thredz's Blog

This is hard! The cabinets went in fine, the various shelves, while somewhat difficult to get stuck to the walls, are happily in place, so the stamps and papers should go like grease through a goose, right? Right?

NOT!!!

I had such dreams, such excitement at getting everything in one place and within easy reach. I just had to do a couple of things and then I would throw my stamps on the shelves; pop the paper in the Trones shoe storage; organize my unmounted stamps, my embellishments, and inkpads; and I would sit down and start creating paper masterpieces. I even took a little time to dress up my Ikea Benno CD cab:

Here's a before the "Miasma of Despair: Stamp Storage" heartbreak of reality.

Here's my collage work, and my first attempt at "throwing those stamps" onto the shelves. That would be about 15-20 stamps.

I have 100 (yes, I am counting them) wood-mounted Christmas Stamps alone. And then there are all of these:

I used some nifty ideas from Hive members (I'll give credit in the comment section). The drawer units are packed so tight I can't see the bottom layer of stamps without moving the whole top layer! "NEXT!"

So, I added my last shelf with the dotty brackets (I knew I had held it back for a reason), hung a Bygel rail underneath (another Hiver idea) for my packaged clear stamps, and loaded it up with my big wooden stamps. At last, things were finding their way. I used my collaged cabinet for my paper punches--I got about 3/4's of them placed on these shelves. Martha Stewart punches are beautiful to desplay on their own. The rest went into two tubs on my shelves above the workspace. The drawers have fewer stamps in them, so I can actually see the stamps inside. The Christmas paper storage compartment has a few of my Christmas stamps on them, the other two have a few of my faves displayed on them. One of them says, "Life is too important to be taken seriously" by Oscar Wilde, I couldn't have said it better myself! The big shelf has my prescious mandala stamps from Magenta and Outlines. I make my Christmas cards and ornaments using these:

And, then, just cuz I can, I displayed my two favorite cat stamps:

Another full day of moving stuff from old craft room to new craft room, and I still have so much to do!

Like I said, this giving birth-thing is a lot easier thinking about than it is to experience! I think most of my stamps have found their final resting places, but of course, I keep saying "where's that stamp that I used...", so I guess there is still some question on that. But, at least I can see that they will most likely FIT.

And the paper seems to be sorting itself out. And then I remembered--photos, ephemera, and boxes, oh my!

I haven't scratched the freakin' surface. Call me back at the end of the week...