Sunday, 12 January 2014
Craftastic Things
Around January 2013, I lost my job due to a long term illness and I didn't have a single penny coming into my house because I don't get any benefits (I didn't like the idea anyways but I was getting to the beggars point) and I sat on my bed in my flat and holding my head in my hands, I asked God in quiet desperation what I was meant to do. My mind was running a mile a dozen but I wasn't getting any sleep. I was in a lot of physical pain because of the fibromyalgia; right from my neck down to the sole of my feet and I knew that being inactive was going to be the death of me, literally, because I just wasn't the kind of person who could sit around doing nothing. The devil would definitely find a terrible thing for my idle hands to do.
So I sat on that bed and prayed with heavy sighs begging God to show me a way to earn money while still being ill and very clearly I got the sense that I was to do something creative with my hands. I knew it wasn't writing as I had been doing that for years (started officially in 1994 when I was 17+) and while I had received some money, I knew I couldn't get a full paying gig with it (for now), so I kept thinking about it, wondering what I could do with my hands when I went into the local Morrison's and saw a craft magazine called "Let's Get Crafting' (its now called PaperCrafter and I have actually become a designer for a day with them)and it had everything to make several cards in it. So I picked it up and got some glue and double sided tape from the pound shop and within a week i had made about 6 cards!
I gave one away to my landlady and a friend walked into my flat saw them and asked to buy them there and then! My first pay in weeks! Naturally, I went back and bought some other craft stuff and made cards and then I realized I could go to the library and loan books that would help me find my creativity and so started my love affair with everything craft. I also enrolled in my local college to learn dressmaking and I am about to finish my second year now. I also make jewellery and hats on the side. I have never broken even but the joy and release that I have achieved could not have been bought with money.
Crafting has helped with the deep depression I was battling at the time and also with focusing my mind as I have a very restless imagination but when I am holding glue to paper or stamping or embossing. I am calm, focused and in control and that is why I personally believe that crafting should be added on the health service as it will make such a difference to many.
So, that is the history of Craftastic; and this blog is to help anyone who wonders what they can do when they have limited funds. Tricks of the trade that I have picked up and great alternatives that would give rise to conversation pieces. This blog has been a long time coming so it will be developed with great consideration for the crafter with limited resources and mobility, but anyone who loves crafting would still be able to get something out of it.
I am better now but I will never forget what it had been like, so this place will always give space to create, despite the odds, craftastic things!
So I sat on that bed and prayed with heavy sighs begging God to show me a way to earn money while still being ill and very clearly I got the sense that I was to do something creative with my hands. I knew it wasn't writing as I had been doing that for years (started officially in 1994 when I was 17+) and while I had received some money, I knew I couldn't get a full paying gig with it (for now), so I kept thinking about it, wondering what I could do with my hands when I went into the local Morrison's and saw a craft magazine called "Let's Get Crafting' (its now called PaperCrafter and I have actually become a designer for a day with them)and it had everything to make several cards in it. So I picked it up and got some glue and double sided tape from the pound shop and within a week i had made about 6 cards!
I gave one away to my landlady and a friend walked into my flat saw them and asked to buy them there and then! My first pay in weeks! Naturally, I went back and bought some other craft stuff and made cards and then I realized I could go to the library and loan books that would help me find my creativity and so started my love affair with everything craft. I also enrolled in my local college to learn dressmaking and I am about to finish my second year now. I also make jewellery and hats on the side. I have never broken even but the joy and release that I have achieved could not have been bought with money.
Crafting has helped with the deep depression I was battling at the time and also with focusing my mind as I have a very restless imagination but when I am holding glue to paper or stamping or embossing. I am calm, focused and in control and that is why I personally believe that crafting should be added on the health service as it will make such a difference to many.
So, that is the history of Craftastic; and this blog is to help anyone who wonders what they can do when they have limited funds. Tricks of the trade that I have picked up and great alternatives that would give rise to conversation pieces. This blog has been a long time coming so it will be developed with great consideration for the crafter with limited resources and mobility, but anyone who loves crafting would still be able to get something out of it.
I am better now but I will never forget what it had been like, so this place will always give space to create, despite the odds, craftastic things!
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