I do have a lot of stamps.
Not as many as I used to, before we moved from Portland to Amsterdam—I went through all my stamps and gave away or put into storage the stamps I rarely or never used. Five years later, and I don’t really remember which ones I put into storage…which might be an indication of how much I really needed them in the first place!
Yet, I still do have a lot of stamps. I still buy them, but not as often. And I still buy wood-mounted stamps, because I love the feel of wood. And as with any art tool, they’ve got to go somewhere!
My stamp organizing is pretty simple: Two metal cabinets from IKEA plus clear plastic boxes. Take a look—
This is my entire collection of acrylic stamps. It doesn’t look like very much—these boxes are 12″ and 14″ long and full but not stuffed—but since clear stamps come several to a pack, it’s actually a lot of individual images. I keep them all on their original plastic sheets and in original packaging for as long as the packaging holds out. This way I can flip through to see all the designs.
As for the wooden stamps—
They all go in these metal drawers. There are two pushed together—each one is about 28″ high and 11″ wide, with 6 drawers that are just the right depth for a couple of layers of wood-mounted stamps. Each drawer has a type of stamp: Quotes, Botanicals, Collage, Wings and Winged Things, etc. There used to be a paper label on each drawer but Anna kept taking them off so I let it go since I know which drawer has what.
Here’s one of two Botanical drawers.
Here’s one of two Quotes/Words/Alphabet drawers.
When I started this system, I made sure I budgeted space for growth—there’s nothing more frustrating than getting the perfect organizing system, then immediately outgrowing it. This way, I can always add another cabinet or another box.
Happy Monday!
Love your stamps – I have a lot of mine in lots of the now discontinued Ikea drawers – but I can see several here that I like lots! I just bought one of your Paperartsy sets yesterday – can’t wait to use it!