Have I always been crafty?
I still haven’t got decent photos and tutorials together for my growing pile of projects (including the coolest thing I’ve ever made), so I thought I’d share a bit more about me.
Have I always been crafty? I remember watching Fat Cat and Friends on TV as a kid and loving the crafts segments. They were typical kiddie projects, using egg cartons, cardboard boxes, milk cartons, lids, pipe cleaners etc, making animals, cars and such. I have this recollection that they told you what items you needed right before an ad break so you could collect everything and craft along. I always wanted to do this, but Mum wanted to (now I’m a parent, I’m guessing this was her time to get things done around the house and not time for kiddie craft-mess). I think this is why I have amassed an enormous collection of cardboard boxes and lids (that hubby thinks is a big, ugly mess. Hmmm, he may be right!)
I also have fond childhood memories at my grandparents house. Pa made wooden toys for charity in his retirement, and us grandkids were allowed to make our own creations from the wood scraps. We’d nut out a creation, and explain what it was going to be, and Pa would issue us with the required number of nails and away we’d hammer. I wish I had photos and explanations of our creations – I’m sure they’d be hilarious now!
When I was back at my parents’ place last month, I took some photos of a couple of my crafty creations that Mum still has on display:
I made both projects in Year 4, when I had a fantastically crafty teacher, Mrs Doddy. The left is a clay house I made, complete with ridiculously large (and kinda rude-looking) tap on the rainwater tank. On the right is a glazed bread-dough dolly (I’m wondering if these were actually salt dough???), with cloves for decoration and a paperclip pushed in the top for a hook. I love that my Mum still has projects made when I was 9 as decorations in her house!
So the answer is yes, I’ve always enjoyed making stuff and being crafty. I still struggle with the term creative though…but that is a post for another day…
Do you have crafty memories from your childhood? Let me know in the comments!
I remember doing heaps of craft as a kid. My mum was a home ec teacher before kids in the days when that meant sewing and embroidery and cooking, not “personal development”. I remember taking cross stitch to school in primary school to do when I finished my work too quickly. I had a little toy sewing machine and tried to make dolls clothes. My grandmother taught me macrame when it was big in the 70’s. Good memories…
if you’re looking for creativity in the cardboard department you need to check out the blog ikat bag: http://www.ikatbag.com/ Lier does amazing things all around but cardboard is her very favourite thing to play with and she is totally amazing! make sure you have nothing pressing when you sit down to check out her blog because you’ll get sucked right in. she is also an unbelievable resource for drafting patterns and making any kind of pocket you’d ever need.