Past Storage

So I have redone my die-storage, again. I have always had my dies in an hardcover folder with the collecting-cards inserts for my small dies and some magnetic sheets for my spellbinders and other thin dies. For a while I did put some of the thinner ones that I used the most on the wall but the folder was always present.

What I liked with the folder wad that i could have all dies in the same place (except the Tim Holtz’s big dies) and I could flip through the pages to look at what i have. The easy access and the visibility is really important to me. The bad this is that the folder was really heavy and that the magnetic sheets (even if they were really thick) wasn’t really strong enough and the dies sometimes came of and the dies then fell out all over my crafting space. The plastic inserts for the smaller dies was open at the top so they also fell out from time to time so I really didn’t like to pull out that folder.

I did buy the Crafters Companions folder with the magnetic sheets and thought that they might be the thing for me. I like that the container was closed so that of a die fell loose it wouldn’t get lost. But I really didn’t like the pages, they were too thin. When i flipped a page the page was thin so it warped a bit and the dies fell loose (I had the same problem with my own folder until i found really thick magnetic sheets). Big disappointment after all the good things i have seen about them online.

New Storage

I have for like forever love Quickutz magnetic storage system but first I had a problem with the pricing due to the fact that shipping would be very expensive, and when I deiced that it would be worth it I couldn’t find them anymore. But a couple of month ago I stumbled on the Magnetic book from lifestyle Crafts (former Quickutz) on Scrapbook.com and was just thrilled. I bought myself 7 books and I thought that would take my dies and maybe give me two empty ones for coming dies. Well of coarse I was a bit delusional because I filled up all 7 and still had a lot more dies. So Right before Christmas i ordered 10 more and due to the fact that my dear father went on a business-trip so I didn’t need to pay international shipping (yay!). I just love how sturdy the books is and that the magnetic is just the perfect strength.

I can’t have all dies there but I don’t acre because I love them so much.And luckily I found nice storage for the other dies also. When I was looking through my odd boxes and bins I found the old plastic container for my copic-starter-set (72 pens). The two halfs gives me enough space for all dies and all embossingfolders, and there is more space for coming dies. For the smaller dies I just cut a bit cardboard to get them up a bit. The thought is that I will dress the boxes up so they look a bit prettier but thats for another day.

Labeling

So for the last couple of days (everything goes a bit slow with our angel) I have made some labels so I easily can find with dies I have in which folder.

I have used my Ecplise masking tape as my labels. I like that the adhesive aren’t to strong so it won’t leave marks if I wanna remove it. My tape is 15cm wide so I made and Word-document-template with an A4-base. This way I could print the labels and I wouldn’t need to read my handwriting. The template i made is found here. After that I dressed my A4 with the masking-tape and printed.

Then i cut out all the labels with my papertrimmer. If you are careful when you line up two of the edges when you put the masking-tape on it’s really easy to cut. If you don’t you need to eyeball the cuts.

Then I cut my labels in two ways. The labels I wanted for the spines of the book I left in full size. The ones I wanted inside the books I cut down to just fit the name. I did this way because I wanted the spines on the books to look consistent but on the inside i wanted to save space.

Then I just needed to peel of the printer-paper. If you have nails or a tweezers it’s really simple, but tedious if you have lots of them…

On the labels on the inside I named the dies in two ways. I some books I have all Spellbinders and then it says so on the spine. If that is the case I just put the name of the die on the inside. If it’s a book with various dies (like my alphabets) I put both the manufacture and the name on the label. So here comes a shot of one of the insides also.

So that was all for this time and next time I hope I’ll made a card…