Attack the Stack

Stash Busting your Favourite Collections

Hey all! Remember back at the end of February, when we were all young, full of energy and waiting for spring? 😉

I know it’s hard to make light of the strange times we’re in, but I saw none of this coming when I decided at the end of February to give myself a specific scrapbook challenge for March. I was ambitious, optimistic, positive even … Oh, how the mighty have fallen! (Not really. Indulge my dramatic side, will you?)

I’m a tad neurotic, I mean organized, so I like to sort my paper by manufacturer and then collection. While putting away a sizeable haul (things I bought to jumpstart my creativity), I realized two things: I have a lot (like, a lot) of Cocoa Vanilla Studio paper I’ve been hoarding; and I needed a challenge to force me to fit small bits of scrappy time into my week.

I decided to use only Cocoa Vanilla for the entire month of March. I hoped this would get me back to creating regularly, remind me that no paper is too pretty to use, and, on a practical note, alleviate some of the guilt about putting away new paper on top of stacks of perfectly good “old” paper. Guilt has no place in my scrapbook room!

I filmed a quick video, more to hold myself accountable than anything, told Shar, Brande & Rosa my plan, and wouldn’t you know it, I ended up making more pages in March than I had in the three, maybe even four months prior! (To be fair, being off for spring break helped, as did social distancing and more time at home. But I did make three layouts before the craziness that is Corona took centre stage in my brain. I’m still calling that a win.)

Let’s look at some numbers:

March 1
Papers: 78 (yes, I know, but I told you I had a lot!)
Die cut/ephemera packs: 4
Sticker sheets: 7

March 31
Layouts completed: 5 (four single, one double)
Papers: 57 (I used some or all of 21 papers)
Die cut/ephemera packs: 4 (at least there are less pieces now)
Sticker sheets: 7 (but they all have stickers missing)

Other than the obvious layouts, and a smaller stash, this little experiment reminded me that I do, in fact, remember how to scrapbook, and that no one cries when you cut into pretty paper. (Maybe a designer somewhere does a happy dance, who knows?)

I’ll leave you with some more rambling thoughts on why I did this, and a less than polished process video.