One Thing Leads To Another - A Contest And An Offer

It was just over a month ago that I realized I had not filed my scrapbook layouts into my Library of Memories albums in quite awhile. By "quite awhile" I actually mean over a year and a half. Give or take. In that time, I had participated in a few fantastic online classes that resulted in layouts, as well as a few LOAD challenges. So the pile looked like this:

That stack is 4.5" tall.  Broken down,  it is 1" of digital layouts,10 sleeves of Project Life page protectors, and 3" of paper layouts and an office file folder layout (the one with the bow - several pages inside).  So how many pages do you think are there?  Leave your guess in the comments to be entered into my blog contest. The person who comes the closest will win a special prize from me - I can't say what yet as it will be something chosen specifically for the winner!

Here are a few more angles to help you out:

Remember - leave your guess in the comments!

Anyway, having determined that the time had finally come to unite those loose layouts with the albums in which they belonged, I set aside a few hours one day and went to work. That day was over a month ago. I got started only to discover that some of the albums in which those layouts belonged were already full to capacity.

My existing Library of Memories albums

In fact, the "All About Us" albums were truly ready to be broken out into individual albums. Things was full. People was full. There was no room at the inn for those layouts!  So I got online, tracked down the best deal I could find for the albums I wanted and placed an order.

Order of new albums and page protectors

The wait was blessedly short - the albums arrived in just three days - thank you Staples!

So I sat down and started filing away layouts.  At which point I discovered that I had layouts that really didn't fit my category albums. I really needed an album just for "My Art" - those layouts created just for me, either as creative team assignments or art journaling or whatever - layouts in which my family would have zero interest.  And I needed a specific 8.5x11 album as well.  Back to the Internet I went.  This time I found a better deal on Jo-Ann Fabrics site. And another order was placed.  I had to wait a little longer this time, but the albums did eventually arrive about a week later and the last of my layouts were finally filed away.

"Before" photo

But that lead to a new problem. I had literally just doubled the number of albums I was using for Library of Memories and would need more shelf space to store them. Which meant I needed to rearrange the shelves in my craft area to accommodate the new albums. And the only way that was going to happen was to purge my stash of stuff.  I didn't want to simply add more storage for a couple of reasons. The primary reason is there is no room in my craft/scrapbooking/sewing studio for more storage units of any variety. Secondarily, I really want to limit my stash to what fits in this space.  It is a big space and anything more would just be excess that I don't need.

This is what my Library of Memories storage looked like before adding albums. The smaller albums on the top shelf are photo albums. The cream album is my "Seasons and Celebrations" album. And the second shelf contains the bulk of my Library of Memories albums as they existed.

So now I am in the process of purging stash and rearranging storage.

"After"

The Library of Memories albums now take up most of three shelves. Because the third shelf down is "fixed" (not movable), I can't store the albums on three consectutive shelves.  The photo albums got moved to the center shelving unit.





















A couple of close-ups of the Library of Memories albums:

As you can see, I divided up my three "US" albums into six. There is now one for each family member and one catch-all for family as a whole that showcases relationship type layouts. "Things We Do" and "People We Love" were each divided into two volumes - volume one being full and volume two having room to grow. And "Places We Go" was divided into Near (around the house, around town, pretty much anything within about an hour) and Far (which includes travel and places we don't visit regularly).

And I finally got all of the albums out of the plastic covers, added the tags, and added labels in the spine pockets and added title pages. My girls will now know which album to pull off the shelf if they want to see what I have scrapbooked specifically about them!

The 8.5x11 album I needed was for "Things We Love" which is the album I am dedicating to all of my "Precious" layouts (thanks to Sian) which I will continue adding to over time. I love the beautiful coral "My Art" album!  Finally, the Seasons & Celebrations album - has things like Spring, Winter, Easter, Christmas, Birthdays, Weddings, etc.

As for the rest of the shelves, and all the stuff now sitting on the floor... this is not likely to be a quick process. The time I have to devote to it is limited. But as I go through and identify stash that no longer serves me, I'll be offering it up here in hopes that it will find a home where it DOES serve someone else's needs. I have to let go of enough stuff so that what is left fits in the existing storage spaces!

The first bit of stash I have to offer up is Project Life related.  I have genuine Becky Higgins Project Life page protectors - 28 Style A and 16 Style D.  And an approximately 85% full Project Life Core Kit "Olive Edition" in all the original packaging.  I also have 14 assorted sheets of pocket pages (variety of size and styles) from WeR Memory Keepers.  Having determined through trial and error that Project Life is just not my thing, I'd love to offer up these supplies to one or more of you who will put them to good use.  I only ask that you pay the shipping costs. If you are interested in these supplies, please drop me an email!

Don't forget to leave your guess on my # of layouts in the comments. And check back regularly for more stash-purging offers!