Themes, layouts and inspirations
Do you make any of these mistakes? I’m really not a fan of articles or sites that try to make us feel like we’re doing it all wrong, but in this video Sandy explains what she sees are three mindsets that hold paper crafters back from making art they truly love. I especially agree with the last two! What do you think?
Conny used products from Doodlebug to create this festive folio album for Christmas. This tall album has a cute red cover with a snow globe shaker element with Santa inside, decorated with little stickers and held closed with a large paper clip that has fun Christmas charms dangling down.
Inside is a waterfall full of flaps with room for loads of photos, a place for a large photo and long list for journaling or bullet points.
There’s also fold out flaps and a pocket with tucked in tags too. Conny has dimensions and directions for putting this mini album together over on the Doodlebug blog.
-Heather
You can shop for Doodlebug products at A Cherry on Top
I am so glad you brought up good tools. My grandmother taught me to knit and crochet when I was 11. Knitting didn’t make sense to me but crochet did. Over the next 40 years I kept picking up and laying down my efforts though because I would get frustrated. Nothing turned out like the picture. One problem I learned when I tried this last time beginning in 2014 was that I was strangling my yarn but the other big lessons were 1) I was using bad yarn and 2) I was using cheap hooks. When I had to pick up a new F on the way to visit family in VT, we made a stop at WEBS. They only sell good tools. I bought my first addi hook and discovered what a great tool it was. I came home, went online and bought the full set for $65. When I decided to try knitting one more time last year, I started with one of the old pairs of Bates needles I had and quickly understood part of the problem…the finish on the needles is terrible and grabs the yarn. So I invested in my first set of Knitters Pride. They were acrylic and also stuck to the yarn. Over the next 12 or so months I have bought KP steel needles and rosewoods in circulars and straights. Now I love knitting and I am learning which yarns and needles work best together. I still use my steel addi hooks but so far they work well with all kinds of yarns. I do have to resort to acrylics for crocheting bulky weights when I need anything larger than a K but because I have the basic mechanics down now I can “make it work”. By the way, I’m also a papercrafter and have learned this lesson in that art also.
Thanks again.
Thanks for sharing your story Kathleen. You are so right, proper tools and supplies are very important. I also knit and crochet (check my personal blog http://www.callalosoup.com/crafts) and this past year I got rid of all the cheap yarn I had, and now only use good quality stuff. I’m slowly doing the same with my hooks and needles.