My paper stash was a bit of a disaster. I have a lot of stamps and a lot of paper, but I realised through the recent atc blitz’ that I wasn’t using a lot of my stuff, because it was just inaccessible. I consulted with the expert lettuceheads and the internet and it’s now in a civilized state. I made a couple of storage solutions, because I couldn’t buy what I needed.
Step one- sorting and purging a ton of paper, a lot went to recycling, and I have given a lot more to some small friends. I realised through the process that when I start a new craft,I accumulate as much stuff for it as possible, but then when I run out of steam it just ends up in the hoard. I had stuff piled on stuff.
Step two- categorising. I put everything in colour groups, and a vintage ephemera category for paper.
Step three- I have a lot of these little drawer units, again I tossed out a lot of rubbish and categorised the rest. I consolidated all the paper stuff in the one place, beading in another.
I took a bunch of pocket document protectors and a heat tool to divide them up into sections. And everything got filed in a folder. Now I can simply flip through and see what I need
Step five,- what to do with all the paper. I love this solution. I have a four drawer wire units from IKEA. I got foam core board and made up inserts. They are simply glued together with hot glue. Not perfectly dimensioned, but they work ok. They divide each drawer into two. So that the paper is now sorted by colour and all to hand. The unit takes paper that’s less than 12x12. The bigger paper just sits flat on a shelf.
I always found it very satisfying to finally get around to organizing things. It’s as though in the back of your mind you’ve been thinking about the best ways to organize everything and then you get it done!!
I’m going to have to get out my glue gun to use on some wobbly drawer dividers that I made! Thanks for that!!
The foam core board was a revelation to me. It works really well and it’s very stable. Fast to work with too. As long as you ignore the glue gun burns.
That looks amazing! Having your stash organized is such a huge step to utilizing it more effectively. This is great!
AIMR
(Linda -2024 Choose Projects that You Want to Do :us:)
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Love that you made your own dividers for your baskets…I am going to use that to further separate some larger bins I have.
I have my cling stamps in a notebook as well…I don’t have a lot, but I had no way to store them. Most of mine are on larger sheets so one to a clear protector works for me.
I can see that you will have a lot more ease in doing your paper projects…and nice to donate or recycle what you won’t be using or no longer love.
Foam core dividers is a great idea! So is the binder with cling stamps, I’d like to do that myself. I’m not sure how you used a heat tool for that though, would you explain a bit more?
I took photos in case anyone wanted to know. I have a heat tool (which I bought in a craft shop in Haight Ashbury in SF about 17 years ago!) It’s like a pyrography iron.
I used a metal ruler and ran the tip across the plastic. It’s a bit trial and error, too much and you’ll melt it completely, too little and it won’t bond. I used a couple of fast passes along the side of the ruler. Some were better than other, I did burn a few holes.
I also sealed the top of the document protector. So I essentially created two or four sealed spaces. Using a craft knife and a scissors, I cut a slot into the top of each section, so I could insert the stamp. But
And this is important I used the heat tool to seal each edge of the cut I made. That stops it ripping across. If you look at the first photo above you can see the (wobbly) lines and where I fused the sides of the cut.
Well explained, at least for me, thank you! I totally get what you did. I thought you meant a heat gun like the fancy hair dryer type that I have for waving over paint and glue to get it to dry faster. I also have a soldering iron/ wood burning tool, I will try melting some plastic just enough and get a feel for it. I haven’t got any of this sort of clear plastic holder right now so I may rig something else in the meantime. I have a binder of plastic covers full of stencils but I like them sorted like that so don’t want to sacrifice one good storage method for another. Maybe next time we’re out shopping I’ll look for more. .
They are only the cheap document protectors. Heavier better quality ones would probably be better, but they’re not getting pulled about, so they’ll do for now.
