Where Does Craftiness Come From?

"Crafting is one part imagination, one part skill, and one part leap of faith to just TRY it" ~ Me

So I said that on the header to my main page. And I do believe that is the recipe for craftiness. So many people think they aren't crafty at all. "Oh I could never do that!" they lament. "I don't have a crafty bone in my body." In reality, they may have the wrong perspective, and simply be missing one of the parts of the recipe.

Let's look at part 1: Imagination. Imagination is something we learn as a kid. Something we cultivate. Some parents and teachers encourage it, others don't. But without imagination, there are no ideas. Albert Einstein wouldn't have made much of himself if he hadn't thought what the bus he was on would be like if it travelled at the speed of light. It's these ideas that make the world go round.

When it comse to crafting, you just have to come up with a vision of how you might like the project to look. My first scrapbooking project was my sister's wedding album, aka Christmas Gift 2007. That was a big chore. But I had an idea. I could envision a page of pictures of bridal shower gift opening, just hanging together in the perfect layout. I had no idea what I was doing. That almost lead me to stop before I'd even begun. But I couldn't get the idea out of my head.

My quest to learn how to scrapbook, lead me to locate part 2: The Skill. Being a knowledge junkie anyways, and a techy by profession and schooling, I turned to the one place I knew I could find the skills. I bought a book. "The Joy of Scrapbooking" by Kerry Arquette, Andrea Zocchi, and Darlene D'Agostino. It's a HUGE hardbound book, that I carried to work with me for a week. I read it cover to cover and was hooked. I learned about layouts and what supplies I might need to get started. Once I bought all the supplies, I was ready to go.

And then...what? Wait? Nothing happens.

That brings us to part 3: The Leap of Faith. Sometimes you have to just jump in and try it. Let go of the need for the project to be perfect. (That is difficult for a perfectionist such as myself to admit.) You can have all the coolest ideas in the world. You can break the bank buying books on the subject. You can spend hours in class studying the craft. But at some point you just have to TRY it. Let go...and be crafty.

For my part, I made HUGE mistakes with my sister's wedding scrapbook. Some of the pictures were fabulous. Some I did just to get them done. I didn't necessarily glue things down right. Some of the photo edges were very rough, because I used my engineering major hubby's old paper trimmer from college. Sometimes pictures just disappeared into the background instead of being enhanced by it. And sometimes...every so often...I hit a fabulous page that I just adored.

And you know what? My sister LOVED it. Not only loved it, but cried when she opened the gift. And showed it to her and her husband's friends when they returned home from Christmas. And that, I think itself, was enough to validate my idea as good, my newly aquired skillset as adequate, and it justified the leap of faith.