Art Portfolio’s are how I store my heat transfer vinyl (learn about that HERE). I have 5 of these currently, storing all my colors of heat transfer vinyl and one book storing my glitter patterned Sparkleberry Ink vinyl (I may hoard it because it’s just so pretty to look at).
The Good: They are easy to use, label and store larger sheets of heat transfer vinyl (or any large scale art or vinyl), and easy to keep larger scraps together. Overall they hold up well, IF you get the right one, see my buying tips below.
The Bad: The edges can separate and the paper divider is a little unruly. Yes, you could get around that by taking it out but then you can only put 1 color in per sheet; I would have 10 books and that’s just not happening. A very minor annoyance is the sheets do “wrinkle” some, so after using it often, they aren’t perfectly smooth, for vinyl no biggie, for art that would bug me.
Buying Tips: All of these are not made the same, ugh, right? You want to make sure you are getting at least 12″ wide (most vinyl comes in that size). I like the 14″ x 17″ the best in terms of easy of use. I don’t mind when the vinyl sometimes sneaks out the top. You will want to look at the edge of the page! Some are sealed edges and some are folded edges. GET THE FOLDED! They hold up much better. The sealed edge tends to come apart at the top as you move vinyl in and out.
Design: If I were designing these for Vinyl Storage here is what I would improve: the edges would be reinforced; there would be a tabs to denote what’s in it and a card slot to put information in. The divider page would be sealed into the center binding so it didn’t come out at all. And I would prefer a heavy duty (but light weight) binder so you could add/takeaway pages where you want.
Hopefully this helps you decide if this storage option is right for your project. For vinyl lovers and collectors like me, I hope I made buying one a little easier! Check out my post on how I store all my vinyl here.
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