Make Clothes and Accessories When you make your own clothing and accessories, your style is truly like no other. DIY fashion is often quite easy to accomplish, and the satisfaction of saying 'I made it!' is priceless. Shirts and Tops Create these cute tops and shirts with a little DIY know-how. Bags and Purses Carry something that makes a statement or simply holds all that stuff. Skirts Tailor your prom dress or just make a skirt shorter. Dresses You can create simple dresses or alter your dress to the perfect fit. Pants and Shorts DIY Pants. Hair Accessories From headbands to hair sticks, you can make all sorts of hair accessories at home. Belts Make your belt do more than hold up your pants. Hats Cap your lid with a toasty winter hat or a breezy sun-blocker. Gloves, Wristbands and Warmers Warm your chilly hands with these gloves, wristbands and arm warmers. Wraps and Scarves Add a wrap or a scarf, be it for warmth or style. Shoes, Sandals, Heels You can use these simple methods to spice up your shoes and sandals. No-Sew Clothing
10 Really Cool DIY Gadgets That Will Take You no More Than 5 Minutes Do-it-yourself is a popular topic online: there are hundreds of tutorials and how-tos. But most of them are too hard to replicate and require too much time, effort and skill. This collection shares 10 cool things you can do at home with no more than 5 minutes spent: great ideas for DIY gifts and fun gadgets. Enjoy! 1. Looking for some home decor inspiration? Estimated time needed: 3 minutes (to find the old TV in the garage) 2. This one will come particularly in handy during these long winter romantic nights! Estimated time needed: 2 minutes (to cut the plastic) 3. More great candle holders now: take a couple of old CDs, put them in a microwave oven for some time (no more than a couple of seconds) and add nice candles. Estimated time needed: 10 seconds (provided you have nice candles) 4. The concept is the most important here, not the material. Estimated time needed: 20 seconds 5. This one is probably the hardest of all but still easy… and so much fun! Estimated time needed: 5 minutes 6. 7. 8.
Long Overdue Fusing Plastic Bag Tutorial - StumbleUpon I realized this afternoon that I basically explain this technique to an Etsy Labs visitor at least once a day, but had never put the instructions online. So, here it is. Fusing! Plastic! Bags!Do you have one zillion plastic drugstore and grocery bags under your sink, or perhaps smushed into a drawer? What you'll needPlastic bags (thin, flimsy ones work best)Parchment paper, freezer paper or plain old copier paperIron (and your favorite ironing surface) Making it Flatten out the bag and trim the bottom seam and handles off. Turn the bag inside-out if it has printing on it. Next, run a hot iron (we set ours to "Rayon", but you will need to experiment a little to see what works for you) and keep the iron moving constantly. Peel a corner of the paper back to see if the plastic is fused together. Peel the parchment paper away from the finished plastic sheet. Here are a few more rad examples of what you can do with this stuff, courtesy of Etsy seller Eclipse Alright, y'all.
DIY Artwork - Easy Painting Ideas - Paint Projects UPDATE: The long weekend is the perfect time to start some new projects, so why not try this awesome (and so easy) artwork DIY? This story was originally published on July 25. If there are two things that have been commanding our attention lately, they're cool artwork and chevron prints. So, we were obviously pretty stoked to find a way to incorporate both — for cheap! Inspired by the work of artist Nancy Ramirez, two stellar Refinery29 interns collaborated on this easy-does-it way to spice up an empty wall. From the moment we spied this Nancy Ramirez painting on Pinterest, we were smitten. To do this project, you'll need: A canvas, in any size you choose Painter's tape Acrylic paints in your preferred colors, plus one bottle of white paint A paintbrush (or two, if you'd rather alternate brushes than wash one between colors) Scissors A disposable plate, wax paper, or scrap cardboard to use as a palette Paper towels or a drop cloth to cover your work area Et voilà!
10 Easy Ways To Preserve Herbs Enjoying a big bounty of herbs from the garden this year? Fresh is best when it comes to cooking with them, but here are ten easy ways you can preserve them for year-round use (along with a nifty tip at the bottom of the page for crushing them fast). Air/Hang Dry Method: If you have the space and the time, you can tie small bunches together (about 4 or 5 cleaned stems) and hang them upside down in a dark, warm, well ventilated area. The drying time is about 2 to 4 weeks – you want the leaves to be crispy and easily crumble between your fingers before you pack them for storage. If space is tight, here’s a clever project you can make using old frames, fiberglass screens, chain and S hooks (for hanging in tiers): Hanging Frames Tutorial.Oven: Arrange cleaned stems in a single layer on a cookie sheet with temperature set at 180° F. Heat for about 4 hours, keeping the oven door open the entire time (to let moisture escape). *First published December 19, 2006 Thanks for sharing Josee!
Tissue Paper & Paper Flowers Tutorial I debated sharing this tutorial for a couple-o-reasons. Reason 1. It's a craft that has been around since before I was born and reason 2... it's a craft that has been around since before I was born. I feel like I might be a 100 years old at this point. Since it's new to me I figure it's got to be new to someone else too so I am doing it anyway! Supplies you'll need to make tissue paper flowers:Tissue paper (seeing as how this IS a tissue paper flower tutorial it would stand to reason that some form of tissue paper will be required)16 HUGS (just checking to see if you are actually reading this)Pipe cleaners or floral wireScissors Extras (for pizzaz): glimmer mist, brads, 2 inch Styrofoam balls, ribbon, more hugs (still checking), a flower girl (seriously), and lastly... As I stated last week, I purchased a Martha Stewart tissue paper flowers kit a few months ago on clearance at Malwart. Let's get started!! ...or... Once you have the entire thing folded up, you will want to fold it in half.
Make A Cheap &Easy Solar USB Charger With An Altoids Tin : TreeHugger - StumbleUpon Photos by Joshua Zimmerman The craftster behind the very popular $3 solar-powered emergency radio is back with a new awesome project: a cheap solar battery charger with a USB plug. Zimmerman wrote, saying that he saw a lot of small solar powered chargers being talked about over Earth Day, but there was a big problem: "They're all quite nice, but also quite expensive. So, he came up with his own, using one of our favorite reusable items -- the ever wonderful Altoids tin. In looking for the cheapest way to accomplish the task, Zimmerman found that he could build a USB solar charger for under $30 (or $10 if be buys parts in bulk, though it's not likely you'll be buying bulk solar cells and DC-to-USB converter circuits). Zimmerman states, "The central brain of our project is a DC to USB converter circuit. It can be done with a Minty Boost kit, a premade circuit off of ebay, or grabbing one from a cheap USB charger.
Ordnance Survey Blog » Dry stone walling for dummies Today we have a guest blog from Chris James of Fix the Fells / Nurture Lakeland. Chris decided to lend a hand to the dry stone walling teamIt was my first attempt at the black art of dry stone walling. Piling rocks on top of each other to build walls. No cement, nothing to bind them except the weight of the rocks and the skill of the waller in linking the intricate shaped rocks into infinite combinations; a 3d jigsaw stretching miles into the distance.I was spending a morning with a team working for the Fix the Fells project. It's hard work dry stone walling and a rest is well deserved! Have you had a go at dry stone walling? This year the Lake District National Park is celebrating its 60th anniversary. If you’re going walking in the Lake District – don’t forget to take your Ordnance Survey maps with you – they’re available now from our online map shop.
5-minute African pendant lamp DIY From the minute I saw these paper mache bowls from South Africa at World Market, I LOVED them. The bowls are made by Wola Nani, a non-profit organization that employs women with HIV and AIDS so that they may support themselves and their families. Aren’t the bowls beautiful? I wanted to buy one or two–but since they’re made from paper and they’re not food safe I was a bit stumped as to what to use them for until it came to me in a flash—a pendant lamp! So I got the blue one (now I think I wanna get them all since they’re on sale… …and I could see these looking super-cute with three of them hanging together say in the living room or over a dining table–especially since they come in two sizes). Instructions: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.