DIY Life

The other day, I found an interesting and easy decorative glass vase tutorial over at CasaSugar. I thought to myself, "That's pretty cool for around the house, but I bet it would also be perfect as a wedding centerpiece." In fact, it turns out that the project originated at DIY Bride.

This is really as simple as picking up some rub-on transfers you like, along with a clear glass vase that has a smooth surface. After making sure the vase is completely clean and dry, just cut around the transfers you like, then use the burnishing stick that comes in the package to carefully rub designs onto the vase (exactly as you would if you were rubbing them onto paper).

The transfers are sold in almost any store that carries scrapbooking or other craft supplies. Thousands of designs are available, but if you can't find any rub-ons that you like in your area, the DIY Bride post has a list of online resources.

This project is as versatile and stylish as your imagination (for example, the right transfers would make it great for Mother's Day), but this is not exactly a new tip: a few months ago, this concept also ran in the Winter, 2008 issue of Somerset Life magazine, where it was used to decorate glass bottles and jars. Please join me after the break to read more about the appealing ideas that were presented there.

Back in March, I wrote about Hinamatsuri, a Japanese traditional festival celebrating the happiness and growth of young girls. Hinamatsuri is interesting, but it's not a national holiday in Japan: that distinction goes to Children's Day (Kodomo no hi), which was known as Boys' Day until the late 1940s, when it was expanded to include girls. And Children's Day is today!

The most visible symbol of Children's Day to most people is probably the koinobori, or fish kite (sometimes called a koi kite or carp kite). These are colorful windsocks shaped like a long koi. They are usually tied to a bamboo pole, where the wind catches them and makes them look like they're "swimming."

There are a few legends attached to why the koinobori are displayed, but most relate to the koi being energetic and courageous in the way it goes against the current, leaping out of the water when it swims. The koi becomes a metaphor for parents' hopes for their children, particularly their sons.

Today is a perfect day for family members to make simple paper or fabric fish kites of their own. After the break, we'll explore some of the history and motifs of this holiday, and check out a variety of related crafts: not just koinobori! We'll also talk about some non-traditional, totally American ways to celebrate the kids in your life.

Gallery: Children's Day in Japan

The sun is definitely peeking out from behind the clouds in my corner of the Midwest. All the flowering trees are in bloom, but it's still not quite warm... people within a few hours' drive of me woke up to a "white landscape" the other day. So it seems appropriate to me that Knitty's Spring Surprise, a few extra patterns to supplement the Spring issue, is made up of garments that will get you through a seasonal transition.

There are just two patterns in the Surprise, this time around: Froot Loop, a pair of socks by Kristi Geraci, and Tempest, a button-front sweater by Weaverknits.

Read more about them after the break.

The Summer (Beltane) 2008 issue of The AntiCraft hit the Internet this week, and this time, it's all about bacon. Yes, you read right. Bacon.

The AntiCraft has made a name for itself as a nifty, slightly edgy craft site, geared towards people who like the darker things in life. So what, then, can you expect from the bacon issue? Something different, that's for sure.

For one thing, there's much more food than usual: Baconhenge (it's exactly what it sounds like), a gingerbread house with bacon shingles on the roof, and several types of bacon-infused sweets. Only two or three items really qualify as crafts... an embroidered, bookmark-like "Bacon of Hate," and a knitted scarf that looks like it's made of bacon (but isn't).

Finally, there's the issue's most dangerous project, a tiara made of bacon; it's dangerous because a protein-bonding enzyme is used to fuse it together. (Humans? Also made of protein.) Any project requiring that much safety gear probably shouldn't be done outside of a lab. Still, overall, this issue is an interesting experiment... in deliciousness!

Did you know that we have regular columns here at DIY Life? They run weekly, and each has a different focus. Our current schedule is:

• Monday: You're reading it! Living the DIY Life is our list of the previous week's best posts, as well as some top-ranked past material.
• Tuesday: The Scentual Life by Debra McDuffee is all about pampering yourself with home-made bath and body products and other excellent-smelling things. Most recently, Debra wrote about creating effective insect repellents with essential oils.
• Wednesday: In Kiddie Crafts, Francesca Clarke demonstrates simple, fun crafts that small children can do with supervision. The most recent installment addressed using "fingerprint art" to make stationery.

But where are the rest of the columns, you ask -- and what about the best posts of the week? I have carefully hidden them after the break! Click on through to see plenty for your house, yard, and craftiness... as well as a link to the huge collection of eco-friendly posts we put together for Earth Day, 2008. It'll be fun for the whole family.

In my house, there's a small wooden cabinet, somewhat scratched-up, which was given to us by a relative a few years ago. It has strange knobs in the form of faceted acrylic balls; they looked good in my aunt's antique-loaded home, but aren't so great in mine. The plastic parts look cheap to me, and overall, they don't quite suit the style of the cabinet.

So, last night, I took on a fifteen-minute project that I'd prepared for a few weeks ago: I changed the knobs.

The last time I was at The Home Depot, I bought four replacement knobs on a whim. The knobs I found, by Liberty Hardware, cost less than a dollar each; they have a nice design, reminiscent of stylized Japanese cherry (sakura) or plum blossoms (ume). If you don't like my selection, Liberty makes a number of low-cost brass decorative knobs. Some of their designs have a vintage feel.

The photo above is a "before" (taken from a slightly odd angle; this cabinet faces the end of a sofa with about an 18" gap between the two); click through to the break for an "after" and some instructions!

Do you remember Pikmin, the two-part series on the Nintendo Game Cube? These strategy games featured tiny, intelligent, plant-like creatures who could help a spaceship captain rebuild his crashed vehicle. The Pikmin came in several different colors and maturity levels, with each type having unique abilities.

The franchise was designed by Nintendo guru Shigeru Miyamoto (sometimes called "the father of modern video gaming"), and its look was unique and interesting, but it doesn't have the same level of recognition that older games do. More recently, though, the Pikmin have come back into gamer consciousness due to a featured role in the immensely popular game for the Wii, Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

Craftster's AniMei has brought Pikmin to life with this cute little Yellow Pikmin mascot. To make it, you need four colors of felt (yellow, green, black, and white), matching green and yellow thread, glue, a pipe cleaner, and a small amount of stuffing.

Download the pattern from the Craftster page, cut out the pieces, assemble as shown in the photo, and you'll have a helpful little friend in no time! This would also make a great package decoration for a gift, or maybe, months from now, a nice holiday ornament, if you stitch in a ribbon loop near the top.

Back in September of last year, I wrote a comprehensive tutorial for making marble magnets, an easy project in which images are placed under little glass bubbles in a way that really makes them come alive. In that post, I mentioned that the image pebbles could also be used in other projects, like concrete mosaics.

Kathy Cano-Murillo, one of my favorite craft gurus, recently posted the kind of mosaic project I was talking about: Concrete Coasters. The process for making them is similar to making a mosaic tabletop or paving stone, on a smaller scale.

After creating the image marbles, you mix concrete and pour it into coaster molds, then embed the marbles in the molded material and allow it to dry for at least a day. After removing the concrete coaster from its mold, you varnish it to seal it, and add felt padding to the bottom; if you like, you can further decorate the coasters until you end up with something like Kathy's results.

The one thing I would do differently than Kathy? I don't think white glue (also called PVA glue) is the best thing for gluing images to marbles; glass isn't porous, and that kind of glue is most appropriate for porous materials. I recommend using E-6000 glue instead. However, the fact that you're sealing the marbles in concrete probably makes it a moot point.

[via Craft.]

It's Monday, and that means it's time for the latest installment of Living the DIY Life, the column where we discuss some of last week's best posts.

While we had some great ideas for your home, indoors and out, this week was particularly heavy on interesting craft ideas... almost too much to choose from. For example, I loved these printable pinhole cameras that Anna Sattler wrote about, and was impressed by the Lilypad Arduino microcontroller, which allows anyone to easily create wearable electronic art.

You'll find more crafts after the break, along with an impressive number of suggestions that can help make your home more energy-efficient and eco-friendly, as well as other ways to brush off winter and welcome in the warmer weather.

About a month or so ago, a set of Lord of the Rings amigurumi made by Sammi Resendes (Craftster user Artoo1121) and her boyfriend were prominently featured on a number of sites. The dolls were unusually detailed, with full cloth outfits resembling their film costumes, painted "embroidery," and tiny polymer clay accessories like helmets and staffs. However, there were no instructions for you to make them at home.

Since then, however, Sammi has posted free instructions for how to make the Fellowship of the Ring in crocheted doll form on her blog, Geek Central Station. There are several patterns:

• The Hobbits and Gimli
• Aragorn and Boromir
• Gandalf and Legolas

The hitch? The clothing patterns aren't free: they can be purchased from the Geek Central Station Etsy shop for $7. That price seems reasonable to me, given how much work went into them.

In the meantime, amigurumi lovers will want to keep an eye on Geek Central Station: Indiana Jones is the latest character to join the fun, and a line of Star Wars dolls has also appeared, with some patterns available for purchase. Sammi says the cast of Futurama will be next! [via]

Recently, here at DIY Life, Ian Lesnet has written some tutorial posts dealing with microcontrollers: devices that essentially act as the "brain" of a small electronics project.

Now Annie Scott, of our sister site, Styledash, has written about a microcontroller called the Lilypad Arduino. On the Arduino site, the 2" wide flower-shaped board is described as "a microcontroller board designed for wearables and e-textiles. It can be sewn to fabric and similarly mounted power supplies, sensors and actuators with conductive thread."

This is all very technical, but in practical terms, what does it mean? Among other things, it's a (relatively) simple way to make hand-washable t-shirts that light up or sing when you go into a dark room, or when you move. Read more about the Lilypad Arduino, including where to purchase it and how to use it, after the break.

Pam Garrison is a relatively well-known artist and craft blogger: you may have seen her work in the Somerset family of magazines, or over at her blog.

Recently, Pam wrote about a decorating project she'd done in her own home: she made over the closet in her art room by papering its interior and adding shelves.

There's nothing so unusual in that, but the paper is entirely vintage (and vintage-style) wallpaper scraps, put up in a patchwork style. The effect is a cheerful and pretty collage. She credits the inspiration for the project to Alicia Paulson of the popular blog Posie Gets Cozy, who has done a closet door in a similar style.

Read more about how Pam did it, along with some further suggestions of my own, after the break.

Welcome to this week's installment of Living the DIY Life, where I discuss some of this past week's most interesting and useful posts.

Wait... what happened to last week's installment? I'm pretty sure it's around here somewhere... no, not there, maybe over here....

Uh-oh. It looks like I've lost the list in my messy apartment. I guess it's time for some spring cleaning!

Although cleanliness and organization require work and discipline, it's always soothing to know that your stuff is just where it should be, so that no frantic, scrambling searches are in your immediate future. And while there's no reason to treat your home like a laboratory, cleaner is almost always healthier.

So, in the interest of helping our readers and ourselves get it together this April, we've been making a point of discussing spring cleaning. You'll find a list of suggestions after the break... but if you're not interested in the topic, you'll also find some crafts, ideas for food, outdoor projects, money-savers, and one heck of an awesome electronics project.

Gradient tights (also known as "dip-dyed" or "ombré") have been hot on the fashion runway in the recent past, making notable appearances at Prada and Lacroix; other clothing that fades gradually from one shade into another, in a few large, diffuse stripes, will also be visible this spring and summer.

Jennine, of the style blog The Coveted, badly wanted a pair of ombré tights, but found that the rare pair she could find were too expensive for her to justify the purchase. Instead, she treated a pair of light-colored tights to a home dye-bath.

A simple special process is used, so if you're interested in getting this look, read more about it after the break.

This past week, it seemed like the entire blogging team here at DIY Life was knocked down with one illness or another. I won't share the gruesome details, except to confess that I could really use a tissue... do you have one?

Although we did not manage to post quite as much as we would have liked, we still had a number of useful, interesting, or just plain cool articles for your reading pleasure. For example:

• Ian Lesnet began his series which will teach us how to make a 100% DIY digital audio recorder with the building blocks of the project: Program a Texas Instruments MSP430 microcontroller. If you've ever wanted to get in on the digital maker subculture (you know, the one celebrated over at the justly-beloved Make), but didn't know where to start, Ian can get you up to speed.
• Would you, too, like to find blogging "fame" and "fortune"? Got a ten-spot and a dream? Well, my friends, Victor Agreda, Jr. has the post you've been waiting for: Starting your own blogging empire for peanuts.

What else were we up to? The usual mix of gardening and outdoor home improvement, maintaining the great indoors, and crafting for fun and relaxation. We have fences, decks, water conservation, organizing tips, Scooba care, digital scrapbooks, hard-rocking cookies, and much more, all after the break.