DIY Life

Back in the 1964 Winter Olympics, my uncle won the only gold medal for the US team. Even though it took place before I was born, it's still something the family is so proud of. We're a family that gets pretty excited about the Olympics... because we know that it's a dream that can really come true.

You can get your family geared up for the Olympics with some of these simple crafts:

• Use some red, yellow, and orange tissue paper to create an Olympic torch. If you have kids, this is a great time to teach them about the history of the torch relay.
  
• Have a family gathering during the Olympics. Set up some fun games such as relays, swimming, soccer, basketball and so forth. Then hand out home-made gold, silver, and bronze-painted medals to the winners.

I saw some very nice trinket boxes at the thrift store the other day, but I let them go without a second thought. Too bad I did, because I now want to make over one for my daughter for a Christmas present, and maybe a few as gifts for other special people.

Using cleaned and broken white egg shells, decoupage and white paint, Jane Lake over on All Free Crafts, made over a plain trinket box. Jane put the eggshells into a plastic bag and used a rolling pin to crush them into fairly fine pieces. After removing the hardware, she then decoupaged the box lid, sans where the holes for the hardware were.

Jane alternated the decoupage and the broken egg shells, then allowed the box to dry overnight. After the box was dry, she used two layers of shimmery white paint, allowing one coat to dry before she applied another. She says you can apply pearl beads to the bottom of the box. Apply the hardware, and call the makeover finished!

If you're having friends over and the wine is going to be flowing, wine charms are a handy little accessory to have. That way, nobody forgets which glass of wine is theirs. Unless you're like me and have a memory as filled with holes as a block of Swiss cheese -- I even forget which wine charm is mine.

That's why I think Shrinky Dink wine charms that look like your friends are not only cute... they're incredibly useful, and simple to make, too!

Just draw cartoons of your friends (be kind) directly on Shrinky Dink paper or use a computer illustration program and print your artwork. Cut a small hole in the top of each cartoon and bake according to directions. Then thread the Shrinky Dink onto one-inch wire hoops. Decorate with additional beads as you wish.

If drawing isn't your thing, you have plenty of other options. Print out your friends' names in a nice font, use photos, or find clip-art that uniquely identifies your loved ones. Any way you choose to make these, your friends will appreciate the personal touch.

Check out Ryan's post about turning Monopoly pieces into wine charms, too.

It's getting close to your big day. You've done everything you can to keep your wedding plans simple and frugal. You've made your own invitations, created centerpieces yourself, made your bouquet and even your guest book.

Now, how will you thank your bridesmaids? In keeping with your frugal DIY wedding, a thoughtful and unique hand-made gift sounds perfect.

Spa products
Wouldn't it be fun to have a spa day with your bridesmaids? Since this is an expensive luxury, you could thank them with some homemade spa products instead. Try some of these:

• Facial products: Make a cleanser, scrub, mask, and moisturizer to pamper your bridesmaids.
• Foot products: Create a soak, scrub, and butter -- those feet will be worn out from dancing at the wedding!
• Body products: Make bath salts, body scrub, hand scrub, and body oil, so she can be soft all over.

Making handmade soap is an art form in itself. You can create swirls, layers, confetti, and textures in your cold process soap. It makes sense that you'd want to wrap your soap in a beautiful way too.

Your first instinct might be to use cellophane or another clear wrapper so you can see the gorgeous details of your soap, but if you make cold process soap from scratch, you will want to choose a more breathable wrapping.
The cold process soap likely retains some moisture from the curing process, which, unless you have been drying your soap for a year or so, is still not complete. Also, due to the high amount of naturally occurring glycerin in cold process soap, moisture is naturally attracted to it and you'll possibly end up with a soggy, moldy bar of soap if you use plastic.

After the jump, I'll share multitudes of wrapping ideas to make your soap look classy, country, funky, or somewhere in-between. In the meantime, peruse the gallery for some visual ideas.

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.

Spring is almost here! As this week's kiddie craft, we're making mini terra-cotta wind-chimes. I let my boys make them because we're giving them to grandma and great-grandma as Easter gifts, and I guess it wouldn't really be a kiddie craft if I took over.

Still, the temptation was there, because I think I could have made something really beautiful (yeah, yeah, my kids did a beautiful job too!). So, even if you're not working with kids, I hope you'll try this one, and craft a hand-painted wind-chime for yourself or a friend.

If you are working without children, you could use larger pots and a strong rope to hold things together. The bigger the pot the less "chimey" the sound, but I think the heavier sound would be cool too. Anyway, enough daydreaming about what I could have done with this project. It is a kiddie craft, and a great one at that, so here it is... after the break, of course.

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.

Stacks of newspaper always seem to accumulate in my house. Newspaper always comes in handy for something, even if it is starting a bonfire on a cold winter night. I use newspaper for packing fragile items when I move, so I am starting to gather piles again, in the hopes we can soon move out of this tiny abode into a bigger one.

A Storybook Life has a tutorial on how to make beautiful paper beads using newspaper, water, glue, craft paint, varnish, and a drill. All you need to do is rip the newspaper into small pieces, put the paper in a stockpot and cover with boiling water, stir the paper after about an hour of soaking to help break it apart, drain as much of the water out of the paper as possible, and then add Elmer's glue and shape into a ball. From that large ball, make as many size beads as you can, let the small balls dry, rolling every once in a while to squeeze out more water, and then sand each bead to remove any rough edges when the paper ball is completely dry. Drill a hole, paint, and varnish.

You can make necklaces, bracelets, earrings...whatever you can imagine or would normally use store bought beads for; try using newspaper beads instead. The simply perfect DIY weekend project!

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.

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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.