2019 Scrappy Goals

Hello, everyone! Happy New Year's Eve! Do you have any fun plans for tonight? Abby, Shawn, and Ada are coming over for food and games. Hopefully, I will stay up until midnight to see the new year in, but who knows!

Today I thought I would share my scrappy plans and goals for 2019. I didn't do this for 2018 and I missed going back to see what I had accomplished, so here goes.

#1 - Use my stash/spending freeze! If you have followed me for any length of time then you know that this is an ongoing goal for me. Some years I have been more successful at this than others. This year I am going to concentrate a little more on not buying and using what I have. The reason for this - over the last few months we have been doing a little rearranging in our house. Our bedroom has a bonus area in it and for years it has been an overflow space for my scrappy supplies - and a mess to be quite honest! My hubby decided he wanted to make it into his gaming/media room, which was great with me, but it meant I had to find a new place to store my overflow of scrappy supplies. This is when I really realized that I needed to get a handle on what I've got and quit bringing in more goodies until I do. Here is what I am talking about:

I have 4 of these big tubs filled with paper - plus one more that is bigger than these tubs that is still in my closet. This was just paper laying around here and there, stuck in every nook and cranny that I could find. I gathered up all of that paper, sorted it out by color and put it in these tubs. Reds, pinks, and oranges are in one, yellows and greens are in another one, blue is in one (yes I have enough blue paper to fit in one tub all by itself) and neutrals - blacks, whites, browns, and multi colors that didn't really fit anywhere else are in the last one. And all of these are pretty much full already. The blue tub has a little extra room but that's about it.  The good thing about getting this older paper sorted by color is that I have already used more of it in the last couple of months than I have the last year or so just because it is easier to find what I am looking for. 

And then there is my paper rack. I think it has 30 rows so that means 60 spaces that are completely full:

This photo is before we actually got started on rearranging the room. It is now in my closet, filled up with paper once again.

And then there is the paper in my actual scrap room:

I have 3 sets of these "towers" of drawers. There are 12 drawers in each tower, so 36 drawers of my newer papers and collections and the drawers are full, and still more paper stuck around my room. 

And then there are the bulk paper packs that I have picked up at Tuesday Morning and online that are in my scrap room closet:

When I buy bulk packs I only buy basic patterns or solids that I know I will be able to use, but sheesh, I literally have no more room for paper! 

So this is the reason for wanting to use up my stash and go on a spending freeze. I'm not going to say that I am not going to buy any new paper all year. I will continue to receive my Double Shot kit from The Scrap Room each month and I will continue with my Elle's Studio kit and Ali Edwards Kit for my Project Life. But anything more than that will be limited. 

#2 - Get back to my 100 Patterned Paper and Bashket challenge - I neglected these two things in 2018 and I really would like to keep track of what I am using. To mix things up a bit, for my 100 paper challenge I will be making layout kits with these papers. I plan to pull 3 to 4 papers from my stash for each kit and by the time I am through I should have a little more than 30 page kits ready to go. 

I will also get back to my Bashket - a basket of random items that I want to get used up. Right now I have a lot of these little random items on my desk. They will go into my "bashket" bin and I will try my hardest to use on them each time I start a layout. 

When I get these items pulled and ready to go I will make another post to follow my progress.

#3 - Get those (older) photos scrapped! - Doing our rearrange, I discovered I have neglected the older photos of my kids. I have 5 or 6 bins of photos that are in no order whatsoever. Everything before 2012 or 2013 is not organized at all. Since 2013 I have kept my photos in order by month in a photo box, but before that...yeah, not so much. So, each month I am going to try to make at least 1 layout using older photos of my kids.  I would really like to make a layout of each kiddo using older photos each month, but for now, I will say one layout as opposed to 3. 

My plan is to pull the photos I want to scrap each month and maybe pair them up with one of the page kits I make - or if I can get myself really organized, pull the photos then do my paper kits based off of those...we will see which way I go!

#4 - Project Life - I still have not completed a full year of Project Life. I still am keeping good notes and I still have plans to get it done...I just need to make the time for it! I plan on working on my 2019 album as currently as I can, and I will also be working on previous years whenever I can. I love this project and I just need to make the time for it. 

I am hoping having my little cart all set up this year will help me to keep this project going this year. More about my cart and how I am organizing it at a later date:

#5 - Traveler's Notebooks - This year I want to try out using a TN for a few different projects. I really like the size of them and think it will be a fun change-up in my scrapping. A couple of the things I hope to use them for - listing and 52 favorites. 

Paper Issues started 52 Friday Favorites in 2018 and I didn't really play along with it. They are continuing it in 2019 and I will be playing along! The concept is to pick a favorite photo/thing from each week and document it. I think a TN will be perfect for this.

#6 - Online classes - I have a few of Shimelle's classes and Victoria Marie's classes purchased over the last year or two. This year I am going to make an effort to actually work through all of these classes, plus I will be taking Scrapbook & Cards Today's 365 - 2019 Inside the Pocket online class to maybe help me to keep going on my Project Life albums. 

That's it! Those are the things I will be concentrating on this year. I will be going into more detail on a few of these things in the upcoming weeks. 

I hope you all have a wonderful New Year's Eve and I will be back here first thing tomorrow with my first project posts of 2019. I think I will have 4 different projects to share with you, so be sure to come back tomorrow!