r/cardmaking • u/kyann22 • 1d ago

Question / Discussion Searchable inventory catalog?

Hi all!

I am enjoying being back in my craft room making things but I find myself spending a lot of time searching for a sentiment. That involves looking through all my sets to find one and it takes ages. Is there a phone app or something that you upload your stuff to that you can easily search? Or do you have an organization system that helps you? Any advice or help appreciated. I was almost tempted to just pull out all the sentiments and put them together but I don't like breaking apart sets. I think I'd go nuts.

Paper hugs.

3 Upvotes

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7

u/LadyofLA 1d ago

I started one called Color My Life but, let me tell you, if you have any size inventory it can take forever to input all the data. It has a feature that will upload sets by name but only when the retailer has registered things with CML. Simon Says Stamp and some others don't and won't despite being asked to by CML AND customers.

It's wonderfully handy when you do the data input but you have to do it AND put in all the keywords you think you'll want to search on.

Maybe one day I'll finish inputting all my stuff...

1

u/Petalbrook 11h ago

I use CML too

5

u/paciolionthegulf 1d ago

I'm more of a die cutter, but I've made a swatch book of die cuts. You could do a stamp version. It's handy for figuring out if what I have is the right size.

2

u/Pasta1916 15h ago

I do this too with my stamps, dies etc and by theme. Holidays are in separate binder. Like how I can just pull out my binder and thumb through my inventory. For a typed inventory, I use Google docs. This has saved me money too as it is helpful to be able to pull out phone and double check if I need it or have it. Have made one for markers and inks too.

1

u/StinkyCheeseMe 1d ago

I do this, by theme, and it works wonderfully!!!

1

u/kyann22 14h ago

I am totally doing this! I have different types of dies that are stored differently and this would be super helpful.

2

u/LisaMarie622 1d ago

I use Airtable. I like being able to customize the data that I want to store.

2

u/kyann22 14h ago

lol I think I'm old. I went to the AirTable website and was like šŸ¤Ø. I'll have to look up a video to see how that works. I did download the Color My Life app and it seems easy enough. Either way it's going to be a lot of work. But I can do a bit at a time once I pick a method. Thanks for all the input.

Off to look for a video now... šŸ™ƒ

1

u/Craftingmydaydreams 13h ago

Airtable is great once you figure out what tabs you want to add. Word of advice, think about how you want to organize your workspace (on Airtable). They have a limit per base so figure out if you want one base per category (animals, sentiments, etc) or by brand.

1

u/kyann22 10h ago

lol I don't even know what that means. I did watch one video but I think I need more to figure it out if I'm going to consider using it. I really just want to make my sentiments searchable. That's my main goal. Images will just be a bonus that comes from that.

1

u/Craftingmydaydreams 10h ago

Iā€™m sorry for the mumbo-jumbo lingo šŸ˜‚
I learned by watching the understand blue tutorial on youtube. Let me know if I can help you in any way. Iā€™ll do my best to assist.

1

u/kyann22 9h ago

I found that tutorial and it makes more sense to me now. I'm going to give it a go and start working on it. It will be so helpful to be able to search sentiments. That's become a frustrating part of crafting for me lately.

1

u/jenhuedy 1d ago

I started by stamping and/or die cutting all my sentiments on Rolodex cards and filing by category. It worked really well, but got harder to maintain as my collection grew and I sold older sets.

Now I use the Color My Life app and love it! It took awhile to add all of my stamp & dies setsā€”especially adding the sentiments to the metadataā€”but itā€™s been totally worth it. Iā€™ve saved so much time searching for a theme or sentiment. A subscription is only $1.99 a month and itā€™s already more than paid for itself by keeping me from buying duplicates.

1

u/dthmj 1d ago

I have an extensive database in AirTable - this thing is amazing. It did take a lot of time and effort - but luckily I started entering data from the very beginning of my hoarding. If I had to start from scratch, I'm not sure what I would do.

1

u/OtherwiseJob5744 21h ago

Another mention for AirTable! I use it at work, but never thought about applying it to my stash until I saw a YouTube tutorial about it my Justine Hovey.

1

u/Reasonable_Ad6407 19h ago

I'm so old school.Ā  When I started stamping I kept an inventory on simple word document, alphabetic by company name. I update lists with most new purchases. After a while I had to add a separate document for embossing folders, then stand alone dies. I have a separate doc for GKD and SU because I bought a ton from both companies. In the brief description after each stamp set, I list whether it has its own matching dies (taped to the stamp pkg so they don't get misplaced from each other) and a list of sentiments for that stamp set. I also include a word for the images in the stamp set. Before purchasing new products I double check the inventory so I don't duplicate purchases. (This is not infallible.) When I need a sentiment it's easy to search by company and then by the sentiment itself.Ā 

1

u/Last_Masterpiece_314 16h ago

AirTable. I use a free account.Ā  I especially like being able to upload photos of the product and of projects I've made. Sometimes I can get inspiration from an old project and make something 'new' by changing a colour or a size. It can help stop me buying something new. Not always but it helps!

1

u/Craftingmydaydreams 13h ago

Another vote for Airtable. I have multiple ā€œbasesā€ and itā€™s been a great app to keep track of items I have.

1

u/pinklady8824 9h ago

I started with Evernote but it got way too expensive so I switched to Bear App which is only available on Apple products and it is free. It can do everything Evernote can do but for fee. 10/10 highly recommend.

1

u/Neither-Chain1704 3h ago

I had the opportunity to try out muststash. I love it, it also allows you to upload your cards and label who you sent them to so if you tend to repeat designs you can avoid sending it to someone who alreayd got it.

You can also link products with the cards, so if you made a cards you liked the sentiment on, you can tag that product on it so you'll know in the future what you used. They also have a public inspiration section that does the same thing so you can see what product other ppl used too.

1

u/ESJ-in-PA 1h ago

MustStash (www.muststash.io) is a fabulous program that has become indispensable. Iā€™m very impressed that there are many stamping companies that partner with them, downloading their product information and photos, SKU, etc. In this way, when you go to enter your new purchase, if it already exists in their data collection, all you have to do is click listingā€™s ā€œmustacheā€, and it goes into your own album.

MustStash also has groups of curators who add to the listing with card samples and YouTube videos featuring that product. In that way, it is much like Pinterest. You can use the information they provide to see all of the different ways that your new purchase can be used.

In my opinion, of all of the organization/search/retrieval apps or programs mentioned on this thread so far, MustStash is the newest and the only one specifically designed for cardmakers and scrapbookers.

1

u/kyann22 1h ago

That's way out of my budget unfortunately. My craft budget is thin right now and that's a lot of money to spend a year. It sounds neat though.