Saturday, February 10, 2018

100 Paper challenge!!

This is a post I intended to do the first of the year, but as often is the case even the best laid plans will get way laid at times when life gets in the way!! Such was the case here!  I had planned to do a monthly update and start the challenge on January 1st but here I am just now posting about my fun challenge!  But better late then never!  I originally learned about this challenge 2 years ago from my crafty friend Lori but while I did take part in this challenge in 2016 I didn't do a very good job of keeping track of my papers so I am not exactly sure how many papers I ended up using (my last count was 39 but I know I did use more then that) but nonetheless this challenge was really an epic fail between me not keeping track and not being intentional about using my papers!  This year I am kicking it up a notch and starting the challenge anew!!!  One thing I realized was I didn't have the right tools or organizational structure to really track my progress or keep my papers at my fingertips!  The other issue was I got tired of the same 100 papers (lol) and since I am for the most part a seasonal scrapper (I scrap Summer pages in Summer and Christmas layouts at Christmas time) I decided to allow myself to change up my papers as the seasons change.  Hey, it's my challenge so I can make up the rules I want!!!  So with all this said here is what I have come up with:  I have purchased a Totally Tiffany cart to hold my 100 papers for this challenge:
I have picked the following collections to start my challenge with: Simple Stories Winter Wonderland. American Crafts Sweater Weather, Echo Park Winter Park, Echo Park Wintertime, Fancy Pants Frosted, Simple Stories Love & Adore, Echo Park Head Over Heels, Lawn Fawn Hello Sunshine, Jillibean Soup Healthy Hello, Carta Bella It's a Celebration, Simple Stories Happy Days, CTMH Whimsy, CTMH Fundamentals Basics, & Crate Paper Wedding Line (not sure of name).  This is a grand total of 138 papers!!  As you can see many of these are Winter or Love themed for January and February, starting in March I will revamp my paper choices and remove those Winter/Love lines I didn't use and add some Spring papers to take their place.  Almost all of the papers I added are more then 3 years old, but some are more current and ones I want to use up due to storage issues (not enough room in that manufacturers Iris container any more lol!).   I have started a Carpe Diem planner this year and I have made this insert to keep track of the papers as I use them:
 My goal is to use 100 papers in ONE YEAR, so that is about 8-9 papers a month!  Of course some months I will use more then others so the plan is it evens out!  
Now for embellishments- I have a lot of older embellishments to use up as well (don't we all?) and I have organized them in the bins/drawers on the opposite side of my cart:

Here is the close up of the cart bin I am using for my Winter/Love season:
 I have all the basics like cork hearts and washi tape to fit my themes PLUS I have sorted embellishments that go with the various lines into the bins so I can easily locate them as I work.  I have also selected a few stamp sets I want to use either more or for the first time and that fit my themes/paper lines.  I hope to "bash" 15 items out of this bin each month!  Here is my insert for my planner to help me track this goal:
So far I was able to use up about 5 papers in January which was not a very good start! I did end up bashing 10 items from my cart in January which was a better start but still I didn't hit my goal!  So it's a new month and I am hopeful to come closer to my goal each month!!  You can see my original post about starting this challenge in 2016 HERE!  Now all goals are easier to achieve if you allow yourself a reward for working hard to achieve that goal! So each month I will be posting about my progress and picking a reward for meeting mini goals along the way to help me be successful in achieving my MAIN OVERALL GOAL: To use up 100 patterned papers!!!!  So I will start now February 10th and do my first update on February 28th then starting with an update on the last day of each month to track my progress for the month.  My goal for this month is to use 8 papers and 11 embellishments in my bin!!!! Which is an increase from January.  My reward for this month will be: A Simple Stories traveler's notebook cover from their new releases. You can see the new releases HERE...now to just decide which one I want, they are all so cute!  So who is going to join me in this fun challenge?  Comment below if you would like to join me and we can keep each accountable and motivate each other! Happy crafting!

2 comments:

  1. I love your cart with your papers and embellishments in it! I was thinking the other day that I need to make myself a bashket of embellishments again. I've found I do so much better using up papers if I can change a few out once in a while. Then I don't get bored with them all. I do need to get back to tracking my progress on my blog...

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    1. Lori, I am really making a huge effort to use up those papers this year!! And I just love my cart, it makes things more organized for sure!

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