Spellbinders die organization

Hi everyone!  I spent the greater part of yesterday cleaning out and organizing my craft area.  Whew, it was quite a job.  Since I often get asked how I store my Spellbinder dies and my craft area was relatively clean, I thought today would be a good day to do this post.

Being on the Spellbinders team for 2 years (and having a slight addiction before hand) I have a crazy amount of dies and have to be creative on how I store them.  I have many systems as I have too many dies for any one way to store them.  

First, I keep my basic "go-to" shapes and favorite "labels" shapes in CD cases in my stamp area at my fingertips.  Because I use these the most, I give them prime real estate.  I used my new Brother P-Touch label maker to do the labels for my CDs (now they are all nice and pretty).  I keep the CDs with my copic markers and overflow ink pads.

The majority of my dies are kept in 11x6" baskets I got at the Dollar Tree.  These are to my immediate left and I keep the dies organized by category.  Basic Shapes are the sets that coordinate with squares, circles, etc like Splendid Circles.  I also separate out my Flower and Butterfly sets, Banner and Tags, Accent and Motifs, Multiple Image sets (these would be sets like French Frills and Home Sweet Home), A2 sets and Favorites which would be Bitty Blossoms, Rose Creations, Lacey Pennants and others.  These baskets are kind of a hodge podge of stuff and things are rotating in and out all the time, so they are not pretty!

If I have the original packing, I try to keep my dies with it.  Here I have added adhesive backed magnet business cards right over the sticky tape the dies came on.  I fold over the cover and adhere it closed to make it nice and sturdy.

 I don't always have the packaging with my sets, so I came up with this system.  I take cardboard, trim it to the size of the Spellbinders packaging.  I glue white cardstock over one side and add the business card magnets across it.  Most of the time I can fit 2 die sets on it. 

Tip: stick the die to the magnet with a small piece hanging over, that way it's easy to lift off.

 

On the back I keep a little baggie with the shapes cut out.  I like this because it's helpful to take the shapes and play around with them on your project.

Here is a birds eye view of the baskets (yes, that's washi tape spools on the left)

 Here is how I store my Edgeabilities dies.  You can get these basic trays 9.5 x 3" in any office supplies store.  I keep the dies with the coordinating Want2Scrap Say it with Bling rhinestone borders.

 

Storing the Grand Nestabilities was a challenge at first, but I saw someone post using the big 10 1/2 x 11 1/2 binders (I buy mine and the plastic inserts from Univenture).  I like these binders because they close completely and things won't fall out.  I also use the same binders in the 8.5 x 5 size to store my Gina K and JustRite stamps.

At first I was using a full 5x8 adhesive backed magnet sheet per set and adhered the packaging to the back of the previous page so everything would be complete.  But I quickly ran low on magnet sheets...

 ...so I took to cutting them in smaller pieces and using them this way.  This also worked better for sets with multiple images...

...then I ran out of those and found some adhesive backed magnet strips at Office Depot and did this.  Then I ran out of the hard plastic inserts, so I started putting the sets into plastic sheets and using a glue dot at the top (shown on the left).  I have to say these binders sure hold a lot of die sets!

So there you have it.  It's not always pretty, but it does the job and keeps me organized.  Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!