DIY Life

New babies feed so often, and new moms are so tired that each feed seems to run into the next; I have a hard enough time remembering what day it is, let alone when and how my little one last ate. I'm notorious for forgetting which side I'm on, so I wear a hair elastic around my wrist and switch it with each feed as a reminder. This takes care of getting her on the right side, but I'm still helpless tracking when and for how long she ate.

This is where a nursing bracelet could really help. If you're demand-feeding, it's important that you know how often your babe ate so that they are getting enough through the course of the day.

The nursing bracelet uses little beads with a charm marker to track the frequency and duration of feeds. You wouldn't need it for long, but those early weeks can be so draining, and this would ease some mental clutter. You'll find the bracelets at the counter of most baby boutiques.

They will run you about $15 and look like something you'd find in a six-year-old's goody-bag. Lucy offers these instructions for making your own nursing bracelet. The great thing about making your own -- aside from saving $15 -- is that it can be something you actually like. Choose trendy or classic beads, and modify the design as much as you want, to suite your own needs and taste.

My bead addiction is a little out of hand. I order online, and anything that even looks halfway interesting somehow ends up in my collection. It is a little too easy just to click "Add to cart", I guess.

So I ended up with an assortment of crackle glass beads. They are two-toned, and I could never quite figure out what to do with them.

Inspiration struck last night, and I am thrilled at the way my design turned out. In fact, I made pairs of earrings with almost every color of the beads I had, just to see how they looked. My favorite pair are the ones made with the black beads, but with the right outfit, the pink and the red would be appealing too.

Join me after the break to learn how to make crackle glass earrings.

For a few weeks now, the promise of springtime has had me thinking green -- green necklaces, green earrings, green bath salts. Now that Spring has finally arrived, I'm all aglow with pink.

I'm dreaming of the pink perennials that will soon come to life in my gardens, the rosy hue of the tulips, and planting the cheery impatiens and petunias.

Since I still have until May to wait for my happy pink gardens, I thought I'd create a pink rhodonite necklace in the meantime. This stone is said to promote emotional and mental balance: who couldn't use some of that?

This is the first time I have created a design using gemstone chips, so I was excited to begin. I still felt the need to have some round beads in there, but I think it turned out to be a nice balance of free-form and shaped beads.

To create this approximately 18-inch necklace, you'll need these supplies:

• 27 rhodonite chips
• (28) 4mm round silver beads
• (140) #11 seed beads, matte olive rose
• approximately 20 inches Accu-Flex beading wire, 21 strand, .019-inch diameter
• 2 crimp beads
• 1 sterling silver 19 gage 5mm closed jumpring
• clasp of your choice (I used lobster claw)
• crimping pliers

Read on for instructions on how to assemble this rhodonite necklace.

The sprouting grass, the bursting leaves, St. Patrick's Day, Earth Day, even the weeds. There are plenty of reasons to celebrate green in springtime, and making your own green beaded earrings is a fun and fashionable way to do it.

You don't even need to cut any wire for these earrings, so if you have never made jewelry before, you can make these quickly and easily.

For this simple project, you'll need about ten minutes and:

• 2 ear hooks
• 2 antiqued brass headpins, 3/4 inch
• (2) 8mm Moss Agate beads
• (4) 4mm faceted round glass beads, any shade of green you like
• 4 antiqued brass 4X3mm flower beads
• round nose pliers

Simply string the beads onto the headpins in the order shown in the picture, then put the headpin through the loop on the ear wire.

Use your round nose pliers to bend the top of the headpin into a loop, as shown in the gallery. Follow this tutorial if you've never done it before. You are done!

Go show off your new, made-by-you earrings.

It's fun when the beading bug bites. I can make my own jewelry to match any outfit or any occasion. Making gifts for friends and family is so rewarding: planning out the perfect piece for that person's individual style.

I can even make a campy St. Patrick's Day choker necklace, which you'll learn how to do too.

Actually, it isn't even all that campy, and since it only takes about ten minutes, isn't it worth having apropos jewelry for the Irish fun-fest this March 17th?

You'll need:

• round nose pliers
• wire cutting pliers
• 1 silver headpin
• (2) 3 mm Nephrite Jade round beads
• (1) 6 mm faceted round Czech glass bead, any shade of green you choose
• (1) antiqued pewter Celtic triangle bead
• (3) 4 mm antiqued pewter rondelle with dots

I'll explain the procedure after the break.

Christmas is in less than a week: is all of your shopping done? It's getting a bit late to order anything (especially if you don't want to pony up for pricey overnight shipping), but if you're shopping for crafty friends, there's probably a lot available in your own town.

However, bead, paint, and yarn choices are completely subjective, you may not know what tools your loved ones need (beading loom? spinning wheel? umbrella swift? easel?), kits can be hit-or-miss, and I'm not sure anyone needs craft-themed sweatshirts. (Ever.) Have major advances in the world of crochet hooks or embroidery hoops really been made in the past year? Probably not. So when I thought about what makes a great holiday gift in the DIY realm, I kept coming back to one thing....

Please join us after the break to find the best of the latest craft books! There's certainly something here to please almost every creative person on your list: beaders and jewelry makers, people straddling the mixed-media art/craft divide, knitters, crocheters, scrapbookers, and anyone else who likes to learn how to make interesting things with their hands.

(Even better, you shouldn't have any problem finding most of these books at 4:00 in the afternoon on December 24th.)

Yes, folks, it's that time of year: the latest roughly-seasonal issue of The AntiCraft is up. The current issue is the Samhain (Winter) 2007 issue, full of cold-weather weirdness. As always, we have to start with a warning: the projects on the site are not "adult" in the naughty sense, but the language is, so if you're easily offended, The AntiCraft is probably not for you.

The newest issue is spider-obsessed, there have been changes to the site in the form of forums, and the ladies of The AntiCraft are also starting to peel back the covers on their new book, which will be released in a few weeks. In relation to the book, there's a shiny new extremely odd contest for you to try your hand at.

See what I mean after the break.

photo -

One of my artistic addictions is making beaded jewelry. It is incredibly soothing to me to create an eye-appealing pattern and string the beads. The only thing I find frustrating about it is trying to take a good picture of my pieces.

I've tried indoor shots, outdoor shots, flash, no flash, white background, black background, different angles of lighting, manual focus, auto focus, manual aperture, auto aperture, you name it. I thought I had tried everything short of purchasing one of those crazy light box studios, a desperate measure to be sure.

Then I found it. Right there, online, for the world, including me, to see:

Have you ever thought of using your computer scanner to take pictures of your jewelry? I sure hadn't, but now I am sold.

There are no official pumpkin rules declaring that pumpkins must be carved with scary faces. I have long been envisioning a pumpkin adorned in sparkles and shimmers. While searching the Internet for some inspiration I ran across this pumpkin.

I love the simplicity of this design. The artist has simply strung together some beads and hung them in the diamond shaped windows. The furniture tacks are a clever addition to the display. This is a wonderful idea for a more mature pumpkin.

To create this design you will need:

Did you know that today is International Talk Like A Pirate Day? Every year, I take this opportunity to call my dog a "scurvy bilge rat" while she barks for her breakfast, to say ARRRRRRRR! a lot, and, of course, to watch Certain Films Starring Johnny Depp.

Last year, I was hit with the inspiration to do a massive post on my personal craft blog, full of every pirate-related craft I could possibly find on the Internet. The focus was knitting, but I also looked at kids' crafts, model ships, beading, embroidery... you name it, and if it was out there, I tried to find it.

What I came up with was Craft Like A Pirate: more pirate craft links than you can shake a parrot at.* Many of these crafts are admittedly those with skull motifs, but there are also treasure chests, booty, striped items, and so on. A few that are close to my heart are the We Call Them Pirates hat, The Pirate Queen's Booty Bag, Jack Sparrow's Favorite Socks, and Yorick, a scarf with skull shapes on both ends.

Since then, I've turned up much more. Sail on through to the rest of the article to see what treasure awaits!

*Please don't shake parrots. It's a mean thing to do to the parrot, and besides, they will bite you.

What a fun project this was! Embellishing a wire bud vase first caught my eye when we began getting fresh cut flowers from our CSA Farm this summer. Those darned sunflowers won't stand up in a vase!

When I stumbled upon this project at Girlistic, I knew I'd found a solution.

A 57-cent bud vase, some beads from my jewelry-making stash and a little wire. Easy and stylish, unique and functional. Can't beat it.

Incidentally, the directions and photos at Girlistic's tutorial and clear and helpful, and this project took me 5-10 minutes.

I love the possibilities too -- infinite ways to curl the wire, beads in every color and combination of the rainbow and bud vases in every size and shape.

So what are you waiting for? Gift someone, or gift yourself, with your new-found vase-making talents.

Do you keep rose bushes? How have they done this summer? Mine have had a rough year, between black spot (a fungal infection), Japanese beetles (who think roses are a good snack), and a late spring freeze. But I still love my roses, and I'm happy that they're hanging on, even thriving.

If you have roses, and haven't had too many problems with them lately, you probably know that the second peak bloom of the year is coming in the next few weeks (well, at least if you live in a climate similar to mine, in Ohio, and don't keep antique roses that only bloom in the late Spring).

On a healthy plant, that usually means masses of blossoms. If you have a lot of roses, or neighbors who do and who just throw fallen petals away with the garden trash, you might be interested in C. Jeanne Heida's recipe for rose petal beads. It will help you turn those piles and piles of discarded petals into a pretty necklace with an intense fragrance. It's not a fast project, but it's easy, fun, and it smells great!

Join me after the break to find out more about rose petal beads: dozens of recipes exist, with varying scents, and colors ranging from light brown to red to black. I've linked a few.

Kristin, who does the Craft Leftovers blog, has just posted a new project: stitch markers for knitters, made with straight pins, polymer clay, jump rings, and beading pliers. In this project, the straight pins are used the way that wire or head-pins would otherwise be used in a similar project, and the polymer clay is used to make the "beads" that often dangle from stitch markers.

Since the polymer clay is just swirled together, these are easy to make with things that you may have around the house. The aim of Craft Leftovers is to provide you with projects that help use up small amounts of supplies, and this certainly fits the bill.

This style of stitch marker is not appropriate for crochet, which requires split markers.

Crafting has become a hugely popular topic on the Internet in the last few years. With so much to choose from, we wanted to tell you which of the hundreds of great sites out there impress us the most.

These are in no particular order, because it's difficult enough to narrow a long list down to ten worthy sites, blogs, and communities without having to rank those ten once you've arrived at them. Between these ten sites (and a few also-rans), there's something for almost everyone.

• Craftster - Initially tagged as a craft site for hipsters ("No tea cozies without irony"), Craftster has emerged as one of the web's most popular, varied, and busy craft communities. Any craft topic you can imagine, and probably a few that haven't crossed your mind, has been addressed by Craftster members, at almost every possible level of workmanship. And they've probably written a tutorial about it, too.
• Etsy - An online mall stocked with handmade goods, patterns, and craft supplies. People sold their crafts on the Internet before Etsy came along -- via eBay, their own sites, and private sales, all places where such items can get lost in the shuffle -- but this site seems to have hit the magic combination that allows its sellers to be successful.
• MAKE and CRAFT - Both are magazines from beloved tech publisher O'Reilly, but it's their blogs that will probably be of most interest to anyone reading this list. CRAFT started out as a MAKE subcategory, then grew into its own thing. MAKE skews electronic, but still has the occasional bit of craft content worth checking out, and CRAFT includes occasional projects with LEDs.

Want to see the rest? They're after the break!

A few months ago, Interweave Press launched a new blog/community for knitters called Knitting Daily. Headed by Sandi Wiseheart, a former managing editor of Interweave Knits, Interweave Crochet, and Knitscene magazines, the site offers daily emails, lots of tips and tricks, and free patterns that are both more complex and of higher quality than the typical free knitting patterns found online. The patterns are available to subscribers only, but subscriptions are free.

The site bills itself as "More informative than columns, more fun than posts, more technical than blogs, these thrice-weekly offerings are an interactive invitation to come on in and knit a spell." (Two of the weekly emails are filler, but the other three are content-rich.) Topics recently discussed by Wiseheart include blocking and bust darts, and the newest addition to their Free Pattern Library is a stunning Icelandic Lace Shawl that has been unavailable since its original appearance in Interweave's Piecework over a decade ago.

Knitting Daily seems to be a resounding success so far, and Interweave will soon be launching a similar site for beaders called Beading Daily. If that sounds interesting to you, you can sign up now and will be notified when the site is available.