Dear Blog,

We can die happy now.

Love, Me.

I still have a few more episodes to complete before the big finish, but I have 4 crochet paintings to finish in 24 hours. I’ll see you on the other side!

Guess who is on the cover of Mollie Makes magazine Issue 18?

A Twinkie Chan imposter!

Just kidding! It’s me! Well, it’s my scarf! :). Some people have already expressed concern that this was not my scarf, but don’t worry, it’s legit!

Mollie Makes asked me to create a toast with strawberry jam scarf for the cover, and the full pattern is inside. I think this is a neat addition to the buttered toast scarf because you can switch up all the flavors of the jam blob and even make it peanut butter or Nutella or whatever! I was so honored to be asked to create a project for the cover. A lot of my  most favoritest crafty ladies are not only fans of the magazine but have also have appeared in it and/or written for it. If you have never heard of it, it is out of the UK, and you should check it out!

The issue comes out August 31. Get one!

I also took some fun little photos of my work in my back yard for the inside of the magazine. I’ll see which ones are included in the mag and then show you guys some outtakes!

Here’s a little bit about Mollie Makes:

Mollie Makes is published thirteen times a year. We curate the best craft from around the world into a tactile, collectable and totally irresistible magazine.

We love to make – handmade is more than just a hobby for us, it’s in everything we do.

We can’t resist hunting down treasures in thrift stores, then customising, re-covering and embellishing our finds with our endless stash of ribbons, buttons, fabrics and felt.

We’re forever on the lookout for new inspiration. Whatever we do, we’re living and loving handmade.
♡ Making ♡ Thrifting ♡ Collecting ♡ Crafting

Readers can subscribe to Mollie Makes through this link:
http://www.myfavouritemagazines.co.uk/stitch-craft/mollie-makes-magazine-subscription/
and download the iPad version here:
http://goo.gl/qzprk
Don’t miss out on the latest news from Mollie Makes. Sign up to our newsletter at the top of the page, here:
http://molliemakes.themakingspot.com/

Even though I have been DVR’ing Craft Wars on my television, I have also been buying episodes off Amazon.com, so I can play them on my computer and get screenshots that way. It’s much easier for me than taking photos of my television! Each episode costs $1.99, so you can see how much I care about you guys. Two dolla!

On with Episode 6!

Meet your craftestants.

NoFoofin’: She doesn’t over-foof, and she likes to keep it clean.

RiskyBusiness: He likes to take chances.

PrettyFurniture: She blogs about home design, and there are lots of photos of pretty furniture in her intro.

Pop Craft Challenge: Make a lamp out of eye wear and magnifying lenses.

I was really smellin’ what PrettyFurniture was cookin’. She started painting lenses with varied mixtures of ModPodge and Rit Dye so the lenses would dry clear but colorful.

JUDGING BEGINS.

RiskyBusiness was up first. He created a drum-shaped hanging lamp with a flattened-lens mosaic.

The judges all seemed to feel that RiskyBusiness had great ideas but was lacking in the execution department.

PrettyFurniture was going for an industrial feel, with the highlight being her amazing sea glass made of lenses. Ombre!

All the judges were wow-ed by her sea glass concept, but she clearly had not put on as many as she had planned, plus, Stephen felt that the black ball base could have been ombre-fied as well. My thought was that since ombre has been so trendy, that this would have made her a shoe-in to win.

NoFoofin’ wanted to represent the nature-y feel of her hometown and grass and flowers.

Her lamp looked finished and it seemed like she had executed everything she had planned.

I am a bit surprised nobody said anything about it’s slight Tiki vibes….

In the end, PrettyFurniture had to pack up her glue gun. Frankly, I was a bit surprised. I know she hadn’t really finished her lamp, but I thought her technique was really cool, and I would’ve loved to have seen more!

Master Craft Challenge: we’re giving you a mattress and a wall. Make a bedroom in 5 hours!

Oh yeah, and also use these zippers. K thanks.

NoFoofin’s planned theme for her bedroom was “Smoke and Mirrors.”

I can’t recall if RiskyBusiness announced a certain theme, but he wanted a 4-poster bed and a zipper rug.

Hey check this out: are the judges going to give NoFoofin’ grief for making a pillow with hot glue? Cuz, like, you would probably not want a pillow made with hot glue in your bedroom?

Answer: nobody said anything… although I did notice RiskyBusiness using fabric glue instead (FabriTac?) on his rug. Point: RiskyBusiness!

Okay check this other thing out: you gotta love NoFoofin’ patterning clay tiles with the bottom of her freaking SHOE!

Here’s RiskyBusiness tufting a head board with nuts and bolts and washers.

NoFoofin’, are you gettin’ foofy with those turkey-feather flower embellishments?

JUDGING BEGINS

RiskyBusiness is up first. He explained that he borrowed design elements from different cultures, and that his repetition of the green vertical stripes brought it all together.

I think that is the most amazing comment I’ve ever heard.

Jo was not so excited about RiskyBusiness’ foray into the stencil arts.

But Erica was delighted by the tufted headboard and said, “Your headboard makes me happy.”

Here’s NoFoofin’s bedroom, Smoke and Mirrors.

He went on to explain that she should have stuck more with all gray colors and mysticalness and glitters. The biggest offender was the bamboo.

NoFoofin’ responded, “I liked the natural element.”

But despite NoFoofin’s lack of glittered-bamboo, all her clever crafty elements won over the judges.

Meet your craftestants!

Peaches: Ok, I know those are probably oranges on her apron, but “Oranges” is kind of a terrible nick name. Her outfit is so sunshiney and cute!

Mr. Vivs: This guy is from San Francisco and crafty, so clearly, I made him Vivianna‘s husband.

Lady80s: She mentions she has been crafting since the 80s. Me, too!

Since this episode is the Christmas Craft special, we were gifted with some costumed carolers.

Let it be known, internet, that those genius lyrics were mine, not theirs.

Pop Craft: make a wreath out of winter-wear in 1 hr.

Let it be known, internet, that those were HER exact words. She has a mouth, and I love her.

I wish I understood what Mr. Vivs’ design strategy was. He mentioned he was gonna make cones and put them on an embroidery hoop, but I couldn’t quite put it together in my head.

Btw, that is Tori crossing her fingers AND toes for Mr. Vivs. The judges were simply shocked by his change in plans with less than 30 minutes to go. BALLSY.

And…. I don’t want to talk about how Team Vivs wasn’t sure if “HOLIDAY” had 2 L’s or not. I get it. You’re stressed out. Your brains are all over the place. I’ll say no more.

Let’s turn everybody’s frowns upside down and talk about Peaches’ hot pink finger condoms to protect against hot glue. NEED THESE! STAT!

JUDGING BEGINS.

Peaches’ wreath was up first, with rolled fabric roses, yarn pom poms, and a lil bling. (I don’t know why my screenshots are so bad….! Some of you are saying that you don’t need to watch the episodes because you enjoy my re-caps, but they seriously don’t do the craft projects any justice, visually!)

Mr. Viv’s wreath was next. He ended up wrapping his wreath in fabric and gluing some stuff all over it.

Stephen: Crafting is knowing when to take a risk and change your plan.

Up next: Lady80s’ wreath: rosettes made of layered sweater, tulle, and newspaper, with sweater rosettes.

Erica said, “Your roses look like a ball of socks.”

But in the end, it was Mr.Vivs who packed up his glue gun. See you at Zeitgeist, dude.

Master Craft Challenge: Make a Christmas tree out of shipping supplies and wrapping paper.

Tori intro’d the segment with, “Everybody likes to get packages.”

The judges seemed to think this was hilarious.

Was that guy the boom mic operator? Was he somebody’s husband? Was his line a funny improv? So mysterious!

So, Peaches’ plan was to make a 4-sided tree out of shipping styrofoam, with 50s/60s colorful ornaments made of Christmas cards and more styro, with wrapping/tissue paper roses as the highlight.

Lady80s ALSO planned to make 4-sided tree, but made of wood, covered in chalkboard paint, with a skirt made of Christmas cards sewn together.

Here’s Peaches painting styro ornaments with a “pouncer (?)” to paint dots. LOVE THAT TOOL. Never heard of it before. Pounce pounce pounce.

HOWEVER, there is also BAD NEWS in the paint department.

Jo’s hot tip! Use Design Master paint for styrofoam.

OMG AWKWARD MOMENTS. The two trees are like totes samesies! (I began to wonder if this 4-sided tree was in Martha Stewart or O Mag or something.)

Lady80s’ team broke a lightbulb on their magnificent light bulb tree topper. Is no one concered about mercury poisoning? IS THIS OKAY? Is there mercury in there?! Poison gas?

JUDGING BEGINS.

Lady80s is up first.

Next, Peaches.

Peaches took a lot of heat because her colors seemed more Easter-y than Christmas-y, but I thought that the hot new thing in Yuletide has been to change up the traditional Christmas colors? No? Pastel Christmas? Anybody? AMIRITE?

Stephen chimed in with some conflicted color commentary, loving and chastising Peaches’ colors at the same time.

In the end, it was Lady80’s tree-topper that lit the way to her victory. In her own words,

She cracks me up. I wonder if she drops the F-bomb at home.

***

I don’t ever really intend to agree or disagree with who the judges decide to pick as the winner, but I just wanted to note that it seemed to me that Peaches had made the effort to use more of the challenge materials, and I wish that had been underlined more heavily.  Just sayin’.

Ok, these photos are gonna be weird. I took them while sitting on the floor in my livingroom, as I do, in real life, cuz I don’t like couches (I know…), so you will be seeing the tv from my real life perspective since I’m too lazy to stand up. Awesome, right? Let’s go!

Meet your craftestants!

Giggles: I met Giggles at RenegadeSF. I couldn’t help but notice how cheery and bubbly smiley she was throughout the whole episode (except during The Candlestick Debacle when I could tell she lost her shit for a second).

Needles: She mentions in her intro that she always has a pair of knitting needles on her, and her dream is to open up a yarn shop. (Hire me, Needles! p.s. sorry your eyes are closed here…my bad.)

DollarDiva: She calls herself Krafty Kathy, but this is my blog, and I give you your nick name! She says that she once decorated a wedding with just stuff from the dollar store.

Pop Craft Challenge: Make a keepsake box for kids out of locks and keys in 1 hr.

(Everybody kept saying, “WE GOT THIS!!!” on this episode. Everybody got theses, beezies.)

Judging begins!

Needles is up first. She made a keepsake box inspired by a sandcastle with a bunch of keys on top looking all spire-y.

Judges: NEEDS MORE COLOR. TOO MUCH LIKE REAL SAND.

Next: DollarDiva. Her keepsake box was inspired by the tooth fairy to put your tooth in. She kept calling it a One Stop Shop for Tooth Loss.  She made her tooth fairy a little tiara out of keys, there was a pillow inside, and there were keys and locks kinda glued on the whole thing.

JUDGES: YOUR WINGS STINK. YOU JUST GLUED SOME THINGS ONTO ANOTHER THING.

Next: Giggles. Her keepsake box was inspired by a little gnomey-cottage, and half of the roof hinged up to get into it.

Judges: YOUR GNOME-HOME IS EMPTY INSIDE.     …   LITERALLY.

In the end, the judges felt that Dollar Diva had not used the keys as well as the other ladies, and she had to pack up her glue gun.

Master Craft Challenge: Blue jeans, borrowed candle sticks, new invitations, old baby blankets. Create something for a wedding in 5 hours using all the materials.

Needles planned to make a photo booth, and Giggles planned to make a wishing tree that would take the place of a guestbook.

Needles started to use the jeans to make decorative garlands by cutting out jean circles and sewing them together.

Giggles used the invitations to also make decorative garlands and was also cutting out paper circles with a paper punch.

Giggles used her jeans to decorate the trunk of her wishing tree, but it was looking too jeany and not so dreamy…hence….solution!

Okay, so here is the aforementioned Candlestick Debacle. Giggles’ team was making this message-holder thing by gluing candlesticks together, and her assistant accidentally knocked it over. Giggles was all, “ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME?!”

Her assistant’s face was like, “NOOOOOOOOO! AHHHHHHHHH!” kinda like in Superman 1 when Superman found Lois dead in a car during the earthquake, and he threw his head back passionately, and screamed the scream of a million screams.

Onto the judging!

Needles was up first. Sorry the photo is crappy. Her photobooth was decorated with blue jean circle garlands and pom pom trim and baby blanket garlands. She had a bench covered in fabric. And then she made her signs by gluing yarn into words.

Her garlands, her signs, and the light fixture she made with the candle sticks got big ups from the judges, but Stephen was like, “Grrrrrrl, dat bench….!”

Her bench kinda looked like a butt. But I guess butts go on it, so it’s logical.

Ok, the photos I have of Giggles’ wishing tree are REALLY BAD. SORRY!!!

The judges ended up liking the candlestick message holder, which, of course, I didn’t get a shot of, and they liked the glitter and the garlands and the originality and whimsicality of the whole concept. However….

…and….

But you know what? As we are starting to learn here on Craft Wars, GLITTER WINS ALL. Everyone’s motto should now be: WE GOT THIS GLITTER.

Classic: Giggles was jumping up and down too much for me to get a good shot of her winning.