DIY Life

It's so easy to just email photos off to family and friends, but there's not a lot of thought behind it. If you really want to give somebody something special, consider this exploding scrapbook box.

You'll need three sheets of 12X12 cardstock, one sheet of 6X6 cardstock, glue, ruler, scissors, photos, and any embellishments you'd like to add.

Measure and cut the 12X12 sheets into cross (or tic-tac-toe) shapes. The outer layer will be the largest, and the inner two layers will be slightly smaller. Measure and score one-inch folds on each side of the 6X6 cardstock. Cut a flap on each corner, and use glue to secure the lid.

Decorate the layers of the box and the lid as you wish. Secure the bases of the box layers with glue, slip on the lid, and your box is complete! Check out the gallery for details.

[via CraftyDaisies]

Even if a piece of furniture was just made yesterday, it can be made to look vintage. I love shabby-chic, and thrift stores are fabulous places to find items that give a shabby-chic look to things like scrapbook albums.

One of my favorite crafts is scrapbooking. I like to take paper or cardstock, add embellishments, stickers, and buttons, and make my own Shabby Chic scrapbook album. CraftBits has a great description, complete with detailed pictures, telling us exactly how to make the album.

You can find the chipboard, as well as the crackle paint and other supplies, at your local craft or scrapbook supply store. If you don't happen to have all your necessary supplies on hand, then you can purchase an album at Michaels and just go to CraftBits to see the tutorial on how to paint and embellish the album.

Now you know what to do with all those extra embellishments and that last bit of pink paint. This would also be a great time to untangle your ribbon, so that your next craft project can be this awesome ribbon dispenser box.

When I graduated from high school -- more years ago than I would prefer to admit -- the school had graduation announcements that we could purchase. They were simple and, well, a bit boring. But I've had several nieces and nephews graduate in recent years and the announcements they purchased from their schools were much more elaborate... and more expensive.

I'm not sure if my nieces' and nephews' announcements are the norm now-a-days, but if so, the cost alone would be reason for making your own announcements. Besides the money factor, DIY announcements mean you have a one-of-a-kind creation: something unique and wonderful for the grad in your life.

Shine has a beautiful and elegant DIY announcement idea. She used folded cardstock, vellum, a custom rubber inkstamp, and ribbon. Want more announcement ideas? Check out this post about Print Gocco, and this wedding invitation post, for ideas you can apply to grad announcements.

With so many occasions, and such crafty kids, I often wonder if the little gifts we give end up becoming more clutter, collecting dust at Grandma's house. For this week's Kiddie Craft, we set out to make a creative Mother's Day gift that is personal and unique, but also useful.

We're making fingerprint stationery. Grab some plain card-stock, envelopes, a colorful ink-pad, and your little one's precious fingers. Press their small fingerprints into pictures on the card-stock. Finish them off with a decorative ribbon, and you will have created a memorable Mother's Day gift. You won't see a washcloth in the materials image, because somehow I neglected to predict this oh-so-necessary item, but trust me, you'll need one!

You can check out the finished cards in the gallery. After the break I'll walk you through the flower, rainbow, and hand-print designs. Use those ideas, or take a little inspiration from our craft and come up with ideas of your own.

Instructables does it again with a fun, yet easy to make, Valentine's Day gift idea: a gum-dispensing V-Day card. Full instructions and step-by-step photos are on the site, but the basic concept involves 1) making little Valentine's Day cards from suitably colored/decorated craft paper, 2) making slightly bigger "envelopes" from folded and glued or taped craft card stock, and 3) pasting the first, smaller, cards onto the larger envelope. Finally, the coup de grace: a red ribbon is threaded through punched holes and artfully tied so that, when pulled by the giftee, it "dispenses" a pack of gum placed inside the envelope.

I don't really get the gum-Valentine's Day connection. Wouldn't it make more sense for it to dispense a small pack of pink or red candy, like M&Ms perhaps? Still, there's lots to like about this nifty little project. For one thing, it's an ideal project for kids. It's one of those rainy day ideas that will both keep them busy and (hopefully) result in a stack of gift cards that can be handed out to friends, school teachers and the like. Second, it's inexpensive, which is always a good thing in a craft project. (Hello! I'm looking at you, scrap-booking!)

I'm loving this idea for keeping little hands busy on a cold afternoon: make a Hands-and-Feet Turkey decoration. The finished masterpiece can be used to decorate the house for Thanksgiving. Alternatively, it could be a cute dining table adornment for your Thanksgiving feast. Help your children make these every year and you'll have an adorable record of how their hands and tootsies have grown.

I found my instructions on the website, Kaboose. Let's start with tools.

You will need: light card stock or construction paper in autumnal shades like leaf brown, rusty red, pumpkin orange, or forest green. Extra points if you start with white paper and have the kids paint the paper themselves! You'll also need scissors, a stapler, glue, and a pencil or marker pen.

Step one: help your children trace their feet onto the paper. Keep shoes on for this step. Then trace their hand prints. Make one set of two hands on three different colors of paper. Then trace one final hand print on a fourth color of paper.

Getting started on making a scrapbook is probably the most difficult part of the project. You may have all the photos, but you probably are not sure what to do with them, right? You may have the desire to be a scrapbooker but entering the scrapbook aisle at the craft store or walking into a scrapbooking specialty store can make you feel lost and unsure of where to start or how to find basic items you need to begin.

Considering that there are thousands of ideas out there, knowing what you want to accomplish or even how to organize, design your layout, create and actually finish the scrapbook can be a difficult task. Spend some time just thinking about what you might want your scrapbook and its pages to look like.