One of my favourite things to do, other than making things, is to plan making things! I love to browse books, magazines and websites, dreaming up my next 20 projects or so. My lunch hour obsession is Mollie Makes magazine - I love its crisp matte paper and pretty design (great for reusing afterwards). They also have a blog here.
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| {source: the making spot blog} |
We all know that Pinterest is a great source of craft inspiration (and a great way to store all those ideas randomly discovered while clicking around the net) and I'm sure we all have a long list of favourite blogs with pages and pages of free DIYs and tutorials.
So why buy a craft book? For me, it's pretty much the same reason as I buy any books in the age of the kindle: there's something magical about holding a real book in one's hands, and turning the pages. With craft books these days, there's the added bonus of beautiful design - a whole way of being is evoked within the pages.
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| {source: this enchanted pixie blog} |
I recently won a truly lovely craft book in a giveaway (along with some other adorable handmade things from Polly's shop which you can see above!) The author Eithne Farry manages to conjure up a carefree, quirky, gently rebellious atmosphere: extolling the virtues of interfacing one minute, the next suggesting that you "go dancing with someone wildly inappropriate"!
She is a whirlwind of ideas, often throwing in a heap of possible creative variations on an original project. There are tiny projects (I love the idea of making a brooch from those tiny pieces of broken china one sometimes finds in a field) and big ones (proper dresses, that kind of thing). I know I'll enjoy making some of them.
The thing is, it doesn't matter if I don't make everything featured in my little pile of crafty books and magazines: they still inspire and encourage me to keep making - and dreaming!
p.s. thanks so much Polly!
