D.I.whY?

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To craft or not to craft? That is the question.

Before becoming a parent, I would have always said enthusiastically, “Yes! Crafts!” Now that I have less time, money, energy, and space, the question is a bit more complex. And, I’m not going to lie, the constant parade of beautiful, Pinterest-worthy projects on social media makes me want to do so many projects! Projects that I probably have no business starting or attempting. Yet, the temptation is there.

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So, to make crafts myself or outsource to the experts? Here’s how I decide.

  1. Money. If the project is something that you’re a pro at, and you already own all the supplies, maybe cost isn’t as big of a deal. However, as a jack-of-all-trades crafter, any given project usually involves buying supplies, and buying extra because I’m guaranteed to mess up. Is it more cost-efficient to buy a pre-made item, outsource it to an expert or do it myself? And, moms, your time IS valuable. When you go through this cost-benefit exercise, please factor in at least minimum wage for your time! At LEAST!
  2. Joy. Sure, sometimes it IS way more expensive for me to do something myself, but I enjoy the act of creation. I love learning new things, and I love the feeling of pride when I make something. If crafting brings you joy, then craft your heart out!
  3. Time and space. I personally put these two together, because long drawn out projects eat up the family living space in my home. For this stage of life, with a curious and busy toddler, I don’t like to do big crafts if I can’t complete them in a day. I don’t have space that isn’t our living room and kitchen (although I’m working on converting my home office to a crafting room, which will be amazing once it’s done!). I can’t give up those spaces long term, so things I used to work on, like quilting, is just not feasible right now.

My current phase of life leaves me turning down opportunities to do it myself. But my crafting heart misses the joy of creation. In response, I have started hand lettering as a creative outlet – pens and paper don’t take up much space and are easy to pick up so we have our kitchen table back for dinner. I’ve also started trying to find some simple crafts that I can do with kiddo so that crafting can be a family activity. I try to stick to ideas that are low investment in money and time so that I’m not disappointed if kiddo doesn’t want to participate. We’ve hung two lines of twine across the wall in the living room as a place where we can display his favorite art projects.   

In the spirit of sharing craftiness, here’s a very simple project that you can do with items hopefully on-hand!

If you’re a seasoned crafter, you can Google “toilet paper owls” and see tons of more complex and prettier examples, but I threw this together in about 20 minutes (including finding supplies!) just to show you guys that crafting can be easy!

Toilet Paper Tube Owls

Supplies:
Empty toilet paper roll
Paper
Tape (or glue, or hot glue, or whatever adhesive you wish)
Paint (totally optional)
Scissors

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If you are painting your tube, paint it and let it dry. Alternatively, you can glue colorful paper over the tube or leave it plain! Poke the sides of the tube down to create the ears. Cut out wings and eyes and a beak. I just free-handed mine. Again, you could get way more intense with this, but I just kept it very simple. Tape (or glue) the paper pieces on.

Voila! Super simple. If you make this craft, please share pictures with us over on Insta by tagging  @daytonmomcollective and using the hashtag #momsarounddayton!

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