Crafty powerhouse
Issue #20
Craftychica.com’s Kathy Cano Murillo is the renaissance woman of D.I.Y. culture
By Annie Tomlin
Published: June 1st, 2004 | 12:00am
“Glitter is like a drug for me,” jokes Kathy Cano Murillo. This crafting powerhouse may be kidding around (well, sort of — she really, really loves the stuff), but her passion for la vida D.I.Y. is no joke.
Through her Web site, craftychica.com, and a weekly column for The Arizona Republic, Cano Murillo shares inexpensive, imaginative project ideas ranging from charm bracelets to home decor. With her husband Patrick, she runs Los Mestizos, an online emporium of Chicano pop art; the couple also has created a new line of Latin-themed wallpaper borders and accessories for home-improvement giant Lowe’s. Recently Cano Murillo put down the glue gun for a few minutes to talk shop.
You are prolific, to say the least. How do you come up with so many ideas?
I pay attention to trends, and I’m constantly looking for what people are into. I’ll come up with a project that kind of fits with a trend but hasn’t been done yet. Or if there are new products on the market — big, expensive kits — I like to try to find a way to show people how to do it much better without a kit.
Looking at trend stuff is just one way. Other ways are looking around to see what kind of materials I have on hand that I haven't used yet. Sometimes I'll see something in a movie and make my own version of it; sometimes I'll just get in a weird mood to make something funky. My motivation changes from week to week and project to project.
What’s the story behind your newest book, The Crafty Diva’s DIY Stylebook?
It’s a craft book for girls ages 8 to 13. For girls at that age — even us at our age! — one day you feel like a rock star and the next you’re a bookworm, so I separated the chapters by personality and did projects to fit those personalities. For the rock-star chapter, I did “How to decorate a guitar strap” and a guitar-pick charm bracelet. There’s a surfer-girl chapter, so I did a T-shirt cover-up and a beach bag.
Your daughter, Maya, is 11 years old. Did she have any input for the book?
She helped me with the ideas because she’s into crafting. She hates the whole corny Girl Scout Popsicle stick kind of thing — you know, Build a birdhouse from Popsicle sticks! — so we tried to come up with some cool, hip things that girls can make.
How does your Mexican American heritage influence your work?
I already love all the bright colors and the glitter and the high-gloss varnish, so that naturally seeps into whatever I do. In doing that, I hooked up with a lot of other people, especially Hispanic women or people who love the culture who hadn’t found anything like that. They were so thrilled to find crafts with a little bit of chica attitude. I think it’s important for everybody to tap into their culture, whether you’re a little bit Irish or a little bit German or a little bit Mexican. I think it’s a neat touch to add that into your work, just trying to look around and find some cool vintage images or some old money and tie it into your work. It makes it more personalized; it’s who you are.
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