Saturday, 21 June 2014

Frames 3 (Categorizing & stamp storage)

I cannot believe how many frame stamps I actually have. So I decided to make a grid of 9 of them. I mounted them on a block which I had placed over a grid so that I could get the spacing right (thanks for the tip from Bronwyn who was stamping with me!). Wonderful as it meant I could stamp up a bunch of cards with the same layout ... or even rotating the layout as it was a perfect square.




I wanted a crisp masculine card and so used Colorbox Cranberry, Hero Arts Charcoal & Hero Arts Soft Granite in addition to the black. I added a metallic brad to the sentiment to make it pop more. Still for the "I've been Framed" challenge at One-Layer Simplicity.




If you want to know why I have so many frames, I had bought the whole alphabetic series of stamps (full A-Z set) from Hero Arts of Sparkle Clear letters. Here are a few of them ...



But I hardly ever used them (except for a couple of flowers, a sun stamp and some birds). Bronwyn was rearranging and storing her stamps by category, so I decided to break up the packs and put all the matching alphabets together, flowers together, frames together, etc.  - using the Avery Elle plastic packets. I cut each image on the acetate, and arranged them on a new piece of acetate, and then stuck them down with transparent packing tape. A BIG job I can tell you - but really worth it in the end. It completely changes your perspective. 

Much easier to "see" :
4 alphabet sets (5 if you count the one with lower case too), 
26 frames (needed 2 packs to store them), 
26 flowers and 
a wonderful collection of birds, butterflies and little filler stamps.



I think I will use them a lot more frequently now.  What do you think?

[ I'm in the process of doing ALL my stamps and it is a mammoth task. Will post once I've finished them all. One day I did 75 packets, and not even halfway there! Scary to see my supply of stamps. ]

6 comments:

  1. Great card, brilliant design.
    Well done for sorting your alphabet stamps, you must be delighted to have 'found' all those extra stamps!
    Elaine

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  2. Love all those fabulous frames and yes I think the reorganization is great. I'm sure you will use them tons more!

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  3. I find when I store my stamps by theme it's easier to find what I'm looking for! Love the card, too - very clever to use your frames in this way! Thanks for joining us at OLS!

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  4. I think it's a wonderful idea!! Love the use of the frames and small images on the card!

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  5. I think its a brilliant idea. I am not as organised as you to keep them in their original brands but I must admit I ended up doing this with all my stamps. I realised that unless I put them together in groupings then many were never used. Suddenly you see inspiration in all the little flowers or the billions of butterflies you have. I LOVE the idea of stamping the frames together, the card is so cute.

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  6. Such a fun card. I like to sort by theme.
    Thanks for joining us at OLS.

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