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Getting Crafty for Father's Day

I've gone through several crafty phases as an adult. The biggest ones were scrapbooking and cross-stitching. (I'm not sure if cupcake design counts as a craft, but that was another phase of mine before I started devoting all my spare time to writing)


In the early 2000s, I tried to sell scrapbooking supplies as an independent consultant, but I didn't really know any scrapbookers and was too shy to advertise... so I just ended up buying the minimum orders and keeping almost everything for myself. It was definitely not profitable, but it's still useful to this day - even though I haven't scrapbooked in about twelve years, my collection of supplies fuels lots of other craft projects.


As for cross-stitching, I worked on those while watching TV in the evenings. I started long before we had kids, and in addition to a few miscellaneous projects, over the years I made stockings with intricate designs for all five members of our family. The more kids we had, however, the less time and energy I had, and it took me until our youngest was three to finish her stocking, so at that point I admitted defeat - I'd reached the point where I was too tired in the evenings for projects.


So while I don't have much talent in the area, I do enjoy the occasional crafty project, even as busy as I am these days. Our kids, on the other hand, have varying degrees of enthusiasm for crafts, so I looked up options online for not-too complicated projects that are comic-related - because my husband has collected all things Batman for years now, and he started a comic-themed woodworking business over the past year. After a trip to the store for supplies, we were ready to get to work.


Our youngest, who's ten, is definitely the craftiest. It's usually pretty easy to talk her into doing a craft, though getting her to finish the project is another story. She chose the comic collage project, and she was very pleased with the results.





Our oldest, who's fifteen, would rather read manga all day than do crafts, but she can be talked into the occasional craft, especially if it's a gift for something like Father's Day. After rejecting everything I suggested for her, she jokingly said she would cover a wine bottle with comics. I don't think she expected me to agree, but I thought it sounded cool - and even though between COVID and the world's most stubborn sinus infection, I've been sick (and therefore not drinking) for the past month, and my husband doesn't drink wine unless I do, we had an empty wine bottle lying around. For once, putting off the trip to the glass recycling center for weeks worked to our benefit!





Our thirteen-year-old was the least enthusiastic - he offered to make a 3D modeling project on the computer instead. Whenever a craft, or even just making a card for someone, is required, he'll tell us loudly how NOT artistic he is. But we brainstormed an interesting project for him as a group, and came up with covering wooden letters with a comic collage. What letters? DAD! Even though his project was arguably the most complicated of the three, I helped him through the steps, and he was fine.





Did I make a craft, too, you ask? I did not. But I did remove the pile of plastic bags full of plastic bags from the garage, which my husband uses as his workshop, and that's a chore neither of us ever wants to do - so hopefully that counts, too.

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