Welcome to my first blog post! My intention in creating this blog is to share all the crafty things in my life. My first idea was to create a blog with which to share the projects I have done in my monthly card classes. Now I am also planning to share other projects (& how I did them), as well as product reviews & comparisons, how-to's, and whatever other crafty stuff I think is worth sharing.
First, a little bit about myself and my crafting background: I have been doing crafts for as long as I can remember. Back when I was small, I remember my grandmother teaching me embroidery and how to stick pins with sequins & beads on them into Styrofoam dolls & Christmas ornaments. We did all kinds of little crafts together and it was so much fun! And that’s when the crafting bug within me awoke. I loved doing any kind of craft I could get my hands on. Art was always my favorite class in school, and in high school, I excelled at drawing (but I sucked at painting!). Over the years, I have experimented with many, many different crafts. Some of them I fell in love with, and others, well, not so much.
One of my favorite crafts was beading. For many years, I made so many different Christmas ornaments and decorative items out of beads, including holiday decorations, bowls, boxes, vases, candle holders, baskets, Kleenex box covers, lamp shade covers, etc. Every year, my family & friends would receive a new batch of beaded Christmas ornaments for their tree. I worked with everything from tiny seed beads to pony beads. And I used all kinds of beads to make one of my other crafting passions: dreamcatchers!
Unfortunately, as luck would have it, I eventually ended up with severe carpal tunnel syndrome in both wrists. Working with beads became too painful and, sadly, I just had to stop. I was so heartbroken that I couldn’t do it anymore, but it had become just too painful and my hands could no longer grasp and hold onto small things such as beads. I had CTR surgery in both of my hands, but, although it took away a lot of the pain, my hands still did not work properly.
Some of my other past favorite arts and crafts that I enjoyed doing for a long time were: candle-making, window staining, jewelry-making, and photography. But one day, my former sister-in-law invited me to a Creative Memories scrapbooking class, and I instantly fell in love with it! Finally, I had found a new craft that I was able to do despite my weak and aching hands! And it was a social craft, which made it even more fun! Then one day, my other sister-in-law took me to a card-making class. Wow! I loved it and it was only natural that, being a scrapbooker, I would also love making cards!
Nowadays, mostly I make cards, but I also try to squeeze in some scrapbooking as well as a little bit of this and that into my crafting. I have been selling my crafts (including my cards) in consignment shops, on eBay, and at craft fairs and such, for years. I have been teaching a card class/workshop with a friend of mine that meets once a month over a period of 2 days. I was a Stampin’ Up! demonstrator for about 2 years, but I just recently had to stop because I was too good of a customer to myself (if ya know what I mean). And that’s pretty much where I am now.
Stay tuned for my first “real” post coming soon..... it will feature one of the cards I taught in class last weekend.
Have a happy, crafty day!
~Dawn
P.S. Check out the photos on my Facebook page, Dawn's Creative Crafts & Cards, to see more photos of some of my beaded items & dreamcatchers. Click on this link.
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