Crafting Your Way to DIY Greatness – PPC

Pencils and Pop-Culture: Crafting Your Way to DIY Greatness

While channel-surfing the other night, I happened to stumble on TLC’s latest reality competition series, “Craft Wars.” Now, I’m not much of a DIY-er myself – I always seem to end up wearing more Modge Podge then the actual project does – but something stopped me dead in my tracks.

The challenge for that night’s competition was to create a playhouse out of school supplies. One contestant built an ill-advised school-bus that looked nothing short of messy, but the other competitor built the ideal red schoolhouse covered in…wait for it…pencils.

Seriously, there were pencils everywhere. If Studio 602 ever built its own version of the Taj Mahal, this is what it would look like. There were pencil window boxes full of pencil-stem flowers. The support posts on the front porch were painted to resemble yellow number-two pencils. Combined with the “slate” roof made from classic composition notebook covers, I was in heaven, and quite pleased when it won (I always seem to be on the wrong horse when it comes to these shows).

It seems like DIY craftiness has taken over pop culture lately, with mixed results. On the one hand, there are some truly remarkable crafters out there who can take some popsicle sticks and tempera paint and create a work of art. And a DIY touch can add a personal element to events like weddings, birthday parties and other festive occasions.

However, the crafting craze can have its backlash, too. Sites like Etsy are now flooded with less-than-enticing crafts and wares (not to mention mass-produced pieces attempting to pass themselves off as authentic crafts), and I’ve run into many a bride who lost moments of joy because they were worried about getting all of their hand-stamped, individualized, one-of-a-kind favors together before the wedding.

When it comes to crafting, I’m happy to do the occasional project but mostly leave it to those who can make it an art. Our Pencilscom Pinterest account has a whole board dedicated to pencil-themed crafts and ideas, and I can’t wait to see what our followers come up with. We might just see them on “Craft Wars” one day…and if the challenge is pencil-related, victory is assured.

Photo by clarita.