A New STorage System For My Dies

I was happy with my old system of keeping my dies in a long plastic container with most of my dies where I knew they should be until my system broke down, TOO MANY DIES.  Yes, I actually said that.  BUT I did NOT toss any dies. NO DIES WERE HARMED IN THIS PROCESS.   I JUST changed the way I kept them.

I figured I wanted something about 5 inches by 7 inches because most of the dies came in packages about that size, but not anything too much bigger.  And I found something at one of our local paper stores.  First I found the sleeves which are 8 1/2" tall by 5 1/2" wide.  After looking at several different binders that would accommodate that size sleeve,  I ended up with ten (10) binders in all.

• TIP: Decide what you want in a binder
• Binder Spine - Tab in a sleeve or use a label to tape onto the binder spine  (I went with the Tab in a sleeve)
• Front of Binder - Sleeve with room for paper to identify what is in the binder or not sleeve, but you can tape some paper on top of the binder (I went with the sleeve on the front so I could easily change when I add or remove or change dies to another binder.)

I purchased a binder that was cheaper without a spine tab or sleeve on the front, but realized it wasn't really what I wanted.   I will use the two binders for something else in the future, but went back and picked up 10 binders at about $1.50 more each and found they were also made better and would last longer.  That's just my two cents, as they say.

I don't have my Dies sorted by brand, but by type from Christmas and Holidays to Scenes and Letters & #s.  I have ten (10) binders in all.   If I change a die or dies to another binder, it's easy to change the front cover because I can take it out and put a new typed sheet in the front sleeve.

Here are a couple of my stamp and die combination sets.  I keep the stamps and dies in one sleeve so they are together and easy to find. 

Below iare the new Christmas Mice dies on the back side of the stamp set .  When I stamp and die-cut images, I put them into a small plastic bag that closes which goes into the same sleeve as the stamp and die set.

The new Holiday Greenery Edge Fancy Die has its own place of honor in my Christmas Binder with some die-cuts already to go..

Die Binder Front

I don't have every die listed on the front unless there is room to do so.  I based binder names on the length of the name I could fit on the binder spine when stored and placed so I could see the binder title when stored.  I made a list of all dies in each binder and put those lists in sheet protectors with a metal ring to keep them together.  Anytime I'm not sure of what is in a binder, I pull my lists.  Now that I'm thinking about it, I just may put that list into alphabetical order with the name of the book so I can just look something up alphabetically.  See, there's always another way of doing things.

I don't know if you would like to try something like this or your current system is working for you.  Mine wasn't, so I thought I'd share what I'm using now.  

The card below published November 3rd is the result of using my binders to hold dies and die-cuts.

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Hero Arts Christmas Mice stamps and dies set on A2Z Scrapbooking
Hero Arts  Holiday Greenery Edge Fancy Die
Hero Arts   Coffee Cup Tags Stamp & Cut (discontinued stamps and dies)
Assorted alphabet & Number sets
Binders big enough to use hold 51/2  inch X 81/2 inch sheet proctors
51/2  inch X 81/2 inch sheet proctors
Vagabond die cut machine