Have you ever lost your crafty mojo and, in the same way a magician transforms a handkerchief into a flower, crafting becomes a chore with the click of a finger?
I lost my crafty mojo shortly after writing the first Blog post so I tried to think of things that I could do that didn’t need to be an end product. I decided to investigate the pen types I was accumulating at a rate of knots. I had a play with the ScanNCut and made myself a sheet to refer to that had examples of the pens and what they looked like when you wrote with them.
Feeling accomplished, but with mojo still missing, I repeated the process on the Cricut Maker. I hadn’t used this machine before so starting to get to grips with the differences was interesting.
I managed to link the Silhouette Cameo 4 to the laptop (with the help of our neighbour who also has one) and actually managed to download a file onto the Design Space. Like all of you who already own one, I followed the 3DFunPrintz instructions to insert the penholder and drew the most beautiful image from Michelle Webley, but still my inspiration to actually create had disappeared, along with several odd socks, one of my favourite earrings and my headphones.
I thought maybe putting pressure on myself to use the machines was responsible for my lack of inspiration so for Maia’s birthday cards I stuck to paper pads and toppers.
Next came Father’s Day and faced with the usual 5 cards to be made, as well as a birthday and thank you card, I insisted that Maia had to buy 2 of them, instead of me making them. That was a real turning point and I realised I had to do something.
Following on the heels of Father’s Day comes Roy’s birthday. I was determined to regain some inspiration, so I went on an Inspiration Hunt. I looked at inspiration from a range of sources such as youtube, pinterest and many, many facebook groups. I really did feel like Alice down the rabbit hole at one point, with ideas swirling round and round that I felt positively dizzy. Still I couldn’t seem to grab ahold of any one starting point. I’d watched a really simple tutorial about downloading images from pngwing and liked the idea of not searching through the Tardis.
My cards aren’t really known for being clean and simple but I was drawn to that facebook group time and time again, thinking I could use the same sort of techniques but never actually sitting down and creating. I grabbed a piece of paper and wrote down 2 ideas of relatively simple cards that I could make. I’d always wanted to try to make an eclipse card but hadn’t gotten around to it.
With Roy’s birthday a day away (yes, I really did leave it that late) I printed off a background. An hour later the eclipse card was done! What’s more, I’d used the ScanNCut to cut out all of the lettering. I’d also used a new standard mat which maybe in hindsight wasn’t the best choice for relatively small letters (Oops!). Sitting there paper piecing the letters back in was exactly what I needed. My brain stopped racing at 90 miles per hour and I could actually focus on the project I had in front of me.
The Eclipse card had worked and I felt so much better for it. After some lunch, I looked at the second image I’d printed. This card would be really simple to make but my tired brain wasn’t really upto using lots of different tools. I wondered “If I found this shape…and used this rectangle….and wrote directly onto it…and used the seam allowance button…could I….only make the card using the ScanNCut?”
Challenge accepted!
And the results…
My lessons to take away from today:
- 1.Despite being a classic characteristic of The Procraftinator, birthdays are on the same day every year. So are anniversaries. Leaving it until the day before causes additional stress. (You think I would have learned this by now).
- 2.Searching for inspiration is all well and good but that rabbit hole is so deep it’s never ending and can be overwhelming. A notebook (physical or virtual) with the type of project I really want to make, any relevant links to tutorials and a list of materials, rather than randomly saving pins and posts might rescue my mojo in a more timely manner.
- 3.I always recommend craft to other people for their mental health as it’s a great way to practice mindfulness. Somewhere along the way I’d become so caught up in making things for other people/ for an end result instead of creating for creating’s sake, that I’d forgotten how much it slows down everything else around me, allowing me to think.
Next time:
I want to learn how to cut and apply vinyl. I have the stash, I have the equipment, I think I’ve finally found the inclination. Who’s with me?