Episode 40 – The Card Stash

Hello, and welcome to The Craft Room Podcast. I’m so glad you’re joining me for the first episode of 2025, as we’re talking about something near and dear to pretty much every crafter I’ve ever known, and that is the craft stash. If this is a term you’re unfamiliar with, your craft stash is that collection of craft supplies, tools and resources you keep in your home, so that when you find yourself with unexpected crafting time, or inspiration strikes you can get some supplies out and start crafting immediately.

Every crafter’s stash is different, and I’ve never met anyone with a duplicate stash to mine, and it’s likely I never will. And that’s because items come into our craft stash a variety of different ways, and there are a tremendous number of circumstances that factor into how one builds one’s craft stash.

1. Budget

If you are on a really tight budget, you cannot and will not build your craft stash the way that somebody with an unlimited craft budget can.

2. Space

Someone who lives in a large home and can dedicate an entire room to craft, will have a vastly different stash to someone in a much smaller home (apartment, tiny house or one bedroom in a share house). It’s all about the storage space.

3. Phase of Life

If you are in an accumulation phase of life, you’re probably in the process of building your craft stash. But you may be in a survival phase, maintenance phase or downsizing phase of life, these are all going to influence the size of your stash.

4. Longevity

If you only picked up quilting a few months ago, your stash of fabrics, threads, patterns, rulers, etc will be far smaller than someone who has been quilting for several years or decades.

5. Personal Taste

Your craft stash will be full of things that you like, whereas someone else may not like what you like.

6. Time Available

No matter how long you have been doing your craft, it’s important to consider the amount of time you can dedicate to that craft. If you only work on quilts during school holidays, or vacation days, that will be very different to someone who is able to spend more time quilting, like someone who is retired, or enjoys working on their craft every single day. The more frequently you craft, the faster you will use up the consumables attached to that craft (like threads, adhesives, yarn, etc).

7. Incoming

Craft supplies can enter our homes in a variety of ways, which also affects our stash. Most of the time we make a purchase at a store, craft show or online. Sometimes we are gifted items for special occasions, like birthdays or Christmas, and other times we are gifted items when someone we know is clearing out their own stash. We can inherit craft supplies when someone close to us passes away, or win them as a prize. And let’s not forget the sales, clearance section and bargain table, as well as Facebook Marketplace, Gumtree, Craigslist and destash groups.

There are pros and cons to having a craft stash, as well as having a large craft stash. So let’s talk about those, and I will share what I wish I could go back and tell 90’s Dawn when she was building her craft stash from scratch.

Pro #1
You have the ability to craft whenever the mood strikes. You have a flash of inspiration or see a cool idea online, and you can just sit down with the supplies you have on hand and make it. The same goes for unexpected crafting time. If you had planned to accompany kids to a birthday party, but find out that it’s a drop-off party, and you get to go home for a couple of hours, you can craft. And if you have the supplies in your home, you can use them right there and then, no wasting any time.

Con #1
Sometimes you have that idea or inspiration, you dig into your stash, and find that despite the fact that you have a LOT of craft supplies in there, you still don’t have exactly the thing you need. That often centres around colour for me, particularly trying to find the right shade, or with yarn, finding that I have the colour, but not the right ply.

Advice for 90’s Dawn
Shop for specific projects, rather than trying to have a little bit of everything. These days if I shop for yarn, embroidery thread, cardstock, papers, stamps, dies or stencils, I am doing it with a very specific project in mind. Yes, I still have a sizable craft stash, but by planning ahead, I have several projects I can choose from, and everything I need is already together.

Pro #2
Having a well stocked craft stash means you have choices. If you have one stamp set, you are limited to making cards with only one set of images and sentiments. Sure, minimal supplies force you to get creative, and I’m a big fan of that, but eventually you will long for more choices. A well stocked craft stash gives you that.

Con #2
Sometimes when we have too many choices we can suffer from decision paralysis. As a long-term crafter who has worked in the craft industry for decades and owns a store, a large craft stash is kind of an occupational hazard. But on days when my brain is not firing on all cylinders, I can look and look and look at my craft goodies, but when faced with so many choices it’s just too hard. Which craft do I want to do? Then if I decide on that, will I continue something I already started, or do I want to start something new? If I’m card making, which stamps or dies do I feel like using when I have literally hundreds to choose from? Or do I feel like painting today? And if I’m going to paint, will it be a canvas, a box, a new window display? I waste a lot of my crafting time trying to make decisions.

Advice for 90’s Dawn
Working with limited supplies forces you to get creative. Over Christmas/New Year I took a little bit of time away from the shop, and made time to use a die set that I have been itching to use for many months. Instead of agonising over the enormous number of stamp sets I own, and could use with this fun new die (for those playing along at home, it’s the Postage Collage die by Waffle Flower), I looked at my stamps and immediately felt that decision paralysis creeping in. Rather than agonise for hours, I went for, kind of a wedding approach (something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue). I chose something old (Little Gingerbread Agenda stamps & dies by Mama Elephant), something new (Just a Note stamps by Tracey Hey), something convenient (the first stencil I could put my hands on) and something tried & true (Distress Ink mini ink cubes). If you’re familiar with the concept of a capsule wardrobe, this is kind of the same thing, but craft supplies instead of clothes(and a temporary collection for a single crafting session or short period of time). I chose colours based on the papers that I had stashed in my couch craft trolley.

Pro #3
When you have a decent sized (especially a large) craft stash, it allows you to craft in times of crisis. Back in Episode 22 I talked on this very subject, and I’m sure Australians will remember the devastating bushfires during the summer of 2019/2020. Australian wildlife carers were desperate for items like joey pouches, koala mittens, bat wraps, rodent & bird nests, and other handmade pieces that helped them care for injured and displaced native birds, animals and reptiles. Crafters from all over Australia, and indeed, the world, banded together to create everything the wildlife carers needed. This is where a large stash is beneficial, because once you’ve bought it, and it’s in your stash, you can do whatever you want with it. If what you want to do is help out in times of crisis, you have exactly what you need to do so immediately. In order to do this, you need two things … the stash and time. If you have the stash, but not the time, you can partner with someone who has the time, but not the stash, and together can get the job done.

Con #3
Honestly … there’s not really a down-side to this.

Advice to 90’s Dawn
It’s ok to use that flanelette to make joey pouches because you’re never going to make those pyjama pants anyway.

Something that isn’t really talked about is the life cycle of the craft stash. A common misconception is that we will buy it, then use it, and we’re done, but it’s slightly more complex.

We start with stash building, and some items will be consumable (like fabric, thread, adhesive, glass, paper), some are reusable (stamps, stencils, dies, patterns, bobbins, rulers, tools).

Then we move to stash maintenance – optimising storage, using and replacing consumables. The ideal would be to use everything we buy, but sometimes our accumulation outpaces the rate at which we can use these items.

And then, we may hit a point where we need to destash (like decluttering, but a much more craft stash specific term), for various reasons.

1. Financial – maybe we need cash in a hurry, and spend time photographing & listing unwanted supplies on Facebook Marketplace, craft destash groups, Gumtree, neighbourhood groups or Craigslist, then dealing with buyers. It is almost unheard of to get back 100% of what you paid for an item, unless it is highly sought after. But some money is better than none.
2. Space – you can sell or donate unwanted supplies to free up valuable space in your home. If space is more valuable to you than money, and you’re short on time, you can donate to daycare centres, playgroups, schools, seniors centres, church groups, op shops (thrift stores) or just put a post on social media advising you are giving items away.

An alternative to destashing is to make a plan to use it! There are loads of charities & organisations where you can donate completed handmade items, like quilts and cards. Even if you are not in a downsizing phase of life right now, it doesn’t hurt to plan ahead. I foresee that in the next 10-15 years I will need to downsize my craft stash, so I am looking at what I have, and making a plan. Some tools deteriorate when you’re not using them, and some supplies dry out over time. Rather than throw things in the bin, I’m on a mission to use it often … use it all, which has kind of become my new catchphrase. I hope to succeed in this endeavour so as not to leave behind a huge crafty mess for my family to sort out when I’m gone, I get to have fun with those craft supplies I bought (because that’s why I bought them!), and I can potentially put smiles on dozens, maybe hundreds, of faces in the meantime.

So it’s time to finish those unfinished craft projects, and use it before you lose it!

If you’re a card maker, and I just got you thinking about your own stash, then I have just what you need. The Card Maker Success Summit is kicking off this month, and free tickets are available now. There are over 40 presenters, sharing incredible card making workshops over 4 days, and yes … you heard right … tickets are free! You’ll find a link in the show notes, or on the home page at dawnlewis.com.au, and as someone who has already seen the line-up (and, fair call, I’m also biased because I am presenting at this one on the topic of heat embossing), I can confirm that this is an event that no card maker will want to miss. I talked about this summit in Episode 38, and am honoured to have been invited back to present.

I hope you’re inspired to go for a treasure hunt through your craft stash, and hope to see the card makers at the summit!

LINKS
Episode 22
Episode 38
CMSS March 2025 blog post
WF Postage Collage die set
TH Just a Note stamp set
ME Little Gingerbread Agenda
Distress Ink Mini