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I know most creative types have lots of outlets. What did you do before stamping/card making took over ? LOL
I draw..still do. I used to crochet but I have a pinched nerve in my neck and crocheting sets that off SO quickly. I love to garden and play with the weeds LOL. I also cook and bake . A LOT. We are a family of 6 so I cook and bake a lot...
Just curious as to what everyone else used to do..
I paint..watercolours.. still do. I used to do a lot more tatting and lace making. But since I have become addicted to paper well...everything else has gone out the window...almost! LOL
Primarily cross-stitch. I tried sewing and quilting for a short time, also. Most of those supplies now just sit unused, 'scolding' me for not ever getting them out...
I was into cooking. I started a cooking club from Cooking Light's community website. There were 6 of us, that met once a month. Each month was "themed". Each person had a course they had to prepare, i.e. one person did beverages, one did appetizers, soup/salad/bread, main dish, side dish and dessert. We did it for at least 3 years. It was terrific!!! Each person took a turn to be the hostess and have it at their house, and we decorated according to the theme. What fun!!!
I was and still am into cooking, but I started out with Ribbon Embroidery as my main hobby, then when I had my oldest daughter I got into Scrapbooking for obvious reasons. Then when I had my youngest I got into cards after making some "Thank You" cards.
I used to do a LOT of counted cross stitch. I was a Xstitch fanatic! That love has pretty much dwindled down to nothing, partially because jumping back and forth between pattern and stitching is more difficult now that my eyes are 'older', and I wear bifocals.
I also sew/quilt. Don't do as much of that as I'd like anymore either. Working full time contributes to not having the mojo to work on any of my many hobbies. I just can't seem to get motivated to do anything any more.
I don't think there's creative hobby I haven't tried, lol. But the ones that I did a lot of were decorative/folk art painting, polymer clay, jewelry making and primitive sewing (dolls/penny rugs/samplers).
I've been rubber stamping the longest and I can't see myself stopping anytime soon.
I did counted cross stitch but it got difficult to see the pattern and then the aida cloth, so I had to hang that up. Then DH and I got into geocaching. That was so much fun. But once I found cardmaking, I fell in love!! I love all that goes with it. Shopping for supplies, cutting the cardstock, using all the tools and creating!
When I got into making cards, I did scrapbooking. No other crafts to speak of, although I had tried many. I've always sewn, but only sporadically. My other loves are cooking (of all sorts) and riding horses. Horses are my truest passion.
__________________ Diana
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Save your drama for your llama.
Oh man! I have so many supplies from all the crafts/hobbies I've had over the years. I still love and still do quite a bit of knitting and crocheting - mostly now at Christmas time. I use to sew - a lot - made my own clothes for about 10 years. I've tried painting (no talent there) and jewelry/beading and ejoyed it, but I haven't done much else since I started scrapbooking and stamping.
I cross stitched. I really enjoyed it, but I found that I had given as many gifts as I could....everyone was running out of wall space! So I sort of stopped once I found scrapping and card making. I still have my supplies, perhaps some day I'll do it again. Who knows?!?!
Boy, I don't think I could list it all. I used to make all of my own clothes and home dec stuff. Did a lot of counted cross stitch over the years and have several projects unfinished. Same with crewel embroidery. Did ceramics for a number of years - boy, that's an expensive hobby 'cause I worked fast and did lots of firings! Have a ton of beads getting dusty, too. I did lots of odds and ends kind of stuff as I did several craft shows each year. Now I have a fortune invested in papercrafting. Guess it's better than gambling or drinking!
I did folk art/tole/decorative painting for many years and which I still do but to a much lesser degree - cardmaking has really become my passion and taken over much of my craft room. I also still dabble in lots of other crafts such as embroidery and sewing and wish there were more hours in the day to do them all. I always like to have my hands busy so even when I watch TV, I am always colouring images or embroidering.
This is a fun thread! I used to do counted cross stitch, embroidery, and needlepoint. I used to say that I had enough projects to last me until I was 80. Now that I haven't touched it in 3 or 4 years, I think I have enough to last me until I turn 100. The sad thing is that I have several partially done projects.
I barely have time for one hobby, though, much less 2.
I use to be a painter before I got Parkinson's, so my friend got me into rubber stamping and cardmaking...I still do counted cross stitch when I can, no more large projects, I still knit and crochet year round, but rubber rules!
__________________ Karen
...My life is like a stroll on the beach...As near to the edge as I can go...Thoreau...
I LOVE to crochet..something so satisfying about making a scarf LOL..but it ruins my neck for days..I think what I like about it, is that I can do it in the living room with the family at night..
I would love to try making jewelry. I love the intricate looking pieces I have seen. I also would love to take some more pottery classes..haven't in years and I am thinking there wont be one anywhere near this tiny town..LOL Maybe a weekend workshop in Charleston or at the community collge? hmmm
I do scrapbooking besides make cards. I have crocheted but quit - my tension sucks, I can macrame, decorate cakes,liquid embroidery - like Artex, Tri-Chem. Looks like lots of us have other things to try when we get bored/frustrated with our cards
"before?"...you mean I HAD a life BEFORE I started to make cards? Huh...LOL...must have forgotten that part of my existence.
As Kathy said, I love everything about it. Shopping, bringing the new stuff home and taking it to my room, cleaning and organizing my room, using my new stuff, heck..just sitting in my room makes me happy, and it's not even fancy!
It probably would be easier to list what I've never done! - pretty much did every type of craft: ceramics, stained glass, scrapbooking, wreath making, decorating sweatshirts, making my and my daughter's clothes, Christmas ornaments of every type, knitting. I still do needlework: counted cross stitch, charted needlework and ribbon embroidery and also beaded jewelry. For those who have given up needlework because you have trouble seeing the pattern or fabric, I can tell you that a pair of MagEyes works wonders, along with an Ott light. I've been using them for 10 years and still stitch every night. I'm 70 and could not stitch without the MagEyes.
I did quite a lot of glass mosaic, sewing home decorator stuff, like curtains etc. Also did stenciling for years, which gives some of the creative pleasure of stamping but in a different way. I did plastic canvas and counted crosstich and some crocheting, but then let my sister run with those. I did some furniture refinishing as well. But papercrafting soes it for me!
I did do some stamping and card making a number of years ago, I used to do a lot of counted cross stitch, and have done ceramics and made porcelain dolls. For many years I made jewelry, and even had a small business selling quite a bit of it, and focused on just that for about 15 years, but now my hands are too numb from diabetic neuropathy to hold onto beads. I do find that the years of working with colormand design in jewelry help my card making creativity.
Interesting thread, I enjoy hearing what other creative people like to do.
By 14 I made all my own clothes, embroidered, and did a little quilting.
Around 19 I added porcelain doll making to the list.
Around 25 I think was when I added scrapbooking ala "Creative Memories." I didn't like it. I thought it was blechy. I couldn't figure out how to do what my head was envisioning. Well, it's more like what you see today. LOL.
Around that same time, I got VERY into quilting and smocking
AT 28 or so, I was into decorative painting. Did a lot of craft shows.
By 32, I made boutique clothes for eBay and ran my own "modest clothing" website.
Sometime around 38, I had quit the sewing for other people (aside from a few costumes)and was laid up in the chair with undiagnosed asthma. AT that time, I was writing more than ever and one of the stories had paper art in it.
I tried playing with stuff at home to make sure it worked.
A friend made invites with Stampin' Up stuff. I found a local demonstrator. Went to a card club for a year... and then signed up to be a hobby demonstrator. I was a demo for a year and then stopped this April.
I still do most of my crafts... I sew, I make dolls (but not porcelain anymore, quilt, scrapbook (digitally mostly), and such.
I've done so many things like many here. It just depends on the phase I was in. Way back when, I did traditional embroidery, then ceramics, tons of counted cross stitch, bought some horses after I got married and they consumed my life for a long time (still have a couple, but can't ride anymore due to rheumatoid arthritis, so they're mainly pasture ornaments these days). Then it was scrapbooking and quilting, which I still do when my RA will let me. Music (singing and playing piano) have always been a part of my life, but pursued that more seriously and consistently than what I would consider to be a "hobby". (Not that we aren't serious about our stamping, lol).
I am a needlework artist. I love graphic design. I love to decorate & garden. Voracious reader. I am a huge gamer. I love to write. I love to craft anything from fibers to perler beads.
Before I got into paper crafting I tested software and hardware for tech companies. I still do on a much smaller scale. I also fix computers. I was one of "THOSE" computer geeks. I am proud of it. I was also a freelance researcher. I still research. I use to storm chase. I was chasing when I got into paper crafting. My Daddy was a chaser and he taught me. I taught frugality and decluttering for non-profit.
I guess I'm the odd one out. I was quite artistic through my school years, including university, I have a minor in a creative arts field. I moved abroad and lived. I saw a show on a home shopping channel one evening and realized how much I missed my creative outlets. I bought loads and created little (hmmm maybe some things haven't changed).
I enjoy cardmaking however I still want to do more!
For me it started with snail mail. I always loved writing letters and as soon as we started a foreign language at school, I added international pals to my list... Soviet Union at the time had no craft/hobby stores, period, and pretty stationery was nowhere to be found. I started making my own and was pretty pleased when my Japanese pal asked me where I found such unique paper for my letters After I moved to the States and walked into M's for the first time, I was done... I started with decos, ATCs, altered books, faux postage art, etc and eventually moved on to cards and scrapbooks. I could always saw and knit, but I don't do that any longer. I also like interior design and helped a couple of friends to organize/decorate their places.
__________________ Anna.
"Fearless is not the absence of fear. Fearless is living in spite of those things that scare you." (Taylor Swift)
I was drawing a blank until I realized that, before I found cards, I simply worked too much. First with college and grad school, then with jobs that required 50-60 hours per week. I finally landed a job with better pay and better hours, and had free time for the first time in my adult life.
That allowed me to pick up card making, and competitive cycling.
__________________ aka Sue. Or Sue-odd.
No blog for me. My gallery chronicles my card-making successes and mishaps.
What did you do "before" you found cards?
