Katie Stilwater is actually one of our very own Craft Warehouse customers and dear friend! We value Katie's creative talents so much we asked her if we could display some of her amazing work in our Gresham Craft Warehouse. You can see some of her beautiful jewelry pieces on her Instagram feed at @starburststudio! We also love that Katie scrapbooks and isn't afraid of a good DIY!
How long have you been crafting?
I’m a crafty mama living in Portland, OR with my wonderful husband and our four little boys. I have the privilege of homeschooling my sons but with any free time I have, I’m always creating something.
I have been creative my whole life. (I remember telling my mom bedroom floor wasn’t messy, it was a collage of clothes! Lol!) But my real crafting journey started about 12 years ago when I fell in love with a hand stamped card and thought, “I have to make that!” I was at Craft Warehouse, actually, and saw a simple yet stunning wedding card featuring a local stamp company. I bought everything to make the card, went home, copied it EXACTLY and was totally hooked from then on! I started with stamping cards and then moved on to just about every other craft out there – scrapbooking, knitting, sewing, jewelry making, etc. I’ve tried almost everything! And while my first love will always be card making and paper crafts, I now focus my time on designing jewelry.
This is a bit of cliché but I really do find inspiration all around me and I never know when it is going to strike. But one thing I’ve learned is I can’t force it. If I’m working on a project and it’s not going smoothly and the ideas aren’t flowing, I always step back and take a break. It seems like just when I forget about it and stop stressing, then something will pop into my head. I also find a huge amount of inspiration from – you guessed it – Pinterest. I love to browse ideas that have nothing to do with what I’m working on – like looking at living rooms for a scrapbook page inspiration, or my fashion board to get ideas for a card I’m making. My other biggest inspiration is color! I love a unique color scheme but adore trendy ones too! (My current fave is coral, mint, navy, gold and white together.)
What Craft Warehouse products do you love to use?
Ooh! I love Craft Warehouse and it’s very hard to narrow it down. But I use A LOT of spray paint from there (they have the best colors!), washi tape (again – such a good selection!) and patterned paper (I’m a sucker for a good floral print.)
How can you encourage others reading this column?
Be yourself! The world needs your specific creative point of view. For me, I used to really struggle with “I’m not good enough. Her stuff is cuter. Everything I make is hideous!” (I can be a bit of a drama queen.) But over the years, I’ve learned that truly, there really is room for all of us in this creative community. Your work is important! Keep doing what YOU are called to do. Also, not every project has to “rock the crafting world” as like to tell myself, lol! Sometimes just making something that’s pretty cute is just fine.
Join Katie tomorrow as she shares a TRENDY DIY Bracelet, perfect for our DIY month! In the meantime, visit Katie on her blog, Facebook, and Instagram!
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