Long before I joined Stampin Up, I was an avid scrapbooker. I realize some cardmakers and papercrafters cringe when they hear the word “scrapbooking”. It sounds so intense. You picture piles of supplies and photos everywhere and how can you possibly get it all into a reasonable sized album. Believe me, I get it. I was one of those people surrounded by never ending piles of photos and supplies. This was exactly why I love cardmaking and papercrafting so much. I make a card and it is done. Unlike the scrapbooks, which I could never keep on top of no matter how long I spent working on them. Eventually, scrapbooking started to take a back seat to cardmaking/papercrafting for me. The finished papercrafts gave me far more a sense of accomplishment than the unfinished scrapbooks.
Then several years ago, I discovered Project Life. Whoa! Talk about an eye-opener. Becky Higgins, the creator of the Project Life system, designed a whole new way to scrapbook and it was a revolutionary way of thinking. Her mission was to get people to make quick pages so you can start enjoying your album immediately. You only needed a couple items to scrapbook the Project Life way: an album, pocket sheet protectors, a Project Life card set, and pictures. You don’t even need adhesives or scissors. Or anything else. Say what? I don’t need drawers and drawers of embellishments? What about the stacks and stacks of pretty papers? Nope. None of that is needed. Seriously, I was hooked! It was so much faster to slip the pictures and Project Life cards into the pockets than to agonize over which buttons to use or where to put this strip of paper.
Then two years ago, Stampin Up announced that it was partnering with Becky Higgins and would start releasing exclusive Stampin Up Project Life card sets. YES! The beautiful cards would now be in our exclusive Stampin Up colors. And we were getting coordinating accessory packs to match each of the sets in our colors. It was like Christmas morning and winning the lottery all at the same time! The skies opened and angels sang! Okay, I might be overly dramatic here but it was pretty good. Since I was already scrapbooking the Project Life way, it was an easy transition to make to using the Stampin Up Project Life card kits. If you search the hashtag #PLxSU you’ll see lots of samples made using the Stampin Up Project Life card kits.
Wondering what a finished Project Life page looks like? Here’s one I made a couple months ago.
Here’s another I made this week. Over Memorial Day weekend, my family spent the afternoon at the Queen Mary. Yes, these pictures are from last Saturday. And they are IN an album already! It took me longer to figure out which pictures I wanted to use than it did to make the page.
I did add a few items from the accessory pack just to jazz it up a little. The pocket with the sequins is open at the top. Am I worried about it? Not really. I don’t usually carry my albums upside down so they aren’t likely to fall out. I could sew it shut, but it’s only a couple sequins. If they fall out at some point, am I going to be crushed they are gone? Nope, it’s just sequins. This is stress-free scrapbooking. Seriously.
Really, isn’t the whole reason we scrapbook is to have an album to enjoy? If you have to stress and agonize over your page design or using a certain product, your album will never get done. And done is way better than not done.
Still with me even though you might not scrapbook? These card kits are still a good deal if you’re a cardmaker only. Since Stampin Up doesn’t have a repeats in the cards, you can use them to make all unique cards. Check this out.
The pre-printed panel on the front is one of the cards from the Moments Like These Card Collection. I added the bow clip and ribbon to jazz it up and mounted it onto a card base. So quick and definitely made in less than five minutes!
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