Overwhelmed by choice........

[Marie]

I've put out some papers and embellishments today to make some simple Easter cards, of the matting, layering and sticking on embellishments. Mostly I'm using one of the Crafty Bitz kits which my sister got me for Christmas as the colours are bright green, yellow and blue and there are lots of lovely glittered flower embellishment which are all a bit funky and fun.

Anyway that's fine, even I should be able to do that without getting stressed, then I thought I should check my stash for matching papers, then I got my Rose Green Anna Griffin stuff out for matching embellishments. Then the stress levels went up. :eek::eek:

It then occurred to me that I was giving myself too much choice - no wonder I felt overwhelmed, especially when there are matching papers and embellishments in the kit! As someone who is still relatively new to craft, I realise now that it's probably much more sensible to use the kits than to pull out every bit of paper or embellishment that is green or blue or yellow.

I realise that sounds obvious especially to those of you who are more experienced, but I think that this is one of the reasons I've struggled in the past. I just have too much choice!

Anyway I put the other stuff away and the stress levels came down again :D

Just on something else that is totally not connected, one of the bits of stash I was looking at was my collection of "free" papers and cards from various crafty magazines which I've purhcased in the past 6 months. Some of these are lovely, decent paper and very pretty designs. I'd never really thought of these as "proper" stash before but looking through them today I realised that there are some very pretty papers in there. :)

[Rentochops]

this happens to me all the time Marie, I the only way to manage it is to not have all your stash around..it's a hard one, too much stash too much choice and you head gets all muddled and you can't make a thing!

[Jeanette]

It can be very overwhelming having too much choice. I thought I'd brought the right selection of goodies to my temporary home but am missing all my lovely strokeable papers. I'm in a no win situation

[Rentochops]

It can be very overwhelming having too much choice. I thought I'd brought the right selection of goodies to my temporary home but am missing all my lovely strokeable papers. I'm in a no win situation

Do you remember I had that problem too Jeanette when I moved in November - I ended up buying new stuff:rolleyes:

[Jeanette]

Do you remember I had that problem too Jeanette when I moved in November - I ended up buying new stuff:rolleyes:

Thats sounds like a good solution ROC!;)

[Phree]

I can relate to the "too much choice" syndrome too. I have so many stamps and things now that sometimes it seems I just can't settle on which ones I want to use.

One good idea I have come across however is to challenge yourself to select only a few bits from your stash - maybe some card or papers and some bits that will co-ordinate such as ribbons, gems etc and then you may NOT go back to your stash and change those choices - your challenge is to think about those bits and see what kind of card design you can come up with. You can of course go back for something like say an extra bit of ribbon or whatever, but ONLY once the card is more or less made an you have decided it needs that one last finishing touch that some additonal embellishment you know you have will give it. One other thing - if you try this make sure you pay close attention to your "bits box" - ya know the one where you keep all those left over bits - try to incorrporate those into you initial selection of materials.

[Rainbowwand]

does anyone have a bits box or drawer or whatever but never actually find anything in there that you can use, its either the wrong colour the wrong size or shape or whatever and never 'come's in handy' :( so i have chucked lots of bits :eek:

[Rentochops]

does anyone have a bits box or drawer or whatever but never actually find anything in there that you can use, its either the wrong colour the wrong size or shape or whatever and never 'come's in handy' :( so i have chucked lots of bits :eek:

Yup I did this RW and now don't have a bits box!

[lolathelamb]

...One good idea I have come across however is to challenge yourself to select only a few bits from your stash - maybe some card or papers and some bits that will co-ordinate such as ribbons, gems etc and then you may NOT go back to your stash and change those choices... This is the way of working I have evolved, Phree. I would add that it helps if, once in a while, you spend time just looking through your whole stash so you can recall what you have! Plus organisation is the key - those papers need some sense of place! Colours? Themes? Whatever.


...does anyone have a bits box or drawer or whatever but never actually find anything in there that you can use, its either the wrong colour the wrong size or shape or whatever and never 'come's in handy' :( so i have chucked lots of bits... I vote this as the Tip of the Month, RW! It's brilliant. I have two A4 boxes dedicated to bits that I will prob never use.

So I will now extract only those bits that are substantial and place them back with their original source. Then I will have 2 brand new boxes for kits!

One thing though - I keep my mirri card leftovers very handy when cardmaking as mats are often tiny!

[Rainbowwand]

Phew!!! thank goodness i thought it was only me :D

[Rentochops]

Phew!!! thank goodness i thought it was only me :D

All that crafters never throw anything away never works for me, I've got too much stuff for that!

I keep the bigger bits with the pads and scraps get binned.

[tru-ella]

I will throw my bits box away - never use it and could do with the storage!

[Julie]

Think I am a bit of a crafting slut tbh. I let everything fall on the floor when I am on a mission and I don't keep bits, my brain just doesn't work that way.

It is the making of things I enjoy, not the sorting and filing away of things, that just bores me rigid.

I do hoover up the second I have finished though !!

[Anne]

I threw away loads of bits last week when I was having a bit of a sort out, and I knew from the papers that it was stuff from when I first started cardmaking about 4 years ago! I think I must have got taken in by all the talk about crafters never throwing anything away. I now only keep bits if they're a decent size - some of the bits I chucked last week were about 1" square. :rolleyes:

[lolathelamb]

I threw away loads of bits last week when I was having a bit of a sort out, and I knew from the papers that it was stuff from when I first started cardmaking about 4 years ago! I think I must have got taken in by all the talk about crafters never throwing anything away. I now only keep bits if they're a decent size - some of the bits I chucked last week were about 1" square. :rolleyes: I love the quantitative value 'decent size' - we could start a whole forum on that alone! To DB and LP, who never throw anything away, it would be even less than 1" square, I'm sure.

Now then, for me, it is going to be - well, what is a 'decent size'? In 'come in handy' crafty bits terms.

[jeanfan]

The bits bit has made me smile,of course I have one and for the first time in weeks used a bit of mirri from it tonight.Think I`ll just throw it all away now.

[Julie]

Ohh it has turned into a sort of liberating thread (reminds me of that chuck out the chintz, Ikea ad from years ago), chuck out all those bits of crap you will never use !!

[Marie]

Well strangely enough, I started crafting intending to be organised and already have a file with "bits" in and even used a few this weekend! A throwback to my mother I think who had dozens of "bits" of wool from her knitting and crochet. She was very organised and very tidy.

What is big enough to keep as a "bit"? I always keep anything ATC sized or above. If I really like something or it's expensive, eg mirri card or a favourite paper then I'd keep anything bigger than a square inch.

Since I've sorted out my study/spare bedroom/craft room, I now craft on my desk in there which means that I can leave things out and don't have to tidy away after every crafting session. So I was playing in there over the weekend and was able to go in today and pick up for half an hour where I'd left off, which was a pleasure!

[lolathelamb]

...since I've sorted out my study/spare bedroom/craft room, I now craft on my desk in there which means that I can leave things out and don't have to tidy away after every crafting session. So I was playing in there over the weekend and was able to go in today and pick up for half an hour where I'd left off, which was a pleasure! That is the beauty of a bespoke crafting area/room! In our previous flat, which had been mine as a single 'girl' (:D), the office was tiny and I was working with tonnes of children's books as a reviewer/editor. My craft stuff, such as it was then, had to be kept in boxes. When I crafted, I had to put up the trestle table I now have permanently as my craft desk, in the lounge which took up all the free space.

When Pete and I got married, this turned our whole household upside down but we managed somehow. The we moved from Swindon to north Bristol. The bliss now that I have a huge craft room/office is immeasurable!

[Rainbowwand]

Oh dear what have i done, i can imagine all these 'bits' now finding a new home in the bin!! it is very liberating though, no more having to rummage through that bit box just in case there is a bit that will fit :D ah bliss :)

[LoobyLou]

I keep a bits box for a few weeks at a time and if I haven't delved into it by then I glean out the smaller bits if I don't want to use them to make a punched or die cut flower to use immediately, then they go in the bin.

If you cut 6" out of a 12x12 scapbook paper you have a huge bit left over. Those don't get thrown away but I try to make something with them in the next week or so as they won't fit into a folder cos of their size and they would look stupid back in the scrapbooking supplies section. Once I get them down to less than 12" in any direction then they go into the bits box.

I used to keep everything, I used to punch the edges of peel offs, the little spare bits of dufex etc. but hey life is toooooooo short to be looking through those things so now they go in the bin, which is where they would have ended up 6 months after storing them anyhow.

I do, however, take bits off of containers, (Christmas was a brilliant time for scavenging and I dont just mean the present wrapping but the way some presents are wrapped from the manufacturer) and I do use those. Just this week I used a cute lil doggie that came attached to something last year. As I plopped it on a card I remember thinking that it was a shame I couldnt source more of them!

Looby