10 ways to know if you are a craft/mixed media junkie

There are some addictions we just have to acknowledge, and decide whether or not there is a real downside.  Here are some ways to know whether you are addicted to the habit of crafting:

• 1.  You see a bottle or jar someone is getting ready to throw away and your heart beats a little faster.
• 2.  A package comes in the mail; inside is corrugated cardboard or tissue and you grab it to save for someday.
• 3.  You see a new paint additive in the hardware store and you immediately think of ways to use it.
• 4.  The neighbors put something on the lawn for the weekly heavy pick-up and you really want to go examine it before the truck comes.  Sometimes you do, and you bring it inside.
• 5.  You go to Scrapbook.com regularly to see what new products there are this week, even if you don't order anything.  Mostly you realize you already have that.
• 6.  When you go to Amazon just to order something simple, like coffee or a book, you end up clicking on all the recommended items that relate to making stuff.
• 7.  Your craft room is full of things you cannot use in a lifetime.  You obsess over organization.
• 8.  You spend entirely too much time on Pinterest in the DIY sections, and hours on YouTube watching tutorials.
• 9.  You want to order every new die cutting machine that comes on the market.
• 10. You pore over every craft store mailer just in case there's something they have at 40% off this week that you don't have yet.

And there are lots more signs, like when shopping you drift over to the craft supplies area just because.

Well, these things certainly apply to me, and to a few of my acquaintances.  I think that's one of the reasons there are so many exchanges and swaps online for cards and handmade gifts.  And the groups!  There are so many exciting things to learn from other people.

But here is the downside:

There is only so much time in a day, not to mention a lifetime.  In my case, I figure I have maybe a decade left, and assuming I can still create things during the remainder of my years, I still won't be able to use everything I have accumulated in the many ways I can imagine.  I have been working on de-stashing for several years now, yet it seems that each new fascination or project requires maybe one more product... so for that reason, I have lots and lots of supplies, every type of adhesive that exists on the planet (except silicone glue.  What is that anyway?  I keep meaning to do a search on Amazon and get some.) and every type of paper made.  I have even learned to make paper, so I have the screen and supplies for that too.


And painting substrates: I have canvases, cardboard, mat board, board-board, and watercolor paper. I have fabric paint of all types.

Oh, and speaking of fabric, last year I learned to hook rugs, so I have those supplies, and then I saw a video about rag rugs so I am building a frame for that.  I'm done making quilts.

I have supplies for making art journals, scrapbooks, binding machines, brads and I LOVE making little books.  I have clay and clay molds.  I have the oven for that.  I have woodworking supplies and carving knives.  And I'm not even talking yet about the Dremels.

Recently I discovered parchment craft, so I set up an online store for that since I found supplies hard to get in the USA. That's taking time (and another addiction) too.

I have never had much success with Etsy, but I am about to start making little craft packs, and various die cut shapes and putting them up for sale somewhere.  I recently sent a lot of my hand-made greeting cards to a nursing home I know about, so the staff can give residents birthday cards when they need one.  I like that idea.  An acquaintance of mine is doing paper crafting on a volunteer basis in another senior center, so I sent a big pack of "stuff" to her,  I don't mind sharing because my stock of that sort of thing is boundless.  On my "to-do" list this week is to contact local activity directors of nursing homes to see if they could use things like this.

There are so many things I want to make.  Each time I go into the studio I see something I have been planning to do, but since I'm in the middle of whatever I'm doing right now, of course I can't get to it. I have photo albums and scrapbooks of my own that need finishing.  I recently found some sketches I did of my granddaughters when they were babies and I thought saving those all together in one scrapbook would be a great idea.  I went to a used bookstore and found a big hard-back childrens' book and gessoed it to use for that purpose.  I started it.  It remains unfinished.

So to me, this is the downside.  I see other people quite happy to relax once in awhile, to just read or watch TV and sometimes I envy them,  But my addiction compels me to keep trying to finish all these fun projects.  I think my fantasy is that if I keep at it, I will finally use up all of my supplies and then I can relax and do nothing.

By the way, I just ordered a new super-duper does-everything cutter! I can't wait til it gets here!  Just think,.. then I can make stencils, more wood ornaments and frames, templates, engrave more materials....

Now I have to go find that silicone glue.

Two simple parchment designs for a beginner

 This card is from Linda Williams book on beginning parchment craft.  I mounted it on a light blue cardstock after coloring the back with Prismacolor pencils.

This card is from a PCA Christmas template and I painted the back with red Pan Pastel.  Pan Pastels blend nicely on parchment, but this time I used only the one color.  Then I decorated my tree with gemstones.  I plan to do future trees with additional colors, and some rhinestones.  You could certainly use pearls too.  Also, in parchment craft, you can get really creative with additional background patterns, cutouts etc.  I didn't want to detract from the tree itself on this one, since I tend to be rather simple!

I'm making many others this week, which I will post as they are complete.  One thing to remember when learning this craft is not to hesitate to throw away your mistakes!  It's why you need to have plenty of parchment on hand.  Get it here in the US from me -- it's why I carry it.

With a spirit so willing...

I lost a gallon of gesso somehow.

It seems impossible, but I don't see it anywhere.

Yesterday I lost the C plate to my Cuttlebug, and while I was using it.  Still haven't found it.

Several months ago I lost my complete set of keys -- car, house -- and it was quite costly to replace that key and remote for the car.  I found the keys last week.  They were in a box under my bed where I had several folders of things saved for my art journals.

No idea how the keys got in there really, although I can surmise.  And I still need the gesso and the C plate.  I'm optimistic that at least one of them will reappear.

I wrote recently that this getting old process is wearing thin, and this is the sort of thing I'm talking about.  I still have lots of projects I want to complete while I'm still able, and I feel as though I will be able for a while yet.

I found a large square children's book at a used bookstore last week to make an art journal.  The book doesn't have many pages, it's about 12x12 and is perfect for what I want to do.  Thus, the need for
gesso to begin preparing the pages.

When this sort of thing happens, my creative urges get overrun with frustration and a feeling really close to anger which can quickly move into depression.  Then I start questioning what the heck am I trying to do here?  Do I really need to make this particular journal now?  Of course not!  But the anger comes from feeling that things are a little more out of control now.  To be using something and have it disappear, well, that happens more and more lately.  I have a lot of things going on right now, none of which would seem essential to anyone else.

My focus the past several months (has it been that long?) has been learning parchment craft, which is so relaxing and meditative.  In the evening with something on television or an audio book for company, I trace and emboss until it's time for lights out.  It feels like I've only been doing this for a month at the most, however, this is September and I see some files I downloaded in May on the topic.
This is what I mean about feeling out of control.  The time is whipping by and I am trying my best to keep up.

(During the past month too, I had a bout with a computer crypto virus which wiped out all my photographs and clip art, and believe me, there was a lot.  I got the virus off my computer, thanks to the Geek Squad at Best Buy, and thanks to Carbonite, most of the files were restored.  After that I upgraded that computer to Windows 7 from Vista, and this studio computer from 7 to Windows 10. Now I find that they are both old enough to be slowed down by these newer operating systems, and of course Best Buy would like to sell me a new desktop computer.  But really, what do I need a computer for?  Just think about it!)

I have a smart phone.  I have a tablet.  Both of those things can blog, or read Facebook funny quotes, and check Twitter to see whether a tornado is coming our way.  I can't do graphic arts or use my cutters on those things but the computers I have still work (as I am currently demonstrating.)  But because I am retired (translation: too old for anyone to hire) the desperate need for a whiz-bang computer is really just not here.  As I daily remind myself.

You see, when people say "the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak," it's not always about sex.  It sometimes applies to people like me with an inborn entrepreneurial bent, and we are absolutely driven to create, or produce, or do whatever it is we can do.

Keeping busy is a good thing, at least it is for me.  But now I have to deal with all the things that go with it because of the change in my circumstances, putting it kindly.

I really do wish I could find that gesso.

Do you have favorite things to find uses for?

There must be some things that fascinate you.   I can't be the only one.   There are several that I absolutely love.
 
1.  I love magnets, magnetic clips, magnetic strips, little magnets to put into greeting cards or little boxes, magnets to use to keep things handy.
2.  Dowels are another thing for me, particularly small ones, an inch or smaller.  There are so many things to make with them.  They can even be cut small and used to mix paint.  But I use them when I build little houses, holders for hanging things,  (attach them to hooks) , help polymer clay dolls stand up, make frames... all day I can think of new uses.
3.  Wood of any kind.  It is almost impossible for me to let go of any piece of wood.  I find scraps handy for making shims, make-shift shelves between two storage containers, little planks to support those flimsy wire shelves, and I use pieces of masonite not only as substrates for painting but as bookends or sturdy dividers between 12x12 cardstock packs or even canvases.   And then when it's down to nearly splinters, it can serve as kindling in the fireplace.  Sawdust is even good in the garden.  (I obviously love trees.)
4.  Glass bottles and jars.  Baby food jars, wine bottles, mayonnaise containers when they used to be glass.  Paint them or not, they are things I love to see in my studio, just being around.  Obviously they are handy for uses in painting and to wash brushes, but you can make little terrariums,  root plants in them, grow a sweet potato vine, store things, fill them with buttons, baubles and beads!

Actually,  containers of any kind.  For a long time I saved them all but I had to temper that.   There's only so many one person can ever get around to using, not to mention finding space for.

5. Pens, pencils and markers of all kinds.  Notebooks.  Legal pads.  No explanation necessary there.

What are some of yours?

Finding new ways to use old stash

People like me who work with all kinds of mixed media tend to be hoarders, and since I am in what my friend Mary calls my "twilight years" I decided this year to begin seriously de-stashing and it's amazing how much more efficiently the items I do work with can be stored.

When I moved here five years ago, things just got tossed into storage bins here and there, with no real thought to saving space.  I have kept (and accumulated more) things since then, and the chaos has contributed to my already stressful existence.  I am feeling really good now about the changes I made in the studio and the choices I am making about what to keep.

Do I really need a hundred baby food jars for paint?  Why not just a half dozen?  And those coffee cans for washing brushes, why not just one or two?  It's hard to let go of things I "might want to make something with some day," but now I'm either using them for sure, or tossing them.  Or sharing them with other artists.

In the process, I have found things I forgot about and am having fun creating a bit differently.  I'm finally enjoying monoprinting.  I'm making greeting cards, and prepping card fronts from these results.

Change is good.  Aging, not so much.  I'm slow, I'm getting a third as much done as I plan, but ideas still abound and I'm having a good time.

I will try to confine my comments about the complications of aging in my other blog, Klothospin.

Paper swap

I am taking part in another paper swap hosted by Donna of CollageUnleashed Yahoo Group.

What happens is we each create papers, letter-size, decorated both sides with paint, stamps, ink, stencils or collage, and this time we are doing two sets of 20 each. We send them to her before her deadline and she parcels them out to all of us; we each get 40 pretty papers to either bind for a journal or whatever.  Some I have saved for large collage projects.

In any case, it has been a couple of years since we did this -- or at least since I participated.  (I don't always check all my group messages.)  I decided now would be a good time to jump in, and set about preparing to make my papers.  I had some 80 lb paper and of course lots and lots of paint and stencils.  Or so I thought.

The first thing that happened was I couldn't find the paper.  I have reorganized my studio several times in the past several years, and have been working with wood, and clay, and canvases. (I do spend an inordinate amount of time looking for things, it seems.)  So I ordered another ream online.  It's way more than I'll ever need and of course I'll find my other paper later.  I will give it to my granddaughters for drawing.

I set aside the time to begin; I looked for appropriate spray bottles, watercolor which doesn't clog the spray bottles, and got ready to paint.

I somehow didn't remember what to do.

Anything I sketched, or sprayed didn't really look like what I have done in the past, and I wouldn't want to send to anyone.  What on earth was I to do?

I know! I've always been good at monkey-see-monkey-do, so I went to the file of papers I had received two years ago that are still pretty and unused, and it finally jogged my memory.  (I guess this is another sign of old age.  Seems there's a new sign every day.)  Okay.  So what I want to do, I said, is paint one color, and make a design of some sort in another color.  A pattern.

I began to paint, and using watercolor on a paper that is not watercolor paper can be a really sloppy experience.  The paper was curling, taking forever to dry so that I could do the second side, and stencils were not working at all.  No shapes at all, just dribbles.

Gesso.  I forgot about that.  I use that all the time on canvases, so I had plenty on hand.  I started over, gessoing both sides of the first 20 pieces of paper.  And eureka, the paint began to behave.  Even using gesso and the bigger brush got me started thinking better about what I would like to do.

This has been really a surprising experience for me -- I, who have created art journal after art journal in the past four years, had very little memory of how it is done.  I have made many other things since then, and this process just somehow got pushed into a deep crack of my memory department.

I have two more weeks to finish, and let's all hope it goes smoothly from now on.

On another note, I found a big container of all my previously created art journals that has been stored outside, with ten inches of water in it!  The container's lid had blown off before the last rain, and nobody had noticed.  Devastating.  I thought they'll never dry, the pages will glue to themselves, and we'll have no history of my better days.   I set them out to dry in the sun, and every now and then I go and turn a few more pages. We are not expecting rain for a few days.

The pages are not going to stick together after all, which I feared.  And why not?

Gesso!

Paint, Saw and Sand?

4.25x4.25 handmade house from basswood

Since all I have been doing this year so far is woodworking, first with the Craftsman scroll saw and the new Dremel Moto-Saw I gave myself for Christmas, maybe I should change the name of this blog!  However, I am still painting too.  Right now, I have three paintings in the works while I work on all the little houses I am making for a marketplace, and it really is a great way to satisfy my ADD tendencies; while glazes on the paintings are drying, I go do something with wood.  And vice-versa.

In February I began learning wood carving.  First, I bought a set of carving tools from Woodcraft, but because that aggravated the arthritis in my hands, I bought carving bits to use with my old Dremel and began to learn power carving.   I bought a Wecheer power carver on sale at Woodcraft, and one of the handpieces went bad within a month.  Annoying.  However, after an extended correspondence with somebody in China, they finally replaced it at no cost to me.  Great, since a handpiece can cost $50 alone!

And lo and behold, now Dremel has come out with its own power carver called the Fortiflex, and I love it!  It takes all the same bits as the original Dremel.  So I keep sanding bits on the Wecheer, and change out the Dremels for carving or cutting.  I started making little houses in April and so far have made about half a dozen.  I have trivet frames left over from my engraving/sublimation business and am carving 4.5x4.5 pieces to fit inside them, to add to my market inventory.

Oh, and because I am fascinated with routers, I found a refurbished Dremel Trio which can do things I have learned how to do yet.  I made my own mini miter box for my little houses, but I found one on eBay which I am anxious to receive.  And I have promised myself NO MORE PURCHASES.  We'll see how long that lasts. (Just saw that Dremel now has another new product!)  I got tiny hinges from Christina at Sky Blue Pink where I always can find tiny stuff, and found an eBay store that sells construction items for dollhouses that I can use on my own houses.  Mine tend to be perhaps 1:24 scale, but usually not any particular scale.  They only open at the front door, so they really are not toys.  No point in putting furniture in there, in other words.  They can be lighted with battery-powered tea lights, so I have decided to put patterned paper inside all the subsequent ones I make.

Okay.  So that's my update for now.  And yesterday, I learned about a mixed-media postcard swap, so off I go to make a bunch of those..... but first I have to finish the house I am working on now.  Really!