What is "Your" crafting style?

I recently post a question in a planner group asking for ideas people have tried for organizing their stickers. The main debate is to keep them in sticker books like the ones M.AM.B.I sells or to break them apart and sort them by "theme". Its quite funny how it divides the community of planners. I was scrolling through some of the reply's this morning and one question that was posted made me stop and think.

The question was from Marsha Ward, " I love that you have all of those, but can't you see what's in them from the pictures of the pages on the back of the sticker books?

Such a simple question right? But is it?? When I read that question it made me think.... What is My crafting style?? 

Now crafting style varies across the board and really by craft. My style of doing things is not the same for my knitting as it is for my crochet or my cross stitch and my planner life. Each craft I enjoy differently and do differently and I am sure that goes for anyone. However, I think to truly enjoy our crafts we need to stop and think about the question "What is your crafting style for ________?" and use that answer to determined how we store our supplies, pick our supplies and learn to let go of the supplies we do not use anymore.

That whole letting go is actually my phrase of the year. "Letting Go" of things that are holding me down from enjoying this amazing life. Letting go of the extra stuff that keeps me from enjoying the crafts that I love... so what does that look like?

For me I am looking at each craft I love from a different angle. Lets start with planning since that's where the question came from that inspired this post. I am a planner girl, in high school the best part about school was the school supplies. Buying new notebooks, binders, pencils and planners. Now if we want to go way back I will say the highlight of my elementary years was enjoying the original trapper keepers. The smell of those things was amazing and the sound of the Velcro drove the teachers crazy! I wish I had kept mine in pristine condition. I love looking back at photos of them from the 80's and seeing the same ones I had...  But here is the thing, that description is not the reality of a craft. While I love the abundance of buying supplies, once acquired they have to have a place to go... and they have to be easily accessible to be used.

BAM and that my friends is where so many of us fall in the cracks of despair.

This pit of despair is what leave us with sticker books that are unused, pen packs that are not thrown away once used and carts that are a hot mess... (I am looking at mine out of the corner of my eye and I write this.) Now do not get me wrong I am not saying I do not love my craft and things I have to do it with but as I progress in the years and in the craft other crafts sparkle and shine and require my attention. I want to be able to still do all my crafts but I need to stream line the process so I can enjoy everything I want to in a day. Luckily for me I only do a few crafts and some are more of a seasonal thing. Not seasonal as in the weather but seasonal as in my life.

I am a craft gardener so to speak. I may be all into knitting for a while but that field may dry up and I may go crocheting for a bit. As I do that I may start a cross stitch project and it may require more attention so the crochet gets a bit "weedy" so to speak and I come back to it and have to get it all done before it gets smothered out etc... Planning is about the same... its not my main craft. In fact I do not consider it a craft or hobby that I do. I enjoy the trill of new supplies but I have learned my planning style is more of necessity and function over fun and beauty. That last statement is my planning style and how I have to set up my area for it to be a useful and functional one for me. It governs how I need to organize my supplies and how I need to store it so that it gets used. It also lets me know what I need to stop buying and what I can allow myself to buy on occasion. That my friends is HUGE and really can help you in your crafting worlds.

So I am going to talk about how that has helped me understand what to do with all the stuff that goes with my crafts over a series of blog post. I am hoping this not only brings my back to this blog that I love but also brings some peace to your crafts and how you organize and use them. Maybe you will get some inspiration regarding ways to organize and ways to see the things you can let go......