What is your Addiction?

I have many addictions. If you are a Scrapbooker or Paper Crafter you too probably have an addiction or two. But my addictions go past some paper and glitter!

I am addicted to Art Supplies!! I am a Jack-of-all-Trades. I can't stop with one medium. I have acrylic paints, then Fluid Acrylics, Shiva Paintstiks, watercolours, Copics, Prisma Pencil Crayons and PanPastels on the way!! Plus dye inks, pigment inks, distress inks, alcohol inks and solvent inks. Glimmer mists in a pile of colours, luminarte sprays and Adirondak Sprays! For me scrapbooking is about trying new techniques and getting messy!!

And how do I learn all these new techniques? Why books and magazines of course. You can't judge a book by it's cover, but if it pretty I will buy it!! I love to buy books!! I love to read the instructions and look at the pretty pictures. I love paper crafting books from Japan! I can't read it, but the pictures are still pretty and I can totally get inspired by the way they look at design. Plus almost all magazines from Somerset!! They are all so inspiring that I can't bare to get rid of them!!

My next addiction is Dies. I love the dies by Quickutz and the new dies by Tim Holtz released through Sizzix. I also have a pile of Spellbinder dies! The good thing is that they don't take up too much space! I could easily use my dies in every project I do. From an alphabet, to a label design to a cute shape!! I love to use my dies!!

Outside of the paper crafting world I also collect Blythe Dolls, which can be a bit on the pricey side! My collection has held at 10 dolls for a while now. But there is always clothing to buy. Between Etsy, Brilliant Haute Couture and This Is Blythe I could spend a pile of money!!

Then there are necklaces - I have to avoid Anthropology. I am guaranteed to buy a necklace every time I enter the store. Then I get an idea to make necklaces. How many necklaces can 1 woman have!! But they are so pretty!!

Oh wait - I also have a music addiction!! I love music!! With over 15000 songs in our iTunes library - probably over 80% are mine, I would never be able to listen to it all. But that is 20 years worth of collecting. Now I mainly buy individual songs, versus the whole album.

Some past addictions have been beads, expensive shoes and purses (OK, I am still working on the purse addiction).

What are some of your addictions?

Crafty Goodness in NYC!

A couple weeks ago I was in New York City!! I hadn't been there in about 16 years or more. When I did go it was in University, so I had different priorities. This trip was for Mark - who had never been and wanted to see the city, Gemma - who needed kid friendly activities and shopping, and Me - who needed a little bit of crafty inspiration! And I am going to share with you some of the inspiring stores!!



While I was there I hit about 3 Kate's Paperie's! I love this store!! So many fabulous papers and embellishments!!



Then I went to M&J Trading! This is 2 stores filled with ribbon and embellishments!! So much beautiful goodness!!



I bought some ribbon here. But you could spend an hour here looking through everything. I had about 40 minutes, while I was waiting for another store to open.



Around the corner was Tinsel Trading! This is more of a vintage store with some amazing older ribbons and finding!







I bought their book, some vintage twill ribbon, plus a vintage assorted pack.



We also made it to the Ink Pad in the West Village. This store may be small, but it is jammed packed with stamps and inks! Small as it was, I was still able to easily spend $100.



And I even found some Crafty goodness for Gemma at the Children's Museum of Art in SoHo. For $10 a person, you child can go in to the Museum and create all day! There was painting, clay, dress up, puppets, plus activities with instructors. Gemma did Chalk drawing Stop Animation and helped build a piece of Rome.

Plus just being in NYC is inspiring!! Do you have any favorite Crafty stores you like to visit? How about in Chicago - I am going there this summer!!