Tea-time – Tea Steeper Design by Pengtao Yu Timely Steeping I am in love with the Tea-time tea steeper for its intuitive design and simplistic interaction between tea leaves, water and steeping time! A flipping action, akin to starting the timer, sets the tea making process into action. Designer: Pengtao Yu Tea-time is a 2011 Spark Awards entry. Super Macro Your Cellphone Camera With A DVD Lens I’ll admit, Super Macro Your Cell Phone Camera With A DVD Lens is one weird title. However, if you just moved to a blu ray DVD player and you’re looking for some good use for your old DVD, cnflikt (who also took the shots for this tutorial) came up with a hack to enable you to take super macro shots with your cellphone. Of course you’ll need a camera phone for that. cnflikt uses the notorious, yet old-skooled K800i, but any camera phone will work here. First thing is to get a lens for your camera phone. Anyhow, if you went against my advice, you’ll find the lens under the place where the disk goes. Ok, I’m only kidding on this one. If you opt for the cardboard option, just make a round hole in the cardboard. Just use some duct tape (as indicated before) to mount your lens directly, use or blue Tack to hold the card mount. WOW.
Turn a DVD Lens into a Cellphone Macro Lens Redux So, why exactly do you guys have a case of bullets lying around the office? @Pimanrules: A case? I wish. With ammo prices as high as they are I'd love for a case to just magically appear in the office. Dear Ammo Fairies, I would be very thankful if a whole case of ammo would appear. Love, Jason @ Lifehacker @Jason Fitzpatrick: Thanks to the macro lens it looks as if those are actually reloads, I believe I saw some lands and grooves on the very bottom edge of the slugs. @flyingwolf: I haven't gotten into reloading yet, although I'm seriously considering it. I did most of my bulk ammo purchasing several years ago... then I got busy with a new baby, work, etc. and wasn't going to the range as often as I had been. Reloading .22 isn't really an option so I'll just have to suck it up on those prices, but .40 and .45 are definitely worth the initial expense of setting up a reloading bench.
house diorama Left: The actual house, Right: The paper diorama I always ALWAYS forget to photograph these before I put them under glass. Then I have to deal with the ever present glare and reflection of myself in the glass. Erg. Sorry. Our wonderful friends, the Smileys, hosted our family last May at their house near Washington D.C. This is their long-overdue thank you gift. Do you see where I accidentally bent the grass? I used a new glue this time, the MS Crafts Fine Tip Glue Pen. Now I'm ready to replace the snowy bird diorama that has stayed on my mantel all through the summer. Pattern and Video Tutorial: Loom Knit Mesh Bag Loom Knit Mesh Bag by Kristen at GoodKnit Kisses 41 peg (or new 40 peg in pink) Knifty Knitter Extra Large Round Loom - Yellow 3 pegs of Spool Loom Skill Level: Beginner, level up Uses: Personal size Mesh bag for the beach or shopping. Yarn: 1 ball nylon crochet thread 90-100 yards 1 ball cotton 90-100 yards *or 2 balls of cotton Abbreviations: EW = E-wrap P = Purl Flat Panel- 1. Building Base bag – 2. Main body of the Bag – 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. Handle for mesh Bag – Spool loom. 2 strands 1.5 times diameter of yellow loom or 52.5-54.5" long depending on material. Weave the icord into the top of the bag between the knit stitch columns. ©2011 GoodKnit Kisses
Dismount Creative – M&J Challenger 2! Dismount Creative is as a place for people to step out of their day-to-day routine and get together to make cool, modern crafts. Here are the great projects she came up with for the M&J Challenge 2. Project 1: Tie-dye Camera Strap Like many bloggers I carry my camera almost everywhere. Materials:Muslin 3” x 60” RIT Dye String Squirt bottles Hardware store chain 36” Leather: 2 strips 3/8” x 12” Rivets + rivet setting tools Directions Sew along the length of the prewashed muslin strip and then turn it right side out using a safety pin. Project 2: Simple Ribbon Camera Strap My little Diana Mini is way too cute to be carried by the 70’s vinyl strap that came standard. Materials:Split key rings – 2 Ribbon – At least 36” Jewelry Chain – At least 24” Weave the ribbon through the chain and knot on each end to secure.Attach the chain to the brackets on your camera using a split key ring. Project 3: Braided Wrap Bracelet Directions: Project 4: Sparkly Bolo Cord Bracelet Directions: Visit Like this:
Eye on Fashion: Couldn't wait, i had to wear Lanvin now! I was one of the lucky bloggers who could wear the Lanvin collection before the others, touch the fabrics, take the pictures, have them as a gift, neither Madonna or Jlo could have them in advance. Ah ah I'm kidding. It's not true. We're not one of those fortunates but we do can wear Lanvin in advance, yes there's a way. Do it ourselves! Why? This one! This pattern is from Rosanna La sarta website, thanks Mrs Rosanna! click here to see how to measure If you want i'll translate for you the legend so you can draw your pattern according to your measurements, mail me if you need them! The pattern Loose threads And the dress is done! Deciding loops position (they don't need to be on rows just try to fill the space regularly)Finished dress What do you think?
Before I Die What matters most to you Interactive public art project that invites people to share their personal aspirations in public. After losing someone she loved and falling into depression, Chang created this experiment on an abandoned house in her neighborhood to create an anonymous place to help restore perspective and share intimately with her neighbors. The project gained global attention and thanks to passionate people around the world, over 1000 Before I Die walls have now been created in over 70 countries, including Kazakhstan, Iraq, Haiti, China, Ukraine, Portugal, Japan, Denmark, Argentina, and South Africa. 2011, New Orleans, LA. Cordoba, Argentina. Najaf, Iraq. Brooklyn, NY. Almaty, Kazakhstan Savannah, GA. Pohang City, South-Korea. San Francisco, CA. Johannesburg, South Africa. Cordoba, Argentina.
StitchPunk This Emilio Pucci coat was about $2,200, but it has already sold out. Yikes! You have to admit it’s pretty, but it’s not a price tag many of us can grab at. However, there is a DIY alternative that’s much more easily in the budget this year… There is a very similar coat still available over at Forever 21 for about 50 bucks, and a quick search on ebay reveals quite a few more like it for reasonable prices. What you need is the coat… and some awesome embroidery. Let’s start with the shoulders. Mirror your two rose designs and position them so they slightly overlap, like shown. What’s nice is that even thought this combined design is a bit denser than what we would usually put on apparel, the thick wool will hold up your stitches beautifully. Next, we’ll add a little more of those roses. And suddenly, your trench is transformed into something glamorous and new! Plus you saved yourself, oh about $2,150. psst… a little worried about opening up seams, and stitching on felt?
mad in crafts: Dollar Store Plastic Animal Bookends First of all, thank you so much to all of you who voted on the first round of So You Think You’re Crafty. Weren’t the projects fantastic? I have my work cut out for me in this competition! My animal bookends didn’t quite take first place, but I was ecstatic to see how many people liked my project the best. Besserina’s adorable Flour Sack Outfit received the most votes and for great reason. Be sure to check out the tutorial for her project on the SYTYC blog. Since I wasn’t the first week’s winner, it means that I get to share the tutorial for my project here for you! To make plastic animal bookends, you will need: dollar store plastic animals sharp scissors strong craft glue acrylic photo frames spray paint (optional) I was so excited to get started on this project, that I didn’t take a before picture of the plastic toys. To bisect the toys, I just pierced the animal in the midsection (this is beginning to sound like a biology lab) with my scissors, and cut all the way around. Yes?
Soda Can Tab Small Pendant Light A few weeks ago I was down in DC and had a chance to spend some time with my college roommate. Since she had witness a lot of my crafting first hand she was curious about the lights I’ve been making, and we spent a while brain storming what sort of materials I could try using next. I don’t remember exactly what made me think of it, but suddenly all I could see was the tabs from soda cans, layered like chain mail, hanging from a drum shade! Of course I had the small hiccup that I don’t actually drink things that come in cans (I hate carbonation so no soda, and no beer) but of course once again Etsy came to my rescue! This light is actually my fourth attempt to bring my idea to fruition, because at first I really had the idea of jingling hanging pieces and so I attempted to sew the can tabs (or pop tops I guess some people call them) onto various materials. I guess I also did learn some other things. I love how this shade looks but now I’m wondering, what other sizes might work? Ciao!