Perkins Studio Extravaganza on Craft Zine

Did you notice the Perkins Studio Extravaganza on Craft Zine this week? Craft has been doing an awesome series on craft spaces complete with yummy pictures and lots of tips and tricks about organizing your craft space. I full intended to read all the interviews to help me meet February's goal of studio organization. First they profiled Naughty Secretary Club Headquarters in it's before and after state. The following day they profiled my mom Fredda Perkins indoor and outdoor craft space. Ya the lucky duck has not one, but two craft spaces.

I Love to Create - Groundhog Pop Up Puppet

We made Snow Globes for Halloween, Necklace Cupcake Toppers for Valentines Day and Customized Beer Bottles for Father's Day -did you really think we were going to let Groundhog's Day pass like a ship in the night? Heck no! Who needs Punxsutawney Phil when you could make your own Groundhog pop up puppet to check for a shadow on February 2nd. That's right, today for I Love to Create we are revamping one of my favorite Kindergarten crafts.


SUPPLIES
Funnel
Crafty Chica Little Chica Paint Packs
Moss
Paint Brush
Hot Glue Gun
Knitting Needle
Collage Pauge Instant Decoupage
Fun Fur
Brown Felt
Liquid Fusion Glue
Sewing Machine
Styrofoam Ball


A GOOD GROUNDHOG HEAD ON YOUR SHOULDERS
What you use as the head of your groundhog is up to you. I opted for a styrofoam ball because I had some leftover from the Black Cat Bobble Head Project. You could also use a wooden dowl for your puppet, I opted for a knitting needle. What can I say I don't knit and it saved me a trip to the store.


PAPER MACHE
Using paper from my shredder and collage pauge I covered the styrofoam ball. I also used Liquid Fusion glue to attach the ball to the knitting needle.


FELT BODY
Lucky for me my younger sister Hope Perkins stopped by and drew me a groundhog body pattern. If only she had staid long enough to paint a groundhog face, more on that later. First I cut out two pieces of brown felt. You need to make sure your pattern is large enough to cover the mouth of your funnel which will act as the ground that your groundhog pops out of. I stitched the felt together on my sewing machine and then turned the felt right out.


SWITCH-A-ROO
A lot of things happened in the next step that later changed. The idea to use a funnel as the ground for my groundhog came to me from an episode of Craft Lab I filmed with the adorable Claudine Hellmuth where she taught me how to make Victorian Cone Puppets. I covered the funnel with green paper so there would be a background for my moss. I used Liquid Fusion and a hot glue gun to attach the felt body to the inside rim of the funnel.

Also as you can see in the picture I painted a little groundhog face. This was the part where I wished my sister was still there to do the face painting for me. I actually hated my little face so much I decided to cover him up.


GROUNDHOG FACE LIFT
I just happen to have a whole storage bin full of doll parts and faces (like the ones I used on the Kitschy Hair Covered Earmuffs). In that bin was one loan vintage animal face that looked close enough to a groundhog to suit my needs.

First, I attached the plastic face to my painted styrofoam ball. The next step was to get heavy handed with the glue and the fun fur. I covered the entire head and even added a little patch on the groundhog's tummy.




POP YOUR PUPPET
Using your knitting needle you can make your groundhog pop up from his grassy funnel home and check for his shadow. Remember if on February 2nd you pop your groundhog puppet and he does not see his shadow summer is on the way. If on the other hand it is a bright and sunny day and your groundhog puppet sees his shadow, bummer 6 more weeks of winter.

Craft Classes in Dallas

Hey Dallas, I'd love to see you at the Make Studio next Thursday. I'll be there with bells on with a suitcase full of kitschy charms and beads teaching how to make charm bracelets. It's gonna be fun and really who couldn't use another bracelet in their accessory repertoire? Not to mention you will walk away with some serious wire wrapping skills that will come in handy making not only charm bracelets but necklaces and earrings too.

Also at The Make Studio in March I'll be there teaching my Crafty Business Seminar.

Operation Craft Space Clean Up: Volume 5

This is the last Tuesday of January and I am proud to report that I have reached my goal of total studio cleanliness. Notice how I didn't say total studio organization, I'm saving that for February. Baby steps people. Let's get started with the latest reveal.

You might recall that I got my desk cleaned off in Operation Craft Space Volume 3. This week I got the floor around my desk picked up.





What was once a junk filled excuse for a shelf is now a well situated easy to find things in storage solution. It stores everything from my Etsy Store, my Yudu and more.





My printing station used to be a wreak. I'm not saying it is perfectly organized when you open the doors, but at least the outside looks about a billion times better.





The peg board in my studio is begging to be painted a fresh new color (hoping to sweet talk my husband into that). The important thing is I can at least walk up to it now without taking my life into my hands.





I have a new and improved package wrapping station in my office I am pretty pumped about. I have also finally started a craft project with the giant vintage TV that was just taking up space in my studio.





I'm not saying it's perfect, but it is pretty dang close. As menitoned the surface my appear clean, but many things need to be organized better. More on that in Feb. Also I did not get the whole room clean without a few bins of random bits that need to be sorted. A brief peak at what is left.



One added and unexpected bonus of all this cleaning is I am adding lots of new Crafty Curio Jars to my website and Etsy store. The other bonus has been all your words of support and pearls of wisdom. So many of them I found super duper handy and plan to utilize.

Mad Scientist Embroidery

I was out Wednesday night having drinks, well ok I was having water, with my friends Tina Sparkles and Jenny Hart. We got to talking and I realized I had never told Jenny about the Oco-girl I had made using one of her free patterns. From there I realized I never told you guys either. I went on a small mad scientist embroidery kick there for awhile. I was taking bits and pieces of various patterns, photoshopping them together, printing them out and then tracing the design onto fabric to stitch. I thought I would share a couple of my creepy yet cute creations.


P.S. Don't forget the round-up I did of embroidery related posts last Friday on Handmade in Hollywood.

I Love to Create - Glass Etching is my Jam

Glass etching may very well be the easiest craft of all time. That being the case no plain glass surface in my house is now safe. Drinking Glasses, picture frames and vases are not only abundant at the thrift store if you look hard enough you probably have tons around your house begging for a face lift. The hardest part is finding cute stencils to use. Luckily I Love to Create just came out with an all new line of stencils called Tulip Fashion Graffiti which made my life a lot easier.


SUPPLIES
Tulip Fashion Graffiti Stencils
Glass
Armour Etch
Paint Brush
Aleene's Tack-It Over and Over Glue


I decided to raid my own stash of picture frames and glasses, a little up-cycling never hurt anyone. Once you choose your stencil apply Aleene's Tack-It Over and Over to back side and attach the stencil to your glass surface. The glue will hold your stencil in place long enough to apply your Etching Medium. All you do is apply the medium to your surface, allow to sit for 5 minutes and rinse. Now that is what I call a quickie craft!


I used this fun car stencil on an old picture frame. I put two pieces of paper in the frame one black and one leopard print for a trim.


Some stencils come already sticky like this one with a guitar and lightening bolt which makes things that much easier. One word of warning is be sure to get a thick coat of the etching medium onto your surface.


Lotta Jansdotter has a fantastical new kit out called Lotta's Printing Studio
. The book comes with not only adorable stencils like this one I used on a mirror of two birds and an apple but also carving tools so you can make your own stamps.


You have seen me use Ed Roth's amazing stencils to make my own fabric, applique a skirt and even as a baby shower activity. This sassy lady from Stencil 101: Make Your Mark with 25 Reusable Stencils and Step-by-Step Instructions begged to be etched onto a frame. I mounted a piece of hot pink felt behind her. Another tip, solid darker color backgrounds work better than light colors and prints.

I'm debating on etching some of the larger wall stencils from Ed Roth's Stencil 101 Décor: Customize Walls, Floors, and Furniture with Oversized Stencil Art onto my sliding glass doors. From time to time birds don't realize it's glass and run into the doors and maybe this would help them. Has anyone ever etched a large surface?

Lushae Jewelry - a Paid yet Honest Ring Review

Who can say no to free stuff? Not me that’s for sure. Especially when said free stuff is a huge sparkletastic cocktail ring. When I was approached by LuShae Jewelry to review one of their rings at first I thought the offer was too good to be true. They wanted to send me a free ring of my choosing, pay me for writing about the free ring and they asked that my review be honest. What’s the catch? So far I have not found one, except maybe a slight tinge of guilt. First let’s talk about the ring and then my guilt.


As I mentioned LuShae gave me the ring and asked me to review it. They said I could be brutally honest. Before their review money burned a hole in my thrift store addicted pocket I made sure to let them know that I felt obligated to my readers to not lie about the ring. Browsing the LuShae Jewelry website was a little tricky. As you might have guessed the rings on the website are not typically my style. However, a few options caught my eye. In the end I opted for the Sunny Cocktail Ring (Mainly because sadly the Cocktail Chic Ring was sold out). I gotta tell you the ring is just as pretty in person as it is on the website. One of those rings that catches the sunlight and sparkles. The kind of ring that if it was real I could put Tallulah through college by hocking it. I like that the ring is big and chunky and to my untrained eye looks every bit as fabulous as the real thing. I think if it was subdued I would not like it as much (that goes for most things with me). I appreciate that the website clearly let's you know how big the ring is. I like a picture of the jewelry on an actual finger, but I hear that close up finger pictures creep some people out. I have tons of costume jewelry and this ring quality wise was as heavy and sturdy as the best of them. In the end I would definitely say that if you were in the market for a new cocktail ring stop by LuShae Jewelry and do a little shopping. I know I just might. Man that review, though true was worth every penny.


So now onto my guilt about the whole thing. It’s not the kind of guilt where I am losing sleep over it, it is just the kind of guilt that gets me to thinking about pay for play. Hence why they just passed all the new rules making me disclose things like the fact that I not only got the ring for free, but I also got paid to tell you about it. Does that make me a bad blogger? I review and give away books that are given to me free by publishers for the sole reason of promotion. I do how-to articles for companies that pay me and give me free supplies. Is a free ring and a little spending money really any different? I know some people are adamant about not having ads of any shape or form on their blog. I guess my logic is why not? If I can make a little money from my Amazon Associates widget, Blogher ad and the occasional ring review why shouldn't I? I work hard to write my blog and sure I do it because I love it and enjoy writing, but I also have a mortgage to pay. I’m curious what are you thoughts about blogs with ads? Whether it be Google Adsense, Indie crafters banner ads, book reviews, sponsor spotlights? Does it bother you at all?

P.S. Check out the book Blogging for Bliss for a whole section about getting paid to blog.

Operation Craft Space Clean Up: Volume 4

I gotta say I am pretty dizang proud of myself for the work I have done in the studio this week. I have hung 2 sets of shelves, rearranged furniture, cleaned off tables and more importantly picked up the floor. I only have one small section left to clean and getting that done before the end of the month should be a piece of cake.




I think the section I am most proud of is my sewing table. What was once a junky corner that did not exactly entice me to hit a lick on my sewing machine is now a well organized bitchin' stitchin' nook. Complete with new wall shelving. Another favorite aspect of my new sewing station are my fancy new magnet boards made with two vintage TV trays. I always knew those trays would come in handy one day.

It's funny I typically can't find a measuring tape to save my life, but since I have started cleaning I now have a container on my sewing desk with 5 just waiting to measure something.




Brace yourself for a long shot....wait for it....


Let's talk about that clean floor space I mentioned. You can almost do cartwheels in here! After a good mopping I'd almost feel safe letting Tallulah crawl around in here, at least for a second. Let's do a before picture to get the full effect of how much time I have spent on my hands and knees recently.


The more I clean the more I am starting to realize that not only do I need to clean my craft space, I need to organize it. I have walls of shelving, bins, drawers and more but none of it is organized particularly well. It's not something that just a label maker can fix. My logic is that if I am going to go this far with a deep clean and total overhaul I might as well go that extra step and really organize to make my craft space it's very best. Currently I have several drawers of randomness just organized by color, some of those drawers are overflowing and could be sorted better. There are the inevitable bins of stuff that keeps getting the blind eye turned on them and needs to be put away. My jewelry findings are a mess and there is still that one loan desk covered in jump rings, wire and various other bits that need to be corralled. All this being said there is the distinct possibility that January is Operation Craft Space Clean Up and February might be Operation Craft Space Organize.


How do you sort your goodies? By color, by object, by size, by what you are going to use it for? I have so many one of a kind items random bins are inevitable to some extent, I'm just curious how you keep your random goodies situated.