Discussion Day #2 - How much is enough?

We are expecting a rainy Saturday and since it won't be a good day to be outside I am planning to dig in and try to finish the craft room reorganization.  I have been amazed at the sheer amount of "crafty stuff" that I have accumulated over the years.  I am a fairly typical crafter who can't resist items that are pretty or that I think I can use for a "to be determined" project.

Papercrafting supplies are generally low in price as individual items but tend to be part of larger sets or collections.  It is easy to think that you need every color of Stickles or all of the papers in a new line - turning a purchase of a dollar or two into a much more significant acquisition.

I constantly struggle with the balance between collecting or limiting the amount of supplies and tools in my space.  In the past couple of weeks I have purchased two new crafting machines (more about these later) and there are still more that I "think" I want.  Realistically, I only have so many hours in a day and there are other aspects of life that need my attention.  Will I ever be able to use all that I have and find time to work with new items too?

When you have too many options available to you it becomes difficult to make a choice.  It is possible that having "too much" makes you less creative and inventive than you would be if you had to work to make the most of a limited amount of materials.

So let's talk about it - do you ever feel overwhelmed by your supplies?  What is a "reasonable" amount of paper to have on hand?  Do you need to have every color of solid cardstock from a certain company to feel prepared to craft?  How often do you actually use the colors in a series that complete your collection but don't really appeal to you?  What method do you use to try to keep the acquisition of new things under control?  Is it possible to have so many "toys" (whether they are cartridges, SVG files, ribbons, paper stacks, etc.) that you can't reasonably expect to use them all - no matter how hard you try?

You don't have to "confess" to the amount of papercrafting accumulation in your life unless it helps you to work out your answer to the questions.  I will add a link for this topic to the tab at the top of the page so you can gather your thoughts  and join the conversation when you have time. 

A note about new cartridges...   "Hello Thursday" did not become "Good Morning Friday" and the new cartridges have not yet been officially announced.  There have been a number of personnel changes at ProvoCraft this week and these may have had an impact on the usual schedule.  When I plugged in my Gypsy and ran Cricut Sync to transfer a file tonight, I discovered that the Gypsy updates with the new cartridges are in place.  There are four segments to the update and it will take quite a while (over two hours for me) to complete them all.  You will be able to see a number of new cartridges once the update is completed.

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