Peeking Challenge and Storing Things

 Hey Everybody,

Nancy's challenge of Take A Peek, can be found here.

I wanted to use this House Mouse stamp of Amanda sipping her morning coffee. So the first thing I thought of was a fun window to look through. The last thing I thought of was, I could have embossed a brick background and peeled back a hole to look through to see her. Oh well, this got me to use a set of dies that hasn't seen light in a long time. Thanks Nancy!
I colored the image then die cut the window, shutters and window box. I added dimensionals behind them and added them on top of my image. I fussy cut small flowers from Floral Charm dsp for the window box. I'm not sure what sentiment to use for this so I'm leaving it blank for now.

Keywords: F4A804

Stamps: House Mouse-Brew-tiful Day

Paper: white, misty moonlight, crumb cake, SU Floral Charm designer series paper

Paper Size: A2

Ink: Versafine black

Accessories: SU Brick and Mortar 3D embossing folder, Poppy Stamps Small Madison Window, Shutters and Flower Box dies, Copic Markers

Techniques: dry embossing, die cutting, coloring

When I read the challenge I immediately thought of the window dies I have with the flower box and shutters. It's been lots of years since I've used these.

It's one of those things that was used all the time when I got it. I have been using more dies in my card making since I put my stamps and dies into a great binder.

I have to tell you I wasn't sure what the quality of the product would be like. I was pleasantly surprised! The pockets are very sturdy and easily open and close.

One side holds dies and the other side holds stamps. So your sets with stamps can be stored together with your dies if you want.

I've found it's easy enough to add a vent magnet sheet (which is thin) to the other side if you don't have stamps.

You could also leave your dies on the cardboard with tape that they come on and put them right into the pocket.

15" x 8" 3-Pk Magnetic Vent Covers $8.48

These can be purchased at Home Depot or Walmart any store like that. They are not adhesive backed, but they are thin enough to fit in the pockets and strong enough to hold your dies.

Right now I have a bit of organization to these notebooks. To give you an idea, I have shapes in one notebook, I have another notebook for word dies. Since I do a lot of cards for ministries, it's helpful to have the word dies organized so I can easily find and use them.

Then I have Stamps that have dies with them. If they are current Stampin' Up sets, I keep them in these notebooks.  When they retire, I usually take word stamps and add them to collections of 'like' words.  That way if I'm looking for a Get Well sentiment of a certain style or size, I know where to look.

I put retired stamps into my general storage area. So if the set is mostly flowers, it goes into the flowers area and is alphabetized by it's name.

I have lots of different categories. Here are some of them. Summer, Fall, Christmas, Winter/Snowmen Penguins, Animals-stored alphabetically  like birds, cats, dogs, farm animals, fish, llama, House Mouse, etc.

I have categories like Christian, Encouragement, Thank you, Sympathy, Masculine, Mother's Day/Father's Day, Coffee, Tea, Cactus and zoo animals.

I'm playing around with another way to store my similar word stamps so it's easy to find and use them.

I got a photo album with a D ring and those sticky pages that you pull back and put pictures on. I'm putting similar words or sentiments on these pages. So I might have Just a note, Thinking of You and Just because on a page together.  That way, I have similar stamps together and can easily see them on the page. This makes it very easy to decide what I want to use.   It makes it very easy to pull off stamps to use on the cards I make and put them back.

Like I said, I'm just trying this out to see if it works well enough to keep. I will say that if you are combining photopolymer and cling stamps, the notebook gets thick in a hurry.

If I know for sure I won't use a stamp set after it retires, I donate it to someone who can use it.

Yes, after over 20 years of stamping, I have many, many stamps. However, since the area I'm working in isn't going to get bigger, I have to manage the number of stamps/dies I have.

How do you organize your stamps and dies?

Let me know. I like to share and also see how others organize and store their things.

See you tomorrow.

Blessings,

Sue