DYI Dammit

I had received a copy of DIY Dammit: A Practical Guide to Curse Free Crafting as a birthday gift from my parents. In a family holiday survey I had mentioned that a far fetched New Years resolution for me would be seeing a crafting project through to the end. I had an embroidery project that I had started at the beginning of the summer sitting on top of my bookshelf with only two rows of completed stitches that sat there nagging at me.

My mother gave me this book saying that there are some simple fun projects in there that might be of interest. I actually found that reading the book was quite enjoyable. I really found that Joselyn Hughes brought a voice to crafting to me that was a lot more relatable. She talked about how crafting is a skill that can be learned over the course of time, that mistakes are often made while working on a project and that consuming alcohol while crafting can make the process more bearable.

However where the book fell short for me is that a lot of the items in the book looked fun to do but living in a small apartment I would not know where to put the items when I was done.  But as I was reading this book, my husband showed me a really cool website that sold horror themed bookmarks that I thought looked neat.  Looking at the prices on them I thought it was a lot to pay for one bookmark. I mentioned that if I got card stock, some old paperback novels, glue and laminating paper I could probably make some of my own bookmarks. Little did I know that this would be a new idea for me to pursue. Before I knew it, I finally found a use for old issues of Vogue and old Playbills sitting around my place: cutting them up to make bookmarks that I know that I would use on a regular basis.

And when I needed a new journal (I find it therapeutic to hand write in a journal), I decided to use some of the same materials that I had around my house to make some journals with images that I knew that I loved.  Mistakes have been made as I am learning a new skill: I accidentally decapitated an image of Emily Blunt as Mary Poppins and I have torn up the word family in  my attempts at making journals. I have laminated bookmarks and journals where the lamination has visible creases. But I am having a blast learning a new skill.   I love getting out my scissors and cutting things up and putting them together as my husband and I watch horror movies. I love having personalized items with images that I love.

So I would say that DIY Dammit served as a huge source of inspiration for me. While I did not specifically follow any of the crafts in the book, it gave me the inspiration to think of how I could make something that I want for myself. It feels good to engage in the process of creating something new.  I am not surprised that I am into making things that can be used in my life where I am constantly reading and writing.