Plans for 2015

'Tis the season to think about resolutions and goals, and last night, while everyone else in my house was peacefully sleeping, I sat at my craft desk and reflected on crafty plans for 2015. Earlier in the day, I spent several hours cleaning out and straightening my craft supplies, moving a few to the unfinished area of the basement and putting others within easier reach.

I still haven't decided what to do about the ribbon stash.

You see, for me, my craft space organization helps guide my creativity. Clutter--unnecessary or unused supplies taking up visible space or labeled drawers--drains my creativity, while useful things energize and inspire me. Ribbon used to be useful; now, it's just pretty, arranged in rainbow display in glass jars on a shelf. And it's pretty uselessness is starting to annoy me.

Either I need to start using it, or stash it out of sight, or get rid of it entirely.

At the same time these organizational thoughts rattled around in my head, I remembered Ali Edwards' encouragement to create a crafty manifesto, a motto, or some sort of mantra to encourage creativity, and also to have "one word" for the year...an experiment I've tried with varying degrees of failure over the past ten years or so.

As I cleaned off the cork board over my desk earlier in the day, I pulled off a 3" x 5" card with the following written on it: "Do Simple Things Well." I read this on Joan B's blog several years ago, and it stuck with me.

That's my crafty mantra: Do Simple Things Well.

Put that together with the reality of dozens of different craft supplies...an abundance flirting with the border of pathological hoarding...and we have a bit of a contradiction, don't we?

Simple is good, but the sheer quantity of crafty crap inhabiting my space argues against simplicity. Sometimes, tension between two things can be good...a way of maintaining balance and harmony. Sometimes, such tension creates unnecessary stress. The key, for me at least, is to keep the tension healthy and productive.

Hence my plans for 2015.

In past years, I've emphasized using your stamps, and even have a page on this here blog dedicated to a Use-Your-Stamps Challenge. Last night, it occurred to me that I have totally aced the UYS Challenge. No stamps enter my stash until they've been used productively on a number of cards or crafty projects. I no longer buy piles of stamps and hoard them, uninked, like Smaug guarding his gold. Nope. I'm good. The habit of using them before adding them to my stash is firmly engrained to the point of being annoying, and every stamp in my stash has been well-used and justifies the space it takes up.

Now, it's time to use the OTHER stuff in my space. Use it, and decide whether to keep it or move it out. Stuff like colored pencils and watercolor crayons (both rarely used) and stuff like metallic markers and Stickles (both often used). Without trying too hard, I made a list of such supplies and came up with thirty-six items hoarded.

That's when I got tired and went to bed.

So 2015 is my year to Use My Hoard and figure out what in it will help me Do Simple Things Well.

Perhaps you'd like to join me, or perhaps you'd like to expand your hoard and do complicated things well. Doesn't matter. Like the card above says, "Start where you are, but don't stay there."

Let's get moving, folks!

What will your crafty focus be for 2015? Please share in the comments. What you share might give other stampers helpful ideas, and that's always a good thing!