Archives for January 2020

What’s on Your Workdesk Wednesday – #556

on my desk…

Hello my crafty friends! It has been quite a long time since I have posted. The holidays swept me up and life took over after that but here I am ready to snoop and catch up with all of you.

For those of you that aren’t familiar with WOYWW (What’s On Your Workdesk Wednesday), head on over to Julia’s Stamping Ground and you will find desks from all around the world where we get to snoop on other crafter’s desks.

My new Faber Castle Polychromos.

Today I am sharing some coloring I started this past weekend at my monthly ladies craft day. It is from an amazing Greek coloring book I purchased over a year ago. The cool thing about it is that they have suggested colors on the left side page for each image. So if you struggle with color combinations, it relieves some of the anxiety. I am using my new Faber Castle Polychromos I got for Christmas. I also got a new case to put them in that rocks my world. Who knew cacti could be so pretty!

Greek coloring book.

I am trying to learn the differences in using the polychromos and my Prismacolor pencils. I have used the Prismascolors for several years now so it will fun to learn a new pencil. Once again, I have made a new year’s resolution to color in all of my coloring books. Last year, I colored a lot but certainly not all and let’s not talk about the new coloring books I purchased towards the end of last year! (like I need any more but what’s a crafter to do?)

I never got a chance to share a photo with you all of the ’12 days of Christmas table decor” that I was making. So here they are as I displayed them at our monthly crop in December.

12 Days of Christmas

I boxed them up for next year. They were a lot of fun to make. I ended up bringing them to my in-laws over the holiday as well.

Well I am off so I can get to work. I will pop around to see what you all are doing over the course of the next few days.

Have a blessed day!

Belinda

Earth Crafts: Reusing household items

For the past few years, I have made it a point to make sure I include “earth-friendly” goals as part of my new year’s resolutions. Two years ago, I pledged to only use reusable bags for both grocery and regular shopping. I ordered beautiful bags that I carry in my purse and use when I am loading up at Target, Michaels or clothing retailers. I purchased additional insulated shopping bags for my grocery shopping. I have stuck to that pledge and it makes me really happy.

This year, I add a few more “earth-friendly” goals and today I thought I would share with you a quick project that acts on the principle of reuse which is one I am working on in 2020. More important than recycling, reusing items is a great way to elimate waste.

Calender photo in frame.

Every year, I always purchase a wall calender for my craft room that has some sort of nature as it’s theme. For 2019, I bought a weekly calender with 52 beautiful flowers. So when I replaced it with my 2020 calender I wanted to think of what I would do with it. I could not bring myself to throw away these amazing photos of flowers. So I measured the pictures and grabbed a frame that I previously used with holiday sentiment displayed in it and used it to display the beautiful image. I will cut them to size and swap out other flowers as the year progresses.

Displayed it on my gallery shelves.

I can’t tell you how amazing it looks displayed on my gallery shelves. I could pay a lot of money for art like this in the stores but now I have saved these beauties from the landfill and gained beautiful art for my craft room.

So make sure you pause before throwing things away and try to reuse then because it is so much better than recycling as well as it stretches our creative mind.

Have a blessed Monday my friends!

Belinda

Happy New Year!

Wow, It’s really 2020! I am loving this number. It rolls off the tongue so nicely. I have been away for some time now enjoying the end of 2019 with my family. The holidays tend to sweep me up and I tend to let go of my routines. I hope you all had a wonderful holiday and start to your new year.

Reflecting on Belinda’s Crafts in 2019

This is the post I typically share all of my plans for the upcoming year. But first, I want to pause and reflect on last year, in order to prepare for 2020. So indulge me for a bit and read on. (You should grab a cup of tea. This might take a while!)

What happened to Belinda’s Crafts? When I think about this question, there are many factors that come to mind. I have a family that requires my love and attention, I have my health that I work on daily to keep optimum, But one of the real reasons, Belinda’s Crafts started to unwind was after a few years of using Instagram. Don’t get me wrong, I loved the visual aspects of this social media platform. I found inspiration from other artists and connected with friends and family.

But one day I realized that the act of using Instagram had become toxic for me. Where I used to find inspiration and community, I began to feel doubt and envy creep. I would find lack in myself when I closed the app. I began to question my skills and products and didn’t see a clear picture of where I fit in. I lost my creative mojo and turned away from creating new products.

Finally it was like a veil was lifted and I knew that Instagram and I needed to break up. I needed a break. I felt like each day, I was bombard with people sharing their lives with me in what I call the “look at me” culture. I had to scroll through so much to get to what I really wanted to see and that was creative and spiritual content. But once you sign up and friend people, you get stuck with whatever “oversharing” they chose to throw out there. I fell victim to it myself but one thing I knew was that I needed to dial it back and focus on me. So I stopped all social media with the exception of Pinterest, Youtube and a couple bookish apps.

Eventually, I took the last couple years off from creating new inventory for my online Etsy store. For the past two years, I only dedicated time to custom orders. It wasn’t intentional at first but I remember feeling more comfortable creating custom orders for people I knew.

This break was perfect because I focused on other interests, coloring with other mediums, with a focus on colored pencils. and reading books like a mad woman and of course time with family. These activities gave and still provide me with an immense amount of pleasure.

However, leaving the big social media platforms by choice meant that I was often and still am out of the social loop with my friends because I don’t log into my Instagram app and rarely touch Facebook (that’s a whole other story.). But I am ok with that, because I feel like I regained my calm and have been slowly rebuilding my confidence when it comes to my business and me.

So what’s up with me for 2020 you ask? Well I have decided I will spend this year rebuilding my company. From visuals (website, branding etc.) to new product development and marketing. I have been thinking about what to do with the question of social media and it’s role to help my business and have decided to create a business account that will focus on my company and connect with a select few businesses for inspiration and support. I won’t have a personal account (so no “look at me” posts). I am going to keep it small and use it to promote products. I will think about a separate one to focus on connecting to friends but at this time, I think it will just be a distraction and I don’t want to go down that path again.

In 2020, I will also be restructuring this website a bit to be more conducive to my business objectives. I will also use it more to market and promote my business as well as a place customers can see what I do at work and when I am at play. I will try to bring more mindful content on a regular basis.

As for my confidence in my craft and products, I will take it day by day and as I create more, I believe I will feel more confidence. I am really happy to say that I have regained my inspiration and will be creating new product lines for Belinda’s Crafts. Most products will continue to be papercrafting products but I have a few ideas up my sleeve that I might give a try.

I hope you all will be patient and stick with me through this because I believe it is going to be an exciting ride with ups and downs but great results.

Thanks for taking the time to hear me out today. I am always so grateful for your time.

Have a blessed day!

Belinda

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