Paper or Yarn?

I have mentioned in previous posts that I do some papercrafting (scrapbooking, visual journaling, collage, etc.), lots of knitting, and a little spindle spinning. I knit several holiday gifts, and then last weekend was inspired to do some more papercrafting.

For me, papercrafting is more free-form than knitting. When I'm knitting I tend to follow a pattern and haven't tried designing patterns. With scrapbooking and collage I tend to play more with different papers and stickers/stamps. I also like decorating journal pages, and using collage along with creative writing (some of this is also related to my spirituality, so more on that in a future Pagan blog post).

I also got inspired to try some more card-making. I have made cards during classes, but haven't made too many on my own. My mom has made her own holiday cards the last few years, so I was also inspired after watching her finish her cards over the holidays (apparently procrastinating runs in the family ;) It was fun using a few of my rubber stamps again, and now that I have a template I'm planning to make some more to have on hand when I need them. Not that I've made more yet though!

Now that I've spent a few days papercrafting, I feel more undecided about what I want to knit next. I have a few things on the needles to finish, and plans to knit a few things for friends as "unbirthday" since I have too many friends with late fall/winter birthdays. I would like to pick a project to knit on the train to work tomorrow though. Making collages on public transit doesn't seem as practical!

My other dilemma is whether to take a papercrafting class later this month, or take an intarsia knitting class. Of course, both classes are on the same day at overlapping times! Haven't decided which one I want to take yet. Anyone want to decide for me? ;)

 How do you balance different types of crafting projects?

Creative Endeavors

Last Saturday I decided to take a break from my knitting to check out a new creative club at a local papercrafting store. I've done some scrapbooking and rubber stamping off and on since before I learned how to knit. Though there are many techniques that fall under the umbrella of "papercrafting," and I don't think I would call myself competent at any of them!

There were 13 women who showed up for the group at Paper Parachute. The beginning was introductions and getting a sense of what everyone is hoping for from the club. Then we got our first club kit - lovely paper, a stamp set, a few crystals and ribbon. Our challenge is to create a card using at least one piece of the paper and the large stamp. We can use anything else we want, and next month everyone will share what they made.

Here's the paper and stamps from the first club kit:

It was fun to try out some new techniques and get some ideas. And I find papercrafting more free form than knitting - we weren't given a pattern to follow, so there are many more possibilities. Right now this seems good and bad - with too many choices it can be difficult to figure out where to start!

I probably won't be able to attend the club meetings every month, but it seems fun so far. I'm enjoying doing different types of creative projects this month :)