My Stamp Inventory Notebook

My husband says that I have a problem. Actually, an addiction. He says that I am addicted to Close To My Heart stamps. I beg to differ. It is not an addiction. I don't care if this first step is admittance. It is not an addiction.

I did realize that I had a problem, though, when I couldn't exactly remember every image of every stamp that I own. I think it may be my advancing age. It certainly wouldn't be because I own too many stamps.

Since CTMH's stamps are clear now and require such little space to store, I do not have them all "on display" like I did with my wood-mounted stamps long ago. I am such a visual person, and out of sight is literally out of mind.

I thought and thought and brainstormed and brainstormed on this little problem and decided that I needed a stamp inventory notebook. I have some cheap-o photo albums for a certain supercenter chain near you that is supposed to hold photos. I have painstakingly cut out images of the stamps that I own from my old catalogs. GASP! I know! I cut up a few old catalogs! I do have intact versions of these same old catalogs.

If the image was small enough, I just slipped it into the binder. Some images were larger so I have to cut them into pieces and paste onto a 4x6 piece of old patterned paper in that set's color.

Now what do I mean by that stamp set's color? Each CTMH stamp set has a colored sheet in the front of the plastic envelope that indicates which category that stamp belongs to. I store my stamp sets alphabetically in color groups. Hey, that's what works for me.

Here are the categories:

Alphabet Fonts: Indian Corn Blue

Sentiments: Blush

Frames, Tags and Borders: Lilac Mist

Spring: Buttercup

Summer: Golden Ember

Autumn: Olive

Winter: Desert Sand

Celebration: Amethyst

Everyday Life: Crystal Blue

Animals, Outdoors and Travel: Topiary

Oh, yeah! One more detail: I created the tabs for my binder by cutting out cardstock to fit that I stamped with a file folder stamp and then labeled with the appropriate category.

Do you see the "R" on each of these? Well, these stamps are retired but I still love them.

Let me know if you have any questions!