Confessions of a Craftaholic

Hi, I'm Kaitlin, and I have a problem.

I may or may not be addicted to crafting.

Granted, there are worse things in the world to be addicted to other than reading and crafting. I could be addicted to crack or something equally as destructive to my body. Although, I suppose that if I stayed indoors crafting all the time, it would be pretty destructive to my body.

I know there are others like me out there. Some of them are probably reading this blog post. Let's get real for a minute. How many of us get that feeling when we step inside Hobby Lobby or Michaels?  When you walk past row after row of colorful paper, stickers, washi tape? Boxes of pens and adornments? Skeins of yarn and bundles of embroidery floss? I just got a really funny picture in my head of a bar...people walk up, the bartender says "What's your poison?", and the customer whispers, "Knitting." And on the wall behind the bar, instead of bottles of liquor {although those could be there, too}, there are just craft supplies galore.

Sounds like a pretty great place, right? Someone should invent this. Also, it could be attached to a 24 hour bookstore...when you can't sleep, go and read. 

I feel like I've tried just about every type of crafting those stores carry. The knitting, you know about, or maybe you don't, but if you glance back through my archives, you'll find a couple posts about it. I've tried my hand at jewelry making to no real success. Cross-stitching happened a bit when I was younger. I'd love to have time and the skill to do more sewing, though I've done some various work with fleece. My longest work, however, has been with paper crafts.

I've scrapbooked since I was in middle school. In fact, one of my favorite things to do on vacations is to find scrapbook stores. I have a favorite one in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, that carries everything one could ever need, including papers and stickers and die cuts specific to the Civil War and other East coast historical events. There's also an awesome one in Green Bay with, of course, lots of Packer-themed supplies, and I've become aware of a store in Sturgeon Bay up in Door County that I plan on visiting in a few weeks. 

Because I knew I would be visiting some specialty stores, I decided last week to go through all my scrapbooking supplies so I could figure out what I needed for projects I'd already started, what I already had so I didn't double purchase, you get the gist. It got to the point that I was nearly hyperventilating. I called my mom to come in and stared at the mess on my floor and said the words that started this post. I have a problem. If you stacked up all the scrapbook paper--not cardstock, just paper--that I own, whether it is single sheets or pads, it would be about six inches thick. I have enough Europe-related stickers and decals to probably do four more scrapbooks. I've got stickers and stamps and markers and pens and books of quotes and scissors and glues and picture corners and ribbon and washi tape and stacks of pictures I've printed...I don't know where it all came from or how it all fits in my room, completely out of sight. Seriously, I have it all put away...clearly so out of sight that much of it was out of mind.

It's like that moment when you realize you have too many shoes or purses or scarves...so many that you can't possibly use them all. Now, in my defense, this is what has accumulated over fourteen years of scrapbooking, but it still is rather ridiculous. And I'm not any good at scrapbooking if I have to keep putting everything away and then getting it back out again. I'm the kind of person that is going to need a crafting room or nothing will ever get done. My best scrapbooking work happened two summers ago when I set up a card table in our living room and just left everything out--confined to the table space, but still out and easily accessible. I think I filled four scrapbooks that summer.

But take heart, those of you who are already dying to come and purge my supplies! I have recently found a new love. Card making. This past weekend, I made two wedding cards, a birthday card, a bridal shower card, and this afternoon, I finished an anniversary card. They are lovely. I would love to post pictures, but I can almost guarantee that some of the people reading this post will be receiving those cards in the next few months, so I don't want to give anything away. I love this new venture! It's like scrapbooking, but in mini-form, and you can see some amazing results really quickly. My Cricut  and Pinterest have proved invaluable in all this, and maybe in September or so I can post pictures of the ones I've completed. Plus, I'm using up some of the paper and things I've had for quite some time. Pieces that don't really fit on any scrapbook page, I don't mind cutting up to use for cards. I'll even make you an offer--if any of you dear readers needs a card for something {that isn't in, like, the next two weeks...I'm still learning how to do all this}, I would be happy to help you out gratis. Don't think of it as enabling me, think of it as the therapy I need to cure my addiction.

If I ever decide to quit teaching and writing doesn't pan out, maybe I'll open an Etsy shop for cards and knitted things. Or that bar I was talking about. I could serve tea and coffee and cupcakes...I haven't quite ventured into the world of artistic baking. Maybe that will be next.

~Stay gold!