Sunday School: Custom Stamp and Small Sticker Storage

Good morning CraftyStealers! 

It's back to organizing this week! Since the beginning of my craftroom "Mission: Organization", I have been working my way through my supplies.  First it was scrap storage, then punch storage, and now I am moving on to clear stamp storage. 

I have not been much of a stamper in the past, but am loving all of the stamping creations that I have seen lately here and all over company design team blogs.  So of course, I have started "collecting" clear acrylic stamps (I can't with any sincerity say I am using them much yet).  My collection is small, but even my little collection is outgrowing the box I was storing them in. Plus, I can't see what I have easily.  Needless to say, it was NOT going to do the trick. 

I have seen special notebooks at various craft stores specifically made for stamp storage, but I thought that the idea was simple enough to try to recreate at home for a fraction of the cost.  It turned out to be even easier than I had orginally thought (and cheaper, since I had everything except the thread at my house already).

Here's what you'll need:

• Old or inexpensive album (I used an old 8 X 8 postbound album)
• Cheap page protectors
• Polyester (clear) thread
• Ruler
• Dry erase marker
• Cutter or Craft knife/self-healing mat
• Sewing machine 

Take the stamps/embellishments (these adorable stamps below are from the American Crafts Junior Collection kit - there are a few left on the Past Steals page) and lay them down how you would like them to fit on the page.  With the dry erase marker, draw hash marks to form squares or rectangles around your stamps/embellishments, making sure to leave ample room around the edges (this will make it easier to take things in and out).

With the ruler, connect the hash marks (these will be your "sew" lines).  You will also need to draw "cut" lines.  In this example, the top is open already, but I would like the bottom "pocket" to open from the right side. So draw a line on the right (make sure to make it a little longer than the exact length of whatever is going into the pocket for easy in and out).

Now, with the cutter (or craft knife), cut along the cut line (there is only one on this example).  You want to cut all the way through both layers of plastic. 

Now you are ready to sew!  If you'd like to have a background (sometimes it will help you see your stamps better - and can also be used as a divider to put stamps on the backside), you can put a piece of paper into the page protector at this point.  The paper will serve as a divider.  In this particular pocket, I left it out.  Using your clear thread, sew straight lines along the divider lines you drew.  Wipe off the dry erase marker with a paper towel.

Voila! Custom storage.

Here is another example of a different set of stamps.  I left the paper in when I made these pockets, as there were quite a few stamps in the collection and I wanted to store the others on the back pockets.

This kind of storage makes it SO easy to store collections together by manufacturer and/or by theme! You can move aroud pages and add more in as needed. It is easy to flip through and see all of your fabulous choices too.

As an added bonus, you can also use this same method for making custom coupon organizers! I'm no "Extreme Couponer", but it would be nice to have an easy small notebook to keep in the car for restaurants and various store store coupons that are too big for the usual coupon organizers.  (By the way, has anyone caught the new Extreme Couponing show on TLC yet?  Those savings are insane - but what do you really do with 60 bottles of Maalox? Check it out if you haven't yet!)

Have fun organizing your stamps, stickers (and maybe even some coupons)!