Archive for Arts and Crafts
How to Build a Cat Tree
My marriage came with three cats. All this really means is I’m cleaning up puke at least once a day because there’s always one cat with a hairball, or that ate to fast, or chewed on a plant, or whatever the five million other reasons cats have for releasing the contents of their stomachs to the world. It also means the cats need places to perch. You can buy an overpriced combination of plywood and carpet scraps at the local pet store, or you can build your own. PandEcats.com offers great detailed instuctions on how to build a cat tree, complete with three different perches to give your cat options.
Found via Bain Books
cats, cat tree, hairballHow to Make Incense
Most of my exposure to incense comes from the Nag Champa purchased by friends from the local head shop new age store. Apparently you can also get a variety of scent experieces by making your own. Scents of Earth shows you how to make incense, offering a detailed explaination of the difference between combustible and non-combustible incense, heating methods, and a complete list of ingredients with a few incense recipes. This is slightly self-serving since they also sell the materials, but the info appears to be solid.
Make a Messenger Bag from a Tradeshow Banner
Judging by the revolving door of marketing materials I see at tradeshows, there must be hundreds of vinyl banners that find their way into closets or the trash over the course of a year. Instead of putting them in a landfill, why not make something useful (and unique) from a tradeshow leftover. Federico shows us how to make a messenger bag from a vinyl banner, complete with pattern and photos of his own progress.
messenger bag, tradeshow, vinyl bannersHow to Make an Origami Frog from a One Dollar Bill
If you’ve got a dollar in your pocket, you can turn it into a frog.
dollar bill, frog, origami, paper foldingHow to Make Shadow Puppets
With a light and a white wall you can create your own virtual zoo using only your two hands. I’ve never gotten past making bunny ears on the wall or what might pass for a barking dog, but these are some complex and creative shadow puppets. haha.nu has images showing you how to make shadow puppets that look like everything from an elephant to a wild boar using slight hand controtions in front of a light. A full set of the illustrations is available for download by way of a book by Henry Bursill in the Project Gutenberg collection.
Found on Fark.
illustrations, project gutenberg, shadow puppetsHow to Open a Beer Bottle with a Rock
AKA opening a beer ‘Russian Style’. My solution for opening a beer with a rock is breaking the top off and drinking from the jagged glass top (kids, don’t try that at home). This is a little more civilized and not unlike the old trick of opening a bottle with a lighter.
beer, beer bottle, bottle openerHow to Make a Recorder from PVC
The recorder was a requirement at my grade school, but I never got into playing it. It wasn’t punk rock enough, or something. Here’s a clever adaptation of the instrument using PVC piping available at any hardware store.
hardware store, musical instrument, pvc piping, recorderHow To Screen Print a T-Shirt
Getting t-shirts made at a printing house is expensive, especially in runs under 500. Sure you could make a design and put it on Cafe Press, but that won’t give you the hand-crafted feel of a true screen print design. Instead of paying through the nose to set up a press for a handful of shirts, do-it-yourself. Craftgrrl presents a cheap screen printing tutorial to show us how using MS Paint, cheap brushes, an embroidery hoop and some Speedball ink. Go forth and make shirts.
Make Your Own Wallet Out of Anything
DIY wallets are a popular form of individualism and creativity online. I only recently ran across the Three Card Monte wallet, but there are plenty of other neat wallet hacks to be found online. Seattle hacker Nate True added lights to a standard leather wallet to make it easier for muggers to find your cash in a dark alley. And Bre Pettis made a wallet out of tape based on plans designed in Google’s Sketchup. Got any other crafty wallet ideas?
How to Make Bottlecap Magnets
Fridge magnets are both functional for posting pictures and notes in the kitchen and an entertain diversion for my 4-year-old. They regularly disappear, which means we need to find new ones or do without. Using a collection of bottle caps from leftover beverages of any flavor, combined with a hot glue gun and some magnets from the neighborhood science store, making more becomes a fun project with a functional result. Bonus points for taking thumbtacks and making new pushpins for a bulletin board using the same strategy. Deep Fried Kudzu shows you how to make bottlecap magnets and pushpins.
bottle caps, fun project, hot glue gunDIY paper lunch bag CD covers
As someone who burns compilation CDs and makes backup copies of tracks purchased from places like eMusic, I need creative ways to store CDs. This clever hack offers a slick alternative to mortgaging your house to collect enough jewel cases for all those disks. Instead, buy a package of brown paper lunch bags from the store and you’re set. Detailed instructions, including customizations and decoration will get you from lunch sack to CD sleeve in a few simple steps. Find out how DMC makes his DIY paper lunch bag CD covers and start wrapping up those compact discs.
backup copies, compilation cds, diy, jewel cases, paper lunch bags
