What to Do When a Product Becomes a Brick Wall for You

In late February, I mentioned that one product in the picture below was giving me fits of frustration, but I withheld the name of that product. Someone asked what it was, and several guessed (incorrectly) that it was the glue pad. I meant to clarify the issue immediately but in my frustration kept putting it off. Well, here goes.

I'm hatin' on that feather punch. While the two feather stamp sets I've purchased from Waltzingmouse make me quite happy, the feather punch isn't doing it for me. I've punched at least several dozen feathers from all sorts of different papers, and let's just say that my creative muse has withdrawn her support, leaving me flailing around and wishing I could have that money back.

*sigh*

The only card that's come close to making me happy (and it actually does!) is today's card.

This bright blue vellum is so very pretty! It's attached with vellum tape
that doesn't show through. I deliberately let the top feather hang
over the edge to add interest and break the clean lines of the raised panel.

Okay, so I pulled one successful card out of this punch. Now what? The experience was so painful, so frustrating, that duplicating it seems masochistic.

What can we learn from this?

First of all, frustration CAN be good for you creatively. It forces you outside your comfort zone. Note how little white space is on the card? Yeah, that feels weird to me, but so what? The design works. Frustration can help break down barriers in our creativity, open up possibilities we never considered, free us to experiment, push us to play. These are good things.

Second, our mood--which varies from day to day or moment to moment if you're peri-menopausal like me--strongly affects our creativity. If you're frustrated beyond reason (swearing at inanimate objects or throwing things), step away for a bit. If you're frustrated and feeling challenged ("By golly, I'm going to figure this out if it kills me!"), work for a while, step away, come back later, try again. Repeat these steps as many times as necessary to break down the barrier. Washi tape worked this way for me. Eventually, I figured it out, and now it makes me happy!

Third, accept this eternal truth of crafting: some trendy products just don't work for some people. For instance, one would think that I would love and adore sequins. They are like bling, only less expensive, bigger, and flatter. Yay! Right? Wrong. I see so many gorgeous CAS cards online that use sequins, but every time I use them, they look weird. Ugh.

Now, what should I do about the feather punch? Is a few months enough time to give it a fair chance? Washi took several years...though I confess I never cussed at the washi like I did at the punch. (For the record, the only thing I threw was a punched feather because I knew it wouldn't hurt anything. I'm a model of self-control!) Some people would have thrown the punch in the trash by now, or put it up for sale, or given it to charity. These people are normal, healthy individuals, and I applaud them.

I'm not one of them.

Perhaps you're not normal either, and you might appreciate a process by which you can make these difficult, first-world decisions. Here you go.

Step 1: Identify the offending product. You can't deal with a problem if you won't admit you have one.

Step 2: Put the offending product in a box with other offending products because you know you have more than one. Clearly label the box.

Step 3: Store the box of offending products far away from your craft area. Out of sight, out of mind.

Step 4: Review contents of the box periodically. Over time, some will make their way back to your craft space for play. You'll either figure them out or you won't.

Step 5: When you're absolutely convinced that you've given the product a fair chance and it's just not right for you, let it go. Sell it or give it away. Or find a safe place to ritually burn it if vengeful destruction feels more satisfying and doesn't violate burning restrictions in your area.

Happy stamping.

Supplies
stamps: Papertrey Happy Trails
ink: Memento Luxe
paper: Papertrey white, blue vellum
accessories: Fiskars feather punch, dimensionals, vellum tape, silver half-beads, Prismacolor silver metallic marker