Staying the course on a no spend……

So recently a fellow papercrafter and fantastic YouTuber named Katpaperlove proposed a challenge to the people who followed her on Instagram . The challenge was determining the crafty items that you WANT vs. the ones that you actually NEED. Now if you’re like me you probably have enough crafting items accumulated to open your own Michaels-amirite? This seemed like an interesting approach to the typical no spend. So I was like-SIGN ME UP!

The no spend started April 10th and at first it was easy-I had ordered quite a few things on AliExpress and had just recently acquired most of the All Heart collection by Crate Paper. I was more than stocked up to make it until May 30th (the end of the challenge) right? Well today the very last of my AliExpress goodies arrived. THE. LAST. PACKAGE. Even though I knew this day would come, I held that package in my hand and stared at it. You can do it. Just open it. I even knew what was inside. I slowly sliced the top with my scissors and pulled out the contents, a bundle of yellow lace. Not very exciting.

In that moment I realized I needed to make my craft about the craft and not about the shopping for the craft. Collecting supplies, always needing the newest collections, endlessly watching Tuesday Morning hauls and needing what everyone was finding. It had become my hobby, not the making, but the BUYING.

So now here we are and I have a whole month ahead of me with no shopping. Using what I have and making beautiful things. This has changed the way I think about my supplies. The rush of creating has replaced the rush of shopping, isn’t that how this all started in the first place? May will have me busy with making for swaps, as well as my shop and by the end of the month I’ll have save enough to go out to a really nice dinner with my family. The habit of shopping is gone and it feels kind of great. You should try this, I promise you won’t be sorry. Shop your stash, make some kits, put your credit card away and get to creating!! I’ll leave you with one of today’s makes-if you’re interested in a tutorial let me know by leaving a comment below!!

xoxo,

Stephanie