Organising Unmounted Stamps.. a tutorial!

Well here is a bit of a departure for me, I thought i would share what i have done today in the form of a tutorial (once a teacher always a teacher!)

I recently subscribed to a monthly stamps kit from the states, and my lovely new set arrived today. As i looked through them it struck me that i will end up with lots of stamps, and, added to my current collection, i am likely to forget what i have... some organisation is needed! Also the set i bought have no picture on the back of each one, so it can be difficult to visualise how they will look from the mirror image on the front of the stamp.

I did see a tutorial on a US blog recently (Here is the original link) but i couldn't remember where i saw it when i made my own storage, so i thought i would have a go at organising the stamps myself in a similar vein. I chose A5 folders for storing the stamps, i thought the pages with the stamps on would be less likely to bend if they were smaller (and the folders look cuter!) This would also work with acrylic stamps, and with stamp removed from the wooden blocks.

Step 1. Gather stamps. Organise them into categories. Write the heading for the category onto 2 pieces of A5 card.

Step 2. Stamp each image twice, one onto each of the 2 pieces of A5 card. One image will be the laminated home for the stamp, the other will form the index card. I left some spaces to add new stamps as later kits arrive. You can even stamp on top of the plastic with a Stazon ink pad. It is also easy to add new pages to extend the storage.

Step 3. Laminate one of each pair of cards.



Step 4. Punch holes in the laminated card so they will fit in the folder. Stick the stamps onto the laminated card, and arrange alphabetically by category. Put into folders. I managed to fit 6 sheets into one small A5 folder.
Step 5. Collect the unlaminated cards, punch holes, and arrange alphabetically. Put all of these into one index folder. A note about the word and phrase stamps; the index card for these is so useful, as it is hard to work out or remember what each one says from the reverse image visible on the surface of each stamp.

Step 6. Decorate each folder (optional, but likely for paper-crafters!) I used old stash (K&Co Peabody Scrap to Go kit)