A Hot Glue Gun Mess by Mr. KateA Hot Glue Gun Mess: Funny Stories, Pretty DIY Projects by Mr. Kate
Published by William Morrow on June 16, 2015
Source: Publisher
Genres: DIY
Pages: 288
Format: Paperback
Purchase at Bookshop.org
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two-half-stars

In this beautiful paperback edition featuring French flaps, hugely popular lifestyle blogger, YouTube star, and designer Mr. Kate (Kate Albrecht) offers a stunning collection of step-by-step personal style and home projects—woven in with quirkily hilarious stories and anecdotes.

Do you dream of finding ways to infuse do-it-yourself projects into every aspect of your life and have fun doing it? From the quirky personality behind the Mr. Kate brand comes a not-so-average DIY lifestyle book that will make your dreams of creating unique how-to projects become reality.

Filled with 50 unique and approachable projects, along with hysterical, unfiltered stories from Mr. Kate’s crazy life, A Hot Glue Gun Mess will show how life can inspire art. Growing up with a high-powered Hollywood father and an oddball, down-to-earth mother, Kate Albrecht had a childhood that was anything but normal. From how her first period influenced her to become an artist to how her friendship with a high-priced hooker encouraged DIY beauty products, Mr. Kate’s stories are weird, wonderful, personal, inspiring, and downright hilarious.

Her love of self-expression inspired Mr. Kate to create her own DIY life and a social media platform to connect with young women everywhere. Her projects involve style, home design, and beauty, including DIY nail art techniques, upcycled projects for your old jeans, and watercolor curtains. You don’t have to be a seamstress, metalsmith, or expert at anything to enjoy these projects, all of which are doable in under two hours and require a minimal number of supplies. Now you, too, can become a DIY diva!

Maybe I’m too old or maybe I’m just not cool enough, but A Hot Glue Gun Mess didn’t really inspire me. There are a couple of cute projects that I may try, like the heels with bows or the mercury glass vase, but I really don’t need a feather crown or pom-pom cushion. The photos are all well-done and the layout is nice. It’s kind of a memoir meets DIY book. The book is full of short stories from Kate’s privileged life, each followed by a craft project that may or may not be related. Most of her stories are from her childhood/teen/college years and though some were amusing, eventually I just didn’t care. She drops names and shares more than I really want to know. Actually, I quit reading them and just looked at the pretty pictures.

I enjoy crafts and there are a few here I’d like to try.  Maybe I’ll just photocopy those pages and send this book on to someone who might enjoy it more than I did.

About Mr. Kate

Kate Albrecht is the designer, stylist, interior decorator, cook, blogger, host, DIYer, crafter, frugalista, environmental enthusiast, and opinionated personality behind this quirky and cutting edge brand. as a jane-of-all-trades, with a knack for anything creative, she is the Martha Stewart for her generation (generation Y and Z with some X and Boomers thrown in too!). through a blog, web videos and popular Mr. Kate jewelry line the Mr. Kate brand is an authority on stylish and affordable living for all young consumers.

Kate grew up in Southern California’s San Fernando Valley and attended college at Loyola Marymount University where she majored in film production and minored in theater. Kate studied jewelry making under contemporary art jeweler Sue Dorman.

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