I’ve been a member of crafting groups on Facebook now for about 6 years. Lots and lots of different groups (my newsfeed is full of them.) In that time, I’ve made crafty friends and watched as new crafters have transformed from cautious beginners to experienced advice-givers. I came to the conclusion that crafters fall broadly into three groups.
The Consistent Crafter.
This crafter starts slowly with one type of craft, usually for a specific reason like a wedding or a charity fundraiser. Very sensibly, they only order equipment and craft materials a bit at a time, recycling and reusing as they go. They search for answers on Pinterest and find blogs and videos that teach them how to create a specific product. Slowly, over time, they develop their skills (and their stash), always using what they buy, to design their own intricate creations. They begin to share their work more widely, starting to post wonderful images and/or videos for others to see.
The Speedy Multi-Crafter.
This crafter can turn their hand to anything. They master their craft quickly, combining their research, with inspiration sparking from them like electricity. They complete projects in such a short time frame, their hours may be elastic. It isn’t long before they see a new craft to develop into and within days of buying the necessary equipment, their amazing creations are being shared. Such stunning inspiration, as they move from papercraft, to mixed media, to sewing.
The Pro-Craft-Inator.
This crafter is the overthinker. They have huge stashes of materials and machines all ready at their fingertips. They watch demonstration after demonstration and see Facebook page posts, buy the equipment needed with the best of intentions, and when it arrives, put them to one side with the promise of tomorrow/next week. Two months later, they can’t remember what they were planning on crating with it and can’t decide how to use it. It all feels far too overwhelming so they put it to one side for ‘someday.’
Erm… (puts hand up) I’m Michelle and I am a fully, self-diagnosed, pro-craft-inator. In fact, I’m triply overwhelmed right now as in the last few months I’ve had to rearrange my TARDIS (craft cabin) so that Maia can work in there; had loads of unused stash already; and on top of all of that, I now have access to Cricut and Silhouette machines as well as upgrading my CM300 (which I only used for papercraft) to the SDX220D!
Now, believe me, I know more than anyone that these are Princess problems. If this is what is on my mind I have very little to complain about… but… my TARDIS is my haven, my place to relax and not think about any other worries (the real kind). So, what am I going to do about it?
- I’m going to start by not putting pressure on myself because that only leads to a loss of crafty mojo.
- I’m going to concentrate on doing just one thing at a time. So this week, I’m going to use my new ScanNCut sdx to draw something. That’s it. Some sentiments maybe? A quote? And yes, I will be using my 3D FunPrintz holders, of course.
- I’m going to carve out some crafty time just for me, to use the stash that I have, but in a limited way. I’m going to play, not to have a finished product with a related deadline – just play.
Anyone else with me?