Homemade Lamps from Everyday Objects Having the ability to create light without needing electricity should be part of everyone’s emergency essentials. While flashlights are certainly helpful, batteries quickly die out so having a store of candles on hand can provide the light and morale boost that one needs to make it through a dark night or two. But what if you didn’t have any candles available? Fortunately there are very simple ways to make homemade lamps from everyday objects found around the house. How a Lamp Works Both oil lamps and candles are able to continually burn their fuel (wax or oil) through a process called capillary action. Understanding this is the key to creating many different types of wicks for your homemade lamps. Making a Tuna Fish Can Oil Lamp Here’s a simple example of how to make your own oil lamp using a tuna fish can. Tuna CanVegetable Oil, Olive Oil or any other cooking oilOld Cotton T-Shirt, Rag, or SockNail (or something sharp to poke a hole through the top of the tuna can) Light the wick.
Let’s Paint the Poplar Tree! | Let's Paint Nature! This is a picture I took about two years ago at Spears Woods. I’m not 100% sure this is a poplar tree, but I love its shape. It’s super tall and it’s the only one like it around. So here we go, this is an easy one, I know you can do it. Step 1: This is a cold press watercolor block 6×9. Step 2: Wet the sky using a 1″ flat brush and clean water. Step 3: In the back, paint the distant trees using a mixture of cobalt blue and burnt umber. Step 4: In the mid-ground make some dried grass shapes (just blobs). Step 5: When everything is dry, take a rigger brush and make some blades of grass on top of your grass blobs. Step 6: Using burnt umber and a small round brush, paint the trunk and a few branches. remember to stay to the left of the making fluid…the sun will be on the right. Step 7: Use a rigger brush to make thin branches on top. Step 8 Final: Now for the yummy details! We’re done! Painting is like keeping a piece of nature all for yourself. Like this: Like Loading...
s Homemade Soap Recipe by Robert Wayne Atkins Grandpappy's Homemade Soap Recipe Copyright © 2007,2008 by Robert Wayne Atkins, P.E. All rights reserved and all rights protected under international copyright law. Click Here for a Microsoft WORD printer friendly copy of this article. Introduction During hard times sooner or later everyone runs out of soap. To make soap you only need three things: rainwater,cold ashes from any hardwood fire, andanimal fat from almost any type of animal, such as a cow, pig, goat, sheep, bear, beaver, raccoon, opossum, groundhog, etc. Soap is not difficult to make and it does not require any special equipment. Soap is a "perfect consumer product" for the following five reasons: Soap is a legal product.Everyone everywhere uses soap.Soap is completely used up in a short period of time.When people run out of soap they want to buy more.Soap is relatively low in price so almost everyone can afford it. There are three major differences between homemade soap and commercial quality soap: Basic Soap Making Equipment
The Dakota Fire Hole A little known survival aid related to wilderness fire making skills is the Dakota Fire Hole, also known as the Dakota Fire Pit. This handy device is easy to construct and has marked advantages over other types of camp fire constructs. Once you make a Dakota fire hole and try it out, you may choose to use this method for outdoor fires on a regular basis. Making a Dakota Fire Hole is initially more labor intensive than simply building a fire on the surface of the ground. However the outlay in energy required to make a Dakota fire hole is more than offset by its efficient consumption of fuel; it greatly reduces the amount of firewood required to cook meals, treat water to destroy pathogens, or warm your body. The Dakota fire hole is a valuable wilderness survival aid because it burns fuel more efficiently, producing hotter fires with less wood. In many areas firewood is scarce or requires a large amount of time and expenditure of energy in foraging to obtain it. Making a Dakota Fire Hole
DIY Rope Bracelet « greeneyed.com ANNOUNCEMENT: A select number of these bracelets are available for sale here. I know, I know, MORE friendship bracelets. I can’t stop myself. I am a friendship bracelet making machine. I’ve been itching to make some Utility Cord friendship bracelets. Materials: Utility cord Binder clips S hook Scissors Lighter or matches to burn tips of rope Directions: To make the purple and blue bracelets, I tied a Solomon Bar using the video tutorial from Tying It All Together’s YouTube channel. To create the yellow S hook bracelet, I simply followed the tutorial from Honestly, WTF?. Photos: Ashley Weeks Cart How to Build a Clean Fire: The Top-Down Fire Living Published on November 24th, 2011 | by ziggy There’s more than one way to skin a cat, and there’s more than one way to build a fire. You can use this method when you build a fire in your small wood stove, your big wood furace, at a campsite, or basically any place you would have reason to burn wood. How to Build a Clean, Top-Down Fire Remember all of those smoky attempts at getting a fire going during those camping trips? The top-down fire is basically the exact opposite of that mess: a bed of bigger logs, with smaller wood placed atop that, and kindling and paper at the top, where the fire is lit, and then burns down the pile. A top-down fire is superior in that it is much more clean-burning than any other type of fire building. The more technical reasons why top-down fires are cleaner burning can be read here. Here’s a (slightly wordy) video that describes how to build a top-down fire: Image credit: flickr via RichInMN Tags: energy efficiency, Science, small wood stove
ArtisttTerms.com: Artist Business: Artist Statement Artist Business: Writing the artist statement The artist's statement is a brief introduction written by the artist to accompany a piece of art or to describe a body of work. It is usually placed at the beginning of a portfolio and is an important selling tool for promoting and explaining your work to people looking at your art work. This might be galleries, potential buyers, curators, art critics, fellow artists, or casual browsers and visitors. The artists' statement may vary in length, but should not be any longer than one page. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. Make fire without matches Video How to create a sunken trampoline - little green fingers I think a sunken trampoline has to be my favourite family garden feature. It's a simple enough idea but solves so many headaches. It's safer, less intrusive and popular with everyone. I have sunken a couple myself. So what do you do...? First, measure up - I would say buy a relatively large trampoline (ours is 14') but make sure that it won't dominate the garden. And that's it, except to say, sunken trampolines might be safer, but not so safe that you shouldn't supervise very carefully. Oh and if you want to see a couple of films about putting in sunken trampoines and how to maintain them, check these out below:
Survival Fire Starters – Do You Have 5 Ways to Make Fire? I would put the ability to make fire right behind water, shelter, and food in the list of most important things in a survival situation, and before food and shelter in some cases. Since being able to start a fire is so important, are you really going to rely on only one or two ways to do it? I think you should have at least 5 fire starters in your Bug Out Bag or in any survival preps for that matter. Be sure to notice that I am not talking about different types of tinder, like cedar shavings, fire log, paper etc. 1. No surprises here. 1.They need to be waterproof. 2. 2. Notice lighters is plural. If you are going to buy a nice lighter like that one, you should carry some Butane refill fluid and it will last you 5 times as long as any of the throw away lighters. 3. A firesteel and scraper, or what used to be a flint, is a tubed piece of metal, usually steel or magnesium, that creates sparks when you run the metal scraper down the tube. Cool ones that we have tested include: 1. 5. Be Safe
Fresh Ideas for Outdoor Play By Handmade Charlotte | Now that summer has arrived, the backyard is the central spot for family activities. Here’s a roundup of unique spaces for outdoor play that break the traditional mold to bring the fun to a whole new level! nggallery id=’121260′ Kiddie Car Wash How about a backyard car wash for keeping cool during the hot days of summer? Nest Treehouse Why constrain your ideas to the traditional concept of a playhouse? Backyard Skate Ramp Give your kids a safe place to skate with a backyard half-pipe! Build your own sunken trampoline with DIY instructions that can be found here! Check out other articles by Rachel here! For more from Rachel, check out her beautifully curated blog: Handmade Charlotte. Other posts you might enjoy: • Fresh Ideas for Outdoor Play • Tiny Summer Cottages • Inspired Kids Rooms: Hidden Nooks • Beyond the squirt gun! 25 hilarious and totally absurd maternity t-shirts The 10 most disturbing baby shower cakes…EVER The 15 creepiest, weirdest dolls of all time
3 Steps to Building a Fire There is no doubt about the greatest advance since mankind started hunting with spears, clubs and wearing animal skins… is the ability to harness the power of fire. In a survival situation, being able to get a fire going can mean the difference between life and death. With a fire you can boil water for drinking or cooking, provide heat, and even signal for help. It can be extremely difficult to get a fire to ignite and burn. 1. Fires must have fuel or “tinder” which helps start the fire. 2. Keeping your fire lit can be a challenge of its own. following items on hand: plenty of small twigs, bark, or any other type of flammable material you can procure. First, it keeps the fire contained. Second, the barrier becomes heated by the fire and retains this heat for a significant duration of time depending on what materials you are using. Third, it protects the fire from being snuffed out by a gust of wind. 3. of the ring and place the twigs and small amounts of fuel on the tinder.
Tiny Polaroid Magnets | { Ambrosia Girl } Hi there! It’s felt like forever since I’ve last blogged, and has felt like an eternity since I’ve done anything crafty and nifty. Since my morning sickness has gone into full speed (yes, we’re expecting our third this fall!) I haven’t felt like myself. I came across these DIY Pantone chip magnets on How About Orange and wanted to do something similar. You will need: Cardboard (mine was the backing of a sketchbook — much thicker than the back of a regular spiral bound notebook) or 2-3 sheets of white cardstock or poster board spray-mounted together to use as a sturdy backing to the magnetsOpaque white marker (necessary only if your cardboard is not white) Craft knife Metal straight edge/ruler Clear packing tape or frisk film. Step 1: Download a Photoshop file of the Polaroid frames below. Step 2: Print out photos onto photo paper. Step 3: Spray the back of your sheet of photos and also the cardboard with spray mount. Step 4: Trim out photos with craft knife. 487 Comments