Image from Pixabay because pretty.

Answers to this week’s questions at The Friday Five @ DW.

1. What’s your favorite crafty activity?

I don’t really have a favorite – never been a crafty person and only in the last few years have started to do some. I love making little notebooks though, using pamphlet stitch, cottong rag paper and Tomoe River paper. Some day I’d like to like to make a thicker notebook with either Tomoe River or Cosmo Air Light/Snow paper. I did do some training and book repairing in a few libraries when I was working, and I always enjoyed it.

I also like acrylic pouring and playing with alcohol inks. And watercoloring. And coloring pictures. On the computer, making digital papers is fun.

2. What got you into it?

A few years ago, I needed something non-computery to do that was quiet, low-pressure and required no thinking when one of my migraine attacks prolonged because I couldn’t read, watch tv or listen to music to pass the time. I started to do some adult coloring, then added in watercolor and then I bought some watercolor notebooks from LotusBluBookArt that were made from cotton rag paper and I though I can make these myself, it’s easy, especially after seeing a video of Moneeza’s about the pamphlet stitch notebooks. And then it just sort of snowballed from that.

3. What was your favorite arts & crafts project as a kid?

Like I said above, I’ve never been a crafty person. I remember we had things like drawing in school, and making clothes but I had only bad experiences with those classes so it wasn’t something I ever enjoyed. And before that, I suppose Mom, Dad and me did kiddy crafty things when I was tiny but I have no memory of them; I’ve also no idea if we did them in kindergarten/day care. So I didn’t have favorite arts / crafts project until I was in my mid-40s. In fact, I don’t remember having any art & crafts projects as a kid that I did voluntarily, only of the one in school which either were deadly boring (knitting) or I had bad experience (making clothes).

I am/was more into reading, listening to music and baking than arts & crafts.

Oh! I did do sort of drawing – I traced X-Men and other comics, coloring them and telling my stories that way but that was a hobby that lasted over 15 years and I’ve never thought of it as arty or crafty. Just a hobby, and more to do with writing. I’d also trace historical costumes from historical costuming books (on projector film sheets so that I wouldn’t damage the books), and then draw and color those on the comic books characters after studying the clothes.

4. What has someone made for you?

My Mom made me a long, narrow, “hairy” dark red scarf when I fell in love with the one she had made herself. It’s for winter, when it’s so cold outside that I need a scarf both inside and outside my coat. This one is the outside scarf and helps to keep the coat closed around my throat because it’s otherwise too open and wind gets in. So the scarf is not only pretty but practical! My only complaint is that the winters are too mellow to need to use it for more than literally 2-3 days a year now.

My Mom’s SO made a wooden step for between my backyard dor and the yard which is great quality – even after 23 years it’s still sturdy and in good condition.

5. Are there any unfinished projects in your life you need to pick back up?

Not unfinished, but I just received some Chiyogami paper that I want to make notebooks with; but I have to figure out what to glue it on to because it’s too thin to use as cover as-is. And I also should go back to alcohol inks and acrylic pouring too! I’ve just been too tired the last couple of years because I have to use my kitchen table for that, and it’s too much work to have to clear and prepare the table every day for craft stuff. I don’t have other space to do it on.