Stamping Cowgirl Creations: Die Storage Ideas

I have been putting my craft room back together after the move and knew that I wanted a better way to store my various dies. This past month I have seen several good ideas on blogs and you-tube but have to admit I was looking for something simple and relatively cheap that could grow with me as I expand my collection. I also wanted something that didn't take up a lot of room but that I could easily look through to see the dies and possibly label the holders as well.

Today I found my solution. After a trip through Hobby Lobby I was heading to my car when I noticed Staples office supply next door.....one of the ideas I read about was using binders that hold CD's, so I thought I would check them out. After wandering around and looking at several ideas I ended up over by the CD/DVD storage area. One great idea was hanging file folders with holders - but after looking carefully I realized the lower storage area was smaller and would over lap. Then I noticed these small file boxes by Memorex with flip top lids...they contained 40 hanging file holders - or storage for 80 CD's because you can use both sides. The cost for this box was $16.99.

It seemed like the best solution for me, so I bought it! Once home I took some old heavy glossy cover sheets I had laying around and cut them into 4.5 inches by 4.25 pieces....I had already purchased some craft magnets strips at Hobby Lobby for $1.47 (6 Strips in a package) and put a magnetic strip on a piece of the cut CS to hold my dies in place. What is really neat is that some of my Cheery Lynne dies have matching 'wing' dies and because these holders are two sided I placed the wings in the pouch on the back side of the matching die. Then I took my handy dandy label maker and made labels for each one. The box fits very nicely into storage cubes I have. There are 34 dies in there at present (four that have dies on each side) so I have room to grow.

They will be organized so that squares, ovals, circles, labels, etc. are in groups - this is really awesome. This is holding my Nesties, Cheery Lynne and Die-namics.....just had to share in case your looking for a really neat way to store your dies. I need another solution for the few grand dies and a few others that are large, but I don't think that will be a problem and may just use the binder method for those mounted on clear poly in pocket sheets.

Did I mention this box is only 6 1/4 inches tall, by 6 1/4 inches wide and 7 inches deep. It takes up so little room and holds so many dies!!!

October 16, 2011 - Ribbon Storage

After I got my dies organized it was time to work on ribbon storage. For several weeks I had been researching on line for ideas....there are a lot of great ideas out there! The one that I felt I could do and would work the best involves using wall storage for a pantry that is meant to hold cans. I found what I was looking for at Target for a very reasonable price. Because there is some rather tall molding around the floor space of my closet I was not able to put the full length of wall holder up, which worked out fine as there were only eight actual baskets to use for ribbon (one needs to place clear plastic or some card stock in the bottom of the baskets so smaller spools don't slide through). There were a few bars included that they suggested you placed above the baskets (I assume to hold tall cans) and I put those in their own spot to hang ribbon from. I am very pleased with how this has worked out - I suspect I will outgrow this and need more space, but there is always the back of the door to use!!