Win a Door Prize Without Walking Through a Door!

Tomorrow is the big release party for The Naughty Secretary Club: The Working Girls Guide to Handmade Jewelry and Volume 8 of Craft Magazine at Craft-o-Rama and I am finally feeling like things are coming together. I have bought every craft store in South Austin out of button covers to make Office Hanky Panky Rings. I ordered 60 cupcakes (30 chocolate and 30 vanilla) and Hope and I made custom book cover cupcake toppers for all of them. I noticed the party got mentioned in The Austin Chronicle and The Austinist. I also got all the amazing door prizes gathered up, it’s worth coming just to win some resin, paint or rub-ons.

But wait what if you don’t live in Austin, but want to win a door prize? Well we can make that happen. Most of the prizes I have 2 of so I will be giving away one at the party and one right here on the blog. Winners announced next Saturday September 6th. I’m bribing you a bit with the prizes I’ll admit. In order to win you have to either have A) leave a review on Amazon B) Review the book on your own blog C) Buy a copy (you can email me a reciept) D) Make a project from the book and add it to our Customer Gallery and then leave a comment right here to let me know about it! Be sure to leave your email in the comment and you might also mention which prize you want.

Ok onto the amazing prizes….

First up we have four 3 packs of rub-ons by Hambly Screen Prints. I love their amazingly fun and hip designs and I could not resist using them in The Naughty Secretary Club: The Working Girls Guide to Handmade Jewelry on the Transfer Me Jewelry set. You will win a set of Out on a Limb, Dingbats & Robots and Stamp Alphabet Letters. Sure these rub-ons were meant for paper, but remember almost anything can be made into jewelry.

Have you been dying to whip up your own version of The Secretaries Delight Bracelet? Well the kind people at Environmental Technologies can make that happen. This is the exact stuff I used for years to whip up my resin jewelry. On the blog I will probably be giving away the set of mixing cups and the Transparent Dye Kits. The resin, mold release agent and resin spray will be given away at the party since that stuff is tricky to mail with all kinds of rules and regulations.

Next up we have a variety pack of Tim Holtz Distress Inks by Ranger and a Ready-to-Go Blank Board Book by Create and Treasure.

We have a ton of Finishing Touches Iron On Fusible Thread by Kreinik to give away at the party and here on the blog!

Love to doodle, well we have you covered in the pen department. Goodies from Sakura of America and Jet Pens galore!


There are a couple of different prize packs from Tulip including patches, Glitter Bond, Tie-Dye Kits and More. Rumor has it there is a package on the way with even more prizes not to mention you might have noticed in the book that I am quite smitten on their Liquid Fusion Glue. You better bet there will be plenty of that tomorrow to put our rings together with!

You better bet your bottom dollar we have some Naughty Secretary Club T-shirts to give away!

Thanks to Bead Style Books we have copies of Easy Birthstone Jewelry and Jewelry Just for You to give away!

Have you seen the fabu Crafty Chica product line from dear friend Kathy Cano Murillo! It’s amazing all the paint, tote bags, glitter, shrines – it’s enough to make a crafty girls head spin! We will have some Crafty Chica prizes to give away here on the blog and at the party! Check out the back page of Volume 8 of Craft Magazine tomorrow at the party to see the I’m a Chica Too ad with pictures of tons of crafters including lil’ ole me.

You are going to need to brush up on your embroidery skills in order to make the All Access Pass Brooch in The Naughty Secretary Club Book. There is no better way than to snag yourself an embroidery kit or two from Sublime Stitching. At the party and on the blog snag yourself some patterns (oh I spy the new Black Apple set), card set or a Petit Embroidery Kit!

Don’t forget my co-hosts with this shin-dig tomorrow, Craft Magazine and lovely Rachel Hobson of Average Jane Crafter. You have to hit the party to win these prizes, but two lucky peeps can win Craft T-shirts and 1 lucky ducky will go home with a box set of Craft Magazine. The party is also to celebrate the launch of Volume 8 of the magazine which I am especially fond of since there is a full page ad for The Naughty Secretary Club right in the front!


See you tomorrow and good luck with the contest!

Book Parties and Late Night Kitty Chases

I know I have been the worst blogger this summer, there is something major going on that has prevented my blogging that I am not quite ready to reveal. I promise it is a really good excuse. And of all the times for me to be slacking on blogging, the week of my book release party I should be ashamed. Jennifer Perkins slacking on shameless self promotion, this is so out of character. Promotion is everything I stand for. Oh it will all be clear to you soon enough why blogging has taken a back seat. In the meantime, yup I said book release party and you are invited!

That’s right kids Craft Magazine, Average Jane Crafter and Naughty Secretary Club are joining forces for a super crafty get together at Craft-o-Rama this weekend to officially celebrate the release of The Naughty Secretary Club: The Working Girls Guide to Handmade Jewelry and Volume 8 of Craft Magazine.

Stop by Saturday Aug 30th between 3pm-6pm for snackies, big stacks of books and magazines to buy, door prizes galore and we will be making button covered rings (AKA from the Office Hanky Panky Bracelet set in the book). Tons of fun for the whole family. RSVP on EVITE or Face Book or just show up!

In other news this week I have spotted a few new book reviews that made me squeal with delight….

It has been a life long goal of mine to be on Apartment Therapy since I am such a fan of the blog. The lovely Adrienne Breaux of All Things Austin Design was kind enough to mention the book as well as the book release party on the website. I have my fingers crossed that you will soon be getting a tour of my casa on Apartment Therapy as well. I’ll keep you posted.

The podcast hostess with the mostess Diane Gilleland of Crafty Pod posted a fun review of The Naughty Secretary Club with lots of pictures from the book. I love it when people sneak in lots of pictures.

Also super thanks to Amy Cluck for the nice long Amazon review. If you heart the book, please leave an Amazon review. People put a lot of stock into those. Thanks to my buddy Jenny Hart for mentioning the book, she helped me with the embroidery project inside!

In case you are bored to tears with hearing me talk about my book. I swear it is almost over. Here are 5 totally un-book-related tid bits….
1) I can’t stop listening to Elton John for some reason. Old Elton of course not that Lion King crap. Or was that Phil Collins that did Lion King?

2) I saw a snake in my back yard with a toad in its mouth that put the fear of Jesus in me.

3) I had my carpets steam cleaned and it was totally worth it, no more puppy pee smell!

4) At 3am last night as I got out of bed to let the puppy out my indoor cat dashed out who I had to chase all over the yard in my socks.

5) I made a delicious batch of Green Chilie Hash brown Casserole.

Three New Book Reviews!

Three new book reviews for The Naughty Secretary Club: The Working Girls Guide to Handmade Jewelry hot off the presses...


Check out Tammy Powley's review over at About.com Jewelry Making...

This book is made to tickle your funny bone but also get you to start thinking creatively at the same time while you learn some techniques that aren't necessarily difficult but also aren't what you normally might think about when it comes to jewelry making.


My lovely co-host for the book release party Rachel Hobson of Average Jane Crafter wrote a book review that made me beam with pride. Plus this one has lots of pictures from the book!

Let's talk physical attributes: The book is square - it's a great size, and its colorful, crazy, kitschy design is off-the-charts fun.



The amazing Barbe Saint John whipped up a review on her blog as well as her blog for Craft Gossip.

This first glance is just the tip of the color saturated iceburg that awaits you inside its glossy covers-so much so, my dog and I made an emergency pitstop at Starbucks so I could sit and go thru this book right there and then.

The Sampler

I love getting The Sampler in the mail! There is always so much fun stuff and the August edition was no exception to the rule. Soaps, buttons, charms, jewelry, calendars and more. I think my very favorite was the Heads or Tails advice-giving coins by Creep Mouse Toys. The little blonde girl graphic on the wooden disc is so dang cute. My sister is begging me for the tiny scissor earrings by Suga*N*Spice, I told her to get her own Sampler. Ok maybe I will loan them to her.

Also in The Sampler this month was a project sheet from The Naughty Secretary Club: The Working Girls Guide to Handmade Jewelry! The sheet has the complete instructions on how to make the Whistle at Work Necklace. The best part is there is a coupon on the back. If you buy a copy of the book through My Craftivity you get $5 off when you enter the code "naughty" in the store!

Do you subscribe to The Sampler? What were you faves in the August package? Do you contribute to The Sampler? Do you think it helps spread the word about your business? Once I had a picture of what I contributed shown in Home Companion Magazine!

The Return of Bead Bloggers

Chris and I snuck off to Dallas this weekend for a quick trip to visit my parental units. It’s always soothing to be driven around, have all your meals paid for and sleep in your old bed. Saturday we drove out to Fort Worth to check out an Impressionist exhibit at the Kimbell Museum. Chris had been to the Art Institute of Chicago this summer and was disappointed that several paintings were out on loan, and apparently they were in Fort Worth. We saw pieces by Renoir, Degas, Manet, van Gough and my very favorite artist Toulouse-Lautrec. We of course also hit the flea market in Fort Worth where I scored a few treasures to be transformed into jewelry. The rest of the visit was spent, well visiting. Back home in rainy Austin today and back to work. I missed my usual Saturday Bead Bloggers post so let’s do it today.

About.com Jewelry Making
Tammy gives you some tips and jewelry project ideas for designing and making jewelry you can wear to work, even if your job's atmosphere is super up-tight.

Art Bead Scene
Let your jewelry do the talking! Enter the Art Bead Scene's creative challenge!

BeadStyle Magazine
The staff shows off some of their favorite jewelry from the pages of BeadStyle magazine.

Carter Seibels for Divali Glass Jewelry
Carter ponders the organization of beads in the Bead Trust booth, and shares some new projects!

Jennifer Jangles Blog
Make Jennifer's Long, Dangle-y, and Jangle-y Earring Project

Jewelry & Beading
Make a cigar box handbag...featuring beads, of course!

Katie's Beading Blog
Download one of Katie's projects over at Beading Daily. It's an icy confection of dichroic glass and matte seed beads.

Naughty Secretary Club
The Naughty Secretary Club book is finally here. If you love your jewelry kitschy proceed immediately to Jen's blog.

Salt Shaker Bead
Carmi turns an odd collectible into something wearable.

Strands of Beads
Melissa finds that it's still easy to be green in August

Think Pink Interview

I just did a super fun interview with the fantabulous Lisa Clark this week about The Naughty Secretary Club Book and more! It was a fun interview to do because there were questions like what would I go back and tell my teenage self, how do I feel about the color pink and what makes me jump in the air happy plus I confess that I have a bad case of potty mouth. New and exciting questions I have never been asked!



Plus big fat thank yous to Coquette, Vickie Howell and Kathy Cano Murillo for mentioning the book on their blogs!

Jewelry Kits and Guides to Austin

I mentioned a few weeks ago that I was doing some guest blogging over at Indie Fixx. I wrote an article on Free Marketing, Look Books and yesterday my guide to Austin went live. For those of you that live in Austin or have visited I am curious to get your opinion on the matter. I keep thinking of places I forgot to mention, but alas a few things are not going to make the cut. It was fun to write because I get lots of emails from people coming to Austin to visit wanting to know suggestions on what to do and now I can just send them the link.

Also on Indie Fixx this week they posted a new review of The Naughty Secretary Club: The Working Girls Guide to Handmade Jewelry.


Thanks so much Jen and Marie you guys are the best! Here is a quote from the review...
But let’s get down to brass tacks here; not all crafters are direction followers. Nor do all crafters have access to a multitude of plastic gnomes (though not for lack of wanting). For you, The Working Girl’s Guide to Handmade Jewelry will have you eyeballing that pile of junk mail in a whole new way.

I have to agree I am one of those people that never reads the instructions, I look at pictures to figure it out and get inspiration. However as far as having access to plastic gnomes, I have your problem solved...we are adding kits to Naughty Secretary Club with supplies to make a lot of the projects in the book including the plastic gnomes and flowers to make the Whistle at Work Necklace!


This makes me think of two things... 1) Are you the kind of crafter that likes lots of instructions or the type that likes lots of pictures? I equate it to the fact that I can cook, but I can't bake. If the instructions for anything are too rigid I break out into a cold sweat. Though don't get me wrong I wrote very detailed instructions for the book so you have both! 2) As I am gathering supplies for the kits so that everyone will have access to supplies in the book is there anything that you saw on the pages of The Naughty Secretary Club that you wish you could get your hot little hands on? Leave me a comment and let me know and I'll start scouring the ends of the earth for it.

Ok I need to go jump in the shower. I have a Stitch meeting at 2, we are meeting with Rare Magazine at 3 and then I have a photo shoot for Rare this evening for something completely different. I can't show up looking and more importantly smelling like I do so I'm off.

Why Buy the Book When You Could Win a Copy

You could buy my new book, or you could roll the dice and try to win a free copy! There are 3 contests going on at this very moment one of which ends in 2 days so you best shake a tail feather….

The contest with a deadline soon approaching is the Creativity 350 contest! This contest let’s you use your creative skills for a good cause: to help stop global warming! By participating in the Creativity 350 challenge you can help creatively spread the word about what scientists and advocates are now calling the most important number on the planet: 350. Learn all about the number 350 and then create something that helps represent that number, enter it in the contest and then win yourself not only a copy of The Naughty Secretary Club but goodies from Sublime Stitching, Coats & Clarks, Envirosax and more!



Cozies. Cosies. However you choose to spell 'em, your challenge is to make a cozy with irony. What does that mean? Well, that's up to you to decide! All you have to do is head over to Craftster and enter to win yourself a copy of The Naughty Secretary Club.

According to Craftster’s research team (uh, ok, a quick trip to this Wikipedia entry) the original intent of a "cosy" was a cover for a teapot and they were made of cloth or wool and were meant to insulate and keep the contents of the teapot warm. Perhaps you could make a jewelry travel cosy? A book cosy, man I used to love paper book covers in grade school. Make a project from the book like the Whistle at Work gnome necklace and make little plastic gnome cosies. The possibilities are endless whether you glue, knit, sew or solder!



The next contest let’s you win not just the Naughty Secretary Club, but 11 other books from North Light like Glam Knits and Pretty Little Things. Win A Year of Crafting from MyCraftivity! Dang dude I wonder if I’m allowed to enter this one too, I want to get a new craft book every month for a year!



Sorry to be book crazed this week, but can you blame me for being excited. Thanks to everyone who has been buying copies. The Naughty Secretary Club Book is apparently the 19th most popular book on Amazon in jewelry, whoo-hoo! Can you believe it! People must like their doll house furniture and toy tin typewriter jewelry. If the book goes to number 1 I might just freak out and start giving away lot's of free stuff on the blog. Oh wait I am about to do that later this month anyway.

The Official Release of The Naughty Secretary Club: The Working Girls Guide to Handmade Jewelry

I wouldn't say today is the official release date as much as I would say this is the official release week of my new book The Naughty Secretary Club: The Working Girls Guide to Handmade Jewelry . I've never been entirely clear about the exact day the book came out, but according to Amazon it was yesterday!

If you love kitschy jewelry and especially love making it yourself then might I suggest you run right out to your local Borders or Barnes and Nobles and snag yourself a copy (remember if they don’t have a copy PLEASE ask them to order one, chances are they will then order more for the store too), order it off of Amazon or get a signed copy at Naughty Secretary Club!



Also if you could help me spread the word about my book I would love you forever and ever! Send out a My Space Bulletin, Twitter about it, if you make some jewelry from the book add it to our Flickr group, if you have the book and heart it please leave an Amazon review, mention the book on your blog. Every little bit helps!

If you are going to be in Austin on August 30th, please stop by Craft-o-Rama from 3pm-6pm for the Naughty Secretary Club Book Release Party! We are co-hosting the party with Craft Magazine who will be there celebrating the release of issue #8 with us!

As if this were not enough excitement we are having a 25% off everything sale at Naughty Secretary Club. Just enter the word BOOK into the coupon/voucher field when you check out. You could snag a piece of jewelry like a Big Bucks Baller Necklace or Tardy Bracelet that makes an appearance in the book or some of the supplies for projects in the book like a Naughty Secretary Club T-shirt or a jar of Crafty Curios.

Halloween in Knoxville

My week long adventure in Knoxville celebrating Halloween has come to a close. Phew it went by fast, but I had a ton of fun. I don’t think I have left the couch for a total of 6 hours since I returned home on Friday night. Besides Ella being up all night sick, me not feeling up to par and a stock pile of Netflix to catch up on there was no good reason to. After a week wearing makeup and out of my jammies, I need to make up for lost time. I’m proud to report I am typing this in flannel pj pants this very moment! I didn’t snap as many pictures as I would have liked, but I wanted to share with you the few I did take. Look for the webisodes on HGTV.com as soon as the end of the month and Yahoo and AOL later this fall!

I of course managed to bring bowling into Halloween!

Googly eyes and family photos.


Halloween Wreaths Galore



The crew was awesome several I had worked with before on DIY Christmas specials so it was good to see everyone again and make some new friends.

There were 11 people on our crew. Since these episodes are for the web I didn't expect such a big production, but it was just the same as filming an episode of TV.









It took a whole lot of props to transform a house into Halloween in August.




An extra special trip, Jamie and Morgan from the Knoxville Craft Mafia contacted me and we all went out to dinner! Always fun to meet up with other mafia ladies!


We finished early on Friday so I jumped an earlier flight and headed home to Austin. I had a good time in Knoxville, but I was pooped and glad to be home.

One Day Down, Three More to Go!

Day 1 of filming is complete. Given we were hoping to shoot 6 episodes today and only got through 5, I still feel like we filmed all 20. Its been so long since I have done this I had almost forgotten what hard work it is being perky for 8 hours. Today we shot Create Your Own Candy Bag, Alternative Pumpkin Art, 3D Pumpkin Faces, Fun Party Favors and Halloween Centerpieces. We painted plastic fruit black, turned T-shirts into bags and used polymer clay to turn a plain pumpkin into Mr. Potato head. Turns out not only are these little webisodes going to be on HGTV.com looks like you will also be able to see them on AOL and Yahoo.

I am a little fried this evening and only have the energy for a bath, my left over bake potato from Jason’s Delis and Law and Order. That being the case instead of blogging about something interesting I’ll share a few links with you of people who blogged about me recently. There are interviews, mentions, contests and more. I got so many google alerts today about all the blogs I felt like a bloglebrity! Thanks tons to everyone for the mentions.

I wrote to all the blogs that I mentioned in the Everybody’s Blogging for the Weekend section of my book and some of those blogs were nice enough to mention me back. I was in the news feed on Décor 8, Whip Up Gave a shout out and on Fly I was the link of the day!




I didn’t even know that My Craftivity was having a contest that involved a free copy of The Naughty Secretary Club: the Working Girls Guide to Handmade Jewelry until I got a Google alert about being mentioned on Craft Gossip’s Indie Crafts. Speaking of contests Ponoko announced the winners of their 10-Day Design Challenge: Jewelry for Summer that I helped judge. I was sad some of my favorites didn’t make it into the top 10 because of technical default, but I did love the 3 winners pieces!



Two things that made me feel extra warm and squishy today were getting an award on the Collage Contessa blog and finding an interview I did on Jubella!



Ok I need to get my scripts read and a whole lot beauty rest, the executives from the network are coming to the filming tomorrow.