The Craft Room Podcast

Hello and welcome to The Craft Room Podcast. I'm so glad you're joining me today, as we are talking about the benefits of swatching. Yes, I am on a swatching kick right now and it all started thanks to my friend Sally. I went to visit her last month and she showed me her beautifully organised craft supplies, but more importantly she showed me her ink pad swatches. I knew the second I saw it that this was the solution I had been looking for for years. It's not like I've never swatched before. My Copic markers are swatched out on a hex chart, I've swatched some pencils and a watercolour palette. But I didn't have what I have always wanted … a swatch folder with all the colours in one place. Until I saw Sally's I didn't know why I was baulking at it, and the reality is … I wanted more swatches to a page. It's not like a plastic sleeve with pockets is a revolutionary product, but I'd never seen coin collecting sleeves used for swatching before. I will link to the ones I used below.

Benefit 1 - Accurate Colors
Benefit 2 - Know What you Have
Benefit 3 - Quick Choices while Crafting
Benefit 4 - Making Educated Decisions
Benefit 5 - Reducing Decision Fatigue
Benefit 6 - Viewing Variations
Benefit 7 - Get more use from your Supplies


Let's consider the age old conundrum … 'To swatch or not to swatch?', which is a really good question, and thank you William Shakespeare for asking that. Sometimes you benefit from swatching, and sometimes you don't, and swatching requires a significant time investment. The swatches that I've already made took up the majority of my time for 3 days, so in order to answer the first question, we must ask another.
Do the benefits of making these swatches outweigh the time investment?
How you decide if you are going to swatch your craft supplies depends heavily on how you use them, and how you store them.
As much as I would love to go into loads of details right now, telling you how I did the swatching, and why I swatched that way, it's a very visual explanation, and podcasts aren't exactly a visual thing. So here's what I'm going to do instead. I have scheduled a livestream on my YouTube channel on Friday 20th February 2026 at 8:30pm Sydney time. Remember that I am in Australia, and right now we're in daylight savings time, so that's AEDT (I'll link to a timezone converter so you can figure out when that will be in your local time). I will also link to the scheduled live on YouTube. There's a button you can click to be notified at the scheduled start time, but it's helpful to note that notification will be sent as an email, so you might prefer to pop a reminder into your calendar with the link. 
We are also talking a lot about swatching and choosing colours over in the Craft with Dawn Lewis Facebook group. If, however, Facebook is not your cup of tea, then you don't have to miss out. I'll be showcasing more of my swatching adventures on other socials … Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Pinterest. And if you would like it all distilled down into one juicy bite, you can subscribe to my email newsletter, where I'll be sending just 2 emails per month.
This year we are using our craft supplies, we're not being Pinterest perfect about it, and all of my content will be centred around that. So, until we meet again, happy crafting, happy swatching, and I hope to see you on my YouTube livestream … until I see you next time.
LINKS
Episode #43 blog post

Website

Sign up for newsletter

Craft with Dawn Lewis Facebook Group

Coin Collecting Sleeves (Amazon Australia)

Coin Collecting Sleeves (Amazon USA)

YouTube Live

Timezone Converter

Aradiya Toys

Hobbii 8/4 yarn

Sandy Alnock Hex Charts

Note: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases

Happy New Year! 

Today is the first day of 2026, so I figure it's a great time to talk about new year crafting resolutions. Yes, I have talked about this before, back in episode 32, mainly focusing on planning and different types of crafting resolutions that can be done over 12 months.

Today, I want to focus on something different, plus I have an exciting announcement.

LINKS

Episode 42 blog post
Episode 32, New Years Crafting Resolutions
Tim Holtz announcement video
My Website
Sign up for newsletter
Rule of Three playlist
Craft with Dawn Lewis Facebook Group

Today on The Craft Room Podcast, let's talk about my Big Announcement and Product Longevity. 

Last week I made a really big decision, which led to a big announcement this week … it's time for me to close my shop. You can see my full announcement video on the home page, and most recent blog post, at dawnlewis.com.au.
Closing the shop got me thinking a lot about how we use our products, inspiration, motivation and perfectionism. Then this morning the group chat for Homemade Cards for Seniors Australia collection points really got me thinking about giving our products longevity. And I know two big ways we can do that … Rule of Three, and destashing.
You will find a full transcript of this episode HERE

LINKS
Homemade Cards for Seniors Australia

Episode 35 - Cost vs Value

Episode 40 - The Craft Stash

Gina K Designs, Tall Stems stamp set

Rule of Three Notepad

Closing announcement blog post

Simon Hurley Lunar Paste

Today on The Craft Room Podcast, let's talk about the Craft Stash, which is 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.

You will find a full transcript of this episode HERE.

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

Hello, welcome to The Craft Room Podcast. I'm so glad you're joining me as we look at ways we can set ourselves up for Success for a new crafting year. I have ten tips that you might find helpful.
I was live in my card membership group a while back, chatting about this delicious week between Christmas and new year. The festive, yet chaotic energy of Christmas has passed, and it's my favourite time of the year. I'm in my pjs on the couch in front of the AC and Netflix, living off leftovers and cheese boards and I have no idea what day it is … living the dream! This is the week I use each year to set myself up for success for the following year, both in business and my personal craft projects. I talked about New Years crafting resolutions back in episode 32, so I'll link to that episode in case you missed it (or want a refresher), but I thought I'd talk about some of my favourite things to do in the last week of December that will set me up for success in the year to come.

LINKS

Christmas Cards on Time limited edition box

Marni's foundation Paper piecing

Rule of Three notepad

Episode 32

Episode 36