Decluttering for the New Year; Which Supplies?

The start of a New Year always seems like a good time to reflect in the year just past and set some goals for the year ahead. The art / crafting area of your life is no different; it is needed to balance your lift and needs as much attention as your health, job/career and family.

Which Supplies?
Now we have considered what crafts we want to focus on, it makes it easier to determine which supplies, material and tools we need to create these crafts. One of the (many) great things about mixed media art is that we can turn supplies for nearly every other craft into being useful for mixed media art. No longer doing cross stitch? Then we can use the cotton as fibres embellishments in our books and use the fabric for image transfers. Not going to sew anymore? We can still use the materials to add texture to our art journals or tear into strips as an embellishment or use to bind a book. And of course the sewing machine can be used to stitch paper and journals and book sections.

The sorting can begin now that we know where our focus will be. I realise this will be hard for some – feeling like we are abandoning projects that had captured our hearts at one stage. If you can’t bear to hand them onto someone who can complete them or repurpose the materials, pack these projects into a box and move them away from your crafting area (into your wardrobe or storage). When we repeat this exercise in 12 months time and you hadn’t even thought about those projects, then it will be time to pass them on or repurpose then.

Choose one area to start sorting; pick a box or drawers or pile. Pull everything out, sorting it into keep or give away / sell, depending on if it relates to the few crafts we have decided to continue. If it is junk or dried out and won’t work, throw it away. Now group the like things together and put them back. Just focus on one area or drawer. You may find other items that could be stored with these ones but that can be part of the second review.

sort one drawer at the time to declutter your crafting area

The aim here is to move quickly through each area of your crafting area and remove the junk and items no longer needed. This will begin to create space. If we pull everything out it can easily become overwhelming, so stick to small areas and put things back. Even if we just do one or two areas each day, we will slowly progress through the entire room, finding all sorts of things we had forgotten about. Continue to put things back that you want to keep and remove things you don’t.

If you find some fantastic things you had forgotten about and inspiration hits, make notes in your art journal so you will remember them when it’s crafting time again – for now it’s decluttering time!

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Decluttering for the New Year; Which Craft?

The start of a New Year always seems like a good time to reflect in the year just past and set some goals for the year ahead. The art / crafting area of your life is no different; it is needed to balance your lift and needs as much attention as your health, job/career and family.

Over the next few weeks we will look at  a few tips to review last year and get ready for the creative year ahead!

Which Craft?

Before we begin the decluttering, we need to spend a little more time reflecting on the last 12 months. We have reviewed how our projects, techniques and materials have developed over the year. And we have thought about the time we spent, or intended to spend and didn’t quite get there!

Today we want to take a step further back and REALLY as ourselves which crafts have served us well with the projects we have completed. Which crafts are still fun and you look forward to? These are the crafts, along with their materials and techniques that we want to embrace and continue to develop.

Many crafters seem to turn their hands to an assortment of crafts over the years. I know I have at least one started (but no where near finished) cross stitch. I may have even thought about sewing or started trying to learn to knit. Not only do these projects take up space in your crafting area, they also take up mental space. Whenever we come across an unfinished project whose prospects of ever being finished are pretty slim, we start to beat ourselves up about it; “I should get that finished”, “Mum was so pleased when I asked her to help get started with knitting; she’ll be disappointed if I don’t finish it”.

Now is the time to decide whether it is worth what little time you have worrying about these projects. My guess is that it isn’t. So let’s make the decision RIGHT NOW that we will never finish that cross stitch or what ever project it is. (I did start this over 10 years ago, before my first son was born, with a slim hope that if  have a girl the purple fairy would look lovely in her room). And will my mother be disappointed that I won’t get that knitted quilt finished; maybe but I’m sure she would much prefer me to be happy with what I am doing than abusing the wool and needles any longer (and it looks like I’ve lost a needle, anyway!)

Mixed media art

Let’s focus on what we DO love to do. For me it’s painting and collage and stamping and using all sorts of embellishments and techniques and materials to do that. It may be on canvas or in an altered book or an art journal. It may be to make greeting cards or artist trading cards (ATCs) or book pages for a collaborative project. That is what excites me! I can feel my brain thinking about new projects already!

So, what excites you?

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