Heeey-yooooh! It’s magazine time again. Welcome to Issue #5 of Pack Rat, where the fun never ends. This issue we bring you fashion, art, and more crafts than you can shake a stick at. (Well, maybe you can shake a stick at them. I shouldn’t jump to conclusions about your ability to shake sticks at things.) Marvel at the creative prowess of Valiant clothing designer, Mykel Walker. Wonder at the thrifty chic fashion we found, all in the ballpark of $30. Thrill at the grotesque beauty unearthed at the Museum of Bad Art. Plus, we have some cool craft tutorials too.

Pack Rat Magazine separates the wheat from the chaff. And then we ditch it all for some fried dough.

Let me walk you through what a day of searching for a blog topic is like. So I start out with a list of websites that I have on file…stuff I haven’t written about yet for one reason or another. It’s a long list, compiled of many a Stumble Upon and Google search. I close my eyes and randomly select a site. Today I landed on Hello Indie, a shopping ‘zine for indie goods. I really enjoy the articles in this ‘zine and have almost mentioned it a few times in the past, but I hesitated because they look like they haven’t put out a new issue since 2006.

Today I read through their archives, looking for something I could highlight, and I came across their article from Issue #2 called “Out Of Control Photography” about a new trend (movement?) in digital photography. The artists take their cameras and toss them into the air so that the resulting photographs are a surreal blur of light and shapes. The article linked to photographer Ryan Gallagher, so I clicked on his link and went to his flickr page. But I didn’t poke around there very long before I saw that he had his own blog called Camera Toss (The Blog) where he showcases his own “kinetic photographs” and his general musings about photography and life. I found the how-to guide for camera tossing to be particularly interesting. But I wanted to get a better sense of what this technique could accomplish, so I headed back to the flickr pool and I found some photos to share with y’all. They are from left to right: Kinetic 1023 by mtnrockdhh; Cameratoss from the archives by Beer 30; and Toss 109 by AKA33

And that, my peeps, is a sneak peek into the web sluething I do to bring you blog postings every day.

Mr. Jones and Pack Rat Magazine tell each other fairy tales.

Magazine alert! Oh I love magazines. Oh I love, love, love, love them. This is probably because my father is a weird man who hordes magazines as if they were a foreign currency. Seriously, we are talking stacks, upon stacks. upon stacks. And clearly, the magazine reading apple doesn’t fall too far from the magazine hording tree. But I’m getting off track. Whether you also enjoy flipping through the pages of a magazine or whether you’re just looking for a website that offers you craft projects for free (after you’ve read everything on our site front to back of course) then check out Make It Mine a magazine devoted to making over all your old doodads into shiny new toys. For instance, the website shows how to truss up an umbrella into a flamingo and add delicate details with silk ribbon embroidery to an old sweater.  Remake all of your too-familiar trinkets into exciting new treasures in no time.

It’s Pack Rat Magazine, b*tches!

Okay, so I know I’ve been awol recently and I’m sure you’ve all be struggling to find the will to live without my sage words of advice (JK) but I’m back and the reason for my prolonged absence and subsequent return is that I’ve been working diligently on producing for you all (or y’all where appropriate) issue numero quatro of Pack Rat. This issue we help the Earth in the spirit of Earth Day by doing what we do best: recycled crafts and lots of them. We also talk with jewelry designer Becky Houle, a.k.a. The Vicious Kitty, look into what this whole letterbox craze is all about and, with the help of Cat Morley from Cut Out + Keep make our own letterbox stampers, hit the thrifts for some inexpensive crafting supplies, and just about a zillion things more. Head over to www.packratmag.com/zine to get in on the action. I missed you all and I’m glad to be back. Happy crafting!

Hi kids!  the Feb/March Issue is finally out and rarin’ to go.  Click on the pdf link below!  And remember, if you think you could do better, you’re welcome to show us what you’ve got. Submission deadlines for next issue will be March 20th.  Happy reading.

issue3.pdf

Looking for more crafting goodness? Check out Pack Rat Magazine, Issue #1!

All of you who work in publishing crafts (you know, books, ‘zines, etc.) get ready to get excited. I found some wicked awesome free fonts at TypeNow. They are based on movie logos and I LOOOOOVE them. My favorites are Apocalypse Now, Bewitched, Dark Crystal (natch), Mars Attacks, Ren & Stimpy, The Simpsons (obviously), Star Wars (of course), Spongebob Square Pants, and 28 Days Later. Plus they have fonts from band logos and video game logos, and really all the awesome, pop culture fonts you could ever possibly want. Be sure to bookmark this site.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.

Oh thank the Lord. The wait is finally over. Issue #1 of Pack Rat magazine is here. It is ready and eager to be read by you. All thick, juicy, meaty 28 pages of it. So go ahead and sink your teeth in. Just click HERE. And when you’re done, drop me a line and let me know what you think.

Halloween is THE holiday for all of us DIYers. Costume sewing, pumpkin carving, all those ways to make fake blood and guts. And the gurus over at Craft Zine have seen fit to offer up some major challenges that’ll get us in the right frame of mind. Check out their DIY Halloween Contest full of fun categories and cool prizes. Plus, if they like what you’re doing, you might even be featured in their magazine. Who doesn’t love a little self promotion?

You thought you were dismissing the mainstream by making your own clothes and buying from independent, small business owners instead of shopping at the mall–didn’t you? Well guess what? It looks like there is yet still a road less traveled that you and me both can spend some time exploring. Check out theanticraft.com. This site is dedicated to the darker, more ironic side of Craftlandia (the greatest land in all the world) and the lovely ladies of AntiCraft are doing their best to bleed the cute out of all this new wave craft brewhaha. Their clever projects come chock-a-block with sardonic humor like this breakfast tray pictured below. And of course there will be no surprise here when I tell you part of the reason I love them is for their online magazine. Seriously people, who among you does not look forward to new magazines every month? I want to see hands before you start to judge me and my obsessions.

Hopefully, someone out there caught my refrence from “The Tick.” (Spoon!) I, personally love interior design above most things. (Top Designer, anyone?) I think living in a space that revitalizes you after a hard day is one of the best presents you can give yourself. But if you look at some of these design magazines, they have not been created with the Pack Rat values in mind. (serious, if I had $2000, why would I spend it on a mirror?) Digs Magazine is a handy resource to have in that department. While some of their suggestions do involve going out and buying new supplies, a lot of their daily tid-bits involve repurposing what you probably already have lying around the house. One of my favorite articles, “Getting Crafty,” centers around the uphill battle one of their staff writers fought, trying to create a slip cover for her sofa. The writing is fun, functional, and (keeping with the most important Pack Rat value) free. Check out the aforementioned slipcovered sofa below.