Jennie Pearce, A Glue Gun, and a Front Porch Full of Finished Projects
I’m not a natural finisher. For about ten years, my craft closet held more half-done projects than completed ones. There was a wreath missing its bow, a banner with six of twelve letters, and a box of mason jars waiting for paint that I never bought.
Craft Porch exists because I finally got tired of that closet.
Why I Started Finishing Things
In 2019 I planned my niece’s seventh birthday party from a stack of saved ideas. Four of them fell apart on the day. The paper pom-poms drooped in the humidity, the cupcake toppers curled, and the “easy” tissue garland took me three hours instead of thirty minutes. Nobody had mentioned that tissue paper behaves differently in a warm kitchen.
That night I wrote down what had gone wrong and what I’d do differently. I did the same after the next party, and the one after that. Eventually I had a notebook with more useful information than any tutorial I’d followed, so I started putting it online.
The Porch Part
The name is literal. I live in a narrow 1950s house with a covered front porch, and that porch is where most of Craft Porch gets made. There’s a folding table, a rocking chair with a permanent paint drip on one arm, and an extension cord that runs through the front window for the glue gun.
I like working out there because the light is good and the neighbors wander over to ask what I’m doing. If a project confuses a neighbor holding a coffee, it’s too complicated, and I rewrite the instructions.
What’s Inside
- Craft Ideas. Seasonal decor, handmade gifts, and weekend projects. Each one lists the supplies up front, because I hate finding out halfway through that I needed something I don’t own.
- Party Ideas. Themes, table setups, favors, and decorations, mostly built around birthdays and holidays. I say what to prep a week ahead and what to leave until the morning of the party.
- How-To Guides. The basics people skip when they start: which glue holds which material, how to cut straight with scissors that aren’t great, and how to plan a party timeline backward from the guest list.
Who This Is For
This is for the person with a Pinterest board of two hundred pins and no clear idea where to start. It’s also for the parent hosting a birthday on a tight budget, and the beginner who suspects everyone else was born knowing how to use a craft knife.
If you already craft every week, you’ll probably still find a shortcut or two. But I write with the beginner in mind, because I remember exactly how it felt to be one.
How I Check My Work
I’d rather tell you plainly how this site works, so here it is.
Every article is fact-checked before it goes up. That means supply quantities, drying times, measurements, and safety notes get verified, not guessed. I review every post myself, and every post is edited for accuracy and clarity before publishing. When a product gets discontinued, a technique turns out to be wrong, or a price changes, I go back and update the article instead of leaving it to age quietly.
Affiliate links and sponsored content, if I ever use them, are marked clearly so you always know when a link might earn me a commission. If a post doesn’t meet this standard, it doesn’t get published.
Small Facts About Me
- I keep a jar of 63 mismatched buttons, all rescued from thrift store sweaters.
- I’ve tested more than forty versions of paper garland, and I can tell you the best cardstock weight by touch.
- My dog gets a birthday party every March, with a hat. He tolerates it.
- I learned to sew from a neighbor who refused to let me use a pattern until I’d made a pillow without one.
- My glue gun has a name, and I’m not telling you what it is.
A Closing Note
I still have a few unfinished projects in that closet, and I’ve made peace with it. Not every idea deserves finishing, and knowing which ones do is a skill I’m still learning.
Pick one small project from the site, finish it this weekend, and put it somewhere you’ll see it every day. That’s usually how it starts.
I’ll be on the porch.
Jennie