"Stamp and Swatch Book" Project

I have collected so many stamps it is getting difficult to keep track of what I have.  I had wanted to do a color chart for my Spectrum Noir markers and decided to catalog my stamps also.

When I design I usually do not do to much planning.  I do not work off of sketches or designs and instead plan in my head and then see where it goes from there.

For some of the card competitions that do have sketches, my goal is to be more organized - by cataloging my stamps I can see both what I have and can be more specific when planning projects.

I used a notebook from Ciaffi - she designs fabulous spiral notebooks and some of the covers, like the one I own, are from recycled materials.  The pages are unlined so it is perfect for this project!

I titled the cover with vinyl stamps.  They seem to have adhered pretty well so I do not plan at this time to coat, but if I notice that the letters start peeling, I will give a quick coat or two of Mod Podge.

For the color cataloging, I separated the markers by color and color group and then labeled by the identifier.  This will make coloring much more productive with less goofs.  I can see easily which ones I do not own yet. (The "Brights" and "Darks" collection kits are on my wish list!  I own all the others).  My handwriting is admittedly atrocious but I can read it and that is all that matters :)
 
On to stamping...When stamping the images,  I used a less expensive ink pad that was beginning to dry out. The goal was not to have crystal clear, perfect images but instead to have an overall inventory of what I have in my collection.

I finally figured out that since I did not require the images to be perfect, for sheets of Acrylic Stamps, instead of stamping one by one, it was easier to ink the entire sheet, carefully place on the paper and apply pressure with a large acrylic block or brayer.   There were some smudges here and there and he images were a little blurrier than I would want when doing an actually stamping project, but it was fine for this purpose - plus a total time saver!!!  Another plus is I was able to organize my stamps and clean all  of them.

I am almost through with my acrylic stamps and then I have quite a few unmounted stamps to catalog.  I am so glad I spent the time doing this and look forward to using in my design work.