Saturday, July 16, 2011

Adventures in Crafting!

I am not crafty. But I wish I was. I'm an avid reader of DIY blogs, and an avid daydreamer of projects I would do if I only had the time/skills/wherewithal.

I have a dress that has been sitting in my sewing bag for over 3 years, because I planned on using the fabric to make a smaller dress for Lisel. First an infant dress, then a baby dress and now I'm keeping it because I'm going to make an infant dress for Willow and a toddler dress for Lisel. Or maybe a skirt. But I will make something dammit!

At least that's what I tell myself everytime I see that dress. That dress that has been sitting in the same bag for three years.

The problem is I have few of the requisite skills for craftiness. I am not particularly artistic in a visual sense. I'm not detailed oriented, nor am I really great at project follow through.

I'm kind of a lazy mess.

But I love the idea of spending ones time creating. Of seeing something beautiful and thinking "I could totally make that" and the making it! I mean, what better way to say yes! to life.

I long to be a crafter!

So when my friend Andee aka Betty Crafter (you should totally check out her blog!) invited me to accompany her to a playdate where crafting would be at the center, I said yes! to the playdate. I heard they were having an activity swap, where each person makes activity bags for everyone, and so everyone goes home with like 8 new activities for their kids.

I wasn't going to participate, but then, inspiration struck! Or maybe it was caffeine. Anywho, I decided to make an activity bag.

I didn't have much time, but I did have the Internet and a lot of felt left over from the last time I crafted (a year ago when I made squares for my sister's son's alphabet quilt). My idea? A little memory game. I cut out 9 sets of 2x2 squares, 8 squares to a set. Then within each set I glued on 2 purple squares, 2 blue triangles, 2 white circles and 2 red diamonds. Voila! 9 little mini games of memory!




Now, as you can see, I'm no liar. I'm not a detail girl. These little felty squares have no straight lines. The shapes on them look similar, but not the same. I like to think of them as lo-fi.

I heard we were supposed to put them in ziploc bags, but we were out o those and besides, paper is so much more environmental friendly, so I put them on little sandwich bags. I even decorated them! Observe!





I'm not ashamed to say, I was damn proud of myself. I had a vision and I executed that vision. I had crafted!

Besides, I thought, how much better could the other activities be?

You know where this is going right?

Behold, the other activity bags.







Holy cow.

I was blown away by the skill, the attention to detail, the beauty, the straight lines, the instructions and the general badassness of each and every one of these.

I got very, very sheepish. I actually had to stop myself from apologizing too much for my own feeble crafting attempts.

I was like showing up a song swap with and finding yourself on stage with Duke Ellington, Lennon *and* McCartney and Carol King.

Eek!

It was actually really great. Lisel got a ton of new cool activities and I got to hang with some rad women and kids while peeking into the world of real deal crafting. And it gave me some crafty confidence.

Now I have to go. I have a very short game of memory to play.




- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

6 comments:

K said...

Absolutely nothing wrong with your effort there! Inspired to use the leftover felt - great texture for little hands.

Well done you.

Thugaroo said...

Yeah,what K said....sort of.

EMQ said...

Thanks guys. It just felt good to do something,

Trish from Seattle said...

Way to go! Keep on crafting! Follow your instincts.

Jennifer Perkins said...

Hey I tracked down your blog! So glad you came to the swap. How did I get out of there without one of your amazing felt memory games? I didn't put mine in a baggie either and the ones that did make it home Tallulah kept putting on her head, which gave me panic attacks so they quickly went in the trash. Paper bags are way better they don't fit over toddler heads.

EMQ said...

Ay! Bags on the head equal an instant mom freakout everytime. Lisel really loves your bag. It's a litte discovery adventure everytime!