CraftCrap Presents: Pochaloca Studios on Etsy

I don't really promote it like I should but its because I never have anything on there. I changed that today. Pochaloca Studios is where all my #CraftCrap-ing comes together in (what I think) some pretty decent products. Head on over and feel free to spend some of your hard earned feria. All proceeds go to a mother of 2 who is addicted to crafting and all its related supplies. 

Thanks!

-The C.C.Q

¡CraftCrap Quickie: Diaper Box Barbie House!

I really hate throwing out these damn diaper boxes because that's good cardboard going to waste and I ain't about that wasteful life.

Here today is a quick way to make ur baby girl stoked on you and help Mama Earth @ the SAME DAMN TIME!!

The pic is pretty self explanatory but let me narrate:

These kinda projects are awesome because they are basically freestyle jobs that depend on how much your willing to put in.

All you need:

-your trusty hot glue gun

-spray adhesive (optional)

-box cutter 

-cardboard box 

-whatever you feel like decorating with (fabric, gems, paints, etc.)

I did this one hella fast because once JoonJoon figured out what it was that I was making, she couldn't stop pulling on me to play with it. I used spray adhesive to attach the fabric and tacked it with hot glue as needed. I also added a small piece of cardboard from a pizza box to my diaper box to add some pitch to the roof. Hot glue made that all happen. The box cutter too. 

It's not by any means perfect but it's not really supposed to be. I'm just trying to put smiles on kids faces w/o killing the budget or hurting Mama Earth too much if I can help it. 

Try it for your awesomeselves for lil loved ones.

Recycle-Reduce-Reuse-Repurpose. :D

-The C.C.Q

¡CraftCrap Selfie: Fabulous Face Friday!

Maybe not face, but legs will work.

The shorts.

Shoes. 

Paint stains... 

This pic could have been from 1995 by the looks of it, but its not.

Two weeks ago:

Have an awesome weekend letting the kid in you have some play time!

Craft on Wayne!! Craft on Garth!!

- The C.C.Q

#craftcrap 

Follow Me On Twitter!! ~CRAFTCRAPQUEEN~

Because:

And sometimes I post awesome shit. 

And craft stuff.

Lots of craft

stuff.

Ryan Gosling…

Bye.

-The CraftCrapQueen

¡CraftCrap Review: Plaid Simply Screen Custom Silk Screen Kit!

Like many of you in the #craftcrapfamilia, I have ALWAYS wanted a silk screen machine or a heat press for fabric transfers. I mean the things you could do with a machine like that!!!! RIGHT!?!?! Well if you've followed me on Twitter, then you know your girl here is currently obsessed with the freezer paper method of silk screening. Its fun and gets the job done. But for bigger ideas I need a real machine or something. I know Speedball has a silk screen kit out but its damn near $85 and I don't have change like that just lying around, even with a coupon! I went on a Google hunt for another "or something" and came upon this Plaid Simply Screen Custom Silk Screen Kit thru Hobby Lobby. For the low low price of under $40 (with their mobile online 40% off coupon & CA taxes AND Shipping!!!),  I basically got everything I could need to take my first steps in Silk Screening 101 without breaking the bank or my spirit if this thing doesn't work.

Ordered up.

Boom.

Delivery.

Ooooooo!! Look at all the fun stuffs!!! Lets freaking do this!!

(*Print of "Molly Was My Homegirl" Not Included. Duh.)

The kit really does include the essentials in what you need for this kinda deal but one thing Plaid might want to supply (as it does make a HUGE difference in your outcome and is only listed as a suggestion supply) a piece of glass or plexiglass for the light exposure step. You NEED it! You'll see what I mean…

Easy peasy light set up:

Peeled off the white backing on my screen ( I picked the largest one, which was smaller than I had expected, but it still worked.) and matched it up to the ink-side of the image I printed to it. 

Taped down my edges so as not to have a gap between the paper and silk screen. (This makes sure that the light hits not only your design but the silk screen/emulsion as well.)

Exposure time buddies!

Timer is on and I can't wait! Tick-toc! Tick -toc!

25 minutes is over and it times to taste sweet silk screen success...

Rinsing in some tepid water like the instructions said...

And yeah. A sweet innocent excitement turned into a dreadful to-good-to-be-true disappointment. The image didn't transfer completely and the emulsion started giving way as I attempted to retrieve the screen from the water. (The screen sat in the water too long…)

Garbage. $37 down the drain? Sweet 8 lb baby Jesus please say it aint so!

Gotta step away from this right now… a lot of frustration to take in.

Part Deux:

One more time. 

Same print. 

A lil bit of resizing because the next screen was slightly smaller. This time I also added the *optional* piece of glass from a picture frame OVER the design as suggested in the instructions.

Turned the light and timer on for 25 minutos and let the count down begin...

I really went through the trenches trying to make this re-take work as you can see by the multiple re-size prints here:

Ding-Ding! Doneskies! (*crosses fingers*)

Give it a good ole rinsey rinse… I think I see something.

Maybe…

It freaking worked!!! YASSSSS!!! The crowd goes wild!!!

Dry time!

At this point, I am freaking excited out of my mind that the exposure part actually worked and that Im about to screen print this design. The suggestion of using a piece of glass from the picture frame during the exposure makes a ginormous effect on the final outcome of your screen by like 1000%! At least thats how I felt at this point. 

Got to putting down the screen on my shirt (Another 99 Cents Store deal!) and squirted out some paint… Here we go!

Welp. The first pull was decent. Got most of the image transferred but hold up...

Ugh. Yeah. The additional pulls, not so great. Turns out the paint they give you in the kit dries REALLY fast, thus drying on your screen and blocking out parts of the exposed image. NOT COOL. What I figured out was the screen has to be rinsed out almost immediately after the first pull of paint. I didn't know this and went head on and well… you can see what happened. I re-read the directions to see if there was something that I didn't read and while it DID say that the screen needs to be rinsed while the paint is wet, I didn't read about how quickly the paint will dry… Tried washing it out with blue Dawn soap and some water but it was pretty stuck on there. I got so frustrated (Theres only 4 screens in the kit and I already fucked up one, Now I'm down to 2 and its another $9.99+ tax for more screens + shipping because I live in the boonies and craft stores just don't exist out here.) I just walked away from the screen for like 2 days...

Here I go (2 days later), lets see what happens after washing the screen with caked on red paint and switching over to the blue paint.

And the final product.

Meh. Its alright. It def did more than I expected it to do but still… Meh. I'm a call it 'vintage' I guess.

Maybe more practice? Maybe a different design? I dunno. Its a fun kit but its not gonna get me to the small biz print status that I'd like to have with the low overhead/upfront costs. I've looked into things like Zazzle or Cafepress and at the end of it all, its gonna take whole lot of orders in order to make any sort of $$$ using those sites. I think I'm gonna have to harass my husband to buy me a real silk screen set up and trade him for my love forever… even though he has that already… I dunno…I think he'll take the bait ;)

Keep on Truckin,

-The C.C.Q

¡CraftCrap Quickie! Fuzzy Leopard Bow Necklace!

First off, big up to all my thrift store loiters, yard doggers (that's what my dad calls us), eBay killers and creative hoarders. This quickie is dedicated to you as it is comprised of a dope vintage costume necklace and a decorated leopard bow I made for an apron (it fell off) from a few blog posts ago.
Sometimes my #craftcrap doesn't come w/the lifetime guarantee I'd like

Pretty easy peasy here people. Attach bow to necklace. Done.  

No Matter How Small or Large: Always Stay Creative My #CraftCrapFamilia! Siempre!

-The C.C.Q

¡Craftcrap Quickie: Makeup Brush Revamp!

The C.C.Q here with another #CraftCrapQuickie. Lately I've realized that my makeup brushes need a lil more support at the neck where the brush head and handle meet. Low and behold the time arrived that my brushes didn't need support but a full on revamp.  All in all this lil project will take about 15 mins of your precious time, depending on how many brushes you have of course.

Supplies: 

• Decorative Duct Tape
• Your broken makeup brushes
• Scissors (maybe)
• Glitter Nail Polish
• Time

First off, you don't need a full on piece of tape but rather like a 1/2 inch piece lengthwise still attached to the roll (This helps bring that tape around town as you'll see below, but yes it does fuck up your tape roll a wee bit. Sorry.).

Place the beginning of your tape center between the brush casing and the handle of the brush. Press it down so that the adhesive is on there good.

ROLL TIME!

Bring that tape around your handle twice. This creates a nice lil cushion for your fingers during makeup application time and extra security that your brushes will stay together. 

Now hit up the rest of your tech team:

I could have left them like that, but thats just not how I roll. So I decided to add my favorite kind of paint: nail polish. Its small. Convinent in price and availability. Seals well. And there are tons of different kinds of glitter varieties!!! 

Here is my current favorite glitter nail polish from Forever21. (After two coats your on your way to disco ball status! Trust!) 

You get the idea.

BOOOM SHAKALAKAAAAA!!! 

I didn't do the bottoms with nail polish because if ever I get off my ass and washed my brushes, I didn't want the water to damage any accessorizing I did. If you wanted to do you could add baby jewels or something, maybe mini Duct Tape bows!! That would be sweet!

Cuts & Stitches My Bitches,

The C.C.Q

¡CraftCrap: Meme Magnets!

Whats crackin playas? Here's a lil project thats hella easy and brings the best of your meme world to your real world… you know, like the fridge?

Heres a pic of what your gonna need:

The spray adhesive is there because that Peace-Sign-Star thing in the background is actually a letter-sized magnetic sheet with no adhesive. (I found it cleaning the house. What a score huh?!) If you ended up scoring like I did then you'll need some spray adhesive. 

I picked up the Magnetic Sheets over at Walmart and they are like $2 for 2 sheets (Size is like 2 4X6 pics). *No Spray Adhesive Needed Here!*

You need a Printer too foo!!! Or at least someone who doesn't care if you use some of their ink, perhaps a work printer (Jk!)?

*Craft Shopping Tip: I picked up the 4X6 photo paper at the 99 Cents store and if you peep closely you can see this pack came with 65 sheets! Super deal!

I found some of my favorite memes and printed them out on the photo paper. When your done, the photo paper gives it a real profesh feel to your end product.

You might not need this step if your magnet sheet already has stickiness to it. If not, follow here:

Not too light of a coat sprayed, but not too heavy either. 

Arrange your pics in order and lightly press, with your fist, the pics down to the magnet sheet. (If you sprayed adhesive your gonna wanna give it a lil bit of time to dry and set before you get to cutting.)

BOOM!

Using my closed fist (again!), I kinda press the pics down harder now onto the adhesive and it should be totes obvi that you should do this regardless of which magnet paper you got. It helps connect the two papers together with the pressure. Don't use your fingers because then you'll have finger prints all over your fresh meme pics. And thats no bueno. 

Get to cuttin em up!!!

**************************************************

Done Dada! The fridge will now provide current relative trend setting wisdom notes and chuckles every time you go in there for taco ingredients or beers.

*If you want to be extra fancy you can decorate your finished magnets with small seed beads and ric-rack, but be advised that the more your put on, the less likely that your magnet will do any sticking to the fridge. Check out the itty bitty loteria card in the pic above decorated with seed beads… feel me?

Luv ya BooBoos!
XOXOXOX,
The C.C.Q

**Extra Tip**:
So if your concerned with fading or your just an over-achiever, then you can go the extra mile and seal these puppies with some clear shipping tape. Just make sure you go slow so bubbles don't screw it up cuz once that tape is down, your fully committed. Unless your into ripping up your projects. Which is totally cool too.