Social Crafting

A here.  Although I’ve been absent from the blog for a while, making and creating has never been far from my mind.  I’ve been working on commissioned projects for friends and family and planning some bigger things for our new house.  One of the major perks to having our own place has been the ability we’ve had to expand our studio and share our space with others.  One of my first goals once in the new place was to host a craft day for the women of my family.  I set a date and promised myself that the new house would be presentable in time.  Deadlines are always a good motivator!

Resuming Transmission

Preferred brand over Do-It-Acceptably.

Since last time, we've undertaken two completely new projects. One is completing our relocation from the desert of the American Southwest to the verdant meadows of the Midwest (West, as always, being very relative to how much you consider East). That move made the spray booth project necessary, as there were abruptly seasons and precipitation and humidity, oh my. That move has ultimately resolved itself into our first permanent base of operations, a converted bedroom in our new (to us) house. We have some posts lined up on a fun paint treatment...

And some marvelous themed wedding attire...

And a surprise appearance of some Supernatural iconography that will help visitors to our home feel very welcome!


We also attended the local Maker Faire recently and have started a conversation with a nearby maker space which will help offer classes, open up fabrication options for us, and possibly lead to WoPC classes being taught in our neck of the woods! We'll let you know if that becomes a thing.


We should also note that in addition to some fun household projects for breaking in our new place (and maybe brightening up yours!) there will be some projects in the coming months, and likely the years beyond, on a collaboration that A and I have been working on for a little while. We'll have more news in the future but the project is assumed finished sometime in mid-January.

We won't be providing a step-by-step tutorial on this one. Lots of sites cover this one in, uh, detail.

Sorry for the delay, but we will be getting things back on track from here on out. We even have "Blog Post" as one of the weekly items on our new refrigerator printable. You know we'll get to it now that it's on a list!

DIY Cardboard Spray Booth

One of the biggest shocks of moving from the desert to the Midwest is a sudden change in everything outside your home: The air changes temperature, everything gets wet, it gets so not-warm that sometimes you have to dress differently... It's exhausting keeping up with this changing weather. We used to leave the cardboard box we spray-painted things on outside for weeks at a time and the worst that would happen is a small dust storm would move it a few feet. Now, we've been snowed in on the weekends and it simply isn't conducive to spray paint when everything is frozen under a few inches of what I am assured is water that fell from the sky. The sky! We needed something to let us spray paint more-or-less indoors. Maybe you do, too.


You'll Need:

• A box fan
• Furnace filters similar in size to your fan
• A cardboard box at least as big as the fan/filters
• Duct tape
• Empty gift cards or other sheet plastic
• Zip ties
• Under-cabinet light source
• Lazy Susan
• Flexible dryer hose, plus some hardware (hose clamp, some kind of flange for vents)
• Tools: Cutting tools, straightedge, measuring things, marker

Creative Mending

As artists, J and I are both creative and inevitably broke.  This means we do most of our shopping at thrift stores, and I spend a lot of time mending clothing to make it last past its use-by date.  During this process, I often get bored of stitching things up and trying to make them look "like new."  What if I could make them better than new?  More interesting or unique?  Cue this week's post, a story about what happens when A gets bored and won't let go of her prized gray sweatshirts.

Supernatural Hunter's Kit

If I'm being honest with myself, this post really began about nine months ago when J finally convinced me to watch a few episodes of Supernatural with the sales pitch, "It's a show about two attractive brothers who cry and punch each other.  Oh yeah, and they hunt monsters."  So, J was out of town and I thought I'd give it a chance.  A few days and seasons later, I was obviously incurably hooked.  Although I arrived about 8 years late, Sam, Dean, Bobby and Castiel kept me company all summer and I was caught up before season 9 began.  It's my guilty pleasure, and for those of you out there who understand my recent obsession, WOPC presents our homage to the Winchesters!

Painting Boardgame Miniatures

As game pieces come out of the box, sometimes they don't fit the story in your head. They're too boring or too badly painted. Sometimes you get confused because the red guy and the orange gal look too similar and the wrong piece gets moved for a few turns. For whatever reason, sometimes your board game bits need some classing up.

We're here to fix that.

You'll need:

• Acrylic paint. I use the craft acrylic tubes from various sources (Delta, Ceramcoat, FolkArt... Whatever's on special, essentially)
• Small brushes. Like, impractically small. My largest common brush is an acrylic size 0. It goes down from there. I suggest a 0 for blocking out colors and a 10/0 or 20/0 for details.
• Future Floor "Wax", now called Pledge Premium Finish with Future Shine. Clear acrylic for use on floors, thin like water, mildly fragranced. Does not taste good.
• Paper towels.
• Clean water.
• OPTIONAL: Xacto knife for cleaning mold lines/details.
• OPTIONAL: Palette for mixing. If you want to make your own, buy a picture frame at a dollar store and some duct tape. Instructions below.

WoPC in Review

We're back!  It's been a long hiatus...too long, really.  Due to moving, job changes, and the holidays we've been unable to devote the time and attention we want on WoPC lately, but all that is about to change.  Before we jump ahead into a new year of crafting, gaming, sharing and celebrating we want to take a quick look at some of the things that have made this venture successful and fun.  Why do we keep blogging?  Here are a couple reasons: