Why do you craft?

I started crafting about ten years ago, when I was a senior in high school. I took a sewing class and I think that it was my teacher, Mrs. Kiethley, that made me love sewing. I used to make a lot of things which I thought were cool and unique and she always liked what I created and really encouraged me to create more and more. She actually displayed a bunch of bags that I made in a display case in the hallway of our school, which I thought was really cool. I started out with sewing and eventually moved on to different crafts. I went back to my high school a few years ago to say hi to Mrs. Kiethley and she had absolutely no idea who I was! I was really disappointed, but oh well, she has hundreds of students every year so I guess I can't blame her for forgetting one of them.

P.S. I also won "most unique" senior year. I hope you win it!

I started really crafting when I found cut out and keep.

Before then I just sewed. And not so well, either. I continued crafting because it made me happy and it gave me something to do, rather than leaving me alone with those ever so dangerous thoughts of mine. If I craft, I get hungry and I eat

I have a background in art education, always drew as a kid etc it's just a new way to 'express' myself and it's fun to have little projects to keep me occupied.

Let's see. I suppose the first real crafts I did were at daycare. Got chunked into that really, really early and I'm sure that's where I learned to read too. And right after that, my parents would pack me up to VBS every summer and I think the only reason I really liked it were the crafts. I couldn't sing (at the time) and I asked way, way too many questions for the teachers to like me. And I was always so exact, even as a little, little child. So I got to be known as the artsy person at camp and at school. Even though I was like that in everything. My parents knew I was good at art, but everyone in my family knew I was more smart than artsy so they tried to steer me away from art.

In highschool I had an awesome teacher who taught me all sorts of stuff about quilts and textiles and an art teacher who would just let me hang out and work on projects in her class and a terrible principal who said if I wanted to be an artist I was going to be poor. And so I got to hear a bunch of "Yeah, she's our top student but she's going into art...what a waste..." Highschool was not a fun time for me.So of course I graduated with a BFA in painting, minoring in English, with one class off from minoring in art history, and it's my turn to teach crafts at church camps and VBS schools. (Tying crafts in to the rich history of the church and not just a feel good craft that if you stretch it might have something to do with religion is what I'm good at.) And I'm going back into college to get a degree in Physics. Yay.

I think crafting just keeps me sane! It's so awesome to hold something that you've created, or to set it up, or use it! That's what keeps me crafting. It's cool to finish a painting or solve a math problem, but to actually hold a finished object is just... amazing!

I was always into drawing as a kid and showed promise, but for some reason my mother decided she didn't think I should study it in high school and made me drop it. So I lost all my passion for it and it left my life until I moved here to a small town in Iceland with one shop.

I had to send cards, so I bought some markers, glitter paper and glue and made my own! It just blossomed from there really, I moved to the city found a craft shop, started picking up things I thought I would like and then found craftster and when I found CO+K thats when I was really inspired. Now I knit, sew, paint whatever!
It's just me and my boyfriend so I suppose you could say I do it to take my mind off being alone so much and I love making things for people and hearing how much they enjoyed it

I've always been arty I guess, went to art school and everything but hasn't worked out as a career yet. still think it's the only thing I'm good at and like to do at the same time. Also I don't like buying things if I can make it myself, I like things to be unique.
And it keeps me busy at home when I'm alone, which is most of the time.

My mum used to put out a big mat on the floor of the living room and get out paints, lolly pop sticks and pom poms, things like that. I know that's not really crafting but that kind of thing just got me into it. I loved art in secondary school, really preferred doing practical things like making sculptures rather than painting but just had to use my common sense. Then I decided to force my mum to teach me knitting, then found this website, and plunged straight in!

And now, I craft because it's soothing, because it makes me happy, because it makes others happy, because it makes me just a little different from everyone else and because I feel like our lives should be filled with beauty and we can only depend on ourselves to make that happen

I like that Thats a great philosophy Kitten, I completely agree.

well for me it really only started at the end of last year. When i was little I guess I did bits of craft here and there, probably from those packet sets. I did quite enjoy some of them. I then kind of forgot about crafting, as i got older when we did art class in school, I sucked, I couldn't even draw fish, I hated having to do posters at school, it was my pet peeve. I hated art, it was as simple as that. Then, last year we had to do a scrapbook of our lives as part of my childcare class. I didn't want to use the crappy supplies that the teacher was providing, if I was going to do it I was going to do it well, so I went to Big W (cheap department store) and went through the scrapbooking section there and some of the stuff was pretty cool. From then on it sparked a love of scrapbooking, the scrapbooking stores are to die for! Then in the school holidays at the very beginning of this year K@ti told me I should go on CO&K and I have been hooked ever since, discovering the blog world has also been a big part of my crafting, there are so many amazing crafters out there! CO&K has led me onto so many different types of crafts it's crazy, it is such a great starting point and it inspires people who never thought they would craft, to get up and start creating!

I've been crafting as long as I can remeber. It took me ages to figure out that some people didn't craft/didn't enjoy crafting! None of my friends or family are interested in it, but my mum can sew really well. During art in primary school it alway bugged me that people didn't put effort into their project when I spent hours on mine. In highschool now Shivi's the only person that I know that "crafts" but a few friends like drawing so i guess it's kind of spread a little bit, epecially now DIY is becoming really fashinable.

most people at school saw art as a 'doss' lesson, same with music, i enjoyed both

Same with drama. A lot of people disregard arty subjects, then go on to completely fail them. My brother thought that because he's great at science he could do anything, including silly old art, but now he's failing completely

I loved drama! I've been in Art, Creative writing, Theatre, Guitar Class, and I love doing all the arty stuff in school... its like... thsoe classes are my fun classes that spread out the day, make it feel less long and stressfull


and Queen, whats "doss". I'm guessing its a slang term from the UK or wherever you live.

OR MAYBE its a common term everywhere and I'm just being blonde.

Doss about means to mess about ^^