I fear that I have too many stamps. The problem is that I love almost all of them and have trouble figuring out which ones I could give away. It started innocently enough. I bought a few wood mounted stamps (the first one I bought was a swirly heart). Then I joined Club Scrap, where I received two stamps a month and I bought others as well. After a while, I bought these plastic chest of drawers and filled them up:
Each chest has six drawers and most are filled with a double layer of wood mounted stamps, arranged by subject. That wouldn't be so bad, but my wood mounted stamps won't all fit in there. I've started to create bins arranged by subject, which I store on the top shelf of my clothes closet:
The two small plastic bins on the left have birthday stamps in one and Easter/4 Season sets in the other. The large rectangular orangish box is full of halloween stamps. The larger circular box in the corner is full of "people" stamps. The two plastic bins on the right have "kids/sports" in one and "birds, fish and seashore" in the other. The small wood box has "mail art" stamps, and the rectangular box with the rose print houses my Christmas stamps. The brown leather-like binder and the plastic file have acrylic stamps and cling mounted rubber. Here's what these look like up close:
Because, yes, at some point, I started buying unmounted stamps. These two containers wouldn't be too bad, but I have more:
I have five binders full of unmounted stamps! I store these in a cupboard in my bathroom. And, finally, for good measure, I have some wood mounted sentiment stamps:
I have three decent sized rectangular containers with stamps in a single layer.
So, there you have it. A full confession and accounting of my stamp collection (foam stamps not included; yes, I have those, too. Sigh). I didn't count my stamps, but, if I had to guess, I would think there's about 1500 wood mounted stamps (based on the fact that there's about 40 in each sentiment container and each row in the plastic drawers) and an equal number of unmounteds (based on about 20 stamps per page in a binder, ten pages per binder, five binders; plus the two storage continers in the closet). Am I insane? Is this worse than my paper hoarding, described here? How many stamps do you think you have? And do you remember the very first stamp you purchased? *****************************************************************
Check back tomorrow for a few stamp give-aways!
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24 comments:
Oh goodness, I am not sure what to say ... I won't go so far as insanity! In answer to your question, I have about 10 stamps and two foam alpha sets from my 'play with paint' stage of scrapping ... it was short lived!
I'm shaking my head ....... heheheee!
Wow Rinda.....I am seriously impressed!!! I have one plastic chest of drawers similar to yours full of stamps and one wicker box of christmas stamps....and I thought I had a lot!!!Granted most of mine are acrylic and take up less room than yours!!!I've never actually counted them.....but probably about 100 altogether.
The trouble is....like you....I love my stamps....and I know if I got rid of any...a few weeks later they would be just the ones I needed!!!!
Personally I think paper hoarding is a far more serious offence....you just need some more of those drawers!
Ouch - that's a LOT of stamps! Have you used them all? More than once?
When I was principally a cardmaker I bought quite a few, but bought even more when I found the need for alphabets and journal blocks with scrapping. I've slowed down now but rarely use that many of my original stamps - one of my 2012 goals is to organise them all so that more get used!
Oh My Rinda you do have a serious addiction. and I love the fact that some of them are stored in the Bathroom
That is one serious stamp collection! Wow. I'm like Amy, I only have about 10 stamps and those are ones I got In Studio Calico kits. I don't think I've ever bought a stamp. Maybe that's taking things too far the other way!
Being a newcomer to the whole world of stamping, I can say with all honesty that my entire collection would fit easily in a single one of your drawers! Most are unmounted. And I have no plans to grow my collection significantly! Most of what I have are background textures for mixed media and sentiment stamps for card making.
That's an appetizer when looking t my collection :-)
i think that question should be against the law ... i counted one of my medium filled shelves and have 45 on that shelf ... there are 13 shelves ... some have a LOT more than 45 stamps and and one has a bit less, i'm guessing .. that does NOT include the two PBs of christmas stamps i have (two stamps deep) or the 7 CTMH boxes of UMs .. or the binder with Holtz stamps in them... anyway ... yes.. against the law to count your stamps :)
Mariana in CA
Oh my word! What a collection. This post should have started with the words 'My name's Rinda, and I'm a Stampaholic'! I've never seen so many. I have one small basket!
Gosh! What a lot of stamps! I have one largish plastic container with wooden stamps in and funnily enough I started reorganzing my unmounted stamps on Sunday into binders! I have probably about 100, which is probably about 90 too many as I only ever seem to use about 10 of them! I am hoping that by rearranging them into a folder I will be able to see them more easily, they will be arranged in themes and I will get to use them!
I must admit to quite a collection of stamps, but not as large as yours. I have sold many of mine over the years, primarily the wooden ones, although I still have quite a few I don't often use. The store where I used to sell them has now gone out of business, and I'd have to do a lot more work to sell them online. I have a substantial collection of Papertrey Ink stamps which are stored in CD cases, but have been much more careful about what I order the last few months. My current addiction is dies, and I do use those regularly. Thanks to my gig as a DT member at Scrap-Mart I received many of those as compensation for my projects. I definitely remember my first foray to the stamp store, and although I'm not exactly sure, I would guess it was a stamp by PrintWorks.
Wow that is a lot of stamps - I have some but nothing like your collection!
Oh my gosh, I am still giggling. Now I know who to call when I need a stamp! And I thought my 3 drawers were a lot :). Hugs, Lisa
You certainly have quite a collection (understatement, I know!)...I have one little box!
Alison xx
well they say confession is good for the soul! What an impressive collection, I don't have anywhere near as many but do have quite a few most of which are unused! I need to de-clutter this area of my life too!
Haha - when I saw the first photo I thought, "That's all?" and then I scrolled down and saw the bounty. Holy smokes, Rinda, that's a lot of stamps, girl. You lucky! I'm guessing I have about 200 stamps, which I considered a lot until I read about yours. It's an awesome collection though! Thanks for letting us see it. :o)
I'm sure we all have more stamps than what we really need. Your post made me curious as to how many are in my collection. I counted 112 wood mounted stamps and about 80 rubber/sponge stamps.
i, too, cannot resist stamps! i wish we lived close by and could start our own "stamp library" so we could feed our addiction without taking up more room. :-)
My first stamp was of an M&M and I still have it. Purchased it at a Harvest Festival way back when and I still have that adorable stamp. After the big purge last fall my collection has dwindled down to just a handful of stamps . . . going digital was the best thing for me and I haven't regretted it one bit.
What a grand collection, and I'm very impressed about the arrangement by subject! I can well understand your "addiction", they are very addictive. I only have a few, and try to resist buying too many, but it's hard :)
Oh wow! That is a lot of stamps. I only have about 20 stamps, but I have a ton of fat quarters still from when I was quilting 10 years ago. Bins & boxes & drawers just stuffed with quarter yards of different fabrics
Can I come and live in your stamp room? Wow! most of my stamps were free on the cover of magazines. I have a few I saved for (the equivalent of the little black dress)
and am slowly collecting Tim Holtz cling stamps... papers? now that's a different story...
Ooh, you do have one or two stamps, don't you? I have a bit of a collection, though the majority of mine are the clear, unmounted stamps. Still, I have managed to fill 2 drawers of those Ikea wooden boxes-with-drawers, one with wooden stamps (2 layers) and one with packs of clear stamps. Then I also have the "seasonal" stamps - a couple of Easter ones, plus a good stock of Christmas stamps, which are stored in two "Christmas" boxes, along with papers, stickers and all other Christmas-themed stash.
I would say I have about three hundred stamps, if you count each clear stamp as one...
But 1500 - well, you are in a different league!
Still, in your defence, Rinda, I have seen so many examples of your crafting and artwork, where you have used stamps - multiple stamps in most cases. It's not as if you never use them - and they will keep for ever, if you want them to.
I even have some examples of your stamping work - you sent me a card and some great tags for my craft room (thank you again!).
As for paper... well, I could probably beat almost everyone for that. Besides a good-sized stash of scrapbook papers, I also have an ever-expanding pile of large sheets for book-binding. It is getting a bit insane - I definitely collect paper much faster than I can possibly use it (it may be time to stop buying - for a while anyway!).
Have a great weekend (I'm writing this on Friday)! x
Wow! That is a very impressive collection Rinda. I thought I had a lot of stamps, until I saw yours! I have absolutely no idea how many I own. Not sure I dare to count them!
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