SYW207 – Staying Curious about Crafting

[00:00:00] Jennifer Wilson: Welcome to Scrapbook Your Way, the show that explores the breadth of ways to be a memory keeper today. I’m your host, Jennifer Wilson, owner of Simple Scrapper and author of The New Rules of Scrapbooking.

This is episode 207. In this episode I’m chatting with Victoria Calvin about her varied creative interests and how having a number of different hobbies can benefit your scrapbooking.

[00:00:47] Jennifer Wilson: Hey Victoria. Welcome back to Scrapbook Your Way.

[00:00:49] Victoria Calvin: Thanks for having me.

[00:00:51] Jennifer Wilson: I am excited for our conversation today. We're gonna be diving into just one particular aspect of your personality, and that's being a multi-passionate crafter. You know, of course there's so many other things we could discuss with you, but can you remind our audience to kick things off, a little bit about yourself.

[00:01:08] Victoria Calvin: Sure. So I'm Victoria Calvin, and I am the founder and creative director at Victoria Marie Designs, and I make classes about scrapbooking and storytelling. I also have a YouTube channel that actually turned nine years old this year, which is really fun.

[00:01:24] Jennifer Wilson: That's awesome. Congrats.

[00:01:25] Victoria Calvin: Thank you, thank you, thank you. I can't believe it's been that long.

[00:01:28] Victoria Calvin: It started out as a hobby and of course it's grown to something else since then. I also host a, um, a community on Patreon and I also have a Facebook group. And if, when I'm not doing projects and things, developing classes and doing things for Victoria Marie Designs, I also do some contract and freelance work for companies in the craft and hobby industry specifically scrapbooking.

[00:01:51] Jennifer Wilson: Yes, yes, yes. I love it. You are, especially I think, almost like uniquely talented in, uh, design and composition. You know, I've watched so many scrapbookers over the years, but somehow, you know how to put things on a page in a way that is so just eye appealing, so balanced, um, and yet there's variety in what you create as well.

[00:02:13] Jennifer Wilson: So I really appreciate that about you and how you bring that into, you know, all the content that you share. So this year we are asking our guests what they are excited about, both in non-scrapbooking realms as well as in scrapbooking. So what's exciting you right now?

[00:02:32] Victoria Calvin: Well, with the start of the new year, there's always fresh opportunities to dig into a variety of different things. Um, for me, I've really sort of tapped into, and I guess this is kind of gonna be sort of the focal point of today's discussion, just really tapping into, um, enjoying a variety of different things that are my interest.

[00:02:53] Victoria Calvin: I recently, not recently, probably about a year ago, started diving into embroidery and cross stitching. So I've been doing all of those things related to that. So as soon as I finish my work from the day, I like to work on those projects. I like challenging myself to learn new things. Um, and I also have a pretty lofty reading goal this year.

[00:03:13] Victoria Calvin: I didn't read all that much, um, in 2021 I bought, or 20 wait, 2022. Lord Jesus, where are we in this world?

[00:03:21] Jennifer Wilson: I know.

[00:03:22] Victoria Calvin: Where are we even in this world? I didn't, I didn't have. didn't read as much last year. I bought a lot of books, but I didn't read as much. So this year is all about reading the books. So I've been really just spending some time just going slow and enjoying reading and teaching myself new craft and hobbies and that type of thing. And then of course, I've been busy with my kid who is, training to be a professional ballerina. So I've been enjoying that experience, um, as she is, uh, progressing in her craft. And, you know, the new year is still, you know, new. So those are the three main things I'm, you know, pretty excited about, uh, this year. So we'll see what, what yet is to come.

[00:04:01] Jennifer Wilson: Yes, yes, yes. I, we were talking just before we got on about, um, having, uh, tween and all of the responsibilities we have to get them where they need to be because they're not yet mobile on their own. Yet also giving them that like independence to, to grow and learn and, and come into their own. It's such a, I don't know. It's, it's a both a special and challenging time as a parent.

[00:04:28] Victoria Calvin: And it's bittersweet too because you know, my kid is gonna be 13 next month and that just makes me want to dig a hole and cry like it just says.

[00:04:36] Jennifer Wilson: Oh.

[00:04:37] Victoria Calvin: But, but it's exciting too because she's entering, you know, this new phase in her life as a teenager and everything that that entails. And, um, you know, she is further individuating and becoming her own and has her own interests and her own ideas and things. And me as a parent having to adjust to that and knowing that my parenting role is about to change slightly yet again.

[00:05:01] Jennifer Wilson: Mm-hmm

[00:05:02] Victoria Calvin: To be a parent of a teenager. So, um, it's, it's a great adventure, but it's a bittersweet one.

[00:05:08] Jennifer Wilson: Well, it's good that we have these hobbies to keep ourselves occupied.

[00:05:12] Victoria Calvin: You know, I always tell people you cannot pour your entire life into your children because they're gonna go off and do their own thing, and what are you gonna have left when they're gone? And so I have lots of hobbies and lots of interests that will keep me occupied.

[00:05:25] Jennifer Wilson: Yes. Yes. So were your list of things that were exciting you did that include a scrapbooking item?

[00:05:31] Victoria Calvin: You know what it does. I am.

[00:05:34] Jennifer Wilson: Okay.

[00:05:34] Victoria Calvin: Spending this year getting caught up on, or not caught up, but just kind of revisiting some scrapbooking projects that I just hadn't paid a lot of time and attention to. So I have some travel albums. I have some Disney related albums. Um, I have an album that I'm create, I'm recreating my daughter's baby album.

[00:05:51] Victoria Calvin: I'm trying to streamline her albums, and that's gonna be certainly a longer process than a year for sure. Um, but I'm going into scrapbooking this year with an idea of how can I best document my stories, but also streamline the way that I do that. So I don't feel like I have to have a ton of albums with a ton of layouts that don't get to the heart of my life and the stories that I want to document. So that's gonna, that's kind of my challenge this year if we're, we're scrapbooking for sure.

[00:06:18] Jennifer Wilson: Oh, I love that and I'm, I'm in a similar boat where Emily's baby book quote unquote is like two 12 by 12 albums. And I'm like, this is, this doesn't make sense at this point. I would like to get it down to at least one. Where can some of these other pages go.

[00:06:34] Victoria Calvin: Yeah.

[00:06:34] Jennifer Wilson: Within the collection of the album so that there's really like the one, rather than this overflowing two volume thing.

[00:06:41] Victoria Calvin: Absolutely. And I think it also helps us to ask your kids if that, you know, they may just not be interested for those who have children, or you're a parent figure to a kid that you're scrapbooking about. But what would they like to know? You know, looking back on this, and my daughter's giving me some real insights on that. She's like, you know, I don't need like all the stories, but I just like want the highlights. I want the main events. And, um, you know, maybe with some other things peppered in, but you know, she's not interested in inheriting like, you know, a 12 volume baby album.

[00:07:11] Jennifer Wilson: Yes.

[00:07:11] Victoria Calvin: Project.

[00:07:13] Jennifer Wilson: She wants to buy a Cadillac someday and fill it with some of her own things, not just mom's scrapbooks, so.

[00:07:19] Victoria Calvin: Exactly, So that has definitely is leading the way this year that that process by which I'm beginning to streamline and I'm gonna be sharing a lot of that, that process on my YouTube channel with my Patreon community and just in general. Uh, cause I think that people can benefit from knowing that you don't have to scrapbook all the things.

[00:07:37] Victoria Calvin: There is a way that you can streamline this to make it a focus on the stories that really, really matter the most. What, you know, what do you want to remember, not only for yourself but to leave as a legacy, uh, from years to come.

[00:07:52] Jennifer Wilson: Yes. Yes. So speaking of stories, do you have a particular one that you want to tell this year? Whether it's a single page layout or something bigger? Um, we like to call this our memory keeping bucket list. So it's a story that feels really compelling, but for one reason or another, you haven't captured it yet.

[00:08:08] Victoria Calvin: I want to document my, I I scrapbook about myself all the time.

[00:08:12] Jennifer Wilson: Mm-hmm.

[00:08:12] Victoria Calvin: Like I've never had any problems with documenting my own stories. But I haven't created a project that kind of talks about Victoria from you know, birth to now. And I kind of have an idea of how I wanna structure that project maybe in 10 year increments, like what was going on in this particular decade in my life and just revisiting some older stories.

[00:08:34] Victoria Calvin: And I kind of, this project circled back to me a few months ago when I was digging through our garage and I found box that has my yearbooks and some other things. And I'm like, you know what? I think now is the time for me to sit down with those stories and kind of create this scrapbook timeline, if you will, of what my life has, how my life started, and, and, and what has happened in my life since 1981.

[00:09:01] Jennifer Wilson: There you go.

[00:09:01] Victoria Calvin: That would be a really, really good project to work on.

[00:09:03] Jennifer Wilson: Yes. Yes. That's definitely a fun one that I've enjoyed doing myself.

[00:09:07] Victoria Calvin: Yeah. Yeah.

[00:09:09] Jennifer Wilson: All right. So you have definitely been very open online about sharing all your various creative interests and, and your passion when you're starting something new and your willingness to learn and develop new skills.

[00:09:20] Victoria Calvin: Mm-hmm.

[00:09:21] Jennifer Wilson: And so that's what I really wanted to focus on today to talk a lot finding balance when you have all these different interests. So I guess maybe to start off, why do you think it's important or valuable to indulge in those different options versus kind of forcing yourself to stay in one lane?

[00:09:39] Victoria Calvin: I first wanna say that if anybody out there describes themself as being a multi-passionate person, please know that that's perfectly okay. Um, that there are a lot of us that don't follow a linear path, whether it's career wise or education or even our, our hobbies and our interests. I find it particularly important to explore and give yourself space and room and opportunity to explore different types of, crafts or art or whatnot. Because I think it keeps us creatively challenged. Um, I love scrapbooking and that is my primary craft, but I found over the years, and particularly after doing this professionally for so long, that I need something else other than just scrapbooking and storytelling.

[00:10:23] Victoria Calvin: And I have other talents, I have other interests, and so every now and then, I need what I like to call sort of this creative pallet cleanser. I talk about this in my Project Done class, is that sometimes you just need to take a break and have that creative pallet cleanser from your whatever that main hobby may be. And explore other things. Or you just may be curious and interested and it's okay as a crafter, as a maker, to continually be curious. Because that is what's so fun about what it is that we do. And so if you're curious about, you know, watercolor painting or you're curious about woodworking or you're curious about pottery, jump right in and start learning. And it doesn't take anything away from what you would consider your main hobby. And I would almost probably assume that most people who are listening to this podcast, scrapbooking and storytelling, is probably your main hobby. It doesn't take away from that. What it can do, however, is help inform you creatively. And it's interesting how all these different interests, being a multi-passionate crafter, all these interests can inform you know each other, right? So there's sometimes I'll be working on an embroidery project. I'm like, oh, that design that I'm working on, I bet that would translate really well into a scrapbook page layout or, or a background.

[00:11:42] Victoria Calvin: And sometimes they kind of commingle like that for me. But I also like to be challenged cuz I get bored sometimes. And so, yes, I have been scrapbooking for well over 18 years, and I think I pretty much have my style down for the most part. And I'm, you know, I like to learn new things, but man, there's all these other things that I'm not as proficient in that I want to learn and challenge myself.

[00:12:02] Victoria Calvin: And if anything, it helps me stay really focused on the process versus outcome.

[00:12:09] Jennifer Wilson: Hmm.

[00:12:09] Victoria Calvin: The process for me, and I talk about this a lot, is where you make the mistakes, you learn, you grow, and if anything it reinforces that for me, when I'm delving into these different aspects of my creative interest, being multi-passionate, it's not a bad thing at all.

[00:12:23] Victoria Calvin: I know some people may make it sound like it could be wishy-washy. Like when I was in college, I changed my major like 10 times. My mom was like, are you ever gonna graduate? But I had all of these interests, right? You go to college and you're told to pick a major, right? But what if you like all these different things? And eventually I did settle on a degree and I got, you know, two degrees in this particular field. But, um, ultimately, I decided that I'm not gonna limit, limit myself. If I like something, I'm gonna try it. And if I'm multi-passionate about something, that's how I'm pursuing it. And it's also informing how I'm pursuing my content as I move forward.

[00:12:57] Victoria Calvin: Like with, uh, YouTube, most of my content is scrapbooking, but there's other things I wanna do. So I'm gonna introduce some new things to the channel. About 20% of that content's gonna be more passion content, while 80% of it's gonna be storytelling. And I think that's, you know, fine for anybody who's a content creator.

[00:13:12] Jennifer Wilson: Well, especially since it's, it's leaning on what you are interested in right now, because that always shines through in, in your content and people know if you're phoning it in.

[00:13:23] Victoria Calvin: Yes. Absolutely. And I think too, being very, as someone who is clearly very visible online with my, with my making endeavors.

[00:13:32] Jennifer Wilson: Mm-hmm.

[00:13:33] Victoria Calvin: It's important for me to, to make sure that I'm nurturing the audience as I'm exploring new things. So they, so you don't see on my channel, oh, Victoria just automatically switched to planning content without saying anything about it. Um, that I say, you know what? While scrapbooking still lives and exists and breathes in this context, there's other things I'm going to explore. And I invite you to come along on this journey with me as I explore, you know, more of my creative hobbies that I'm gonna share with you guys, you know, here on this channel that are related to papercrafting.

[00:14:05] Jennifer Wilson: Yes. I love it. I love it. I love that you're really following your own gut with this too, and not necessarily listening to what quote unquote, they say out there about what you should do these days. I'm not sure there are any rules anymore.

[00:14:21] Victoria Calvin: No, not at all.

[00:14:22] Victoria Calvin: I think if anything, oh, I was just reading an article yesterday for content creators, online content creators, is that, you know, people, when they're consuming our content, they're looking to be educated. They're looking to learn something. And you just never know what might resonate with your audience unless you put it out there and someone might say, wow, I'm so glad that you did that card video and you talked about this particular technique. Cuz I've been trying to think, you know, I've been thinking about getting into card making and that really helped me. Um, so I wanna be both entertaining and educational. That's kind, you know, education is a crux of my business and so I, I wanna do both. But I also wanna make sure that I'm diversifying that content that's not only inter, not only, scratching that itch to learn from my audience, but also keeping me involved and active as a creator.

[00:15:07] Jennifer Wilson: Yes. Yes, yes. And as someone who debated between geology and art history in college, I definitely can, um, understand where you're coming from. And, and on that note, you know, can you talk a little bit about how crafting played a part in your growing up? You know, what kinds of things did you like to do?

[00:15:28] Victoria Calvin: So I am the offspring of a lifelong crafter. My mother has done, um, cross-stitching for well over 50 plus years, and she, um, also did ceramics as well, and a few other things. And so my introduction to crafting really came from watching her do her projects. And then of course I had my own interest as well.

[00:15:52] Victoria Calvin: I did scrapbooking in some form and at the time I probably didn't know that there was a term called scrapbooking cuz I was just doing my thing. Just, I liked stickers and things of that nature. So I would make these sticker books and I would have my photos and my little awards and things that I would get at the, you know, elementary school award ceremony, you know, that type of thing.

[00:16:10] Victoria Calvin: I, I created this album that I covered with the funny pages from the Sunday comics, and I still have it. It's somewhere in my garage somewhere. And, um, and so that was kinda like my introduction to sort of scrapbooking. And then I loved making friendship bracelets. Hello, eighties. I loved, um, I loved, uh, oh God, what else did I do at that time? I did a lot of painting type things, just painting on blank canvases whenever, you know, mom had the, the funds to get me a few, you know, little canvases to paint on. I would do that. Um, I made my own Barbie clothes.

[00:16:49] Jennifer Wilson: Ooh.

[00:16:50] Victoria Calvin: For the longest time and very, very, like by hand using my mom's sewing materials most of the time, I didn't ask her, I just kind of grabbed them used them. I remember trying to make clothes out of her old pantyhose, which by the way is not great material for Barbie clothing. But you know, I, I tried. I made clothing for my Cabbage Patch doll. So I just kind of like, whatever interests me at the time as a kid, you know, just kind of created without abandoned. Whatever, you know, sparked my interest. And then anytime there was a crafting hobby, something at school, I was all on it. Like anytime there was a crafting thing, that was totally my jam. Um, and then as I got older, um, I'd probably say probably junior high, high school, still kind of delving in and out with scrapbooking, in some way.

[00:17:37] Victoria Calvin: Lots and lots and lots of stickers and you know, lots of photos that are cut up into, you know, fabulous shapes cuz that's what we did. Um, and then I started really getting into, um, watercoloring, which I absolutely loved, and I had sketchbooks and things of that nature. And, um, I'm trying to remember what else, but it seems like it's been so long ago, since I've been a teenager. Then as a young adult, um, I started getting into, again, continuing my love of scrapbooking, um, DIY, home decor. I, I went through at least a 10 year period where I was finding things at thrift stores and stuff and redoing them and that type of thing. Um, now in current Victoria is, uh, mainly paper crafting. I've gotten into miniatures recently. That's another love of mine is learning how to create miniature dioramas and learning a lot about that.

[00:18:32] Victoria Calvin: And then of course, I've mentioned, uh, fiber arts via, uh, cross-stitching and embroidery.

[00:18:37] Jennifer Wilson: All right. I have a couple questions. One, with these miniatures, like, uh, how do you find the patience to, uh, like to, to be so delicate and to get the detail and not like, crush it, each little piece. Um, because I, the miniatures you work on, and my grandfather did miniatures, but he was on a, like a slightly bigger scale and I'm like, you are working on such tiny, tiny things.

[00:19:04] Jennifer Wilson: I would probably poke my eyes out.

[00:19:08] Victoria Calvin: So it does, this is a, a art form that I would probably venture to guess if you were to ask any miniaturist the, the, the best part of it is in the process.

[00:19:19] Jennifer Wilson: Mm-hmm.

[00:19:20] Victoria Calvin: Because it does take a lot of patience. It has, it's the type of art form that you have to be willing to glue, all the little pieces and to make all the little pieces depending on what scale that you make it.

[00:19:34] Victoria Calvin: In the scale that I like is, um, God, what is it, 1, 1 12 scale, one 24th scale, somewhere in that range. And so you're, so they are very small. And it, it gets even smaller than that. Some people create a lot tinier than that scale.

[00:19:50] Jennifer Wilson: Oh my gosh.

[00:19:52] Victoria Calvin: And I'm not saying that I'm like, you know, an expert at scale because I'm still trying to understand and learn it. But, I love the scale and I started out with kits. And, um, that comes with all the things that you need.

[00:20:05] Victoria Calvin: And then I saw other people customizing their kits and so I started customizing mine. So painting the furniture and making, you know, different fabrics and things for the, you know, whatever diorama that I'm working on. Some people theme theirs out. You know, I saw one, somebody who did a really cool Halloween themed design from a kit that she purchased. And some people make their own materials. Uh, their own items by hand or they use laser cutters and that type of thing. It's like the whole thing.

[00:20:33] Jennifer Wilson: Oh wow.

[00:20:35] Victoria Calvin: But it does take a lot of patience. And the process for me is very relaxing. And there are tools and things that you can use to help you glue all those little bits together. Um, there are many times where I have dropped something or lost something or something wasn't glued all the way and it kind of fell apart and you have to redo it. But again, that's, that's a part of the process and I always, when people ask me about it, I always say, unless you have patience and you enjoy the process, the miniature builds are probably not gonna be your thing. Particularly the smaller the scale it is. So just forewarn.

[00:21:11] Jennifer Wilson: I can't even keep track of all my stamps. I'm constantly losing them on the floor and then I can't find them again.

[00:21:17] Victoria Calvin: Well, you know, I had to come up with, I had to have a way to organize all these bits and pieces.

[00:21:22] Jennifer Wilson: Yeah.

[00:21:22] Victoria Calvin: And so I do have an organizer that I keep my specific tools that I use, um, and some tools that I use for scrapbooking and other things I can use for miniatures as well. But I, I have to have all my tools and a spot to have all those little bits and bobs that I work with so I don't lose them. Cuz you can end up losing things pretty quickly if you're not keeping track of them.

[00:21:43] Jennifer Wilson: I bet. I bet. So if you had to prioritize kind of your top three, uh, hobbies that you're excited about right now, how would you rank them?

[00:21:52] Victoria Calvin: Right now, I would definitely say, and this is probably gonna come as a shocker as someone who does paper crafting, but paper crafting is not ranked number one for me right now. Number one for me is fiber arts. I've been learning, again cross-stitching and embroidery. That I've just kind of jumped down the rabbit hole with that and watching all the YouTube videos and buying all the things and whatnot. Um, and then second to that would be paper crafting, and then third would be my miniature projects, for sure.

[00:22:21] Jennifer Wilson: Well, it was interesting that you said that your mom had done cross-stitch for years and years, and that's actually a newer hobby for you. You did embroidery before you learning cross-stitch, right?

[00:22:32] Victoria Calvin: Just about, I did embroidery for about a year and I just recently took up cross-stitching this fall.

[00:22:37] Jennifer Wilson: Mm-hmm.

[00:22:38] Victoria Calvin: So yeah, I did embroidery for I guess going on two years really. And I stayed away from cross-stitching because at the, when I would see my mom do it, it looked complicated. Like she was counting all these little boxes and having to determine, you know, where you start your pattern and you know, that type of thing. I'm like, oh no, that's too much. That's too much. So I started learning other embroidery stitches that were just a little bit more straightforward to me. And then I said, you know what? If I can do these other stitches cuz embroidery, some stitches can be kind of complicated, but if I can learn that, I can learn cross-stitching.

[00:23:10] Victoria Calvin: So I bought myself a little kit from Barnes and Noble and I taught myself while I was waiting for my daughter and her various different performances that she did this year for ballet.

[00:23:18] Victoria Calvin: And I taught myself at a Starbucks one evening to cross stitch and I've been hooked. Since, you know, last month. And since that time I've worked on, I finished one project and I'm working on another right now, so I just added that to my fiber arts interest.

[00:23:32] Jennifer Wilson: Yeah. Well, and it's such an so interesting to think about when you're on the other side of something, when you're like in the before side, you think things are a certain way and then when you get to the other side, you have new knowledge, experience, but you don't know until you try. Because I know that I think embroidery is something that's so hard that I probably could never figure out. I'm terrible at tying knots, like it just looks so hard. So I've never tried it, but I've been cross stitching since I was a kid.

[00:23:58] Victoria Calvin: Yeah. Yeah,

[00:23:59] Victoria Calvin: If you can cross stitch, you can do the other embroidery stuff and vice versa.

[00:24:03] Jennifer Wilson: Yeah.

[00:24:03] Victoria Calvin: sure, because it's all just learning stitches right?

[00:24:05] Jennifer Wilson: Mm-hmm.

[00:24:05] Victoria Calvin: At the end of the day. And if you can do one, you can most definitely do the other for sure. That's at least what I, I learned from this process. And you know, and the same applies too to paper crafting. I have, uh, often get questions from people and particularly, recently I've had a lot of folks come into my orbit who are returning to scrapbooking or new to scrapbooking. It's like, where do I begin? What do I do? And you know, it's back to your point that you just, you have to start you just start, right?

[00:24:29] Victoria Calvin: You know, grab, print some photos, grab a few supplies, sit down.

[00:24:32] Victoria Calvin: And it may not be the best thing that you make, you know, but you just have to start. So whether it's paper crafting or some other hobby, uh, just find a nice easy point of entry and go for it.

[00:24:43] Jennifer Wilson: Yes. Great advice. Now, do you have any, uh, activities that you've kind of put down for now or you have waning interest in, or you've decided, oh, I tried it, but that's just not for me at all.

[00:24:58] Victoria Calvin: Um, you know, I was getting, trying to get back into DIY type stuff.

[00:25:03] Jennifer Wilson: Mm-hmm.

[00:25:04] Victoria Calvin: I thought for a minute that I would. I used to go a lot, shop a lot at thrift stores and antique stores looking for stuff. And I went like a whole like 10 year period where I was super interested in this and I thought I would pick that back up, but I found that it just doesn't interest me as much as it did during that particular time period.

[00:25:23] Victoria Calvin: So I'm just gonna let that go for now. It's not to say that like there's a couple of projects that I wanna make that um, are wreaths. I love making wreaths, so I might do a couple of, you know, refresh wreaths in my house. Um, but apart from that, I just don't have that interest right now. So I think I'm just gonna put that on the back burner.

[00:25:43] Victoria Calvin: And it may come back, it may resurface at some point, but I'm not gonna force myself to do a bunch of DIY projects when I really just don't, really don't feel like I don't have that interest. That's not where my interest is right now.

[00:25:53] Jennifer Wilson: Well, I can see like two reasons for that.

[00:25:56] Victoria Calvin: Mm-hmm.

[00:25:56] Jennifer Wilson: One being that the things that you can find in, in Hobby Lobby or wherever today, um, are so much more interesting, more on trend than they were a decade plus ago.

[00:26:08] Victoria Calvin: Yeah.

[00:26:09] Jennifer Wilson: It was really hard to find it and now it's almost everything looks the same with the script, fonts and all that, that it's hard to, um, find something unique. But you don't have to worry about not being able to find something on trend. It's not gonna look outdated or something like your grandmother would choose or something like that.

[00:26:27] Victoria Calvin: Absolutely. And then also weighing it against the fact that I only have so much time to do so many things. So if I'm going to use my time to make something, it's gonna be something that I'm really into right now.

[00:26:38] Jennifer Wilson: Yeah.

[00:26:39] Victoria Calvin: It's okay to say, you know, I'm not doing this right now or ever again, you just move on from there, you know?

[00:26:47] Jennifer Wilson: Yes. Well, I think on DIY, the other thing that I'm noticing, and maybe this is just what TikTok serves me, is that the DIY people have moved on from decor to building like these complicated built-in bookshelves and mudrooms and like doing all this like really intricate woodworking. And I'm like, yay, go. If you go you if that's interesting to you. But that's what I see people working on. I don't see people doing the other things anymore.

[00:27:11] Victoria Calvin: Yeah, absolutely. And it has, it's, it's become more, um, varied and I think also too, probably driven by consumer demand or consumer interest. Like it's great to make like this little thing that you can put on your wall, but man, let me show you how you can, you know, really level up your laundry room. And so, you know, you're doing all these different things. Um, and I also think too, that. uh, coming out of 2020 when people, we had all this time, right.

[00:27:41] Jennifer Wilson: Yes.

[00:27:41] Victoria Calvin: Cause we weren't going anywhere. And so people just kind of like dove in headfirst and it's like, oh, well, you know, I've got this time now that I can make this, you know, blot, blah. And so now we have content creators that are showing that, that content and people, people are loving them.

[00:27:54] Victoria Calvin: Like, yeah, I can, I can, you know, do my own wallpaper. Sure. Whatever the project.

[00:28:00] Jennifer Wilson: Yes. Yes. So I kind of wanna just talk a little bit about, if you think about all your stuff, which hobby I kind of, if you were going to like make things equal, say you roughly spent the same amount of time and you had the same amount of stuff, but what takes up the most space? Because it's like a bulkier thing and what takes up the least amount of space?

[00:28:21] Jennifer Wilson: Cause I'm thinking from the perspective of someone who maybe is trying to choose something they wanna start working on, but maybe they don't have as much space.

[00:28:29] Victoria Calvin: So the majority of the things that take up my space are clearly paper crafting things like scrapbooking and card making. Um, what I have had to do since I have these other interests is I had to carve out space for those things too. So I have a cabinet from IKEA where I have a shelf for all of my embroidery and cross-stitching supplies. And then I have a shelf for all my miniature things. And what I try to do every year is sort of renegotiate these spaces. So as those interests are growing, I need a little bit more space for those things.

[00:29:02] Jennifer Wilson: Mm-hmm.

[00:29:02] Victoria Calvin: And so now I'm looking at some different cabinet cabinetry and whatnot that I can purchase to make sure that I have space as those interests grow.

[00:29:12] Victoria Calvin: But majority of my, my studio has materials for, for scrapbooking. I will say, I wanna preface this by saying, cause I know not everyone has a space as large as mine. I take, my studio is on the second level of my home in a bonus space. It used to be our, our sort of, um, recreation room, den, whatever you wanna call it.

[00:29:31] Victoria Calvin: And so it's pretty big. But I didn't start there, so I was a kitchen table scrapper. And so I used a lot of organizational systems that I can easily move about that were very mobile. Like carts and, you know, bags that had wheels. And I would organize and make sure that things were clearly labeled and I'd have certain, certain boxes or certain bins for certain types of crafts. As my space expanded over the years. I just adjusted how I stored things based on what it is that I was doing. One of the things that I make sure to do, however, is if there is a craft activity that I no longer engage in, I let those materials go so I can have space for the things that I am engaging with. I'm a firm believer in that I'm not keeping anything in my space that I'm no longer using or no longer interested in. I'm just gonna give that and move it along to somebody else who's gonna use it. So that frees up some space.

[00:30:22] Victoria Calvin: Hmm.

[00:30:22] Victoria Calvin: Space for me, and I think that's really important that, and I know there's probably a lot of folks listening to this podcast that are probably right deeply in that position where you probably have a bunch of crafty things in your studio that you're probably not using. Um, it's probably time to think about, okay, how can I pare this down so then I can have space for the activities that I'm actually engaging in? Um, and so now, because you know, I have the space mainly cuz I do this full-time and I needed the space. Even if I didn't do this full-time, I would make sure that I have space for the various different items that I need. And enough space for the main hobby.

[00:30:58] Victoria Calvin: So the main hobby for me is scrapbooking. And then after that, of course, cardmaking and then my embroidery, my miniature builds. I have no more DIY stuff. I gave that all up years ago. And the way that I have my space organized, if I need a specific item for a specific hobby, I can go to that spot and get it.

[00:31:15] Victoria Calvin: It's clearly organized and clearly marked and I keep with that. So I would say for anybody who's trying to figure out how to negotiate that. Is first look at your space. Cuz you can only work in what you can work in. Right. I've, I've been a kitchen table scrapper. I've scrapbooked out of a closet. I've crafted in the corner of my bedroom. I mean I've, I've had all the different size spaces. So you have to negotiate how much space you have. Let go and get rid of the things that you're not using, and then figure out how you can best maximize your space for the stuff that you are using and making sure you have ample space for that main hobby, which probably for a lot of us is scrapbooking.

[00:31:49] Jennifer Wilson: You know that letting go is a challenge, I think for us who, you know, we consider ourselves crafty and DIY oriented, so we see the potential in so many things. And, and, and with those of us that have children see that, oh, well maybe they will need to use it for a project.

[00:32:04] Victoria Calvin: Mm-hmm.

[00:32:05] Jennifer Wilson: And it's, it becomes difficult. But I, I too have had to start letting go.

[00:32:10] Jennifer Wilson: I am currently down to one drawer that holds like five in progress knitting projects, even though I haven't knitted in a decade. I did get rid of all the rest of my yarn that wasn't currently on a project.

[00:32:22] Victoria Calvin: Sure.

[00:32:23] Jennifer Wilson: And I probably just need to let the rest go. But you know, that's, it's taken time to get there.

[00:32:29] Victoria Calvin: It does. It does take time. And I think probably there are a lot of us that are emotionally attached to these items and that makes it even harder to purge and to let go of some things. And I definitely have been there, like, I'm gonna keep this because I love it. And I may not ever use it, but I love it. What I had to learn is that, okay, so this item that I love so much is sitting in this drawer that I'm not using. So maybe I don't love it as much as I think that I did because I'm clearly not using it. Maybe perhaps somebody else can give it some love and I can move it along so that I can have things in my space that I do love and that I am using on a regular basis. Um, even if that means just paring down. Uh, or keeping just a little bit, but letting go of, you know, 80% of a particular item. I did that with my wood mount stamps years ago. I had over, oh my god, 200, 300 wood mount stamps.

[00:33:22] Jennifer Wilson: Oh dear, that's, that's a lot.

[00:33:24] Victoria Calvin: It was a lot. I was buying a ton of wood mount stamps and, um, then I carried them around with me for a long time, and then at some point I'm like, you know what?

[00:33:34] Victoria Calvin: I'm not gonna use all these stamps. So I only kept, and I'm looking at them right now cause they're on a sh on a, in one of. Uh, cases I maybe kept 10, 12 wood mount stamps out of that whole lot. And they were stamps that I knew that I would use and that I really, really liked. And since then, I haven't bought any more wood mount stamps.

[00:33:53] Victoria Calvin: I buy more acrylic stamps. That's a different story for a different day, but more acrylic stamps than wood mount stamps. But I, I honestly had to tell myself, I don't need it. I have no place to store it. I'm not using them all. I forget which ones I have. And so I gave them all up to, a couple of people that I knew who really, really loved using wood mount stamps. And so they divvied them up and took them and I had my little stash of wood mount stamps.

[00:34:18] Victoria Calvin: I mainly have 'em for decorative purposes, and every now and then I might use them, but didn't need 300 wood mount stamps. I didn't need that. Yeah.

[00:34:27] Jennifer Wilson: Well, I think you, you raised an important point of thinking about, okay, what does, how does keeping this item make you feel? What are you trying to hold onto that? How could you do that in a different way?

[00:34:38] Victoria Calvin: Yeah.

[00:34:39] Jennifer Wilson: Do you really need to be holding onto that feeling anymore or would it feel better to let it go?

[00:34:43] Jennifer Wilson: So there's, you know, there's definitely an emotional component to, to getting rid of things.

[00:34:49] Victoria Calvin: There is, and I think anytime that I've a been asked a question about scrapbook organization or when I did a series on my YouTube channel, my spring clean series from last year. And one of the questions I got asked a lot was, how do you determine what to purge? Like how like I can't get rid of any of my stuff.

[00:35:04] Victoria Calvin: How do you do that? And again, at the end of the day, it's, is any of these things I ask myself, one, have I used this within the past year? And two, is this serving my need right now? Because if I give something away and then maybe a couple of months from now or a year from now, I'm like, ah, I wish I had that thing, I can always go get it again depending on what the item is.

[00:35:23] Victoria Calvin: So, or maybe I can use something different, but I had to be realistic. My space can only hold so much.

[00:35:29] Jennifer Wilson: Mm-hmm.

[00:35:30] Victoria Calvin: And I can only remember so much of what I have in my stash. And I can only use so much at any particular time. So, you know, I was just thinking, I got, I got rid of two, um, manual die cutting machines, one of which was sent to me.

[00:35:42] Victoria Calvin: Cause I was a design team on a design team for a particular company and one of which I bought. But they were the same exact machine. I'm like, I don't need two of these. So I kept two that I knew that I was going to use my electronic. die cutting machine.

[00:35:54] Jennifer Wilson: Mm-hmm.

[00:35:55] Victoria Calvin: And then my new Spellbinders machine that I use all the time, literally every week I use that. And I'm okay letting them go. You know, paper and embellishments and stickers and all these things. I, there's just only so much that I want in my space at any given time. So it's very easy for me to let go and I stopped having so, so many strong emotions behind these physical objects. too. This all could go up and smoke the next day, right?

[00:36:24] Victoria Calvin: It could all go away.

[00:36:24] Jennifer Wilson: Yeah.

[00:36:26] Victoria Calvin: Um, at the end of the day, what really matters most to me is the stories that I'm documenting. The process of enjoying, you know, using these items, but I don't need all the items. I can let things go and curate a nice stash that I know I'm going to use and I know I'm going to enjoy and not just hoard it for the sake of hoarding it.

[00:36:43] Jennifer Wilson: Well, if there comes a point when the stuff is getting in the way of documenting those stories.

[00:36:48] Victoria Calvin: Yeah.

[00:36:49] Jennifer Wilson: That's when you know, things need to shift a little bit. Because if we can't do what we wanna do, then we're, we've got ourself into a pickle.

[00:36:58] Victoria Calvin: Absolutely. And that applies not only to scrapbooking and card making, but any other creative hobby. If it's just, you know, there's only so much yarn you can use for various things. There's only so many, so many. You know, embroidery kits that you can have. I literally had to stop buying kits as I was just buying kits left and right.

[00:37:14] Victoria Calvin: I'm like, okay, how about we do these first. Do these projects first, and then it is not like there's a shortage of things to buy. But it can apply to any of our, any of our interests. That, you know, sometimes we probably need to kind of reign it in and focus on using what we, what we do have and enjoying that and deciding what works for us now.

[00:37:34] Jennifer Wilson: Well, heck, it applies all over our homes. Like if your Tupperware cabinet is falling out constantly, maybe you have too much Tupperware. And I'm looking directly at my husband right now who is obsessed with buying glass, you know, the glass containers. But we don't need four sets of them. They don't all fit where we store them.

[00:37:52] Victoria Calvin: Exactly, We only have so much space.

[00:37:56] Jennifer Wilson: Yeah.

[00:37:56] Victoria Calvin: So much room and I think the idea of really focusing on what, one, what we need and two, what we want, but with some parameters around that a little bit.

[00:38:09] Jennifer Wilson: Yes.

[00:38:09] Victoria Calvin: But also not feeling like, you know, if you like, you like what you like, right? There's some people that will shop and, and consume without abandon, you know, they're gonna do that and that's fine, but really it's individual and trying to figure out, well, what works for you.

[00:38:22] Victoria Calvin: What works for you? If having, you know, 10 boxes full of scrapbook paper is what works for you, fantastic. If only having a little drawer of scrapbook paper works for you, that's cool too. You just have to do what works best for you.

[00:38:34] Jennifer Wilson: Yes. Yes, yes. And I think on that note, I wanted to talk a little bit about portability, because I know you're doing some of your crafting away from home, in the car, at a Starbucks. So what particular activities have you found to be the most portable?

[00:38:49] Victoria Calvin: So, um, I will typically take with me, if I'm gonna be out. Um, I recently set up some embroidery kits. I bought some pouches from Amazon. And, um, I, and I've got this idea from a, a cross stitcher that I watch on YouTube. And I put whatever my current project is, and it's super portable needle crafting because all you need is your needle, your thread, and your, and your fabric. That's pretty much all you need. So I put them in this little pouch with the, the, the floss that I need, my needles, my little scissors and the, the project, the material that I'm working on. And it's super portable. I have a little tote that I carry around. I have another tote that's my house, my house tote that I keep various things in. And so sometimes I'll pop it in there too if I'm just walking around the house. Just really easy little tote that I can carry around. I also have my journal if I wanna do some art journaling. I have that in my tote. And then I'm also currently working on a fitness journal to kind of document my health journey this year.

[00:39:50] Victoria Calvin: So I'm adding photos to that, um, as I'm, you know, continue on and meeting my goals. And so that's kind of like an extension of scrapbooking for me. And so I'll put in just a few little embellishments and a little pouch or something, some pens and things, and I put that in my little house tote that I carry around.

[00:40:06] Victoria Calvin: I found a bag on Amazon that works really well for me. Um, usually if it's gonna be paper crafting or storytelling, it's gonna be a small project like that, like my art journal or something like that. And then of course, my needle point work. Um, and I try not to carry around too much stuff. I only take what I need for a specific project that I'm working on. Um, if I'm sitting in the car waiting for my kid or if I'm at Starbucks or whatnot.

[00:40:27] Victoria Calvin: So I found that totes work very, very well. And then of course, using pouches to house just the items that I need to take with me on the go. If it's like vacations and things of that nature, then I'll make kits. Um, depending on the type of vacation, that we're going on. If we're gonna be spending a lot of time just relaxing, then I'll determine how many materials that I need for the specific projects I'm gonna work on.

[00:40:48] Victoria Calvin: And sometimes I may take something for a scrapbook mini album or, um, and, or take things for, um, embroidery or cross stitch. Well, mainly embroidery. Um, I don't take anything with me for my miniature stuff that I, I tend to like to do in studio cause I have all my things there.

[00:41:05] Jennifer Wilson: Yeah.

[00:41:05] Victoria Calvin: That's kind of hard to, to transport sometimes.

[00:41:08] Victoria Calvin: But my paper crafting and my embroidery most definitely, um, able to make little kits and bring it along with me and work on projects without a problem.

[00:41:16] Jennifer Wilson: Yeah, I was curious about your, your planners and journals, cuz you mentioned that you were, you're more interested in kind of doing things the stickery way this year. Um, so I'm curious kind of how that fits into, um, I don't know your interests right now and whether or not you consider that more of a portable thing or not.

[00:41:36] Victoria Calvin: So my planner stuff, sometimes I do take that to coffee shop with me and I'll grab a couple sticker books and plan my week. I got back into paper planning this past, second half of last year. I do a lot of my digital planning for business purposes, but just like my everyday stuff, I kind of jump back into paper planning. Um, I've always been a paper planner since I was in junior high. It's just my thing and I just like looking at planning videos and seeing people decorate their pages and I really miss it. So I jump back into that and I'm going to introduce that to the Victoria Marie YouTube channel here soon as well. Um, and then, I in my art, well, not my, my art journal. I call it my art journal. It's just a journal. I do have an art journal, but it's a journal. I have another journal, um, that I just kind of journal in every morning and I sometimes will add stickers and die cuts and things to the pages in that journal. And it's very informal.

[00:42:28] Victoria Calvin: So if I do it great, if I don't, that's great too. But it's an extension again of that paper hobby of that wanting to embellish pages and use stickers. And so those are two ways in which I do that. My paper planner that I use to keep, you know, my life together, and then my journal.

[00:42:43] Jennifer Wilson: Yeah.

[00:42:44] Victoria Calvin: Um, and then it just depends on how I feel in my morning journal, I might, you know, do an interactive page. I might add stickers and washi tape and that type of thing. And sometimes I don't add anything at all. But it is another vessel for me to play with those products. Um, particularly things from my stash. So I feel like I'm getting a good usage out of them and also scratching the itch to, to kind of make something I just kind of need to warm up a little bit in the morning. And sometimes I do that in my morning journal.

[00:43:07] Jennifer Wilson: I'm curious how you decide, you know, what to work on next. Um, I'm, I'm sure sometimes you feel a little pulled between, you know, have to crafting and want to crafting. And, uh, with all these options in front of you, how do you, you know, what do you consider when you're picking a direction?

[00:43:27] Victoria Calvin: I have had to, and this, it's funny that you brought this up cause I was just thinking about this towards the end of the year, I found that after doing the crafting that I need to do.

[00:43:36] Jennifer Wilson: Mm-hmm.

[00:43:36] Victoria Calvin: For my business, the things I'm getting paid to do. I found that as far as scrapbooking was concerned, I didn't have an interest in the evening once I was done with work. And interests have strongly been in my other hobbies after work. And so what I've tried to do is build in. some creative time during the day since I'm already up here. Um, once I finish the work I need to do, then to have about an hour or two where I'm working on paper crafting projects because I want to work on 'em. They're not for anything that I have to do that I'm getting paid to do. Just enjoying the process. Um, but in the evening time, when I'm done being up here in my studio, that's when I kind of go to my more portable crafts, right? So my, my needle point or whatnot, if I am gonna be up here, then it might be a miniature build. I might con, I might reserve my miniature build time until the weekend. Cuz I try not to work on the weekend unless I have to. Um, so I found, for me, it's compartmentalizing in my schedule, what types of crafts I'm working on at any given point during the day or during the week. I, I need to figure out what that natural separation is gonna be for me when I'm doing work related stuff versus just stuff that I do for myself. And sometimes it's a blurred lines and it's really hard to manage, I will be honest. It's really hard to manage and I, and I'm pretty we'll assume that for anybody who does their hobby professionally probably struggles with the same thing. Is how do you draw that line? So for me it's during the day, I work on certain things, certain projects, and then in the evening I kind of enjoy my other hobbies. As far as what projects to start with first, I usually will start with my paper crafting projects first, my storytelling projects, so my scrapbook layouts, my mini album projects, whatever it is that I'm working on. And I only try to focus on one project at a time. Uh, that's a big theme in my Project Done class is that you can't do all the things all the time.

[00:45:34] Victoria Calvin: So pick a project. And go for it. So I try to work on one project at a time and see that through to fruition. Um, and then second to that would be card making. I do have a bunch of birthday cards and things I'm trying to make. Um, and so I'll be working on that project. And then next to that would be any other paper crafting project that I might be working on at the time.

[00:45:57] Victoria Calvin: But mainly it's gonna be like scrapbooking, card making, and then my planner. I usually do that once a week and I consider that now an extension of my paper crafting since I use stickers and I decorate that. And any other, um, mini album type project. I have a long, not a long term, but I have a project that's taking me a little bit. Right now I've got two baby books that I'm making for my great niece and my great nephew.

[00:46:21] Jennifer Wilson: Oh.

[00:46:21] Victoria Calvin: They were born last year. And so they're gonna be getting baby books, within the next couple of months. Um, I try to not focus, if I'm just like, this week I'm only working on one of those projects. I'm not gonna work on all of them simultaneously. Um, and then once I get to a point where I'm like, okay, I'm done with this, then I'm gonna move on to the next project.

[00:46:42] Victoria Calvin: And I pull that project over. And what that allows me to do is kind of plan out what I'm working on for the week. And I don't feel like I have to work on everything all at once cuz you just can't do that. It's not feasible.

[00:46:52] Jennifer Wilson: Correct, correct. Now, is there any paper crafting that you do that we don't see? Because it is just for you and just for fun.

[00:47:00] Victoria Calvin: Um, there are sometimes some mini album projects that I don't show that are just for, for me. Whether I'm making 'em just because I want to, um, or I'm making 'em as a gift for somebody else. And I also too, I just wanna say, It takes a lot to prep and record stuff. So there's, there's a lot of these things I'm just not gonna record simply because of time. Not because I don't wanna share it, I just don't have the time to do it. Um, but there are some other projects, like I'm working on a couple of layouts that have very, very personal stories. So that's not something.

[00:47:33] Jennifer Wilson: Mm-hmm.

[00:47:33] Victoria Calvin: That I would share publicly. Um, I try to strike a balance between the two. And, uh, so there's a couple layouts right now that I'm working on that are about, uh, certain individuals in my life that have been in and out of my life. And those will just go straight into the album. Once I'm done, those won't be shared. Um, but be apart from that. I pretty much share a lot of what I make.

[00:47:56] Jennifer Wilson: You've been very open in your sharing and I definitely appreciate that, but also respect others who choose not to. I think.

[00:48:02] Victoria Calvin: Yes.

[00:48:02] Jennifer Wilson: We are very fortunate that there was, there's never a shortage of inspiration.

[00:48:06] Victoria Calvin: Mm-hmm.

[00:48:07] Jennifer Wilson: We can, um, everyone can find their own comfort level with sharing, online, whether it's in a private community or completely publicly.

[00:48:17] Victoria Calvin: Absolutely. And I think for our community, I think people pretty much, respect that, uh, they're not, you know, at least not in my experience, requesting that I show something that I'm not comfortable, you know, sharing. Sometimes it'll be prefaced with, well, if you're comfortable sharing Victoria, I like to know blah, blah, blah, which I think is very nice.

[00:48:34] Jennifer Wilson: Yes, yes. I mean, the scrapbooking community is amazing. So,

[00:48:38] Victoria Calvin: Yeah. absolutely.

[00:48:40] Jennifer Wilson: Well, I'd like step back big picture here and think about, you know, if you had to sum up what you've learned about what it takes to make maintaining, having multiple hobbies feasible, what, what advice would you share?

[00:48:54] Victoria Calvin: Well, one thing is, is that while you maybe multi-passionate, and I certainly am a multi-passionate person in general. But certainly a maker, is realizing that there's only so much that I can do at any given time.

[00:49:07] Jennifer Wilson: Mm-hmm.

[00:49:07] Victoria Calvin: You know, I have lots of interest in a lot of different things, but I only have so much time and so much space and so much energy. And so I try to, if I can recommend anything, is to pick that top three or two or four or however many crafts that, you know, you can engage in realistically on a consistent and regular basis. And depending on the craft that you're working on, it could be something that you do daily or every other week, or maybe it's a once a month thing. But you don't have to do all the things just because you're interested in it.

[00:49:41] Victoria Calvin: And also, don't be afraid to try new stuff too, conversely. In that, don't be afraid to try new things, and it's okay to set something aside temporarily or even permanently if that means you're going to get ready to engage in something that is really lighting you up right now. That really is, um, informing your creative energy and to do those things as often as you possibly can and to not let anything to make it a priority.

[00:50:06] Victoria Calvin: I always say if making is a priority, you'll make it a priority. So do those things as often as you can, whatever that means for you.

[00:50:12] Jennifer Wilson: Well, and I wanna underscore the, the previous comment you made, I think it's really important to, be a fan. Uh, just because you like something and maybe would like to try it, maybe now is not the best right time. Or maybe it's not feasible because you don't have a place to do a, a giant, six foot by six foot canvas with like, you know, marbleized poured painting.

[00:50:35] Jennifer Wilson: Not, not a lot of people have space to do that, but you can be a fan of it and you can watch videos and enjoy it and pin them to your boards. And, you know, may perhaps make a plan for the future or just say like, I really love this type of craft and I love that there's people that make it and I can enjoy it that way. So.

[00:50:51] Victoria Calvin: You know, that's where I started when I, um, got into miniatures. I've been following miniature for a long time.

[00:50:58] Jennifer Wilson: Mm-hmm.

[00:50:58] Victoria Calvin: Before I even started the hobby. Cuz I'm like, I don't know if it's something that I wanna do, but I'm really super interested in the history of it. Which dates back eons and eons and eons. But it wasn't until, I would say maybe 2019, 2020 that I got my first kit and I'm like, oh, I really like this. And I got it as a Christmas present. Cause I thought, well now I think I wanna dive into this. Um, but certainly there's a lot of things that I have an interest in. I love, I have a strong interest in sewing.

[00:51:25] Victoria Calvin: I have a sewing machine. But I haven't actually made any sewing projects. My daughter uses it, but I, I don't use it. But do I watch people make things? Absolutely.

[00:51:34] Jennifer Wilson: Yeah.

[00:51:34] Victoria Calvin: And whether it's something that I engage with down the road, I just find enjoyment watching other people make these projects and learning from them.

[00:51:41] Victoria Calvin: And so if at some point I do want to use my sewing machine for more than stitching on my scrapbook layouts, then um, then I will. But I don't feel compelled to have to actually do the thing. And I just enjoy it from a viewer, from a fan perspective, so I think that's a fantastic point.

[00:51:58] Jennifer Wilson: Mm-hmm. Well, Victoria, thank you so much for spending time with me today. Can you share where we can find you online? Anything you might have new or coming up, uh, let's say mid-February or later?

[00:52:09] Victoria Calvin: Yeah, absolutely. So you can find me at Victoria Marie scraps on YouTube and on Instagram and the VictoriaMarieblog.com. Um, and then I also have a Facebook group as well, that's Victoria Marie Designs, and we're growing community of crafters and we love to share and have a lot of fun. Coming down the pike this February, I have the start of my Project Done 12 week intensive scrapbooking journey, online class. And this class was for the first two years, a 12 year, or not 12 year. Lord, a 12 month class. Not a 12 year class.

[00:52:42] Jennifer Wilson: Oh gosh.

[00:52:44] Victoria Calvin: 12 month class. Hello. And we focus on really identifying the priority projects, scrapbook projects that you want to get done and getting those projects finished. And so I changed it to a 12 week intensive. Because what I found is that we tend to have a little bit more energy when we know we only have a certain amount of time to get certain things done.

[00:53:04] Jennifer Wilson: For sure.

[00:53:05] Victoria Calvin: So, exactly. So the students in this class are going to pick, and myself included. We're gonna pick one to three projects that you can feasibly get done in a 12 week period. And I have a whole lot of content each week where we talk about project management and strategies for getting your projects done. That help you as you are finishing your projects in that 12 week period. And then at the end we'll celebrate whatever project we were able to get done. So it can be an album, it can be a set of scrapbook layouts, it can even be organizing your scrappy space, but it's that 12 week defined period that you have to work on those things.

[00:53:39] Victoria Calvin: We have what I call, pro or we have, uh, Project Done Focus Hours or a co-working session. Once a week where you, we get together for an hour on Zoom and we just all basically co-work on Zoom. We don't have to talk or say anything. We're just all working. And then we talk about the progress that we made on the project that we're working on, which that's a very popular feature of the class.

[00:53:59] Victoria Calvin: There's recorded content, there's Live Zoom content, instructional content, and a PDF workbook.

[00:54:04] Jennifer Wilson: Sounds awesome. Thank you so much. I will definitely include a link to that in the show notes for this episode.

[00:54:10] Victoria Calvin: Awesome. Thanks so much.

[00:54:12] Jennifer Wilson: And to all of our listeners, please remember that you have permission to Scrapbook Your Way.