Craft Month Q&A: Lain Ehmann
Almost none of us come to scrapbooking as "crafting virgins". Many of us were crafting from childhood, and as scrapbookers, continue to engage in other crafts as well - and even to incorporate those crafts into our scrapbooking. So, for National Craft Month, Scrapbook Update has decided to talk to some scrapbookers about their "other" craft loves. (Would you like to be the subject of one of these Q & A's? Visit the Scrapbook Update Editorial Calls page!)
Lain Ehmann is the co-founder of Ella Publishing and a former contributing editor at Simple Scrapbooks. She's the author of the book Snippets: Mostly True Tales from the Lighter Side of Scrapbooking, and currently blogs at Five Things.
Lain's love of knitting is well-known - her blog URL is actually "knitandpurlgrrl.blogs.com" - which makes her the perfect scrapbooker to ask about her love of crafting to kick off our National Craft Month Q&A series!
What was the first craft you ever remember doing? At what age? And what got you started?
I have lots of crafting memories! One of the very first is when my mom used to help me make paper dolls from the Sears catalog, and then I'd cut out tons of outfits for them... We'd select a face we liked from the models in the catalog and then I'd go to town. I tried to get my own daughters interested in this DIY activity, but they just looked at me like I was nuts. They're spoiled with the readily available fancy graphics on the computer!
Can you name all the crafts you have tried as hobbies?
This is in no particular order....
- Calligraphy
- Crochet
- Knitting
- Stamp carving
- Scrapbooking
- Sewing
- Embroidery
- Card-making
- Collage/art journaling
- Painting
- Sketching
This doesn't count the activities I bought supplies for but never actually attempted!
What crafts do you currently do?
- Knitting
- Scrapbooking
- Card-making
I've taken a break from sewing but will get back into it soon! We moved recently and I haven't had a chance to get all my goodies unpacked. :)
What other crafts have you incorporated into your scrapbooking?
I've sewn some on pages, and I once knit a mini-sock that I included on the page... but pretty much scrapping is scrapping! I do use the leftovers for my card-making, though.
What is your favorite craft & why?
Scrapbooking, definitely! It's so versatile -- I can document my other crafts if I like. It's also relaxing for me, and a way of being creative without having a particularly artistic bone in my body. And the paper... ahhh! I love the ability to combine photos with stories (my love of writing, you know). And my family can enjoy it, too.
