When I decided last April that I was going to finish 28 projects during my 28th year, I didn’t have any one project in mind.  After cleaning out and reorganizing my craft/storage room a handful of times in the past 10 months, a few solid ideas started to form.

One Saturday this past fall, I spent several early morning hours sorting through each and every box, shelf, bag, pile, nook and cranny in the small space.  I made new piles, refilled boxes in a more organized manner, and took the time I felt I needed to prepare for some creativity to flow through my life more freely. [says Hippie Heather.]

In all my sorting and devising, I dedicated two large boxes for projects I declared needing to be finished. In some instances, this meant a scarf I’d started knitting in 2010 or an unfinished wreath I’d once dreamed up.  I deemed these “growing projects,” creative ideas that were born but haven’t reached their full potential.  Other “growing projects”  included a material I once purchased to do something with one way or another, or a stack of photos I’d like to display in some fresh way.

A stack of handmade greeting cards I’d collected over time was one such growing project.  My mother and her best friend, Miss Judi, are hand-stamping, paper-crafting ALL STARS and have sent their beautiful creations to me for every holiday, celebration, and even just-because for years.  In recent years I’ve added cards made by Danielle, Julie, and Laura to my stack.

Of course, part of the reason I keep all these cards around is for the sentimental value.  I’ve left the greeting half of many of the cards, especially the ones with hand-written notes.  But the other reason I was holding on to all these pieces of paper is that I love looking through them for lay-out and technique inspiration as I am designing my own handmade cards.

I was considering making a scrapbook filled with the cards, as a paper crafting reference, but as I added other materials to the boxes of “growing projects” I came across a package of large binding rings.  I simply punched a whole in the corner of each card with a single whole punch, and added them to one ring.  I’m adding a hook to a shelf in my craft space to hang the ring-o-cards for easy access to inspiration when I get my card-making on.