Tips and Tricks Tuesday-Storing Your Stamping Plates on the cheap!

My stamping plate storage, made for about $3

I mentioned in my red lip post that I recently splurged on my some Winstonia stamping plates for myself. I had already gotten a few stamping plates prior,  but it gave me the perfect opportunity to organize my plates and get crafty!

I will freely admit, most of the information I needed for creating my own storage was directly from this tutorial from Kayla Shevonne. So here's a breakdown of my costs:

1. Used photo album from the thrift store $1
2. scotch tape $1 (Dollar Tree)
3. cardboard index cards $1 (Dollar Tree)

I won't count the scissors I used since most of us already have some of those.  I guess some people might have to get those separately, but they are also readily available at stores like Dollar Tree.  Find out why I added the index cards to Kayla's original design, and learn another tip for this easy storage method, after the jump!

Traditional size photo album, back. I'm using my hand to cover some identifying artwork.

I have a couple of recommendations for doing making your own plate storage out of a photo album. First, I would suggest that when you cut the pages in half, you do cut within an1/2" inch of the spine. I've found that on the pages where I stopped the cut farther from the interior, the plastic has torn because the pages don't flip as freely.

Plate storage album after page is cut in half, showing how each page turns separately.

My second suggestion involves the index cards. I added index cards to the album because they help the plates fit more snugly into their page, lessening the chance that they'll fall out if you happen to grab ahold of your album book the wrong way.

I hope that this post might help some fellow nail stampers out there. There are plenty of other options for storing your stamping plates, but I think this is some of the most cost effective plate storage out there!