Not all crafters are the same beast

Part 2 of Duck Tape nirvana

So, I've come to the conclusion that there are many different kinds of crafters.

There are those who are unbelievably meticulous about their crafts. They plan out their crafts in meticulous detail and execute them with the same rigorous attention to measurements, adornments, final appearance, and photogenic excellence. These are what I like to call the Meti-Crafters. The internet is full of them. They are the folks making beautiful crafts, posting thorough and meticulous tutorials with plenty of in-process pictures.

Then there are crafters who are highly specialized in one area. They do one kind of craft, they do it very well, and they do it in great volumes, seemingly unable to stop themselves from creating more and more and more. They sometimes create highly complicated forms of what may look like a simple craft because they have created so many they eventually compulsively make the craft more complicated than it starts out to be. These are our OCD-Crafters. They are the ones making youtube videos of their unstoppable crafting and then speeding it up into fast motion for our perusal as the measurements and directions are posted across their lightning fast handiwork.

There are other sub-categories of crafters I am still identifying as I wade through the world of internet crafting. But more on that later.

Please don't get me wrong. I am not casting derisions upon the afore-mentioned character types. Because the fact is the quality of their crafts far outshines my meager offerings executed for myself and a very small circle of friends who tolerate my madness.

I mean only to explain why, even though my niece and I had the best of intentions when we bought all this Duck Tape yesterday, we failed to take enough in-process pictures to fully execute a proper “tutorial” on our design for a Duck Tape purse. As I think I've mentioned before, I tend to get swept up. I am neither a Meti-Crafter or an OCD-Crafter. I'm a Crazy Thrifty Crafter, characterized by my willingness to fly without a net, build without a blueprint, dive in head first, etc.

And so, without further adieu, and because the world would not be any friggin' fun without a variety of crafters on the internet, for your crafting pleasure, my niece Sydney and I bring you our very own Duck Tape Purse Design.

Does "duct tape wallet" really return over 2,000 hits on Etsy.com?

Guest Blogger Sydney Hooper

Syd (Sydney) is my niece. She was featured in a previous post where she and I constructed a safety pin bracelet for her friend Elizabeth. Today, I have invited Syd to guest blog because she has made a duct tape wallet that is absolutely adorable. It's perfect for carrying her money and her cell phone. She tells me she got this idea from her friend Madison, so she wants to give Madison a shout out for the idea.

Syd is in 5^th grade, plays basketball and softball, loves science, plays the trumpet, is a fisherman, a movie maker and a crafter.

Here is the unedited e-mail from Syd on how to make the duct tape wallet:

First start off with a BLANK piece of paper. Fold it up to WHAT EVER size you would like it to be. Get the duck tape you want, and now layer the duck tape onto the duck tape till it feels like JUST duck tape.

NOW, you may decorate that ONE (you should only have one right now) Get another blank piece of paper and do the same thing with that. MAKE SURE IT IS LONGER THEN THE OTHER PIECE OF PAPER! connect that to three of the four sides with the same duck tape NOW YOU HAVE A FLAP. which would be the "cover"

now, to keep it closed, you need a short string of paper as you see in the picture, (what im holding it by) TAPE THIS STRING TO THE FLAP OF THE "COVER"

NOW, make a pocket (like you see in a checkbook for your credit card at a restaurant) MY pocket is where the S is, that S is pink duck tape on the COLORED duck tape. it is about 2 by 3 inches long (the "POCKET")

last step, try to stretch the duck tape to make a little way for the string to POP in there to hopefully keep it closed

if you had trouble, it should make enough sense to fix. HAVE FUN:)

Thank you, Syd. I'm hoping you will teach me to make this next time we get together to craft.

How about it folks. That's Sydney's first blog post. Is she awesome or what?!

Maybe you can learn from my mistakes

I admit that I sometimes get ahead of myself. I'm the kinda gal who thinks every new lover is THE one, every new job is the best job I ever had, every new teapot is my favorite (yeah, the teapot issue is another post entirely).

Being overzealous has its good points and its bad points. On the bright side, I can be fearless; I'm more than willing to go careening down a snow-covered hill in an inner tube not knowing what obstacles may be awaiting me below, and I'll be nothing but exhilarated by the whole experience.

On the other hand, that overzealous fearlessness can cause me to jump into projects without doing all my homework. The old adage “measure twice, cut one” was totally invented for people like me. And I try really hard to follow that advice. Still, not everything works out as I'd like.

Take for instance this idea that we can spray paint over lace to create decorative items. I saw some of these on Pinterest and elsewhere and they looked really lovely. http://offbeatbride.com/2011/07/spray-paint-through-lace http://pinterest.com/pin/4362930858495401/ http://pinterest.com/pin/120471358751751201/

I have used lace to imprint onto clay in ceramic class. Surely I could find a project for it in my house somewhere and heaven knows I have my share of spray paint in the basement.

Do you think I act like a child?

My 10-year-old niece gave me the best compliment I think I've ever received yesterday. She had spent the night with me and we did a couple crafts the next morning together, as we often do. In between crafting I was gettin' all excited cause I had just started this blog and we were counting the number of page views through the day. I was jumping up and down telling her I felt like the girl in “Legally Blonde,” Reese Witherspoon's sorority sister who is trying on wedding dresses, jumping up and down and screaming about how she's getting married and then she trips and falls on the floor.

Anyway, I was taking my niece back to her mother's for her b-ball game in the afternoon and she said, “Of all the people in your family, you are the most like a kid.” By far the best compliment I have ever received in my life.

Here's what we made yesterday morning. For Christmas I bought my niece this small bead and wire set from Joann's. And I bought her a boatload of safety pins and some elastic cording. I think the bead and wire set might have cost me 6 or 8 bucks, I can't remember. So it might have been a total of $12 at the most for the supplies, which is gonna go a long way toward some more crafts down the road.

I had seen a safety pin bracelet at Joann's and figured a 10-year-old could easily do that herself even if I had to help by tying off the ends of the elastic.