Engage your inner artist

If you put time, money and effort into crafts, they should be fun. But you also want to end up with something you'll be proud to display in your home or give to a friend.

Enter Mark Montano.

To help with craft ideas and directions, Montano has written "The Big-Ass Book of Crafts" (Simon Spotlight Entertainment, $19.95). You probably won't love every one of his 150 projects, but some of them are very cool.

"I want to make things that are home worthy," Montano said during an appearance at the recent Craft and Hobby Association Summer Convention and Trade Show in Rosemont. "If you spend time tapping tin or making a candle holder or creating a headboard it should really be worthy of your home."

About the title of his latest book: You expect a bit of an edge from a writer for Cosmo Girl, a spinoff of Cosmopolitan magazine for teenage girls.

The magazine started almost a decade ago, and Montano and those first readers "have grown up together."

It's time for many to get first apartments or even buy homes. And while this book is for them, there are projects that will appeal to their crafty mothers, too.

"There needed to be a way to make crafting more hip," he said. "The best way to do it was to name the book something that would appeal to someone who didn't take it seriously - irreverent crafters."

Many of his projects deal with things people really need - rugs, chairs, tables, lights, bedspreads and pillows.

His materials range from paper and rope to Ultrasuede, wood, seashells and dominoes. And if this book doesn't start a run on Parsons tables at IKEA, nothing will.

Yes, he includes a few items made from Popsicle sticks, but trust us, the clothespin mirror frame is downright irresistible.

Which brings up another of Montano's principles: He only features readily available materials - things you can buy at your local hardware store, lumber yard, Home Depot or Lowe's.

"Sticky floor tiles make amazing patterns on table tops, and sticky mosaics are easy to do and readily available. Just do something different with them," he said.

With a house in California and a 500-square-foot apartment in New York City, Montano collects ideas and inspiration over a wide range of geography.

"Everything in my house either I upholstered, painted or embellished except for a few antique pieces of furniture.

"And in my apartment a lot of my furniture pieces-on the upper East and West sides, you can't believe somebody threw that away. So I just say I'm going to be an hour late and haul it home. Then I can reupholster it and maybe give it to a friend."

A designer of clothing as well as home decor, Montano's books include "Dollar Store Decor: 100 Projects for Lush Living that Won't Break the Bank" (Rizzoli, $19.95). And the TLC show "While You Were Out" is among his television credits.

While his fans are generally in the 18-to-40 age range, he claims e-mails from people younger and older. And he tells them it's impossible to steal craft ideas because two crafters will not get the same result.

What now for the versatile Montano?

He's taking on that most prosaic of rooms, the home office.

"You know those ugly office chairs? I might slip cover them or put casters on my comfortable chairs and reupholster them in a really cool way."

Three-tiered tray

You'll need

•3 glass plates, one in each of these sizes: small, medium, and large

•2 wineglasses

• E6000 glue

Suggestion: Feel free to mix and match plates and wine glasses. Head to the dish department at the thrift store, and experiment. Chances are you'll find what you need for less than five dollars, like I did.

$CLASS=breakhead$Here's how:

1. Wash and dry your dishes so they are free of dirt.

2. Stack your dishes so you can see how they will fit together, with the large plate on the bottom, then a glass, then the medium plate, then a glass, then the small plate.

3. Glue the base of your first glass to the center of the large plate.

4. Center the medium plate on the first glass, Then glue its base to the glass.

5. Align the second glass over the first glass then glue it tot he top of the medium plate.

6. Center the small plate over the second glass, then glue it on top, making it the top tier.

7. Let the glue dry overnight, then fill with fruit, candies, or tarts, and enjoy.

Careful: With the glue. Use a cotton swab to get it on evenly!

•Reprinted with permission from "The Big-Ass Book of Crafts (Simon Spotlight Entertainment)

Fabric-covered tray

You'll need

•Table that needs a face-lift

•Minwax Polycrylic Protective Finish (or a water-based acrylic coating)

•1"-3" wide latex paintbrushes

•1 yard of cotton fabric (or more, if you are covering a larger table)

•Scissors

•Chalk

Here's how

1. You will be working with the tabletop first, since it's the largest part you'll have to cover. Center the design of your fabric on the tabletop.

2. Mark off the edges of the tabletop with chalk, which is where you're going to make cuts.

3. Carefully trim your fabric so it's the exact size of the tabletop.

4. Paint a thin coat of the Minwax Polycrylic Protective Finish on the tabletop. This will serve as the glue, to keep your fabric in place.

5. Lay your fabric on top of the thin layer of "glue," positioning it so it's once again centered.

6. Paint over the fabric with a generous amount of Minwax.

7. While the Minwax dries, measure the amount of fabric needed to cover the sides and legs. Repeat steps 3-6, except, of course, you'll be attaching the fabric to the sides and legs of the table.

8. After the Minwax dries, you're ready to show off your creation!

Don't worry: If you don't have big pieces left. You can patch pieces of cloth together, and your table will still look amazing.

•Reprinted with permission from "The Big-Ass Book of Crafts (Simon Spotlight Entertainment)