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Make Your Own Silhouettes

Make Your Own Silhouettes
Have you noticed that silhouettes are all the rage these days? I see them in magazines, on blogs, books, and the TV. I’ve priced them out a few times, only to be disappointed by how costly they can be. In kindergarten, I vaguely remember my teacher shining a light at us while we stood by a wall with a big piece of white paper taped on it. Now, there is no need to spend $$$ to buy silhouettes. Cheap. First, grab your subjects and have them stand in front of a contrasting wall. Take a few photos, sometimes it’s nice to have more than one to choose from. Using your own photo editing software, size the photo to fit your chosen frame. Load white cardstock into your printer, and then print away! Next, with a steady hand, cut out your subject’s profile, being careful around facial features. Then, my favorite part begins! Transfer onto a clean paper towel and allow to dry. When it’s completely dry, cover the back of the painted silhouette with acid free adhesive. Then, frame ‘er up!

How to make gift bags from newspaper When I bought something at a store recently, the clerk handed me my purchase in a bag made from a newspaper. I liked it very much and had to make some more—thus today's DIY recycled newspaper project: gift bags made from the Wall Street Journal. You can vary the dimensions, of course, but here's what I used to create a bag that's 5" tall, 4.5" wide, and 3" deep. Stack two sheets of newspaper on top of each other. Cut out a rectangle that's 15.5" wide and 8.25" tall. Fold a flap 1.25" down from the top. Cut two pieces of cardstock or chipboard to 4.25" x 1", then glue them on the widest two panels just under the top fold. Put glue on the outside of the 0.5" tab and bring the left-most panel over to form the body of the bag, aligning the cut edge of the panel with the folded edge of the flap. Upend the bag so the 2" flap is now up. Put glue on both flaps and fold them inward to form the bottom of the bag.

A ModernTake on the Doily - $850 Lamp for less than $50 | Handmadeology - StumbleUpon A Modern Take on the Doily $850 Lamp for less than $50? Yes Please! Hello Pretty people! We are so excited to share a project we did this past weekend. To get started, you are going to need a few things to make this project successful. corn starchballoon (we used a 40” blown up until completely round, as pictured)upholstery thread (but any thread will do)twinedrop clothschool gluecheap paintbrushpetroleum jellylamp kit24+ doiliesstiff stuff We sewed the doilies around the balloon with the upholstery thread, very carefully. Make sure to create a space to place your bulb socket. Once you have sewn about ¾ of your balloon, stop and do the last ¼ separately. Lay down your tarp and hang your balloon from some twine above the tarp. Rub the balloon down with the petroleum jelly. When you are complete, let your doilies dry for about 24 hours, the pop the balloon! It should look something like the image above! I am Lana. Like this: Like Loading...

Homemade Holidays: Crock Pot Candles Growing up in my house, we always made our own holiday gifts. We were pretty poor, and I suppose it was our only option. But it was never presented to me like that (I didn’t even know what ‘poor’ was, really, and I had a stupendously fabulous childhood full of ‘thing finding’ and ‘government cheese’. The first holiday season that Damian and I spent together, I was a starving college student. Last year we made all our gifts together – our attempt at canning. Anyway, there I go reminiscing. How To Make Candles In A Crock Pot All you need is some wax, some wicks + wick bases, and some candle-holders. Optional additions include color (candle dye is available at the craft store) and smell. Once you’ve gathered all your supplies, set aside some time when you’ll be around the house for a couple of hours. 1) Spoon the pieces of wax into your candle holders and arrange them in the bottom of the crock pot. 2) 20-30 minutes later you can check back. 3.5) He was very helpful. 4) Stir it up!

page corner bookmarks | I Could Make That This project comes to you at the request of Twitterer @GCcapitalM. I used to believe that a person could never have too many books, or too many bookmarks. Then I moved into an apartment slightly larger than some people’s closets (and much smaller than many people’s garages) and all these beliefs got turned on their naïeve little heads. But what a person can always look for more of is really cool unique bookmarks. Page corner bookmarks are cute, practical and deeply under-represented in the world.* They’re easy to make, easy to customize, and will set you apart from all those same-same flat rectangular bookmarks. If you like this tutorial, here are a couple others that might be up your alley. If you’re loving the toothy monster vibe, check out these simple monster heating bags, filled with rice or wheat and entirely microwavable, to keep toes or fingers or tummies warm during the chilly winter months. What you’ll need: Putting it all together: 1) Follow steps 2 and 3 from above.

Tutorial: Shabby Chic Dangly Earring Display | Kevin & Amanda - StumbleUpon This fun little shabby chic earring stand, made from an altered picture frame, is a great way to hang and display all your beautiful, dangling earrings. I had the idea for this project after we talked about my love affair with dangly earrings and how to display them. I don’t know about you, but I just love seeing them all hanging in a row! :) The next day I made this earring frame, and it was so quick, easy, and inexpensive to put together, I knew I had to share it with you! Cost: Less than $10 Time: 30 mins Supplies: picture frame, 12′ of picture wire, acrylic paint & brush, staple gun (or nails/tacks, etc) I started out with a black 8×10 picture frame from Walmart, $3. Since the frame wasn’t real wood, I was a little concerned with how it would turn out once I painted it. But as you can see from the above images, this little inexpensive frame did great! I gave the frame a couple coats of paint with this almost-but-not-quite white acrylic paint using the brushes pictured.

'American Idol' Elimination Night: Who Are the Remaining Top 4? Michael Becker / FOX This week’s American Idol theme of Brit Pop produced some of the strongest vocal performances of the season. Alas, after 60 million votes cast -- according to host Ryan Seacrest -- one of the Top 5 got the boot. VIDEO: 'Idol Hangover': Season 10's Haley Reinhart Talks Taking Risks on 'American Idol,' Feeling Sexy on New Album Sadly, that boot was fitted for country cutie Skylar Laine, the pint-sized Mississippi spitfire who livened up our screens every week with memorable performances, including The Faces’ anthem “Stay With Me” and Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Fortunate Son.” There will be no country finale this season, despite Laine’s strong performances of the CCR classic and Dusty Springfield’s “You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me," which resonated with the judges. Jennifer Lopez, in particular, admired Laine's weekly adrenaline rushes upon hitting the stage, and Interscope’s Jimmy Iovine agreed -- to a point. PHOTOS: 'American Idol' Season 11: Top 13 Finalists

Paper Flowers - Anyone Can Do That | FindInspirations.com Japanese Kusudama, this tutorial is featured on Craftuts Anyone can do that, I assure you. The proof: I can, just take a quick look at my result below. And, believe me, I am neither meticulous nor particularly patient. You could even say I’m the opposite. Below you can see my very first attempt to create paper flowers. What you will need to make your own Kusudama paper ball? 1. 3. 4. (optionally) I prefer torn paper instead of cut. You have to start with a single petal. Now you have to glue your 5 petals into a flower. Apply the glue to only one side of each petal, except for the last one, in this case cover both sides with glue. Your first flower is done. Don’t glue every petal right after you make it. When all 12 flowers are finished you have to glue them together. When two halves of Kusudama Flower Ball are ready you have to glue them together.

Mason Jar Key Hook - StumbleUpon Hey guys! Hope you all had a great Wednesday I have a fun project to share today! I started with a 1×8 board from Lowe’s that I cut to about 2′ long. I used a different paint method on this board and I love how it turned out so I am going to share it with you in my next post. I also purchased 3 hooks and a pipe clamp from Lowe’s. My next step was attaching them to my board. Then it was time to attach the clamp. I used a 3/4″ wood screw to attach it to my board. Finally, I added to picture hangers to the back of it and hung it up. I love it. I’m thinking these would be super cute hand towel hooks for the bathroom. Thanks for stopping by! I will show you my new paint method in my next post so stay tuned. ~Whitney

TheFreeSite.com offers free stuff, freebies, freeware, samples, downloads, email, games, free software, fonts, Webmaster programs, MP3s, sweepstakes, contests, coupons, catalogs How to Make Leaf Skeletons | The Idea Room I wanted to share with you a project from one of my readers who shares with us how to make leaf skeletons. I LOVE this! I have several leafs in various forms displayed in my home and knew I needed to make some of her leaf skeletons to add to my decor. I love how a pattern of leaves can enhance the beauty in your home. I have spent hours and tried various ways of making these. You need washing soda, not baking soda! Gather your leaves. Washing soda is a strong base so you may want to wear gloves when handling the leaves. You will add 3/4 cup of washing soda and 4 cups of water to your pot of leaves. Keep going, you will need to add more water so your pan doesn’t dry out. When 1.75 hours are up fill a glass baking dish with cool water. I carefully removed them and rinsed with water and added clean water to the pan. If you’re still with me, this is what I ended up with… I have a maple leaf which turned out not so well. 37.1Kstumbleupon

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