DIY Life

I have finally fallen victim to the cupcake craze. They are everywhere, on everything. But cupcakes don't irritate me like past crazes, like the flip-flop trend. (Which we still haven't seen the last of, it seems.) No, cupcakes don't irritate me: they make me smile.

I, and quite a few of my friends, go thrift-shopping and garage-saleing seeking out old sweaters to chop up and recycle into various things.

There are a great many things you can do with old sweaters. You can repurpose them into just about anything, like scarves, gloves, cozies, and stuffed animals. But here's another one: cupcake pincushions.

You'll need an old sweater (a striped one gives you wonderful, colorful options), a sewing machine, thread, a hand sewing needle, a scrap of felt, and glue. This project is pretty simple, especially if you are coordinated. If not, rolling the different layers up may be a bit daunting. I had a bit of trouble with it, but I was born accident-prone and uncoordinated.

Seriously, this project is really simple, involves minimal sewing, and is done in a jiffy. But I will warn you: you'll be tempted to eat up these adorable and delectable pincushions!

My hair is super straight and pretty boring. I recently bought some of those pink sponge rollers, the kind my mother used to put in my hair every night before bed. I had forgotten how incredibly uncomfortable they were. Not to mention the weird creases they left in my hair where the plastic closing piece connects.

In a search for more comfortable hair rollers, I stumbled upon this brilliant tutorial. It never occurred to me that I could just make my own.

They look really nice, and will give me the opportunity to use up some of my fabric scraps. And, they look really comfortable. No big plastic pieces!

You'll need fabric, buttons, stuffing, thread, hand sewing needle, scissors, and a sewing machine (with zipper foot if possible). If you are uncomfortable with creating button holes, you can always use Velcro. If you do use Velcro, it would probably be best and cheapest to purchase it by the yard since you'll need a lot more of the loop portion of the velcro.

I guarantee I'll have the most impressive and comfortable curlers on my block!

There are 6.1 million women in the United States ages 15 to 44 who are living with an impaired ability to have children. Chances are, you know someone who is struggling with infertility.

Why not brighten their day a bit by making them a fertility-themed bracelet?

For this project, you will need beads, bracelet elastic, charms, or any other findings you want to include.

The writer of the tutorial suggests using moonstone and rose quartz in the bracelet. Both are cost effective and promote fertility.

There are other stones that boost fertility, if you want other color options. Carnelian, coral, chrysoprase, mexican fire opal, and garnet are a few of the other stones you may want to consider.

I would include a card printed on nice cardstock that lists each stone used and their healing properties.

Sometimes it is hard to find the perfect words for a friend that is trying-to-conceive with fertility issues. Gifting this bracelet to your friend will show them how much you support them on their journey, without having to say a word.

Not too long ago I blogged about converting a onesie into a dress. This inspired me to find other things to do with onesies, things not too time consuming. Babies outgrow onesies so fast, so this a great way to recycle these little gems. (I have quite a few nieces and nephews, so lots of onesies to play with!)

One of the most unusual uses I found for onesies was reconstructing them to make a tee for your dog. This project is quick, pretty easy, and only requires a onesie, thread, scissors, and sewing machine.

Of course, being the embellishment addict that I am, there is no way I can stop there. You can add appliques, patches, ribbons, decorative buttons, embroidery, or anything else to jazz it up (Just make sure that the buttons are really secure, you don't want your pet to swallow them).

In the recent past, t-shirt reconstruction has had us scrambling about trying to find cool shirts to revamp. Don't our four-legged BFFs deserve the same DIY goodies? Run out and get those onesies out of storage, from a thrift store, or a garage sale, and make your pup a fab little shirt today.

Every single person that lives in my home is a comic book fan. We have some sort of superhero (or super-villain) memorabilia lurking in every corner of our apartment. When my husband told me he wanted me to make a cozy for his Zune, I knew I should make one using some sort of superhero theme.

I scored when I found this tutorial: How to make an iPod, Zune, or cell phone cozy using a children's sock.

You can use any style of sock, but I found it best to use a sock with the longest ankle part, and only used the ankle.

You simply measure the item you are going to store against the sock (eyeball it), and cut off the excess. Turn the sock inside out, and sew up the bottom.

There are lots of interesting sock choices in children's departments everywhere. You may not be into superheroes, but you can find many other styles. Be sure to also check the girls' section for other options. My sister-in-law had a fit when she saw my husband's, and now I have to make her a Tinkerbell one. These make an excellent gift: they are quick, cheap, and easy.

There are tons of adorable clothing options available for little ones, especially for girls. But what if you get tired of cute?

You can buy some really unique handmade baby items out there from places like Etsy, or you could just do-it-yourself.

Lots of things can be done to personalize onesies. You can apply patches, embroidery, or appliques. You can even convert a onesie into a dress, using fabric you may not normally associate with baby clothing. Sugar skulls, corazones, skulls with bows, and many other not-of-the-norm choices are out there.

For this project, you'll only need a onesie, measuring tape, sewing machine, thread, fabric, elastic, and pins. You don't need much fabric, since it is only forming the skirt part of the dress, so this is an excellent way to use up larger remnants.

Be prepared for other moms to flock to you and your child, asking where on earth you got a dress like that. You can proudly respond, "I made it myself."

Being able to make your own accessories is a big perk to living the DIY lifestyle. There are tons of really cool wallets to make out there, some more difficult than others.

I found a neat tutorial on Craftster, and the tutorial author is definitely correct in the title, Easy Peasy Snap Wallets, as this is probably the easiest wallet I have ever made! I can't wait to make a ton more of these, for myself and gifts for my friends.

I have quite a few remnants of funky fabric and interfacing laying about, so that comes in handy for this project. You will only need two pieces of coordinating fabric that are about 9" x 6" or so. You can use whatever size fabric you want, but think ahead about what you would like to put inside the wallet, and that will give you an idea on how small or large you need your wallet to be.

With such a variety of decorative buttons available today, is it any wonder we've found a million and one uses for them?

I've been addicted to collecting really cool and unusual buttons for some time now. I've been using quite a few of them to make pairs of earrings.

It's pretty easy, and you won't need too terribly many supplies. Here's what you'll need:

• decorative buttons
• drill, or dremel
• jump rings
• earring findings
• safety glasses

They are really simple to make, just make sure to wear some safety glasses when using a drill! So, after putting on your wonderful, fashionable safety glasses, drill a hole towards the top of your button. (I wouldn't use any holes that already exist, as they are really too far down, and some of the decorative buttons out today don't even have holes!) Make sure that when you drill a hole in your second button, it matches up fairly well to it's mate.

Add a jump ring to the holes in the two buttons you just drilled, and connect your earring finding to that. And, you're done! You've got yourself a pair of really cute, unique earrings.

We all have pairs of jeans laying around the house we no longer wear. There are many ways of re-purposing them. Everything from denim purses, reusable shopping bags, messenger bags, to just about anything.

Here is another idea: an organizer made from an old pair of jeans! This organizer goes on the back of a door. It can be your bedroom, laundry room, bathroom, or any other door in your home.

All you need for this project is a pair of old jeans, scissors, glue, tape measure, thread, sewing machine, and a trouser hanger. Measure and cut pockets into the jeans depending on the size of the objects you are going to store in them.

I have some really interesting jeans I haven't been able to wear in years with all sorts of patterns, ribbons, embroidery work, and embellishments on them that I'm thinking of using. You can also jazz up a pair of plain jeans with sequins, patches, scrap fabric, paint, embroidery, ribbons.

Just about every crafty diva has lots of tape measures laying around. Why not use one of these to make one of the coolest hand-made accessories around: a flower brooch made from a tape measure!

You can purchase these in a wide array of colors at craft stores, so you can make up a bunch to match just about anything.

You really only need a needle, thread, tape measure, button, and brooch finding, so there is a good chance you'll have quite a few of these things around your home.

You don't have to stop at just making brooches out of these flowers! You can make smaller ones for earrings, or even turn one into a pendant to hang onto a necklace. Whichever way you decide to show off these sweet little flowers, you'll be recognized for the crafty goddess you are!

I have a healthy collection of bandanas. I decided, if I can't figure out something to do with them, I've got to throw them out. I have entirely too much stuff!

I was delighted when I found this tutorial on how to make a throw blanket out of bandanas.

I've found bandanas in lots of department stores, online stores, and even ebay. You can find all sorts of colors, styles, and designs. I've found all sorts of them, like penguins, skulls, cupcakes, Dora, Disney Princess, Tinkerbell, Betty Boop, Harley Davidson, and even your original design in funky, non-traditional colors.

The tutorial reads well, and has lots of wonderful pictures to accompany you on your blanket-making journey. You'll need 12 bandanas, 6 for each side, and some batting.

Stitch up 3 rows of 2 bandanas for each side, throw in the batting, sew that sucker up, and you've got an awesome little bandana throw blanket for a nice price. And, not nearly what they'd charge for one of those things in a boutique!

And, if you're interested in other cool ideas for bandanas, check out Anna's post!

I'm completely obsessed with the Twilight book series by Stephenie Meyer. Thankfully, I'm not the only one! It's now an international phenomenon, and is currently beating out Harry Potter in some categories of book sales. A movie based on the first book, Twilight, is currently being filmed.

I recently met up with some other Twi-hards for a Twilight Moms get-together dinner. Some of us decided to bring each other gifts. I crafted up some Jacob Black versus Edward Cullen bookmarks. My friend Karla made glittery "E" is for Edward necklaces with cute little red hearts. My new friend Aimee brought along some awesome sweets, including "Dazzle Malted Milk Balls", all enclosed in a paper bag with a photo of the first book in the series' cover glued on the front.

There are lots of other crafters out there, who also consider themselves Twi-Hards. LiveJournal has a community devoted to Twilight Crafts. And there is even a Flickr group for all your twilight-related crafty needs.

Next in line for me to craft up? The charm bracelet, with a wooden wolf bead that Jacob gives Bella in New Moon, complete with the faceted heart charm Edward gives her.

I've seen lots of cute barrettes. Spring has sprung, and I wanted to craft up some barrettes that might represent the season.

I really love all of the flower and butterfly barrettes that are out and about now. While making up some of my own, I thought, why not birds too? I remembered seeing little birds used in flower arrangements at my local craft store. Turns out they are the perfect size! You can also find butterflies in the same department.

You really don't have to have a lot of crafting skills for this project, so it's good for beginners, as well as crafters who've been at it a while.

You'll need bobby pins, french clips, alligator clips, or snap clips, whichever you prefer to wear, thread, sewing needle, E6000, and an assortment of fake flowers, buttons, birds and butterflies.

Follow me through the break and I'll explain how to make a few different barrette styles.

Photo transparencies are fun to use in scrapbooking and collage art, but transparency film can be a bit costly. Creating photo transparencies out of packing tape is not only easy, it's also a lot more cost efficient than buying the film to print on.

First, you'll need to choose the photo you'd like to use to create a transparency. Take the photo to your local print shop, and have either a black and white or color toner copy made from it. It is very important that you have a toner based copy, or this technique won't work.

Next, choose your packing tape. Make sure it is clear, so the image will peek through. Also, be aware of the size of your image; your finished photo transparency can only be as wide as the packing tape you choose.

I've been into genealogy for quite some time now, and have been wanting to use what I've learned thus far in creating some sort of family tree to show off. I thought about doing a scrapbook, but I wanted something bigger, something I could show off in a big way.

I've finally found the perfect project! Andrea Steed from Scrapjazz recently posted a tutorial on how to create a stretched canvas family tree.

I am not exactly the best painter in the world, but this looks easy enough. I really love the way she uses punched out leaves for each member of her family, and affixes them to the branches.

Most of the items it takes to make this project, like acrylic paint, foam paint brushes, mod podge, brads, cardstock, chalk, and cotton swabs, crafters will probably already have laying around their craft space.

The detail to this project are adorable, and it's definitely something I will be proud to hang on my wall!