Sunday, August 4, 2019

How to Organize and Store your Stickers

Welcome to How To Organize your Stickers in part 3 of How To Organize Your Craft Supplies.


Stickers are so loved by a lot of crafters, children, and a lot of teachers.  They are an easy way to decorate by or add just a touch of a little something to just about anything.  My own love of stickers began back in elementary school were getting a label from the taught on work well done was a badge of honour and mostly bragging rights!  In those days stickers were expensive and hard to come by in our little town, so receiving any was a treasured gift!

Fast forward to today, and we can find and purchase stickers inexpensively at just about every department, discount, and dollar stores (Dollar Tree ).  Plus they are available in just nearly every theme one can imagine.  As an adult and avid crafter, I collect more stickers than I need or can possibly use up in my life probably.  I just keep coming up with great excuses to keep receiving them. Craft stickers are useful to decorate a letter, package, or card and make it go from looking humble to spectacular.  The infatuation with collecting all of these self-adhering small paper images also means that I need to have a place and a method to store them. So I will use them.


Early on, I began storing my precious in bins, plastic envelopes, anything that would contain them.  As the collection grew, so did my need to develop a system.  It began as a series of plastic page protectors and some binders and evolved into what I currently use.



Years ago, when scrapbooking was the "in" craft, manufacturers made and sold tools to store our beautiful stickers, which is where I invested in specialty sticker storage binders with plastic pages with multiple pockets.  Initially, I only needed one binder but as you can see in the pictures below and in the video linked here, that obviously changed.  Each storage binder was purchased as my budget allowed.

The storage binders I use, unfortunately, do not seem to be sold anymore. However, I did some research and found the Big Fat Flippin’ Storage Binder.  Gotta love the name!  Another fun system I came across is theAdvantus Cropper Hopper Projections Expandable Sticker Stadium, 13.375 by 11.25-Inch, Expands to 8-Inch which is more of a desktop type of storage.
The method I have found to work best for me is to use a series of binders and a variety of plastic pages with and without pockets.  I have repurposed some 12 x 12-inch scrapbook albums some old student binders, and of course the storage you see in the picture.


What I learned from using the commercially sold system is that the binders are so easy to stack or lay on a shelf and also they ate very portable.  Ther are a variety of plastic page protectors still available in the market, and not all are sold with the intention of sticker storage.  One simply needs to look at what current;y exists for other uses and adapt them to be used for craft supply and individually: stickers!  One thing I do is modify plastic page protectors to suit my storage needs and binders.  In the post about Stamp organization, I talk about how I created pages with pockets for the stamps. 
I use the same method for stickers. (link video)


Another thing that is successful in my studio is the fact that I tend to maximize the use of the allocated space I have and whatever is overflow is stored off-site.   See more about "M.I.S" in the video. I like to organize my stickers similarly as the stamps, with several categories.

 The categories I use are:

Animals, Birds, Insects, Wildlife, Fishing

Bubbles, Borders, Chalkboard, Leatherette, Decorative, Food, Family

Fall:  Back To School, Thanksgiving, Halloween, Football, Basketball, Cheerleading, Bowling

Spring / Summer:  Easter, Cinco DeMayo, Gardening, Victoria, Mothers, and Fathers Day,  Canada Day, July 4th, Labour Day, Golf, Soccer, Volleyball, Tennis, Travel, Home Renovation

Winter: Christmas, New Years, Hockey,  Skating

Children, Babies, Boys, Cartoons, Characters, Circus, Birthdays, Celebrations

Love, Valentines, Weddings

Words, Sentiments, Sayings


All the Letter and Number Stickers are stored in a large portable former scrapbook storage bin in individual files separated by colour families.  Note not shown
in the video.




Currently available in the market today:

 

My intention is to inspire you to look at your own collection and see if an organization and storage system like this one or something completely different would be of benefit to you.  I look forward to reading your comments, feedback and your ideas.  Thanks so much for stopping by.

Stay crafty!