Unmounted stamp storage

Happy Labor Day!  It's my turn to share a project of the week on the House That Stamps Built blog.  I originally got this idea from Wendy, the owner of Repeat Impressions and thought it might prove useful to some of you.  So, I'm showing you how I store my unmounted rubber stamps from Repeat Impressions (but obviously, it would work for any company).  Here's what you will need:

•  a three ring binder (mine is for 8x11 inch paper and it is 1 1/2 inches deep from Staples)
• card stock or paper to fit your binder (I used white card stock from Staples just for a little sturdier weight)
• page protectors to fit your binder (mine are heavyweight sheet protectors from Staples, I think the package has enough to hold 70 sheets)
• tack-it-over and over adhesive ( I got mine from Amazon, but Repeat Impressions sells it)
• a clear block
• ink

Because the adhesive needs time to dry, the first thing I did was scribble a fine layer over the backs of all my stamps.  If you are not familiar with tack-it over and over, it is a removable adhesive that will allow you to mount your stamps to a clear block over and over without having to reapply.  After you have applied it, allow it to dry for several hours or overnight.  

 Then, the real process (and fun) begins!  I categorized my stamps according to the Repeat Impressions online catalog which makes it easier for me to find them when I need to add a link for a blog post.  It also makes it easier to find a stamp rather than having to look through the entire binder.  You can see in the photo below that I labeled the top of this page "Nature" to correspond with the "Nature" category on the website.  Under that, to the left, I wrote the category "Flowers".  Then I stamped each image that fits in that category and labeled them with their item number and names.  I also included the dates I got the stamps. Since I have a lot of the flower stamps, I filled the entire page, but you will see later on that some of my pages are nearly empty--leaving room for when I get more stamps in that category.  On this page, I have "Vase of Tulips", "Tulip Bouquet", "Sunflower" and all the stamps from the "Flower Power Separates" set.

 After stamping the page, slide it in the page protector and place your rubber stamps right on top of the corresponding image.  The Tack-it adhesive will stick to the plastic and you will always be able to find your stamp AND see what it looks like when it is stamped.   This is a bonus for those sentiments that are hard to read backwards!

 Now, you can easily slide the card stock sheet out of the page protector to see the images and sentiments you have.

 I stamp both sides of my card stock so I can use both sides of the page protector, then I place them in the three ring binder and all my unmounted rubber stamps can now sit on a shelf.  The pages below hold the "Holy Crap" set, "Music Background" and "Bass Harbor Light (lg)"

 The photo below shows one of my pages that only has two stamps on it, leaving room for me to grow my collection. : )

 And, this last one shows my entire collection, it just about fills up my 1 1/2 in binder.

I hope this gives you an idea for a way to store all the fabulous unmounted rubber stamps from Repeat Impressions.  It is so much better than how I was storing them: in the mailing envelope I got them in.