Anyway, several different business cards used this basic idea of a rectangle divided into two triangles, but this one was the primary inspiration, and the influence is very plain to see in my versions in both the layout and the font choice.
My preference is for the blue version (Hero Arts soft pool ink) rather than the pink (Hero Arts soft blossom), which came out a bit too dark, I think, and therefore not so "happy." You are, of course, free to prefer the pink, or to hate them both, or to think they are both meh. Isn't life grand?
My craft-room clean-up is going well, but I'm struggling with several first-world issues that cause me to purse my lips in Church-Lady style and mutter, "Well, isn't that special." Your thoughts and suggestions would be appreciated. I simply MUST get that look off my face!
1. Organizing Sentiment Sets: I've accumulated a frightful number of sentiment sets, and yes, I often still lack just the sentiment I want. Not sure how or why that might be, but there it is. Anyway, shuffling through all of them, even when I know what I'm looking for, is cumbersome. Some of the sets are in CD cases and some are in transparency folders. All are stored in a CD storage case that is almost full. I'm considering purging a few of the sets and adding dividers to the storage case so, say, all the Birthday sets are together, all the thanks sets, all the sympathy/get well/encouragement sets, and so on. This will still leave the bulk in a multiple occassions group but will at least add some order to the confusion. Has anyone ever tried this? Does anyone have any better ideas?
2. To index, or not to index? My stamp index is a mess. Is it worth it to spend the time completely redoing it? Understand it will take a REALLY long time to recreate...and it will be the sixth or seventh time I've done it in 13 years. Last time, I had wrist problems for weeks as I worked on it. BUT if I worked through slowly, like the Little Engine Who Could, it might be nice to have. Do you have an index? Do you bother to keep it updated? Do you use it enough to justify having created it? Am I completely insane for fretting about this? Should I just let it go? Aaaarrrrggghhh!!!!!
Thank you in advance for your input.
Supplies
stamps: Clear and Simple (discontinued thinking of you set)
paper: Papertrey White, StampinUp black
ink: Hero Arts soft pool, soft blossom, intense black
accessories: Post-its for masking
Hi, Susan. I just finished transferring all my clear and cling stamps into pockets, and have organized the sentiments into categories as you are thinking of doing. Those left over went into 4 categories: words, short sentiments, long sentiments, and alphabets. I'm still looking through them to find things, but not so many as before. Serendipity has been fun, too, finding sentiments I have forgotten about. BTW, even though I'm a retired librarian, I'll probably never index my stamps, unless it's a digital program with multiple subject headings. Have fun organizing!
ReplyDeleteI can't help with the sentiments storage, because I hand write mine and mainly buy image/pictorial stamps, but my index is critical to avoiding duplicate purchases (the exact same butterfly), finding options on a desired theme/picture (search for "butterfly" and browse my stock), and sometimes talking myself out of a new purchase when I think I have to have that new stamp (do I really need a 24th butterfly? How many solid/outline/simple/ornate butterflies can one woman use!!!). I use the same index for my huge home library, CDs, and craft supplies (stamps, punches, colours of inks, paints, embossing powder etc), and its just routine that anything in those categories gets indexed before being filed/stored appropriately. I plan to add DVDs and certain makeup soon to also avoid duplicating movies/lipstick/nail polish colours. I love me a well used index!
ReplyDeleteHi Susan Ilike both cards but also agree the blue is nicer being lighter.
ReplyDeleteI seperate all my stamps into categories and all my sentiments. Into same till I get to things like Christmas I found I liked those all kept together. Baby I also found I liked to keep them together, others are all things like thanks hugs birthday happy just a note etc then I end up with a collection of not sure these I then divided into sentences, short messages, humour, filler words. I have found this works well and stops me having to look at every set when I think I have something but cant remember where. I keep all on A5 laminated sheets inside plastic sleeves that I also stamp ont a plain white sheet to check easily inside the sleeve. I dont do indexs or electronic lists cause I would end up forgetting what I called them or where they were and have to start again knowing me.
you could take a photo of a set and its name. print out the photo or put all photos in one digital file. that would avoid having to stamp each image. Just a thought!!
ReplyDeleteYou're on a roll with he business card inspiration.
ReplyDeleteI also tried to categories my sentiments. Some are easy - like Christmas. I have a Happy Birthday, Thank You, Thinking of you categories, but most are still in Sentiments as they are mixed sets. But I love Joan's idea. The great thing about digital is that it's easy to update and you don't need to redo what you already have. On the Mac you can add tags to files, so if I had a mixed sentiment pack, I could tag it with all the relevant category names. Then I could do a search for a category and the photos of the sets would come up. A lot of work, but worth it if you'll use it.
I've dreamed of having more sentiment stamps since I have so few. I can't imagine having so many that I have to categorize them. My choice for the cards you made is the pink one. It seems a little bit more in-your-face to me and I like that.
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ReplyDeleteAfter using a hand stamped index followed by a simple, but now obsolete, software system, I am completely loving Evernote! The ability to import a picture, add a descriptive title and add as many searchable descriptive tags as I like has made finding a specific sentiment or image a breeze. Granted it took awhile to get my ever-growing stash catalogued, but has been so simple to keep up to date. And being able to access it on my phone? It's saved me from duplicate purchases a few times!
ReplyDeleteI too love Evernote. I have been categorizing all of my stamps and supplies since February. I still have a long way to go, but I have already found it to be a great time saver when looking for a type of sentiment or image. It is well worth the time to set up imp.
DeleteEvernote all the way!!! And hi Jennifer :-) Glad to hear you're getting as much value out of it as I do! Totally worth the one time investment of your time and the maintenance when you get new goodies!
DeleteI use Evernote and love it. I have many sets of stamps and have forgotten more than half. Evernote has solved my memory issues.
ReplyDeleteI JUST reorganized all my stamps...having a lot of the very same problems.
ReplyDeleteI did a post on it last Tuesday, if your interested it is here: http://krishaskeepsakes.blogspot.com/2016/04/t-stands-for-three-weeks.html
I like the blue business card best. ;))
I have had my loose stamps categorized by type for years - so easy to go to. I am with you as far as indexing - the Evernote Janet referred to[above] is what I want to set up -- however, the time involved oy vie -- can't seem to get started :(
ReplyDeleteI mentioned in your previous post how I organize my stamps (storage pockets, by brand) and I don't use an index and I don't think I ever will. Keeping it up-to-date would be way too much for me, and it would change continously anyway so I'd spend more time organizing than crafting. I don't know why, but I have a pretty clear idea of which sentiments I own, so I never have trouble finding it once I decided what I need.
ReplyDeleteI've always organized by category...makes my life simpler. I've never indexed as I knew I'd never keep it up correctly. I've started using Pinterest to keep track of my dies and newly purchased stamps. Organized again by category, this has been really helpful as I can access Pinterest wherever I go..and it's visual. I keep them as "Secret Boards" so only I can see them, plus they reside at the bottom so easier to find too. It's such a win-win solution!
ReplyDeleteI recently pondered sentiment stamps myself so was curious to hear (read) what others did. I do fairly fine with the loose stamps (you know those old WM ones) and stamps sets with all the same type of greeting (all birthday) but pictorial stamp sets with greetings or a set of mixed greetings--they get overlooked and I'm not sure how to organize them. I thought about taking the stamp out of the set container and putting it in the appropriate greeting drawer but am not sure I like that idea. It works with cling or clear sets with indexes as you can see what if missing from the set and go get it if you want to use the set as a whole. For those older WM sets then I'd have to stamp out the greeting to leave it in the container so I'd know what greeting should be there.... it sounds like work. Plus, really I have no more drawer space for stamps. As it is I have types of greetings co-mingled. Hubby laughs that Get Well and Sympathy are in the same drawer (says it is fatalistic of me).
ReplyDeleteAs far as indexes go when I first started stamping I would stamp an image into a little journal as I got them, so there was no order to the images. Later I'd X out what I got rid of as I do purge/trade/give away stamps quite often. I could see that wasn't going to work and gave up on the whole index idea.
I don't see myself setting up any electronic style of index because to me computing and stamping are two separate things and in separate rooms. I live in front of a computer 40 hours a week for work so it isn't often I want to fuss with one while at home. Plus I have no mobile device so a computerized index wouldn't help me with shopping and duplicates (which seems to be why many folks have them). I don't buy things on a whim anymore anyway. I ponder purchases first which gives me time to check my stash if I think I'm duplicating something or getting something similar to what I have. BTW, I mostly ponder myself OUT of purchasing so that is helping the overall state of things.
I'm not sure if my babblings are helpful, but there you have them.
My index is digital index. I use Picasa. I download the stamp set images from the company websites. When the image is in Picasa, I then tag each image with the sentiments and images - I even tag with location (i.e., which box the stamp set is located in my craft room). The best part is the tags are searchable - I can look for "thanks" or "thank you" or "butterfly" or anything and if I have it tagged, I can find it.
ReplyDeleteI don't think I'm explaining myself well. If you have questions, just let me know, I'm more than happy to talk more about it.
I use Evernote. I copy and paste an image of the stamp set into my Evernote file and add genre tags, although the software is pretty good at searching the image without the need of tags. For example, a friend was visiting yesterday and asked me if I had any sets with "hugs" in it. I searched that word in Evernote and all the matches images came back in the results list. The word was highlights on each image. Makes this librarian very happy!
ReplyDeleteHi,
ReplyDeleteI described my organization methods in reply to your original post asking about this topic, so I won't repeat here. I do not index my stamps. I do have a listing of my ink pads and have labeled them and sorted them by color groups. This has helped to keep me from buying the same color over and over again.
Donna
I really like the blue one. Great idea for inspiration. I save interesting cards but hadn't thought to look on Pinterest for interesting ones. Gotta love Pinterest.
ReplyDeleteI also love Evernote. I keep my stamps in sets but since I can take pictures, list sentiments, tag images and cross reference them, I can always find what I want. It's also easy when I go to purge my stamps. No need to rearrange my whole collection or index.
Evernote is awesome. And I also keep inspiration photos for the stamp set in the same note. You can put as many tags as you want, but the software is able to search the image too.
ReplyDeleteMany inspiring ideas about Evernote. I have only a sentiment binder, and I stamp every sentiment from every set into it, before/as I am putting it away. Then, when I am making a card, and I want a certain sort of sentiment, I can flip to the section of my binder, and see quickly at a glance, what sentiments I have, where they are from, the actual size, etc. You can see a visual here on this post: http://cards-by-the-sea.blogspot.com/2015/11/casology-design-team-craft-space-tour.html
ReplyDeleteI tag pictures of all my stamp sets in Evernote. Setup was a pain in the beginning, but maintenance is pretty easy. I just clip and tag photos of my stamp sets as soon as I receive them. The best part is that I can also add photos of the matching dies to the entry if I have them, as well as pics of the cards I've made with each set. I'm determined to someday use all the stamps and dies I own.
ReplyDeleteI tag pictures of all my stamp sets in Evernote. Setup was a pain in the beginning, but maintenance is pretty easy. I just clip and tag photos of my stamp sets as soon as I receive them. The best part is that I can also add photos of the matching dies to the entry if I have them, as well as pics of the cards I've made with each set. I'm determined to someday use all the stamps and dies I own.
ReplyDelete