DIY Life

I'm really happy with my cute little 14-inch laptop. Wish I'd chosen a different color, though. The lid is a dark blue that looked sleek and soothing on the website when I placed my order. In real life, though? It looks just like plain old navy blue -- definitely more blah than soothing.

Are you unhappy or bored with your laptop? Yeah? Well, fortunately, there's never been a better time to personalize your machine ... or your iPod, Blackberry, cell or other device, for that matter. Whatever your gadget, make it really pop with a cool custom or DIY skin. Let's take a peek at some of the options:

1. Ready-made Skins. First up, there are tons of ready-made laptop skins out there. These may be purchased from computer manufacturers or from a number of other online sources. Dell, for example, now offers over 200 skin designs in a rainbow of colors and styles. Visit Dell Design Studio to see them all.

We've just moved into a new house, and my boys are excitedly adding personal touches to their room to make it their very own. These personalized door hangers are a perfect way for them to express their own taste and take ownership of their new room.

In this project, your child will decorate cutouts of their own initials and hang them on their bedroom door. For their decorations, they'll be reusing cardboard, greeting cards, magazines, and other treasures they find around the house.

Take some inspiration from the gallery, and see how ours turned out. I'll share full instructions and some useful tips after the break.

Back when I was writing about all the things you can do with one yard of fabric, I found that for many projects, a yard of material was actually too much. There are scads of things you can make using only fabric scraps, leftover from other projects.

This is good news for those of us who save everything, but really don't have a place for it all... so pull out those bags of fabric scraps and start sewing! Some of these projects make great gifts; you'll be customizing your gift for your recipient, and saving a lot of money, too.

Fabric flower cards: Maggie has written a previous post on how to make fabric flower cards. Using your fabric scraps, you can create a floral garden right on cardstock. What a beautiful gift.

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.

Photo transparencies are fun to use in scrapbooking and collage art, but transparency film can be a bit costly. Creating photo transparencies out of packing tape is not only easy, it's also a lot more cost efficient than buying the film to print on.

First, you'll need to choose the photo you'd like to use to create a transparency. Take the photo to your local print shop, and have either a black and white or color toner copy made from it. It is very important that you have a toner based copy, or this technique won't work.

Next, choose your packing tape. Make sure it is clear, so the image will peek through. Also, be aware of the size of your image; your finished photo transparency can only be as wide as the packing tape you choose.

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.)