Craft until you can craft no more

By Marilyn Perez

Finally! A how-to craft book for the practical, curious, and “granny-chic” alike and it is brought to you by your new craft guardian angel Mark Montano, of TLC’s 10 Years Younger and While You Were Out. Not only does he have an eye for design, he has infinite ideas for straws, glass plates, ultrasuede, and much, much more. His new book, The Big-Ass Book Of Crafts, is just that; it’s big, it’s colorful, it’s bold, and it is full of ideas that will keep you inspired and excited for a very long time. Here you will find the easiest of projects like "Beautified Matchboxes" to the more complex but fulfilling "Papier-Mache Pedestal Table."

Do we need another instructional craft book? Yes! Mark’s goal in writing this book is to provide a new approach to tapping into your creativity, “I tried to fill the book with projects that anyone could make using items that didn’t necessarily have to go out and invest in. A craft book that could reach across all financial and ability brackets. It’s not Martha Stewart and I don’t want it to be. Let’s just say I’m the anti-Martha. You won’t see her digging through the recycling bin for cans like I do.” In fact, there are a few projects in the book that include items Mark has saved from the curbside (see his "Harlequin & Decoupage Table" on page 100).

Mark comes from a crafty upbringing, “We are a do-it-yourself kind of family. My mother was a painter and poet, my dad also painted and studied architecture and was seriously into sewing! I learned how to sew from my dad.” Mark mentions his family throughout the book, especially his nieces and nephews. He includes plenty of projects for the young and young at heart. The wonders you can do with Elmer’s Glue and popsicle sticks goes way beyond building the crooked cabin you made in the third grade.

While writing this book, Mark was in the process of moving into a new home which became a blank canvas to create new artwork, lighting fixtures, window dressings, and more ideas, may of which can be found in this book. With chapter titles like “I’ve Been Felt Up”, “I’ll Be In The Bedroom (Wink, Wink!)” and “More Stuff To Dust”, Mark brings light and humor to his projects that other books may miss out on. Just when you think you’ve seen it all, Mark presents something with a new twist like his "Pen Flower Arrangements" (page 62) and the gorgeous "Laminated Paper-Doll Window Treatment" (page 176).

Mark is passionate about crafting and bringing out the best in others. He dedicates this book to “all the people who think they aren’t talented or crafty” and he’s confident this book will help those with doubt to find their muse. There are times, and it happens to all of us, where we hit a dry spell and don’t know what to work on next. What does Mark do when this happens to him and what’s his advice?

“Inspiration is a state of mind. What I really like to do is keep a creative journal filled with sketched out ideas of things I'd like to make or paint or sew. When I am not inspired I look at the book and just pick something. It’s like starting an engine. You have to turn the key or nothing is going to happen. I read somewhere that creativity is the ability to mix the memory part of our brain with the current input in your brain and morph it into something new. Pretty cool!”

ABOUT THE BOOK:
The Big-Ass Book of Crafts (Simon Spotlight Entertainment)
by Mark Montano
384 pages

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