Hi everyone, I'm Karen Kavett, if you didn't know, now you know, ok I'm not going to
steal Grace's intro.
So, as a DIY YouTuber, the question I probably get asked the most often, well ok no, actually
the question I probably get asked the most often is What is your favorite project that
you've ever made?
Let me know if you want me to do another video about that in the future.
But the question I get asked the second most often is how do you come up with all of your
diy ideas?
And so today I thought I would answer it for you, share all of my secrets.
Settle in, this is going to be a long one, let's get into it.
So the first thing to keep in mind is that coming up with DIY ideas is just like any
other skill - it just takes practice.
I've been making DIY videos for almost ten years now, and I've been doing them weekly/monthly
for HGTV for about five years.
So I have been in this mindset for a really long time, and once that becomes your job,
it kind of shifts how you see the entire world.
I am always looking for inspiration everywhere that I go.
When I'm out shopping, I'm like, could I make this instead of buying it, or what
could I make out of this thing that I'm buying?
Or if I like get packages in the mail, I'm like what could I make out of all of these
packing supplies?
Literally just seeing DIY ideas everywhere in my life.
And that's why I'm so grateful to live in a time of smartphones, because I can literally
just take a picture of anything that inspires me, or I can jot down little notes so that
I'll remember them later.
Sometimes I'll come up with an idea for a holiday like a year in advance, like Christmas
has just passed and then I think of a really good Christmas idea.
So I'll literally just put it on my calendar for next year's Christmas and when that rolls
around again, there it is and I haven't lost that idea.
So, a technique that I find really helpful when I'm coming up with DIY ideas is to
ask myself what problem am I solving with this DIY?
For example, with my DIY front door station thing, which I still use literally every day,
my problem was that I didn't have a central place to put my shopping bags, my keys, my
coupons, and this DIY solved that.
With my recent patches video over on HGTV, my problem was that I wanted to use my favorite
patches without permanently attaching them to a single item of clothing, so I came up
with 5 ways to use a patch that doesn't involve ironing it to a jacket.
Or, the problem might be as simple as my phone case isn't cute and I want it to be cute,
or my textbook cover is boring and I want to craft onto it.
But I personally find that framing every single DIY idea as "What problem am I solving"
it really just helps keep me on track and not make pointless stuff that would end up
on the subreddit DIWhy.
So another thing that I think about is whether I'm going to be making an item from scratch
or decorating an existing object.
For example, all of the incredibly talented artists who make little clay sculptures, which
is not a talent that I have, but I am in awe of everyone who does it.
They are sculpting an item and creating a shape that didn't exist before.
Or, most of my Perler bead DIYs I think would fall into this, some of my duct tape DIYs.
It's where the medium that you're using becomes the item that you've created.
On the other hand, you can decorate an existing object, like a textbook cover, or a notebook
or a pumpkin or an ornament.
In fact over with my craft supplies I actually keep an entire box that I've labeled Blank
Projects and it is just plain stuff like tote bags and notebooks and shoes that I can craft
onto if I think of a new way to decorate any of that stuff.
Another distinction that I like to use to to narrow down all of the potential DIY ideas
is derivative crafts vs evergreen crafts.
Derivative crafts, which is a term that I just totally made up, I think it fits but
it's not like an industry term or anything.
That's a project that, that I would say uses existing symbols or characters or properties
from other media.
For example, all of my many Harry Potter DIYs that I've done, or Gilmore Girls or Riverdale.
I generally have to keep that kind of stuff on my main channel instead of on HGTV because
there could be copyright issues, but I find it easier to come up with an idea if I'm working
within the framework of an existing property.
And it can also be easier for the audience to relate to and want to make the craft if
it uses symbols that they're already familiar with.
For example, when I made the Golden Snitch gift bow, I'm basically just showing you
how to make a paper gift bow with an ornament in the middle.
But, because I photocopied Harry Potter books, and I turned the ornament into a Golden Snitch,
it becomes something that they can relate to and will share with their friends who also
like Harry Potter.
On the other hand, evergreen projects are things that don't fit within any certain
property or fandom or holiday, it could just kind of be posted any time of year.
It's just um, I don't want to say generic, but you know like, it doesn't necessarily
reference anything else, so a lot of the jewelry projects that I've made would probably fall
into that.
So speaking of holidays I would say those fall into the derivative crafts label, because
I'm working within a set of cultural expectations, a visual vocabulary that I share with my audience.
That's why I find making a Halloween DIY to be easier than just coming up with a project
out of thin air, because the framework of the holiday is already in place.
I could make a costume or decorate a pumpkin or make a spooky decoration.
I could use ghosts or spiders or jack o lanterns.
For Easter, every single crafter shows a new way to decorate Easter Eggs.
Even something like Back to School, which isn't really a holiday, but it is a shared
event.
We can think about, what is a new way to decorate a pencil or a pencil case or to make a homework
station, which is a problem that is shared by families all over the world, so if you
can think of a new way to solve it, that's something that people would be interested
in watching.
In general, not even just with DIY projects, I just think it is so much easier to come
up with ideas with restrictions placed upon you.
So it might be the framework of existing holidays like I just talked about, or I'll just sometimes
put arbitrary restrictions on myself.
So I might start with the material - let's think of a problem that I could solve using
duct tape.
Or I really need to use up these flower pots because they're taking up too much space with
my craft supplies, so let's think of a way that we can use them.
And let's look at the shape of the item and think of what other things that shape reminds
us of that we could turn it into.
I might start with the problem that needs solving - my enamel pins are really messy
and disorganized, how can I organize them.
Or maybe I'll start with the shape - hot air balloons are really cute, it's a really
fun shape- how can I craft a hot air balloon using the supplies that I have?
Once you have a way into thinking about the idea, it is so much easier to come up with
5 ways to decorate a flowerpot than it is to come up with 5 DIY somethings.
Another thing that I personally think about is how easy it would be for you guys to get
the supplies.
Because the hope is that you're gonna watch my video and then want to make the project
yourself.
And I know that a lot of people love watching DIY and never craft anything, that's totally
fine.
I watch a lot of cooking videos, literally never cook.
But you know, that's kind of the goal that I'm going for, is for you guys to be able
to make the thing if you wanted it.
But for example, when I was brainstorming my Shark Week DIY over on HGTV, my dad mentioned
that he had an actual like giant sharks tooth that I could use if I wanted to.
And while that might have made for a cool DIY, none of you guys are going to have access
to a giant shark's tooth.
Or if I think of a project but it uses $200 worth of fabric, I might rethink that one
because I know that most of you don't have the budget for that and I personally don't
have the budget for that, because I have to buy all the supplies that I use.
There is something to be said for just watching someone make a really cool thing that you
know you don't have access to the tools or the materials but you just want to watch them
make it, and I'm not saying that one is better than the other, but personally I prefer to
keep my crafts a little more accessible and use supplies that you guys might already have
or at least have access to.
That's another restriction that I'll sometimes put on myself, is what can we make out of
really common supplies that people probably already have in their homes?
Or what can I personally make out of the supplies that I have out with all of my craft supplies
so that I don't have to be constantly buying more and more craft supplies?
So while I'm talking about craft supplies, I just want to plug my Amazon Affiliates shop
really quickly.
I don't have a car so for me personally, it is a lot cheaper to get my supplies delivered
directly to me instead of taking a Lyft to the craft store.
It also means that I can give you guys the exact link so that you guys can buy the exact
same supplies that I'm using in the video.
So in the descriptions of most of my videos, I actually have links to all of the supplies
that I could find online and if you click those, those are actually Amazon affiliate
links.
So if you click one of those links and then buy anything on Amazon, not even the thing
I linked you to, if you click the link and then buy anything else, I will get a small
percentage of that money.
It is a really great secondary source of income for me, so if you want to browse my favorite
craft supplies or the supplies for specific projects I've shown you guys how to do before
or my camera equipment or my favorite jigsaw puzzles, I have a ton of lists over there
and I'll have that linked right down below if you want to check that out.
So anyway, back to talking about DIY videos, the next distinction that I like to make is
aspirational vs accessible content.
Again I am not saying one is better than the other, they both have a place here on the
internet.
Aspirational content is where I would place LaurDIY or Zoella, people who have super high
production values, beautiful content, beautiful photos, but it's not necessarily something
that all of us can actually achieve in our daily lives.
Whereas on Pinterest and Facebook you might see a lot more accessible content, where it
might not have the best lighting or like a really nice camera, but it feels like something
that you yourself could actually make.
And with those like poorly lit or poorly shot videos, I feel like is so much value in, if
this video has 5 million views, I'm so much more likely to sit there and watch it because
I know that the idea behind it has to be good, if this many people have watch this like,
objectively poorly shot video, there has to be a really good idea there.
So every single time, I'm going to sit there and watch to find out what it is.
Personally I try to straddle that line a bit and I think most people do, no one's like
clearly on one side or the other, where I hope my ideas are accessible to you guys but
I do have a nice camera, pretty good lighting, pretty good editing, so I hope the production
value feels kind of aspirational but I hope the ideas are pretty accessible.
So I guess that was kind of tangent about DIY videos instead of DIY projects, but something
else I just want to say about DIY videos is that it's not always about who can create
the best projects - it's about who can get an audience to care about their projects.
That's why I do so many rainbow and colorful projects, one because I like them and it fits
my aesthetic, but two, because super bright colors will catch your attention on Facebook
and Instagram and YouTube and they just look really good on camera.
You can even think about the shapes and the textures of your projects and how well those
work on camera.
Something made out of super thin wire might look really beautiful and delicate in person,
but it's a little harder to translate that to an eye-catching thumbnail.
Whereas a really colorful textural shot of mixing paint, that's something that our eyes
are just drawn to, that we want to look at.
5 minute crafts are the masters at starting their Facebook videos with weird, colorful
imagery that every single time makes you just stop scrolling and look at it to see what
they're doing, try to figure out what's going on there.
So another thing is to think about the aspect ratio of the video that you're creating
- a super vertical project might not do as well on YouTube where we do wide 16x9 videos.
But it might look really good on Instagram where they really like vertical videos.
Or something square might look beautiful in a square Facebook video, but that might be
a little harder to show in a vertical video because you have so much empty space above
and below it.
That's really only a consideration if you're gonna be filming your projects and sharing
them, not if you're just making stuff for your own personal use, but it's just another
thing to think about.
So ok, I have two more tricks for coming up with projects.
Of course I'll scroll through Pinterest for inspiration once I've come up with the general
topic or idea.
But I try to change the idea at least a little bit so that I'm not outright stealing, which
I have not been perfect at, I don't think anyone's been perfect at that.
But I try really hard to not just like recreate something that somebody else has made.So I
trick that I use to change it up is to think about how the scale of the thing.
So the geodesic dome bowl I made over on HGTV, that was actually inspired by this geodesic
play, cardboard playhouse thing that I saw on Pinterest and I was like, I don't have
that much cardboard or I don't have that much space to make this giant thing, but it's a
really cool shape.
What if I made it smaller and flipped it over and turned that into a bowl?
Or the cardboard gingerbread men that I made Christmas - I was thinking about what is a
shape that I really want to use from the Christmas visual vocabulary, and I thought of gingerbread
men, and then I thought it would be fun to make them giant and oversized so I made those
out of cardboard and I really like how they came out.
I personally have always loved miniatures, I've always loved things that are way bigger
than they're supposed to be, so that's just a theme that I have used throughout the years
And finally, my last tip is to just know your craft supplies really really well.
First know what you have.
So I go through all of my craft supplies once a year, reorganize stuff, throw out a lot
of stuff that I know I'm not going to use, and doing that reminds me of supplies that
I have that I might have forgotten about.
And so I'll always get a bunch of new ideas just by looking at all of the options that
I have in front of me.
And two, just know how your craft supplies behave, that's another thing that just comes
from practice.
A little fun fact, I usually don't make test versions of my projects- usually the
one the one that you see me making on camera is the first time that I've done that project.
It doesn't always go well, as you've seen in my craft fail videos.
But, I've been crafting for so long now that I just know have the knowledge of what
glues and adhesives work best on what materials or how duct tape behaves or how felt behaves
so I can just visualize in my mind how the project is going to come out, and usually
it comes out the way that I expected it to.
But again, that just comes from practice just like anything else out there.
So ok, that was a such a long video, but I hope that if you are struggling to come up
with DIY ideas or if you're wondering how I do it, that I gave you some strategies and
some ideas for how to go about coming up with projects.
I would love to know in a comment right down below if you use any other strategies or if
you have any other questions about anything that I covered.
And if you know any crafters or aspiring crafters or professional crafters, send them this video
and we can all talk about DIY projects in the description, nope not the description,
in the comments altogether.
So I'm going to include links right down below in the description of all of the projects
that I talked about and I'll also include a link to my Amazon Affiliates shop, which
you can just click around and if you decide to buy anything, I'll get a small amount of
that money and it doesn't cost you guys anything if you were gonna like buy the thing on Amazon
anyway.
Ok, I'm going to go, thank you for coming to my TED talk, I wish.
I wish this was a TED Talk.
Alright, I'll see you guys next time.
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