#1 in an occasional series of craft organisation

I have been trying to tidy up my craft space recently so that I can work more effectively. Last year I had installed some expedit units from IKEA (hasn't every crafter!) but I still wasn't happy with the storage space for my stamps. I decided the clear mount stamps had the edge over wood mount so I have spent the last week changing my wood mount stamps to clear mount. These are the clam shell cases I have emptied. I also have a large mountain of wooden blocks.

OK if you are going to do this yourself DO NOT do what I did for the frst few sets. For those ones I peeled the red rubber off of the foam, remounted on new clingmount, cut them out and added the sticker. That took ages and was very messy!

I then realised that you could carefully peel the grey foam off of the block with the red rubber still attached - way easier! To make it even easier still I zapped each set in the microwave for 15 seconds on full power - put a cup of water in there too. I don't know if that's necessary but hey I didn't want to blow up my microwave. Imagine trying to explain that on an insurance claim.

I then quickly ran over the surface of each sticker with my 2-way glue pen and left them out to dry. This makes it easier for the stamp to stick to the clear blocks and also inside the DVD storage case. You can also do this with any of our clear mount stamps if you have trouble with them sticking to the blocks.

Its also very handy for adding our glitter to projects for a wee bit of bling!

I found a template over on Split Coast Stampers to make inserts for the DVD cases so all my sets would match the Clear Mount sets I already own.

So now my stamps all fit in an old DVD storage shelf like this:

I bought some plastikote paint for under £5 from B&M last week so hopefully I will be able to spray paint the DVD unit white to match my expedit units - just need to wait for a dry day so I can work outside and avoid paint fumes in the house.

In other news the schools broke up for summer on Friday (I think we were later than most of the other schools for some reason) so we have been looking for cheap and cheerful ideas to keep us amused.
On Sunday we visited Portencross Castle which has recently been refurbished as there was an art exhibition on. What a great place for an art show.

 Not my photo - I "borrowed" this one from the internet!

As the Art Exhibition was taking place there were no guided tours that day so we will definitely pop back down at some point over the summer to do that.