind of a general category with anything kid or people. This includes baby, kids, princesses, boy trucks and the "Bella" like stamps.
Next I added the Birthday Category.

And, lastly, is the Font category. It also includes the Alpha Solos. You will notice that there are no pictures. The reason is that I thought I was all done and then I saw the box and it is big. I will finish it later.

Here is what the binder looks like with the pages in it. Hope this post helps you. Since I went to all the trouble of getting organized, I just couldn't help but share. I have a lot more organizing to do with my other stamps and embelishments, but at least this is a start. If you have any tips for me, please pass them along.

17 comments:

Syme Family said...

That is an awesome idea to cut the stamp set picture from the catalog! I'm going to copy your idea! Thanks! Good luck with keeping them organized so you can can find them and use them!

Vicki Burns said...

OH MY WORD! I can't believe how organized this is~right up my Type A alley! LOL No wonder I didn't hear from you today! :) YOU GO GIRL!

Shaela said...

wow, what a wonderful way to get organized! I did something similar awhile ago with all my clear and unmounted stamps.

arlene said...

WOW-I'm still "hopping" and saw this first. It makes me think I really need to organize my stuff too. Congrats to you for getting it done.

Sharon said...

What a great organization system. Good for you! Did you number or letter the boxes as they correspond to your binder so you know which box contains which item or category? In case the boxes get moved around or something...

Wow - give yourself a much needed pat on the back as you did one heck of a job in organizing...you available for hire?

Carla Harrah said...

Awesome idea Lori! I think I just might have to borrow this...

Leslie said...

That will be my next project. I had put all my stamps in the real organized drawers in alpha order and put the photos on 4x4 sheets of cs and put them on rings, I am about to need a third set of cards and ring so I was thinking I might switch to the notebook and page protectors. I tried the sentiment, holiday, baby, adult, nature etc. . . for awhile but it seemed too haphazard for me so I went back to alpha order. Definitely a type A project.

Alanna said...

What a task you've undertaken but one that I'm sure will help you utilize your stamps more. Great job. As others have mentioned, are you available for hire?

Sharli Schaitberger said...

Umm, I'm never going to get THIS organized. My hats off to you, though! Great system.

sandyh50 said...

Oh I love this! I want to take the wood off of my wooden stamps and get those organized too! I am so tired of my mess!

Sparkplug17 said...

What a great way to do it! I love that album you got too!

Anonymous said...

can you come to my house next....
Love Jack's

tkaiser said...

I'll barbecue, serve your favorite beverage, and promise you a lifetime of uplifting blog comments if you'll come organize my mess :) I'm so impressed!

Janelle Janish said...

All I can say is WOW! Now if I could just get that motivated to organize!

enggirl99 said...

OMG - Amazing! It's always hard to get started - but it's well worth it. I like how you have a Lori "catalog" that you can flip through of just your stuff...Very nice!

Lisa said...

Lots of work, but wow! Really worth it.

Samantha said...

What a great idea! TFS!!!!

style type="text/css">body {background-image:url("http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k37/debscraft/BackGrounds/SWbllondeteddyBlogBG.jpg"); background-position: center; background-repeat: no-repeat; background-attachment: fixed; }