This is probably one of the most important posts I am going to create as a Card maker. We are surrounded on all sides by creative inspiration, but as many of us know there are two hobbies cardmaking and collecting crafting goodies, this addresses the second one.
Why you need to shop your Stash
Last week I finally got my hands on the Tim Holtz Stamping Platform and of course I needed some stamps to play with. I couldn’t resist ordering some new Tonic Stamps to go with my Stamping Platform, however, I really needed to take stock and learn to Shop my Stash and I am sure you would benefit if you Shopped your Stash. Any crafter (unless they are on a really strict budget) is going to tell you that they can’t resist getting the latest shiny new thing when it is released but how often do we actually look at our back catalogue of goodies.
Amassing quite a collection
I have subscribed to Cardmaking & Papercraft, Quick Cards Made Easy, Papercraft Inspirations, Simply Cards and Papercrafts, Papercraft Essentials and Creative Stamping for quite a few years. These are just the standard magazines I get I have not started on the specialist ones like the Hunkydory Magazine. As you can see, I’m sure, my collection has mounted up and with all these magazines comes a free gift. It is these gifts that I purchase the paper copies for in the main as the majority of the titles are available on Readly which I have talked about before.
Readly to take your Inspiration with you
I absolutely love Readly as it allows you to subscribe to hundreds of digital magazines for the price of less than two printed copies a month. If you love lifestyle magazines that do not come with extra free gifts and you have access to an Ipad/tablet what are you waiting for? You can have all your magazines (complete with large collections of back issues at your fingertips. No more piles of magazines kicking around that you have not quite finished with. You simply have to choose which magazine you want to read and it remembers where you were up to last – fantastic!
The benefit of the Paper Copies
As previously mentioned though I like to still get my paper copies even though I can access them digitally purely for the free gifts. However, this is where the problem arises… I unpack these lovely sets of stamps, dies, embossing folders, stencils and paper packs – you get the idea – think how lovely they are and then put them in a draw, or more accurately one of about seven draws and forget I have them.
Then, you’ve guessed it, not know what I have in my Stash, think of a design I would like, and need to go out and buy more. Which gets used for that particular project then put away in a draw.
Deja-Vu
Do I have deja-vu? Have I talked about this before? If so please forgive me and blame it on the Fibro Fog. However, if I have not talked about this situation on here I have certainly been “having a word with myself” about it for some time. So I have a Plan!
The Great Stamp Off
As I discovered when I tested the Tim Holtz Stamping Platform, not all stamps are made equally some (but certainly not all of the ones that come as free gifts) are often sub-standard and simply don’t give a good image. So I have a plan. I am going to slowly work my way through all of my stamp sets. I will stamp all the images in each set onto their own piece of paper. Then, if the quality passes the test and I am going to keep them photo each one and add it to my Digital Crafting Inventory with suitable tags for the images included. Then I simply need to give each set a reference code of where I will find it and store them neatly away.
Organising Collections
One of my longest-running quandaries has been how to store collections. I tried splitting items up, like for like, with the stamps altogether and the embossing folders altogether in the early days when I had less Stash (before I subscribed to so many magazines!) but I never knew I had coordinating items so this didn’t work. I then started keeping all the items from a set together, but this is proving to be a nightmare trying to store tidily. So I am going to use my Crafting Inventory (which I mainly have things like ink pads and Nuvo Products recorded in) and create myself one amazing searchable database of all my stamps, embossing folders, dies etc which will enable me to cross-reference which products are part of a set and therefore store all my items like for like in well-labelled storage.
How I can and you would be able to Shop your Stash
Once I have completed this project I will be able to either look through my database to find what I am looking for or browse through my physical collection of stamps or dies then check on Evernote what products I have that work with it. This project is going to take my quite some time but it is, very much my hope, that I will get through it, and when I have finished I will have a fabulous record of all my wonderful crafting resources. Maybe I won’t need to buy as much stash in the future (she said and then laughed and laughed and laughed). Well it might mean that I will be making more organised purchases of what I really do not have in my collection rather than ending up with several nearly identical stamp sets.
Many Years Later
In the years since I first wrote this post a few things have happened. First of all I stopped subscribing to the magazines. Financially the decision pretty much made itself. On top of this I was just so swamped that I got sick of stamping everything. I let about two carrier backs go to a charity shop. For the next few years I kept purchasing crafting goodies from online shops though. Once again I have to face the fact that I have more stamps and dies than I will ever need, so I am again casting a critical eye over all that I have.
The dangers of crafting TV
I used to regularly have different craft TV channels on, either in the background or outright watching them. It should be obvious, but, their job is to sell things to you. As a crafter I saw all the shiny new toys and said yes please, even though my budget is minuscule and I couldn’t afford it. Meanwhile I was spending far more time diamond painting because I had made plenty of cards and was struggling to sell them. Once this really hit home, I stopped watching the sales programs and switched to just watching card makers and adult colourists who were at home, possibly working in a partnership with a brand, but not there just to sell to you. At this point I began to see how easily I could adapt ideas to what I already had.
It is an ongoing journey. I still have a lot to work through but at least I have some creative plans now that are not just based upon card making. I will I’m sure always make cards for family and friends. But after thirty years as a card maker it no longer feels like this is my primary creative outlet.
Are you a crafter who is already, or needs to learn to shop your stash? I’d love to connect on socials.