When I was young—say, second grade—I was pretty good at
drawing princesses. Problem is, I still draw princesses about as well as I did
when I was in second grade. I’m horrible at drawing sharks or any other animal.
Stick figures? Er . . . as long as you can tell it's supposed to be a person, it's good, right? When it comes to art
skills, I don’t have them. Some of my kids do, though. My second daughter once
took the grand prize for her age category in a national art contest. She did not inherit this ability from me. I’m about as skilled at drawing as I am at parallel parking.
I’m also lacking in craft skills. I have made a few craft
projects in my life, usually at Relief Society events, and I can make things
that are reasonably cute if you don’t look too closely—they look even better if
you forget your glasses—but when it comes to the details that produce polished
final products, I fall flat on my face. If I create anything by hand, it's going to be a little crooked and a little ragged (so it's a good thing my husband is the one who repaired the fence).
I haven’t done anything craftsy for a while, but today we had a two-ward Relief Society Super Saturday, so I signed up for a few things. The biggest project I did was a set of apothecary jars where we painted and glued wooden bases, etc., to three jars to make a set we could fill with Halloween candy or Christmas candy, or what have you. My work ended up sort of B-minus-ish (“Display in dimly lit room only”). Also, I got paint on my pants. But after I took my not-so-skillfully-painted project home, I went to the store to get some glue to fix the jars where the bases had already fallen off (heh) and some ribbon to dress them up (the sample picture they’d shown us had ribbon—no, I wasn’t clever enough to think of adding ribbon myself). After I fixed the bases, filled the jars with candy, and tied ribbons on, they actually looked . . . cute! I consulted my son as to whether long ribbons or short ribbons looked better. He’s an eleven-year-old techno-genius-geek who regularly puts his shirt on backwards, and he was right about the ribbon—short looks better. He also took pictures for me, using my husband’s camera, which I don’t exactly know how to use.
I'm pleased. Despite the flaws in my craftsmanship, I like the overall effect. I'm no longer troubled by uneven painting or glue issues, and if anyone out there is tempted to look for flaws, just LOOK AT THE CANDY. SEE ONLY THE CANDY.
At Super Saturday, I also made pendants out of Scrabble tiles and scrapbooking paper. I don't have a close relationship with scrapbooking; except for a partial baby book made for my oldest daughter, all the other baby memorabilia is is in files or in a box or . . . hmm, I wonder where it is? But today I learned you can use scrapbooking paper to make jewelry.
I have Achieved Craftsiness. At least for one day.
They look good to me! Of course, I don't know if I have room to talk, since my sister (and mom) and I write a blog all about our wayward crafts. Or about wayward girls who craft. It's a little ambiguous.
ReplyDeleteI applaud your efforts. It looks like you have conquered your fear of crafts. Look to the universe and say "next!"
ReplyDeleteGo you, Stephanie! You're bringing out a hidden talent. Amazing how much more satisfactory it is to do a craft when you're happy with the results.
ReplyDeleteI was going to compliment you on your nice candy jars, but then I read the sacrilege in your last paragraph. HOW COULD YOU?!?!
ReplyDeleteYou destroyed a game of Scrabble for art's sake? You can't even see the letters, so it's clearly not an homage to the game. I'm just so saddened by this, I think I'll just go retreat into my tile bag and C(3)-R(1)-Y(4). =(
Aww, thanks, Jordan, Lisa, and Donna :) I came, I saw, I crafted.
ReplyDeleteJon, no need to weep! No actual Scrabble games were harmed in the making of those pendants. They bought the tiles from a craft store :) Will you now compliment my jars?
Alright, I am mollified. I will even offer that the pendants are cute. If I wore necklaces, though, I think I'd prefer those tiles have letters on them to resemble Scrabble tiles. I could spell words to wear, depending on my mood.
ReplyDeleteYour jars are very pretty. Did you ever wonder what they might have stored in the apothecary jars before you bought them? Perhaps a homonculus? (What's the candy level on those jars now?)
Let's just say I hope you don't mind if your candy tastes like eye of newt.
ReplyDeleteThe candy level on the jars is as follows: candy corns=about the same, M&Ms=very slightly down, Reese's etc.=3/4 gone. Apparently that jar is the winner so far.