What is your Why?

Why? The question we all dread when there is a toddler in the house, that never ending question “WHY?”

How often do we ask ourselves that question once we are adults? More often that not we use the safe comfortable answers. Why do you do that job? why do you live where you live? Why Why Why? I do it for the money, I live here for my family.

So in a world of whys, why do I craft? Simple, because sometimes I need to create something. Believe me I spend many hours in my craft room staring at a blank piece of card, or twiddling my thumbs or even worse scrolling through my phone! But sometimes, just sometimes I’m hit with a wave of creativity, and I have to make something. More often than not I don’t know what I’m sitting down to make it just comes to me and those are the best days. So what sparks this creativity? I haven’t got a clue! If I did I would switch it on every day.

So ok I like to make things but why Stampin Up? Many Many years ago my best friend dragged me to a Stampin Up workshop, we made a shadow frame and I was useless, I didn’t know how to use the big-shot, I smudged all my stamping and I was useless at fussy cutting but I went home with a finished frame and despite the fact it was wonky and there was glue all over it I loved it, I still remember the colours I had used, Coastal Cabana and Crumb Cake, and you know what it all coordinated, the paper matched the ink and the ribbon matched them both, it literally made my heart sing! So that was the start of my journey. Why then, you may ask did I become a demonstrator? In all honesty for the discount, isn’t that why anyone does something like that? Be it Avon, Scentsy or even back in the day Tupperware. I wanted some paper and inks and I had a small child at home, a mortgage and bills to pay so hey if I could get it a bit cheaper then why not? It was great, I loved it, each month I would allow myself to make a little wish list and I would be delighted that when I popped it all in the computer it would be a lot less than the catalogue price.

I started crafting on my kitchen table with a box to hold my little crafty stash, then I moved into the box room on a old desk wedged next to the single bed where my creations would often spread out to, now I have a dedicated room, which is officially called “the craft room” original eh?

So that is why I joined, but why have I stayed? Well the same reason still stands, I love that is all coordinates, but now its something more. A couple of years after I joined a friend asked me if I could show her how to make things, I did and I loved it, she then suggested I should run classes, I honestly thought she was crazy, but at the same time I was tempted, but where would I start? Well that was the first year I attended a StampinUp convention, and they literally told you how to run classes, how to do different techniques, what the upcoming new stamp sets and colours would be, I returned home full of passion. I then found a card design course and signed up for it. Some months later I held my first workshop, we made a valentines picture and a valentines card, everyone that attended was delighted with their makes, they all went home overjoyed with what they had created, and that my friends was it!

So now I don’t just create for me, I create for the lovely ladies that attend my card classes be them virtual to pre Covid in person, I create to see the delight on their face as they go home with something they have created, I create so they have some sense of normal when the world is anything but normal, I create so I can share something I love and hopefully they will love it to. I create so I am part of something, Stampin Up is a huge world wide network of Demonstrators who cheer each other on and share hints and tips, I create to find a place I belong.

So why am I telling you all of this? Because if your floundering during this lockdown, reach out. I don’t have all the answers but I would love to chat to you and give you that feeling of being part of something, of that feeling that you belong even just for a short while each week.

I’m going to leave you again this week with a photo of the gorgeous Mr Chewie......






and of some cards which were created during one of my inspiration strikes , I’m kinda hoping for another one some time this week.........please!