This rolling cart (I keep meaning to paint it a prettier color, and even have the spray paint to do it...does that make my project cart an unfinished project of its own?) lives in my scrap room and has become a dumping ground for any and all things unfinished. I mean, seriously, how am I supposed to find anything in there?
The projects range from layouts like this one that only took me another 15 minutes to complete (I have no idea why I let it sit so long)...
...to some more in depth and ongoing items.
I decided that it was time for me to wrangle everything into some sort of order, so on Thanksgiving day I trekked out to our local Michaels store (only a few miles away) and bought a bunch of 12x12 project boxes (gotta love 55% off and another 30% off that with a coupon- these babies were only $2.80 each!). A few days later, I took the time to sort all my projects out, and now my cart looks like this:
Ahhhh, that's sooooo much better!! Want to take a tour of my projects?
First up is my December Daily/Journal Your Christmas. I didn't make an album base this year, but I did throw the papers I'm planning on using into a box along with some embellishments and journaling items to match.
This is a little mini album of my trip to DC in October that I'm slowly (very slowly) working on. I started it as part of an Amy Tan workshop...hopefully I'll actually finish it one day.
This lonely little box holds my Project 12 items. I've not done much with this project so far- I might get around to it when I'm off work for Christmas break.
This box contains unfinished layouts and stacks of photos that have been cropped and printed for certain sketches and scraplifts. I'm so proud of me- I actually finished the page on top recently!
My summer 4x6 mini. I've trimmed some papers and printed all my photos, but that's as far as I've gone with it.
My Week in the Life album. Yes, the one from April.
It's not totally hopeless- the pages are all printed and the photos assembled. I just need to finish journaling and embellish.
My cruise album. I gave the complete rundown on the planning for this album last month. I'm not in any hurry to finish it- having it organized and ready to go is good enough for me right now.
I wanted to do something a bit decorative, too, so I picked up these two adorable metal lunchboxes at Old Navy the day after Thanksgiving while I was out shopping with Beth (my sister in law).
One of them holds all the tools I need to work on a mini album, so theoretically I could just grab it and one of the mini album project boxes and go anywhere to craft. Theoretically.
And this one currently holds my State Fair mini, which is assembled enough now to fit inside it and not need a bigger box. I need to finish journaling and embellishing this one.
And this is Harry (I moved him to the desk under the window to get a better photo). Darren brought these pretty mosses back from a hunting trip- he thought I'd like something green in my scrap room over the winter, and he was absolutely right. :)
I really like Noell's point in her article that starting projects that you have bouncing around in your head (even if you don't finish them right away) frees up creative space for more project ideas. Or maybe I just like that she totally enabled me and my short attention span. :) Either way, it feels really good to have all that organized!