Scrappin' My Stash Round 2, Week 1 Update

Hello Fellow Scrappers! I'm popping in this morning with an update on my 7-Week Scrap Stash Challenge. This past week has been shipping week for me, which means that most of my time is spent processing and shipping orders, but I did manage to work a couple of 45-minute "stash stints" into my schedule last night. (Okay, yes, they were back-to-back, but the parameters of my challenge did not exclude back-to-back stints, so I watched two episodes of my current TV series on the iPad while I scrapped away. Super-Fun!!) Anyway, I got a 2-page layout completed, journaling and all.

I used photos from 1999, which were easy to locate, as I had previously organized all of my photos from 1999 into photo-sleeve protectors. (I cannot recommend this type of no frills photo storage strongly enough! When printed, file your photos chronologically into photo sleeve protectors and store in a 3-ring album. The photos are easy to store, easy to access, and easy to match to your scrapbooking papers and supplies when you want to do a quick layout.) While the photos I used in my layout were not all taken the same day and are not of the same event, I could see easily find coordinating "play" photos to group together onto a meaningful layout. (By the way, I date the back of each layout with the month and year, and I have found this to be invaluable when working with older photos.)

Deciding on a layout direction was super-fast, as I chose Sketch #6  from my list of approved sketches. (This particular sketch is from Becky Fleck at www.pagemaps.com.) I then just put it altogether. I decided against "exact measurements" and just chose to wing it with placement of papers, etc, and it went together much more quickly than when I work at everything being so precise and according to the sketch. Letting go of that pressure made the whole experience more fun, so I'm going to work on that more with this challenge round.

So, there you have it. Week 1 ends today, and I completed (2) Stash Stints and (2) layouts. I'm planning on one more Stash Stint today, and I'm looking forward to using up the rest of my MME Charm Kit by creating a card or two and then creating one more layout with last month's Jillibean Soup Happy Campers Kit. I hope that you are able to get into your scrapspace this week and use your scrappin' stash to "get more pages done!"

Tammy