happy valentine's day 2023

Lordy, lordy look who hasn't posted for two months! Not sure anyone cares, but if nothing else but to remind myself sometime down the road here's why... I'm not making as many cards lately. I make the occasional one that is necessary (Valentine for example) and otherwise use up ones from my stash. More on that later.

This was the Valentine I made for DD this year. I was inspired by something Heidi Swapp created. Did you see this fun piece in her reel? I love the little interactive window elements. I used another of Heidi's ideas from another piece and included "5 things I love about you." Three in the windows on the front and two on little pull out tags in a pocket inside.

I pulled out all kinds of supplies from my stash - PP to stamp on, stamps, dies, inks, colored pencils, twine. All the things. Loved the process. Hated the clean up :) 

On a side note, something keeping me busy lately is getting my stamps and dies into the Evernote app so that I have an overview of what I actually own. And for a project like this it would have been very helpful to use Evernote to see which Valentine/love/vintage etc stamps I own instead of flipping through everything.  I own a shitload, actually, but alas they're not all in Evernote yet. 

When I have everything inventoried, I aim to destash about a third of my shitload. Just keep watching ;) 

Here are DH and DS versions.

What has actually been taking up my time more recently is a foray into the world of memory planning. An oxymoron if I ever heard one, but I'm learning to live with it ;)

Are you a planner? I am the world's worst planner. Ever. So why would I get into memory planning? My cousin introduced me on to the Heidi Swapp memory planner world and by golly it's a great idea. It's basically scrapbooking daily life in a simple format - photo driven with some journaling to record the memories and some decorating just for fun. Heidi calls the process "Stop the Blur" as in keep track of everday life so when people ask you what you did last Tuesday you can actually answer. You can check out the idea here. 

So before jumping into it (and buying all the things) I decided to give it a try using a notebook from the dollar store and supplies I already have. I print photos at the drug store and pop them into my book often hidden in interactive elements. Here's a peek. 

Full disclosure, I just recently did buy all the things :) I've been enjoying this process this since last fall so I'm gonna make the switch to Heidi Swapp's memory planner format. If you are a memory planner, I'd love to hear any of your tips for a newbie!!!