Alice, at Cottage Blessings, is my Craft Hero. She is the Queen of All Crafters (though she would deny this, in her beautiful and humble way.) She makes crafting look as natural as breathing (though somehow, at our house it's not that natural ... crafts have been known to make me hyperventilate.) But Alice makes it all look so easy. She breezes through her day, picking up supplies at craft stores much as I would pick up milk and bread. It's just business-as-usual for her, whereas for me, it's ... Craft Time, Kids. Gulp. Alice, though, inspires me to try things I would never otherwise think of. This "Star of the Sea" craft is simple and I believe that even I am capable of making this happen.
Thank you, Alice, for your inspiration, your step-by-step instructions, and your patience and charity toward Craft Morons like me.
tags: Arts and Crafts
4 comments:
Believe it or not, contrary to some people's impression, I am also very craft challenged, ask my kids. Oh I can knit and spin and crochet, but I had to really work hard to develop those skills. My husband on the other hand sat down at the wheel after watching me one time and proceeded to spin a more even yarn than I had mastered in weeks of practice at that time. I think now I probably am a better spinner, but it required literally years of practice to attain what he did immediately. New crafts nearly always daunt me. My gingerbread houses fell apart, my first attempt at felting was a mass of holes, the next was not much better, anything with a glue gun will result in my getting burned at least once. I sew, sort of, enough to teach my daughter the basics, but she went far beyond me, and pretty quickly at that.
Of course I'm the one who like Charlie Brown couldn't make paper snowflakes in elementary school (mine always fell apart too) and my high school geometry teacher said I was the first student she'd ever had who couldn't draw a straight line with a ruler.
That's why I encourage people who would like to knit and spin, but don't think they are good at it to keep on trying. No one who knew me in college, when dropping stitches and being unable to pick them up was what passed for my knitting, would believe that I now can take a generic Jackie Fee pattern and alter it to suit me (changing edges, yarns, sizes, necklines, sleeve lengths, pattern stitches etc).
You can't possibly be more craft challenged than I am Karen, but I have friends who now think I'm good at crafts just because I can spin and knit. The people who are really good at crafts are the rest of the family.
By the way you should have seen the messes I made of paper mache. There's a reason we never made relief maps around here.
Karen! Thank you so much for this post! It was such a surprise!
You aren't a bit challenged in anything and have taught the rest of us so, so much already!
P.S. Just came back to revisit this post. Many thanks for all your kind words. I really ought to post a few pictures of the mess the baby made with some quilling papers she found--I was doing a bit of hyperventilating myself!
Today's discovery--the potential mess from quilling papers is almost as bad as that of styrofoam!
Oh, no, not styrofoam, Alice! Arrrggh .... :-) You're still my craft hero, even if you do hyperventilate now and then.
And Liz, I would still count your skills high on the craft meter. I only recently bought my first glue gun! ;-)
Post a Comment