Friday, January 11, 2013

Crafty Management

Some crafting hobbies are more manageable than others.

For instance, everything I need to support my crocheting habit fits in one box. It’s full of yarn. The crochet hooks that I use are all in their own little pouch, and the darning needles that I have for fastening ears to hats or lashing granny squares together are clipped to the pouch that holds the crochet hooks by a couple of clothespins (which I use as stitch markers). Most of the patterns I use come from online, and I only occasionally print them out, if they’re too complicated for me to figure out with only an occasional glance at the instructions. From what I understand, this is very minimalistic for someone who works with yarn on a regular basis.


The stuff I use to make cards is all in a tiny box, plus one other tinier box, and I’ve used it recently, so it’s within reach if I need it, say, to make invitations to a college graduation party.


My necklace making stuff is a bit more spread out. That’s mostly because I haven’t worked with it for many years have moved it three times without organizing it. There are boxes of beads here, and boxes of beads there, a bag of embroidery floss with some hemp cord in it in one place and a half finished hemp necklace with the beads I was planning to add to it in another place.


The polymer clay I used to work with is all in one briefcase-style box, where I last left it after making a few beads in high school. At least I know where it all is.

But I have no idea how scrapbookers do it.


My mom acquired a box of scrapbooking materials, and knew that I sometimes use that kind of think for making cards. We dug through it together, and it was a treasure trove: two packages of 4 x 6 photo paper, scrapbooking glue, some nice pens, a cool cutting tool, a large set of crayola colored pencils (coloring! eee!), two photo albums, and a mountain of paper and fancy stickers. There was even a pretty nice briefcase-type filing box, which I assume that the original owner was planning to make use of as an instrument of organization. I managed to stuff most everything into it, except the photo albums. Now two thirds of my dining room table is laden with scrapbooking stuff.


When I work with yarn, I can usually keep it from becoming a huge ordeal. A skein nearby, whatever I’m working with and the hook I’m using in my hand, maybe the laptop or a pattern nearby. Usually I can put it down and come back to it whenever my young family demands it.


When I’m working on cards, I have to have paper, tape, scissors, ribbon, pens, and whatever else might be necessary spread out all over everywhere. It’s hard to leave it for a minute, because if I’m not watching closely enough, a tiny person might go and make it an even bigger mess than it already is. It’s almost easier to plan everything out ahead of time, get it all done at once, and then put everything away.


I think the cleanup and storing process is one of the reasons my craftiness is currently leaning in the yarn direction at the moment. I’ve had an idea for a scrapbooking style project for several months, but I’ve been content to leave it hibernating in the early planning stages, because, in my experience, scrapbooking is super messy.


How do scrapbookers do it?

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