DIY Life

Notebooks are a necessity for school, but your kids may not get excited about the plain white paper and solid-colored cover. Sure, they are likely to plaster the front of their notebooks with the likes of "I [heart] David Archuleta 4-eva'," but why not suggest a venture slightly more creative than that?

There are some fun ways kids can decorate their notebooks for back-to-school, and make them uniquely theirs. For instance, using spare scrapbooking supplies, your kids can make their notebooks fit their favorite theme, whether that be cupcakes or super heroes.

Or, get some stencils, gel and glitter pens, and construction paper to embellish those notebooks and unleash those kids into a decorating frenzy.

A project like this one could go in so many directions; only time and creativity are the factors. So let your kids use the backs of their notebooks for their love graffiti, and proudly show off their artwork on the front covers.

Step aside, Hannah Montana! There's a way cooler backpack in town...

As a parent, it's hard buying "branded" merchandise, isn't it? I don't want my son walking around advertising the latest Spiderman movie, and I sure wouldn't want Hannah Montana's face plastered all over my hypothetical daughter's backpack.

In the interest of promoting individuality and all things unique, why not send your child to school with a duct tape backpack... handmade by you, with some kid help, of course!

You know it will be strong -- it's duct tape, after all -- and you can customize the outside colors by using any colored duct tape you can find.

You'll need cardboard, gray and colored duct tape, and some string, shoelace-style. Before you know it, your child will be starting his or her own new trend... you may need a lot of duct tape very soon!

The box air-conditioning unit is a necessary evil for many apartment dwellers. (Those of you about to head off to college, take note!) These things come with a few big cons: they are noisy, they are unsightly, they block the view out of your window, and they are a pain in the neck to install and uninstall.

At least the unsightliness factor is something you can fix! Here are a few suggestions for hiding your air conditioning unit from New York Magazine:

• Decorate it with something pretty like wallpaper scraps.
• Build a decorative cabinet around it, but be careful not to block air flow.
• Disguise it from view with a sheer curtain.
• Hide it with a screen.
• Cover it with artwork and frame it.

[via Apartment Therapy]

It's that time. My little guy will be starting preschool in September, and two mornings a week have gradually become a daily worry. While he is excited to go, we've never been apart, and making the separation easy for him is one of my top priorities.

Mommy Mall has put together a very comprehensive checklist for parents, to help make the transition to school as smooth as possible for families with children entering preschool, primary school, middle school, and high school.

You'll find tips for one month before school starts, one week before the transition, and the night before the big day, even the morning of, with lists for each school level.

In some areas, school has been in full swing for a month; in others, it only started last week. Either way, it's safe to say that plenty of college freshmen are just getting the lay of the land. Some have no idea what their major will be. Others know exactly what they want to do: design stuff.

Core77 has created a guide called Hack 2 School, for all those incoming design majors. It's worth checking out because, while its specific focus is industrial design, it has plenty of useful material for all art and design students, and even some ideas that will be appreciated by college students in general, like those for laundry, living in small spaces, and making good meals with few ingredients.

If people are aware of ShojoBeat at all, they tend to think it's a very thick manga magazine aimed at teen girls, full of nothing but comics. While it is, indeed, a thick manga monthly, it's about much more than just the serialized illustrated stories that run in it. ShojoBeat has been out for a few years and has polled its readers constantly about their likes and dislikes, so aside from the manga, they currently run a mix of sweet, fluffy articles about Japanese culture and fashion, and more serious articles aimed at readers who read manga because they're interested in becoming manga artists.

Back when I was a fine art student, a major project in our design class was the creation of a portfolio -- not in terms of a set of artwork that we'd use to represent ourselves, but in terms of the container we'd keep that artwork in. A representative from a college that a lot of my classmates hoped to attend told us that a submitting a portfolio that had been handmade with attention to detail would greatly enhance our chances of being accepted as art majors at our chosen schools. If we could make the outside of the portfolio match the work inside, in some thematic way, so much the better. (Also, purchased portfolios are pretty expensive, and most art students are already spending a lot of money on supplies!)

What I was told in school is true just about everywhere. So, for the members of its audience who wish to become professional artists, ShojoBeat published a great project on their site: directions to make an art portfolio (PDF link). The resulting portfolios are strong ones, made of wood, Gorilla Glue, and a few other things. There are three versions: a "panel portfolio" (two pieces of board with fabric handles attached), a box portfolio, and a book portfolio.

Any of these would be a great option (or gift!) for an aspiring art major, but if that doesn't describe you or someone you know, the portfolios would still be a good storage option for any unframed artwork you've purchased.

Originally a product of the 60's, these liquid motion lamps are found in dorm rooms everywhere. We used to have one in our living room, now we have it in our office. We love these psychedelic lamps and I imagine we'll have one kicking around forever. My husband claims it helps him concentrate, it usually puts me in a trance, but either way, this novelty lamp is a huge part of our pop culture. Have you ever stared at your lamp, mesmerized and wondered how it works?

The low temperature wax is almost the same density, only slightly heavier than the surrounding liquid. As the lamp heats up the wax expands and rises. When it is at the top it cools and falls. How stuff works has this short video explaining the reason behind motion in the lamps.

Now that you have a bit of an idea about how the wax creates this fascinating flow, I bet you're wondering how you could make one yourself. Kick off the new school year with a science project who's product just happens to be the coolest dorm room accessory. If you know your science, then you might want to try your hand at the these directions taken directly from the Lava Lamp patent. The exact Lava Lamp recipe is still secret, so you'll have to play around a bit with this one. If you're not a chemistry major, looking to turn your room into a lab, then you might want to try some more basic recipes. After the break, I'll tell you about the Poor Man's and Retro-Basic Lava Lamps. I'll outline the ingredients and point you to a source where you can learn exactly how you can make them on your own.

Back to school is upon us and with it comes, among other things, school lunches. There is always the standard of a peanut butter or bologna on white bread sandwich, but that gets boring fast. What can you do to make lunchtime fun and nutritious too? Is there anything else that should go in that lunch box other than food? How do you keep it cold?

Kraft has come up answers to all these questions and more. The Mom's Lunch Box Cheat Sheet has tips for making lunch easy and fun for your kids and has some interesting suggestions for making it easy for you.

On Kraft's Back to School Helper page you will find recipes for quick and nutritious breakfasts. There are fun a tasty twists on the traditional sandwich as well as ideas for what to pack to go with lunch. To top it off there are also after school snack ideas too.

Hopefully you will find some ideas to help you add some tasty variety to your kids school lunches and fill that empty lunch box. Do you have any creative ideas for school lunch to share? Let us and our other readers know in the comments.

It's a universal law of freshman year: Whatever can go wrong the first few weeks at college, will. Your calculus book will fall in a puddle, your cell phone will get knocked off the desk and break, you'll sleep through your first class of the day at least once, and you'll lose a button off your favorite shirt the day before Pledge Week starts.

Don't worry, DIY Life is here to help. Use book covers, a cell phone case, and a good alarm clock.

Now, about that shirt. When you were getting ready to move into the dorm, did you remember to pack a little sewing kit? Great! From replacing buttons to fixing a hem, there are a bunch of ways that little kit can save your bacon. Oh, and if you have any leftover thread, I'll also tell you how to kill time with your roommate on a Friday night before your dates get there.

For many parents and children alike, there is a certain amount of anxiety involved with the first years of schooling. Starting a child in preschool can be particularly difficult to deal with, especially with a very a shy child. There are some effective strategies which you can use to lessen the stress of those early childhood schooling experiences. The following tips can help to provide substantial ease and comfort for both parents and children.

• Begin socializing your child early. Even a shy child must be made aware that other people will be sharing their space. Hand that kid off to other people once in awhile. Let your child know that other people can be nice to be around.

Soccer season is heating up across the nation. This means that soccer moms everywhere are getting out their portable soccer chairs, packing lunches, juggling schedules and tending to sore ankles. Soccer moms catch a lot of flack for everything from being overzealous to wasting precious gas. But since I am a dedicated sideline watcher to my two older kids, I have a certain soft spot for this population. We work hard to prepare our kids for s sport they love and we try to be prepared for everything from a tearful player to a hungry team to any sort of injury.

We have only just entered the serious injury state of the game in our home. My son has left the recreational league for the high school game; the stakes have risen considerably. This type of soccer requires two practices a day, 8 mile runs before 7 a.m. and weekend practices. I knew our life had changed when I saw my 14 year-old with an ice pack wrapped around his ankle while he was relaxing one afternoon. I realized we needed to have a variety of items on hand and in the car for this new phase.

Have you ever tried to glue two things together, and for some reason, they just wouldn't stick? Oh, you made sure the surfaces were clean. You even sanded them slightly where you wanted them to bond! But nothing seemed to work: you were using the wrong glue for the job.

Enter This To That. This website exists entirely to tell you which glue is a good product to use to stick one specific thing to another specific thing. If it has limitations, it's that there are only eleven substances on the "this" and "that" lists, but those combinations should get you through most applications. And it's nice to know that the editors of the site consider the toxicity of a glue before they recommend it.

If you can't find the information you need by using the site the regular way, check the This To That FAQ; they might have the answer there. This should get you up and running for your home repair and craft projects, but it'll probably be just as helpful the next time your kid has to build a log cabin out of popsicle sticks.

With back to school fast approaching you may find yourself on the look out for inexpensive ways to get a few of the many things you will need to get for your young student. While price is a major deciding factor for parents, the coolness factor is what makes a kid like it.

I think I may have found something that both parent and kids can agree on in the book cover department. These have a very high coolness to cost ratio and if I went to school still I would so use these.
At the official Star Wars web site I found these awesome printable book covers in the kids section. All you need is a printer, a good supply of printer ink and a few other basic supplies that you probably already bought for back to school.

There are two different collections of designs done by two different artists. As a result they look a little different than the characters your kids may be used to. They are much more "cartoony". One collection may be more girl fan friendly and the other more what a boy would like. There are also some retro book plates that were originally published in 1983.

Check them out and have fun assembling. And remember, do or do not, there is no try. May the force be with you.

Are you about to jump out of the nest and head to college for the first time? When your mother starts boo-hooing into her hankie (she will -- I know, I'm a mom), tell her you'll be fine and that you won't starve to death because you learned a few basic cooking tips at DIY Life.

• Even if you can't have a hot plate in your dorm room, you can still eat well. Most large grocery stores have pre-made meals in the deli and meat departments. All you need to do is heat and eat. The selections you'll find aren't like gas station food that's been sitting under a heat lamp since yesterday. Meals are typically meat, poultry, and side dishes that just need a bit of time in a microwave or toaster oven, which is easy enough to find in the student kitchen or cafeteria.

Hungry yet? Read on.

The school bell is about to ring in a new year, but there is a group of adults who need just as much attention for Back-To-School preparation as the students: the teachers. Most people don't realize, but a summer break for a teacher is not a break at all, but an opportunity to lesson plan for the upcoming year, get those state required classes completed, fight in line at the local state board of education for re-licensure, and catch up on the required reading for next year.

Regardless, going back to school is just as exciting and demanding on teachers as it is on students. Unlike students, however, most teachers have the added stress of family and household demands. So, here's a survival guide for the teacher on easing back into the school year without fainting from exhaustion.