Use Your Stash to Make 100 Days of Personalized Journal Cards | Natalie Elphinstone

Hands up if you’re a scrap hoarder rather than a kit killer? Do you save up your favorite papers and embellishments to do ‘something special’ with them even though you don’t have anything particular in mind? Yep, that’s me in a nutshell! Enter “The 100 Day Project” lead by @elleluna and @greatdiscontent on Instagram where the idea is to create something every single day for 100 days. I quickly jumped on board stating I’d make a Project Life® card every day (gotta keep it achievable!) and I love how this assignment is making a huge dent in my stash!

The idea of being minimalistic, of having a clean and tidy scrap room, or even just killing a kit is really appealing to me, but it’s just not in my nature. I’ve got past kits packed up in separate crop bags with their names attached that date back to 2010. There are so many treasures in them that I’ve been saving for a ‘special occasion’ that it’s getting out of control. Newsflash! If I haven’t had that special occasion in the last 5 years then it’s never going to happen! When I started making Project Life® cards for my 100 Day Project I knew pretty quickly that I wanted to focus on getting out some of my ‘vintage’ kits and using up all my favorite things. There’s no point in having a bunch of pretty supplies packed up in a box I thought. Time to get them into an album!

Here’s what I do. Every day when the baby has gone down for his morning nap I grab one of my older scrapbook kits and give myself 10 mins to put something together. Having a time limit helps me not procrastinate and look for other supplies, but forces me to use what’s in front of me. And if all I’ve got is the saved favorite embellishments then that’s what I’ll stick down! Prime example, that Dear Lizzy fox from “Summer of ‘69” the August 2012 kit. When I posted this one on Instagram I wasn’t surprised at how many of you said you were saving the same piece too. She’s just too cute!

Or how about the handmade Amy Tan tags from a “Glee Club” Add On back in 2010. I managed to use the matching “He” tag, but the poor “She” one has been long neglected. Now it’s on a PL card that I could very easily slip into my album.

Sometimes I add little titles and leave space for journaling like on this card made from one of my oldest kits “Who’s Who” from January 2010. Doing that should help prompt me to actually use it for something I thought.

Or sometimes it’s just about adding fun embellishments like my favorite butterflies from the 2010 “Napa Valley” kit. I figure these are going to make cute filler cards.

Occasionally when I want a change from using super-old scrapbook kits I turn to my more recent Project Life® cards and find a new way to customize them so they stand out from the crowd. I ran this card from the “Hello Hello” Project Life® kit through my Cuttlebug to emboss a pattern onto it, and then decorated it with a few pieces from the “High Wire” Scrapbook Add on.

I’ve made lots and lots of cards by now - this is only a tiny portion of them. I post them daily on my Instagram account (username: natalieelph) and I haven’t missed a beat yet.

I’ve made quite the dent in my scrapbook stash. But best of all, this is not just a project for craftiness sake; I’ve also put a great deal of them straight into my Project Life® albums.

Here you can see I used one of the cards I shared earlier to help document this spread about the latter half of my pregnancy.

While it might be a little late to jump on board the official 100 Day Project now, it’s never too late to start rethinking some of that saved stash. One of the best things about the Studio Calico kits is that they never look dated. The cards I’ve made with supplies that date as far back as 2010 look just as fresh and are just as usable today as they were then. So how about getting out some old favorites and having a new play with them?

Supplies: Past Scrapbooking and Project Life® Kits (full list below)

• Summer of ’69 Scrapbook Kit
• Glee Club Scrapbook Kit
• Who’s Who Scrapbook Kit
• Napa Valley Scrapbook Kit
• Hello Hello Project Life® Kit
• High Wire Scrapbook Add On Kit