She loves Pee-Wee Herman, can’t get enough of book author and comedian Amy Sedaris, and has been known to turn bras into purses. So it comes as no surprise that super-crafter Pattie Donham is known professionally as PattieWack™.

A close friend coined the moniker, and Donham was quick to return the favor. “I nicknamed her back: Darsee Doodle. She was always bringing the unbelievable ideas and I was always bringing the wacky ones,” Donham laughs. “Who wants to be normal anyway? That’s no fun. I like to turn everything into fun, including crafting.”

And Donham has certainly channeled a passion for whimsy into an impressive career. Her job titles — designer, book author, television host, executive producer and product consultant — just keep multiplying. “The reason I like crafting so much is that it’s not serious,” Donham says. “It’s something to do for pleasure, and you can take something you have and turn it into something else that’s either fun or useful.”

Her knack for clever crafting — and multitasking — started at an early age. Pattie, a minister’s daughter, helped out by making clothing for the less fortunate and crafts to sell at church bazaars. And what’s now a popular trend — D.I.Y. fashion — was a necessity for the Donham family. “My mother and I were always going to the thrift store and buying clothing that we could re-create and make ours,” recalls Donham. “She taught me to sew.”

Then and now, Donham follows a no-fail creative formula: Make something new and unique from something you already have on hand. The perfect example of her philosophy in action? “I picked up a mannequin at a flea market for two bucks; he was painted badly with silver spray paint,” Donham says of her most memorable project. “I brought him home and turned him into a chalkboard first, but [later] thought he was destined for more than that.” While coming up with project ideas for a crafting book, Donham decided to decoupage the mannequin. But she didn’t stop there. In true PattieWack™ fashion, Donham inserted a dollhouse window where the heart would go and decoupaged an eye looking out. She added a little saying: “The rules have gone right out the window.” Finally, she attached a clothespin to the window. “It’s the Amy Sedaris and Pee-Wee Herman coming out of me,” she admits. “It says ‘inside jokes,’ so you can write jokes and throw them into the window too!”

With more zany projects in the works, as well as some serious endeavors on the horizon (she’s presently working on a recipe-inspired crafts book), Donham teases about being, well, stuck on her work: “I’ve been dying to create a glue-gun holster,” she giggles. “Instead of bullets, I’d have glue sticks across my chest.”