Biggest crafty regret

I bought a lot of stuff in the beginning not knowing what products worked well and what I really liked and would use. I have had a lot of success in selling stuff on Ebay. I had rather get a few dollars back than nothing at all. Just put it as buy it now and it may take a year to sell but eventually stuff sells. Crafting styles changes just like in fashion, food, home decor and if you aren't using it move it out. Marie Kondo says, " Does it bring you joy?". Think about if you passed away, what would happen to all your stuff? Use what you love, move out the other stuff and let someone else enjoy it! I actually get more excited about selling stuff rather than buying stuff now!

This is an interesting thread...thinking back over 20 years of scrapping is hard!

I don't have any significant regrets, but when I first started was when QVC used to have their marathons, and I would buy those crazy value packs and things that spanned the seasons. I actually liked a lot of it, used it and still have some! So it wasn't a totally bad decision, but I think just regret not being more intentional with product buying all along.

I also over estimated how many baby pages I would make for my nephew and accumulated a lot of baby boy stuff.

I regret not going to crops sooner, even if I didn't know anyone, because I really enjoy them now!

A lot of things that I maybe have parted ways with since served their purpose for a time. I wish I would have known about companies going out of business and purchased two Making Memory trimmers.

I probably have more regrets in the way I used to store things, more bulky and wasteful, but have def streamlined in the last few years.

I regret getting rid of my Big Shot and all my dies when I bought my Silhouette portrait. Years later, I took up cardmaking again and bought a second-hand Big Shot plus - now that was a good buy! but I still miss some of the dies I used to have.

well, hindsight is always 20/20 so from the good old days, 

I regret buying:
-the making memories slice die cutting machine
-all those Slabs/Stacks paper pads
-the Silouette first.  i should have just gotten the Cricut expression from the get-go
-the Cricut Expression because i never really used that either
-Cricut cartridges
-cheap clear stamps.  they were crap.  yellowed and got sticky over time.  
-brads and snaps
-glue dots
-alphabet die cuts. so so much of that
-thousands of journaling cards.  like what the hell.

OMG yes! That damn NOT sew easy tool.  I had to have it. It was terrible. LOL!

The wire writing tool (I forget what it was called) where you could use spools of wire with this tool and a jig to make shapes or wire words. I think I tried using it once. What a disaster.

Queen & Co. “Silly String” - total FOMO purchase. My friends were getting it (at CKC) and although I really knew I’d never use it, they convinced me I needed it. And it still sits there unopened in its plastic package.

There are some PL kits I regret getting (like Coral) - I didn’t like them that much, but at the time I was splitting these purchases with a friend and she wanted them.

I regret buying all the multiple configurations of pocket/PL page protectors. I pretty much stick to Design A.

I regret buying practically every color of MM paints, which have all dried up. (Really, I regret not using them before they dried up. The colors are lovely!)

I sometimes regret selling my chalk sets. Sometimes. But I’ve got inks that can mostly do the same thing.

I regret selling a sample page (that I made for my LSS) to a customer - she was really pushy and the person working called me at home and kinda pushed me into selling it. But, it would probably still be sitting here without any photos on it.

I regret buying the Minc, and all the foil to go with it. I have tried to use it twice and have not had good results either time. I either need to embrace it as a laminator (if it will even work for that) or sell it next time my LSS does a garage sale.

I also regret purchasing a lot of my mixed media supplies. I have an expensive tendency to like complete sets of things so I have had so many different inks, paints and pastes dry up or go bad over the years. I have tossed so much stuff! I am really trying to be smart and stick to basics now, but I occasionally slip up. (Nuvo Drops, I'm looking at you.)

Another regret is a lot of paper pads. For some reason I really need to work at using them in paper pad format. Not to mention, so many of them are out of date now (K and Co paper pads from M's especially). Lately I have been tearing into them to file any sheets I think I might use, and then trying to make a dent in the rest of them by using them to back layouts or make envelopes. It's an uphill battle.

My biggest regret is subscriptions. I started getting into PL right around the time that Studio Calico launched their PL kit, so I signed up for the waitlist and soon became a subscriber. For a while (maybe about a year?) I did PL weekly...but then I stopped doing it. I think I just got overwhelmed with the process of printing photos, etc, but I was so sure I was going to pick it back up, so I stayed a subscriber and kept growing my stash of kits. Then I added on the scrapbook kit because it had pretty embellishments/stamps that I could use in PL...and pretty soon I had a huge amount of PL/scrapbooking stuff even though I hadn't done anything in years. I came to realize that while I love scrapbooking/PL in theory, in practice I gravitate towards cardmaking. When I think of all the money I spent on those kits, I get sick to my stomach. I ended up donating/RAKing a lot of it, keeping some of the best bits and selling some stuff, but it was mostly wasted money. I also subscribed to Felicity Jane for a few years and ended up purging a lot of her stuff too because it didn't work for cards. (I did keep a bunch of her papers, she does amazing papers!)

My second biggest regret is stamps. When I started getting into cardmaking, I bought lots of stamps, but I've come to realize that I don't like complicated/fussy stamping. I don't mind stamping simple sentiments, but layering stamps, turnabouts, backgrounds, heat embossing, stamps to color in...it's all too much effort that I don't even enjoy. I much prefer making simpler cards or focusing my energy on die cutting. Sometimes I'll go the extra mile to achieve a look I really like (especially for Christmas cards), but mostly I'm lazy!

I'm another one who regrets that old original Cricut (and the pricey) cartridges. Hardly used it, never really got the hang of it.

On the plus side, due to that purchasing regret, I have never even entertained another cutting machine, which probably prevented another spending mistake.

If it isn't important to sell it, you can call local schools or nursing homes, or facilities who work with people with disabilities. There's always a need for things like these. I gave a bunch of 8.5X11 colored cardstock to an elementary teacher who was going to have to buy it herself for a project a few years ago.

I had the 2 nd gen silhouette. I bought it in 2010. I fought with it. Software was fine , getting the damn thing to cut ugh.
I threw it out this past Monday. It was taking up a drawer and we'll it's gone. I feel good about the toss but wow that was expensive and the images I bought initially for 3 years

Other than lack of creativity, decisiveness, & time commitment to scrapping, I have no regrets (that I can recall anyway). Since I painsakingly overanaylize every.single.purchase & am not into "gadgets," I rarely buy big ticket items or anything I don't love.


Suggestions for donations destinations (Please contact each organization for its donation guidelines):

Preschools
Elementary schools 
Middle & high school art classes
After school art programs
Church preschools/children's ministries
Church VBS programs
Children's art museum
Big Brothers/Sisters
Boy/Girl Scouts
Ronald McDonald House
Juvenile detention centers
Children's hospitals
Children's homes
Adoption agencies
Women's shelters
Women's prisons
Assisted living centers
Nursing homes
& many more!

Ha! I still use the Sew Easy- I don't have a sewing machine and wouldn't know how to use it if I did! It's not the best but I make it work. I also am still rocking my Cricut Expression- I have no desire to start hooking my cutter up to my computer and messing around with that. I like the fact that the cartridges are self-contained and separate.

My biggest crafty regret is cutting my pictures into shapes or silhouettes on my earliest pages. I probably still to this day crop my pictures too closely- sometimes seeing all of the "artifacts" in the background are what make the old pictures so fun to look at. I just can't help myself.

I have a set of Basic Grey (Picadilly) that is not my style at all- I would love for it to find a new home. It only has 9 out of the 18 full sheets left, and probably half of the remaining 9 sheets left. Is that something someone would want or is it too incomplete? I've never used the FSOT board.

As previously mentioned, subscriptions. I thought they would inspire me to be creative and think outside the box by providing items I wouldn't normally purchase. As it turns out, my likes and style are fairly firmly ingrained and even when I used the products, I didn't like the layouts I created. I still furrow my brow when I look at them and want to remake them.

I ended up donating a lot of it by leaving it in the breakroom at work. We (had) a large staff ranging from teen to seniors and people were thrilled to dig through it. Everything was always snapped up by the end of the day. People grew to love seeing me walk through the door with a box and it was fun to share. 😊