Wow, I hadn't realized it's been a while since I posted and I apologize. Gen and I have been busy with new stuff for Card à la Carte and I guess I also wanted to take advantage of the nice weather we had this past week... the summer is not so great in our area this year.
I'm actually taking a 3-day break, without the family (I hope Stuuph and her Dad won't get on each other's case -- these 2, let me tell ya!!!) I'm meeting my sis-in-law Sue in Kingston. Since it's halfway from where we both live (she in Toronto, I in Montreal), we figured it was a good place to park our behinds for a few days and catch up on things... or shopping... or eating chocolate and watch movies. WHATEVER we decide to do will be fun!!!
I wanted to leave you with some photos of my stamp reorganization I've been doing for the past 3 weeks. It all started with my friend Kathy Vinski, showing me those amazing 12" X 9" plastic cases. It was like she had shown me the keys to a Ferrari Diablo!!! I fell in love and I immediately wanted to re-organize my stamp collections. Here are some photos that will better illustrate the process.
First of all, all of the stamps you'll see in the casings were either sitting all willie-nelly (sp?) in baskets on 3 shelves, some on top of my little white cabinets and some were even underneath the bar of our main room! And here's where they all reside now:
Just 2 shelves!!! First I have to mention that these are not my current SU stamp sets. The casings come in 3 different thicknesses: 1", 1/2" and 1/4". The 1" fit wood-mounted stamps, the 1/2" fit 2 stacks of EZ-mounted rubber stamps and the 1/4" fit the photopolymer stamps.
Here are my wood-mounted stamps from non-SU manufacturers, as well as all my Bellas and my Magnolias:
I love it... my shelf space is not wasted! I organized them either by theme or company, depending on the use I make of them. Here's what the stamps look like in their casings. These are some of my florals and leaves category:
And these are my Bellas, all mounted on EZ-Mount ( took forever but I'm happy I did it!). And because the backing is clingy, they stick to the plastic case. I need to stamp all the images on a sheet of paper that I'll be sticking to the outside of the front and back of the case so I know what I have in each without having to open them.
And my right shelf with my retired SU stamp sets that I've combined by theme, as well as some of my photopolymer stamps. My PapertreyInk are the only exception -- they sit in CD cases since they come with them and they have their own special place in a different corner.
Some of my retired Christmas SU sets:
and Close To My Heart photopolymer:
I still have to label some of my casings, but I'll get to it. The urgency was to get them all aligned neatly. Next I have to attack the other shelves of those 2 wall units. Lots and lots of things are gonna go! I want everything neat and tidy so I don't have to look for things when I need them. I bought a whole bunch of Forget-me-not Keepers from SU to store the rest of the stuff.
Wanna see the orginal "houses" of all of these stamps?
The empty CTMH cases, the SU cases (that's just half... I gave the other half to Gen):
Those 7 wicker baskets, which will be put to better use on top of my cupboards (I'll have fun making cute little labels for them!). They now house my glitter, beads, fibers, etc.
And the top shelf of my SU unit was full of retired SU sets and baskets with photopolymer:
Almost clean now, with room to grow! Woohoo!!! So, thanks for sticking around for this loooooooong post. I do get exciting about reorganizing. It is my favorite thing to do :-) Can't help it, I'm a neat freak!
Before I leave, here's a little teaser on what Gen & I have been working on. We're releasing another Tutorial and a hostess kit of Cards for SU Demo Display at the end of this coming week. And we're busy with another kit for Display for the Holidays Mini Catalogue as well as another Tutorial for another neat tool!
So, I'm off to pack! I'll see you on Wednesday!
Take good care,
CeeCee
