| Dear Crafter, In This Newsletter
Amy Wiegman, former Creative Woman newsletter editor, introduces you to one of your new Creative Woman editors Maria Nerius. You'll enjoy reading Maria's first Creative Woman article, which she has dubbed, "Operation Organizaton." It's about her adventure when she organized her craft supplies, and she includes before and after photos. You'll also find organizational tips to help get your creative supplies organized. Get some post-holiday inspiration from a few quick and easy projects that will show you how to recycle your holiday greeting cards. Also, read how other creative women are staying green. Included in this issue are free instructions for an adorable door hanger courtesy of e-PatternsCentral.com. Meet One of Your New Editors
Writing this newsletter for the past two years has been a true blessing. Not only has it kept me on my creative toes, but it has allowed me to meet scores of inspiring people like you who have generously shared heartfelt stories, clever ideas and general good wishes. I will miss coming into your home each month, but my career path is leading me to shift gears and focus more time on my other much-loved job -- managing the pattern selections at
e-PatternsCentral.com And so it is with great pleasure that I introduce you to Maria Nerius and Melony Bradley, two talented women who will be your new authors and friends beginning with this newsletter. They will take turns, and so you will be treated to an alternate voice each month, beginning today with Maria. I know that both women are bubbling over with creative ideas for this newsletter, and I am eager to join you as one of its readers! 
Amy Wiegman
Back to top. Operation Organization  |  | My supplies were piling up everywhere. | Now all are organized with everything in its place. | It's almost the end of January already, and you'll have to forgive me but I'm still working on figuring out what my New Year's resolutions should be! How about you? Did you make any New Year's resolutions? Do you have a list of goals you are hoping to accomplish in 2009? As usual, I have plenty of goals and one big resolution: I want to be the most organized crafter in the whole wide world. If you'd asked me how I was feeling about being organized towards the end of last year, I might not have been so upbeat. My home, my business and my life were in complete chaos just a few weeks ago, and I was ready to cry, "Uncle!" I couldn't see the light at the end of the tunnel because there were way too many craft supplies blocking my view.
 | Piles of Stuff: Craft supplies stacked high and low! | After over 20 years of running a craft business out of my home, I decided I wanted my home back. Our family room had been used as my craft studio since we moved into our house in 1987, and often my craft materials spilled over into other rooms too. I'm a little ashamed to admit it: I not only had a 12 x 18-foot room of craft space inside my house but also a 20 x 22-foot studio in the backyard, and I still couldn't find room for all my craft stash! Granted, I'm not your average crafter; I craft professionally, but it was all getting out of hand. After some soul searching, I decided I had too much stuff, and it was time to downsize. My husband (a genius in my eyes because he can build anything) said he'd expand the backyard studio and add 120 square feet. Problem solved, I thought. With the additional space in the studio, surely I'd be able to find room for all my craft supplies. The chaos started when all the craft stuff out in the studio had to be brought inside the house while the addition was being built. It was a ton of stuff! The only uncluttered zone in our house was the master bedroom -- as long as you didn't count all the stuff I hid under the bed. Three months later, the new and improved studio was ready. It was at this point that I realized that no expansion was going to be big enough for all the art and craft supplies I had accumulated over the years. As a general craft designer and book author, I needed a wide variety of supplies and tools at my fingertips. Something drastic had to be done. It was time for a reality check and time to scale down the number of different types of crafts for which I had stored supplies. There is not enough time to do all the crafts I want, but I had no problem accumulating stuff. I would look at my pile of doll supplies and think, maybe someday I'll get the time to make more dolls. I would look at my yarns and packages of felt roving and not know if I could handle parting with all the pretty textures. I would think to myself, I might start painting again since I have all those paintbrushes. I had some supplies that I hadn't touched or even thought about in years. It was overwhelming. I was dazed and confused. In a rare moment of clarity, I wrote several categories of crafts down on a piece of paper, ripped the paper so only a single category was on it, carefully folded each one and threw the pieces of paper in the air. I calmly picked up five slips of paper. These pieces of paper symbolized the five types of craft supplies that would be moving to my new studio. I breathed a sigh of relief when my first pick was jewelry making. I almost giggled when my second pick was needle arts (punch needle and embroidery). Only three more to go! Paper craft was next, but that huge category included papermaking, card making, scrapbooking, altered arts, rubber-stamping and collage. Yet, I did a jig of joy since I just love paper. My last two selections were painting and felting. I felt relief and a new energy to get organized. All the rest of my supplies, including my wonderful yarns and doll-making supplies were carefully packed into boxes. Some boxes were shipped off to crafting friends I knew were still very active in those crafts. Other boxes were taken to area schools and a community center. I had to make some tough decisions, but I was moving closer to my goal. I felt confident I'd get more enjoyment out of crafting with a more focused course in my creativity. Parting with almost half my craft supplies was part of getting organized.
 | New Studio: The new studio is my pride and joy. | We spent most of the end of the year moving all the remaining supplies to the new studio. I had heaps, loads and masses of craft supplies all over the place. I almost gave up near the end, but my resolve was strong. Before allowing anything to be moved to the new studio, I once again reviewed the supplies. Did I really need more than one paint stylus? Would I use three woodburning tools? How much white thread did I need in the next five years? I made more tough decisions, but I was seeing some light at the end of the tunnel. It's not easy for a crafter to part with his or her creative stash. I'm not going to lie: Some of my organizational process was painful. I experienced moments of separation anxiety, but it got easier to handle as I saw how beautiful my new craft studio was becoming. As I write this message to you, my new studio is just gleaming. Sometimes we need to clean out the old so that new ideas and new inspiration can have some space to grow. It is not always fun; it is not always easy, yet the possibilities make the time invested worth all the effort. Whether you craft as a hobby or as a way to earn money, it's important to step back on a regular basis and take stock of what you have and what you need. My only advice to you is don't wait 20 years to do it like I did.
 | Studio Entrance: It's a short walk past our goldfish ponds to the new studio. | I feel like I have a fresh start for 2009 especially since I've joined the wonderful Creative Women team! We're going to have a year full of creativity and fun. Back to top. Organization Tips  | Organization: Being organized saves time, effort and money! | Creativity tends to get a little messy at times while organization prefers order and clarity. It is possible to be creative and organized; you just have to get ... creative! - Keep in mind how your mind works! I like to design by color. When I sit down to make a bracelet, I'm thinking I want to make a black and white bracelet. So, I've always organized my beads by color group (not by size or type of bead). I can find what I want quickly this way. You may prefer to organize by material, size, type or technique.
- Use clear organizers whenever possible. It's out of sight, out of mind for us crafters! If you don't have clear organizers, it's very important to label your containers. This makes it easy for you to spot what you need by reading a label and not having to open several containers before you find the supply.
- Keep a running list of what you have on hand, what you've run out of, and what you need for a future project. Keeping a current inventory helps prevent buying duplicates. Knowing what you need for a future project prevents you from having to make five trips to the craft store. Saving time is part of staying organized.
- Keep everything in its place. Mom was right again! If you keep important supplies and tools in the same place and always put the items up after use, you'll never waste time hunting down your sewing scissors or favorite rubber stamp again! I keep a basket of my most-used tools on my worktable. It's pretty, and I know where my heat gun and glue gun are.
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