Clear Stamp & Dies Storage - Monochromatic look

I'm quite new to the whole cardmaking/ scrapbooking world and as I've become more into the craft I've accumulated many stamps and decided I needed a way to store and organise them. I like the monochromatic look so you'll see there's a lot of black, white, and grey tones when it comes to my craft supplies storage.

Clear Stamp (and coordinating dies) Storage Envelopes

This post will be about how I currently store my clear stamps and coordinating dies. I do something a bit different for my die cuts which I'll cover in another blog post. Click here or below to view the video I made showing my stamp and ide storage.

As you can see I use 230 x 162mm black envelopes to store my stamps. I purchased 50 of these from AliExpress for US $19.78. I use white pigment ink to stamp the entire stamp onto the front of the envelope so I can see what is inside. In this case I used Stampin' Up craft ink in Whisper White. I use a piece of A5 sized inexpensive cardstock to add a bit of stiffness which also acts a a divider between the stamp set and any coordinating dies. To keep the dies under control in the envelope (especially once they're separated), I use a piece of magnetic sheet under the dies. If I have a mask or spare cut out images I store them in the envelope too so they're all together with the set they belong with.

I did a silly thing of throwing out the packaging without noting down the manufacturer or stamp set name so I don't know what a lot of my stamps actually are. Where I do know I use a brother letratag label making machine to print a label and stick it to the flap on the back. Unless I'm storing more than one stamp set in the envelope, then I stick the identifying label on the front near the stamp set it goes with.

Example of label for an envelope holding one stamp set

Example of labels for an envelope holding more than one stamp set

At the moment I'm storing all my crafting gear in re-purposed cardboard boxes as I wait for my partner to let me have a craft room!

Close Up of stamp storage Box

Stamps Storage in Box

For my dividers I cut a piece of core flute slightly longer than the envelopes (about 255 x 165 mm) and label the top. I organise my stamps by theme but that's just my preference.

Thanks for checking out my blog.

Happy crafting!

Mel Crafting.

Christmas Card - Warm Christmas Wishes

Warm Summer Wishes Christmas Card

Living in the southern hemisphere means a warm summer's day on Christmas. When I came across Simon Says Stamp's Warm Christmas Wishes for sale 2nd hand on Trademe, I had to get it and make some summery Christmas cards. Combined with a couple of other summer themed stamp sets, this will be the first of many Christmas cards I make with a summer flair to them.

(I will link to a YouTube process video for this card here in the near future, I'm just having a few teething issues with editing the footage but I'll get there and put it up as soon as it's ready!)

I wanted to use the large landscape image from Simon Says Stamp's Surf's Up stamp set so I decided to make a square card and cut out a piece of 300 GSM white cardstock 15cm x 15cm. A few friends have been asking how I store my stamp (and die) sets so I'll post another blog post in the near future on how I do that using black envelopes as you can see in the following photos.

Simon Says Stamp - Surf's Up Stamp Set

Simon Says Stamp - Warm Christmas Wishes Stamp Set

Simon Say Stamp - Warm Christmas Wishes - Coordinating Die Set

I stamped that large circular landscape image onto my square card using clear embossing ink and heat embossed it with silver embossing powder. I also stamped the image onto plain white scrap paper using black ink and fussy cut it out - this will be used as a mask as when I use my daubers to ink blend the background.

Using Altenew mini ink pads and sponge daubers, I carefully masked the landscape image and ink blended an ocean scene with an island in the middle using the following colours: Caramel Toffee, , Desert Night, Dusk, Ocean Waves and Sea Glass.

Altenew Inks and Sponge Daubers Used of Ink Blended Background

Onto white 300 GSM cardstock  I stamped many of the smaller images from both Surf's up and Warm summer wishes' stamp sets using Gina K jet black amalgam ink. As I intended to color them using alcohol markers.

Using Touchfive alcohol markers I colored the images then either fussy cut around them or they were die cut using a coordinating die if the image was from the Warm Summer Wishes stamp set.

Warm Christmas Wishes & Surf's Up Images - Stamped and Colored

Next I arranged the images onto the card front to see where it would be best to place a sentiment. I decided to use the 'Warm Christmas Wishes' sentiment from the Simon Says Stamp's Warm Christmas Wishes Stamp Set. Once I was happy with the arrangement, I stuck the images down into place using double sided tape and stamped the sentiment using clear smbossing ink onto black card stock. I then heat embossed the sentiment with white embossing powder, cut the card into a banner and stuck it to the card using double-sided tape.

I cut down the card front a little and mounted it to a 15.5cm x 16.5cm black card base. This is the first square card I've made so it a bit of an odd sized card, which is why I also had to make an envelope that is 16.5cm x 16.5cm. I used some scrapbooking paper with silver/black baubles to make a christmas themed envelope for this card.

Warm Christmas Wishes Christmas Card with Silver Baubles Envelope

All done!

Happy crafting!

Mel Crafting.