"I have come to realise that buying craft supplies and using craft supplies are two separate hobbies"
I once saw this as a meme somewhere. It could have been written about me! I am that crafter that gets distracted by something new and shiny. Before I know it, I have another bag of stuff I am trying to sneak into the house without my partner finding out. I am not only addicted to buying supplies, I am also addicted to learning new crafts and skills. This, of course, means I need all the tools and equipment to master the basics.
I have always been crafty. My Mum had worked as a seamstress before she got married and had children, so she often made clothes for us when we were young. She was also a ferocious knitter and anytime we heard someone was expecting she would whip up a whole layette in anticipation of the new arrival. I never managed to master the skill of knitting, but Mum did teach me how to sew, both hand and machine stitching. I guess that's where it all began. My Mum was an old soul who still lived by the "mend and make do" mentality that most people of her generation were brought up on. This often translated into the "why buy it when I can make it for half the price" approach.
In my teen years, I became obsessed with cross stitch and embroidery. I had over a hundred books and patterns. I bought every DMC thread colour, just a few at a time, and wound each skein onto a flat bobbin by hand. I stored them all in numbered order in special cases designed specifically for that purpose. Those cases of threads have stayed with me, and I still have them thirty years later. I've been tempted to get rid of them, of courses. Over the years, there have been opportunities to offload them onto someone just getting into cross stitch But, honestly, even though I can't even remember the last time I completed a cross stitch project, I can't let them go. Those embroidery silks cost me a fortune!
Over the years, I experimented with acrylic painting (even though I can't draw to save my life!), jewellery making, crochet, decoupage, air-dry clay, macramé, card-making and other papercrafts. Each new skill, which I taught myself from books and, more recently, YouTube videos meant a new set of materials were needed. My shelves began to fill up with packs of acrylic paints, paintbrushes, canvases, crochet hooks, jewellery wire and findings, jewellery pliers, beads, paper napkins, clay modelling tools, glues, tapes, varnishes, wools, threads, cords, die-cutting machines, papers, card stock, envelopes, stamps, ink pads, heat tools, embossing powders, string, ribbon, fabrics, wood pieces, wine bottle lights, feathers, dried flowers and hundreds of embellishments and other ephemera.
In the last few years I have invested in a Cricut vinyl cutting machine and my latest skill I am trying to master is resin casting. So, the collection is now expanding with packs of adhesive vinyl, resin moulds, colourings, glitter and inclusions.
But enough is enough. My house is bursting at the seams and, more importantly, money is tight, so my new obsession is going to be BASHING MY STASH!!! Not a euphemism but a real serious attempt to use up a lot of the supplies I have and maybe even raise a little pin money in the process. Mostly, I need to declutter my craft mountain, so I have room to breathe, a place to store everything I need to keep and a calm, organised space in which to create.
The BASH MY STASH challenge has begun. My long-suffering partner has endured my clutter for long enough. I need to make an inventory of everything I have and come up with projects. I also need a way to get the completed items out of the house once I have created them. The plan is to sell items worthy of a new home, throw out the failures that can't be salvaged and donate items I am never going to make use of.
All of this needs to be accomplished while holding down a full-time job, running a used book selling side hustle and supporting my partner in his new business. Did I hear someone say, "Not enough hours in the day!"
