I think all crafters have the same essential drive – the need to accumulate as many craft supplies and projects as their home can reasonably fit without looking it was recently featured on “Hoarders.”

I love new projects.  The package is always shiny, the supplies neatly ensconced in the packet.  And I’m obsessed with craft magazines from the U.K.  You get a free little kit with each issue you purchase.  It’s how I first got back into crafting, after years of feeling like my creativity was sapped – first with engineering school, then with the angsty first half of my twenties, when I would just write deep* poetry about how love was MEANINGLESS and I was going to be alone FOREVER.  Once I had reached the second half of my twenties, the angst faded and I found the urge to be creative again, as I’d been when I was a kid.

I started buying CrossStitcher magazines, intrigued by the beautiful kits.  I then become obsessed with cross-stitching and with the satisfaction that came with completing projects, and started buying every issue.  Soon I started buying other magazines here and there, like Mollie Makes and Simply Crochet, and my number of potential projects grew.

Fast-forward four years later, when I have all these magazines and free kits stored and I’m thinking…do I really need to buy more craft magazines?  Spoiler alert – no, since I have enough potential projects to last at least a decade.  This post is the first of an on-going series – crafting from my stash – in which I decide that I must work on a project that I already own, instead of buying a new project.  I’ve already committed myself to not buying any more craft magazines unless the kit is a must-have (i.e. one of my favorite makers designed it) and I will make it the night I purchase it.  So far I’ve gone two months without buying a craft magazine, which is the longest I’ve gone since 2012.

I found myself wanting to purchase CrossStitcher this past month because they had a cute Christmas-related kit.  I reminded myself that I had several at home that I hadn’t completed – why not work on one of those?  Instead of purchasing the magazine, I came home and dug out an unopened kit from my stash.  Voila!!!!

This beautiful snowflake garland project was part of a kit that I purchased with CrossStitcher, Christmas 2012 edition.

I felt really happy completing this project.  I saved money by not purchasing another magazine, I used up a project from my stash.  It took about 6 total hours to make the garland.  Now I have a pretty project that I can use for future Christmases.  This particular issue also has some really adorable projects, and I’ve committed myself to making more of the projects that come with an issue as well.

*It was not deep.