How to Make a Money Rose Bunch the petals together with the bud in the center and slide them around the outside of it until they look natural. Then, take the floral tape, starting just under the bloom, pulling steadily to keep the tape stretched, and tape down the bundle of wires. If desired, a small collar of artificial rose leaves or an artificial ring of rose sepals can be placed at the base of the bloom to add more realistic detail.
Print on Fabric with an Inkjet Printer By Andrew Lewis Sometimes I have a great idea for a textile project, but I get put off by the thought of trawling through the seemingly endless bolts of fabric at the store. Then I think about the hassle of haggling over the price and ending up with three times as much fabric as I actually needed. I decided to try printing my own fabric on an inkjet printer, and the results really exceeded my expectations. The advantages to this technique are tremendous, and I don’t have to haggle over prices any more. I get my own designs, in the quantity I need, at a fraction of the price I would normally pay. The only drawback is that people keep asking me to print something special for them, too! About Ink Printing your own fabric is not as difficult as it sounds, and you don’t need any special equipment to get started. Materials Light-colored fabric Printer that uses pigment inks Scissors Card Sticky tape Directions Step 4: Create your design on the computer, and then print it out. Related
Tissue Rose Piñata {DIY Feature} And Chickabug Giveaway Winner I was blown away when I first saw the gorgeous tissue rose piñata from the Cornish Fairies Party by Nicole of Tradewind Tiaras. Nicole was kind enough to share the instructions on creating it, so if you love it as much as I do, you can do it yourself and create one at home! Nicole mentioned the thought of using it at a bridal or baby shower--basically, these aren't just for children, but adults can enjoy them too!!! Materials You Will Need: One balloon (Nicole went with a 24" round version, to avoid that distinct oblong balloon shape, but any would work)One glass filled with stones to act as a weightTapeNewspaper cut into stripsWallpaper paste Tissue paper {Step One} Making a papier mache pinata is simple, but does take several days (including drying time). 1) Tape your balloon, knot side down, to the glass filled with rocks. 2) Dip strips of newspaper in the wallpaper paste, wiping off any excess. 3) Allow each layer to dry before adding another layer of newspaper. {Step 2} {Step 3} Ruler
DIY Open Source Solar Concentrator Tutorials Now Available © SolarFlowerEver wanted to tinker about with a homebrewed solar energy system? Then this project, SolarFlower, might be just the ticket for you. The creator, Daniel Connell, has been working on his concentrated solar energy collector for several years now, and has just launched a web home for it, complete with detailed tutorials. SolarFlower is: "An open source solar energy collector which tracks the sun automatically through a simple non-electrical mechanism. It can be made almost anywhere from common recycled and salvaged materials using basic tools and skills, is portable, has no running costs or emissions, and can produce up to kilowatts of power per device. According to Connell, the potential uses for these devices include electrical generation, water purification, cooking, bio-char and charcoal, food dehydration, heating, gasification, and just about anything else heat can be used for.
Bookbinding Tutorial by =JamesDarrow on deviantART Build this open source DIY wind turbine for $30 Getting started with home wind energy projects can set you back a pretty penny if you buy a finished product, but if you're a little bit handy and don't mind scrounging for materials and getting creative in the garage or backyard, you can try your hand at building one of these DIY wind turbines for about $30 in materials. After all, it is #iheartrenewables week! We've previously covered Daniel Connell's open source concentrated solar collector plans, but now he's back with another great DIY renewable energy project, a vertical axis wind turbine based on the Lenz2 lift+drag design. Connell's design calls for using aluminum lithographic offset printing plates to catch the wind, which he says can be obtained cheaply (or possibly even free) from an offset printing company, and a variety of hardware and a bicycle wheel. "The turbine uses the ~40% mechanically efficient Lenz2 lift+drag design. Here's a little clip of the vertical axis wind turbine being challenged by strong winds:
Macrame - friendship-bracelets.net/macrame By Stefan. Back to Tutorials. This tutorial is supposed to teach you how to make macrame bands in different styles. They can be used as bracelets, belts, or just for decoration. Reversed half-hitches. Square knots. Hitches. Double Hitches. DIY Solar Air Heating Collectors: Pop Can vs Screen Absorbers Search The Renewable Energy site for Do-It-Yourselfers Page Contents: The test collectors: Pop can collector on left and screen collector on right Collector Basics There is a lot of not so good information out there on what makes a good solar air heating collector design, so I thought I would include a little info on solar air collector physics, what makes for a good design, and how one can measure and compare collectors accurately. How do collectors work, and what makes a good design? On just about all solar thermal collectors, the sun shines through the glazing, and hits the collector absorber heating it. In full sun, the incoming solar energy is about 1000 watts per square meter of collector area. Most of this 850 w/sm that made it into the absorber end up going down one of two paths:: one part is picked up by the air flowing through the collector and ends up heating the room, and the other part ends up being lost out the glazing. The heat output the collector can be calculated as: 1. 4.
DIY Shabby and Sweet Push Pins Today I have a great and easy twofer DIY for you! I’m going to show you how to make these cute push pins for your cork board, and how to use a fabric yoyo maker to make quick and easy, and adorable, fabric yoyos for any number of cute projects. I made these push pins for my window organizer, but they would be just as lovely on your full sized message board, or even for your teen to hang posters in their room! Here’s What You Need: *Flat Top Push Pins *Hot Glue or E6000 *Buttons, Cabochons, Vintage earrings, Resin Flowers *Fabric *Yoyo Maker and Template *Scissors, Needle, & Thread First I’m going to show you how to make fabric yoyos: Step 1: Gather supplies and cut fabric- Using the template on the back of your fabric yoyo maker, mark and cut out your circles. Step 2: Place fabric in yoyo maker- Place your fabric with the right side out around the disc that looks like a gear, serrated edge. And there you have it. Step 1: Gather your supplies- Heat up your glue gun. Wasn’t that easy! Like this:
Homemade Lotion Recipe - How to Make Your Own Lotion If you are still using the cancer-in-a-bottle store bought lotion on yourself or your family, there are super easy natural alternatives! In fact, this recipe is incredibly simple to make and all the ingredients are available here. It only has three basic ingredients and literally takes ten minutes to make! You can customize your lotion to your skin type and desired scent, and you can even make it for baby (calendula and chamomile…) There are endless variations, but some of my favorites are: Calendula and Chamomile for babyRosewater and Almond OilPeppermint, Wintergreen, and Ginger for sore musclesCoconut and Calendula for faceMint and green teaLavender and vanilla I’ve included my basic recipe below. NOTE: This is an improved recipe since many people were having trouble getting the temperatures exactly right to get the lotion to emulsify (as per the comments below). Organic Homemade Lotion Basic Ingredients: Note: All ingredients and many essential oils are available here.
A stencil some fabric scraps = A magic pillow Dear Chicago House, Remember that stencil I won and used to create a piece of art work for my office, well I have been itching to have a go at stenciling some fabric ever since. When I tore the disgusting drapes down from your windows when we first moved in, I had plans for selling them. I gave the fabric a good iron and taped in onto a large wooden board ( a piece of crappy old basement paneling) Stenciling onto fabric was a lot easier that working on paper as I suffered no edge bleed. I worked with just a single color - just a regular acrylic craft paint. I cut out two 19" squares and quickly ran up a pillow cover on my sewing machine. Pillow magic and as Mr Chicago House said, diamonds are forever, I think he liked it! Love from Creative in Chicago
How I built an electricity producing Solar Panel Several years ago I bought some remote property in Arizona. I am an astronomer and wanted a place to practice my hobby far away from the sky-wrecking light pollution found near cities of any real size. In my attempt to escape city light pollution, I found a great piece of remote property. I built a wind turbine to provide some power on the remote property. Here is a video of the solar panel set up and in use on my remote, off-grid property. Let me state up front that I probably won't be able to help you out much if you decide to build your own solar panel(s). So what is a solar panel anyway? I started out the way I start every project, by Googling for information on home-built solar panels. After a while, I came to some conclusions: Once I came to the realization that I could use blemished and factory-second solar cells to build my panels, I finally got to work. <a href=' I bought a couple of bricks of 3 X 6 mono-crystalline solar cells.
Making paper by hand I've been taking over the house once again with my latest creative project -- papermaking. (Thankfully my husband doesn't seem to mind, and he even stepped in to take some photos of the process so I could share them here.) I met a local bookmaker, Laura, here in Nashville soon after moving to town. We then met up for coffee to chat about books and new techniques we wanted to try. The bowl above is filled with little torn-up scraps of paper leftover from making books. Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of the blended paper pulp this time. Next, we added our pulp to a large vat of water. After pulling the sheets, we'd press them from the mould onto pieces of cloth, and eventually set them out to dry in my living room. And here's the end result: We experimented with using different types of cloth to press our wet sheets of paper on to dry. I love textured paper. Both Laura and I have already put our new sheets of handmade paper to use. The book on top is the one I've decided to keep.