I spent part of yesterday re-organizing my Thinlits & Framelits. I've collected quite a few sets over the past year and keeping them sorted was becoming tedious. They come in a lovely sturdy plastic envelope, but I needed a better way to keep track of them. The sticky tape / cardboard that they are attached to initially just doesn't work in the long term. My upline Cindy showed me a roll of magnetic canvas that she had bought to keep hers, and I thought it was an idea with great promise. Here's what I came up with:
I found a roll of 12" x 24" magnetic canvas at my local craft store. I cut it into 6" x 4 1/2" pieces using a ruler, craft knife and my self-healing mat. I was able to get 10 pieces with about a 1" x 12" strip leftover that I cut into 2 - 1" x 6" pieces. This magnet has a self-adhesive backing which I peeled off and then mounted each magnet to a piece of heavyweight cardstock cut to the same size. The two 1" x 6" pieces I mounted next to each other on the same piece of cardstock to use for some smaller dies.
The magnets are strong, yet it cuts easily with a craft knife. The cardstock that I attached them to was actually more difficult to cut than the magnets!
The magnet sheets slide easily into the original envelopes. I labeled each envelope with the number of dies in the set so I can see at a glance how many should be there and I placed the dies face-up in the envelopes so I can count them without taking them out.
The insert that comes with the dies tells how many pieces are in the set - but they make you hunt for it.
The last thing I did was to make a label with the name of the set and the number of pieces. This one I attached to the back of the magnet sheet. In hindsight, I think I could have attached it directly to the magnet itself so it could be read without flipping it over.
This system is working very well for me so far. When I'm deep into the designing process, I tend to not put things away as I use them. This habit can be disastrous when you have tiny thinlits, some about the size of your thumbnail! With the magnet sheets, as long as I get the dies on the magnets, they stick! No more dies lost under piles of scraps!
Now I can get back to creating. I'll have some more cards to show later this week!
Thanks for stopping by,
Pat
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