DIY Life

Here at DIY Life, posts about weddings are always popular, but often, posts about knit and crochet patterns come in a close second.

I thought it might be interesting to combine the two, by looking at a few free patterns for wedding cakes made from yarn. (Hey, they don't have to be frozen, and they never get stale!)

• Crochet Today's Crochet Confection cake pattern (PDF download) is, at 4"x8", life-sized. It's an easy, single-tier cake that you can display on a stand over a form.
• Berroco's Buttercream is also life-sized, but this one is a tiered cake with flowers; it can be used to store dishes. It's made in their Ultra Alpaca, but any other worsted-weight yarn should work just as well.
• On the miniature side, there are the Norma Lynn Cake Sachets. Several of the designs here, like the Two-Tier Cake and the Clumsy Cake, seem wedding-appropriate, though they're part of a collection of desserts. The second page of cake sachet patterns has a triple-tier wedding cake with flower toppers and ruffled trim.

Suggested uses? The sachets would make great giveaways at a bridal shower; they'd also make nice package decorations for gifts. Some of the projects might make cute gifts for attendants, in the right kind of wedding. They would be fun commemorations of a special anniversary, or whimsical decor in the right kind of room. Professional wedding planners could also probably appreciate them.

Outside of the wedding framework, you can always choose different colors, changing the "wedding cake" into a "birthday cake" -- or merely making a cute trinket for a friend who loves sweet desserts.

And if you're looking for more patterns like this, check out an older post of mine -- Amigurumi-o-rama: Crocheted Food.

Who doesn't like free? Especially when it comes to cameras. Yup, you read me right! If you have unused film laying around and some extra time on your hands this rainy weekend, you can print yourself some free camera paper designs.

Corbis has come out with a line of free printable pinhole cameras, designed by various talented illustrators, and all you need to do is choose your desired design, download and print out the design, and take some time to build the camera via the easily understood directions.

Using a cereal box and a film canister to make your pinhole camera is a great way to recycle each item. Plus, if you accidentally break your digital or need a project for the kids to complete, this would be an easy way to introduce them (or anyone) to photography, and teach them what makes a camera tick, er ... click.

[via:Photojojo]

My dad always told me that he could never read my writing, but his rooster scratchings were ten times worse than mine. All of my brothers take after my dad; seems he taught them how to write cursive rooster scratching, but never taught them that block printing would be easier to read.

If you happen to have great writing and would be proud to show it off, check out how to create your own handwriting fonts on your computer. For just $9, you can have Frontier turn your awesome handwriting into fonts that you can use on scrapbook pages, use in letters to the ones you love, or save your child's first writing attempts, something I am sure Gramma and Grampa would love to have copies of too.

Don't want to pay for fonts of your handwriting? Fonts for Peas has handwriting fonts for free. You submit your handwriting sample to them via email, and they will turn it into a font for you. Awesome proposition if you don't know how to download a font. Imagine all the cool craft and scrapbook projects you can complete, all in your own hen scratching!

Unless you make your own, wall art can be very expensive. I like wall art that doesn't just consist of pictures. The only time I like simple pictures is of course when they happen to be my two little girls. I like abstract art, and I especially like these CD cases that double as wall art.

You can download the cases for free, and although the site is in French, you get the basic concept of how to fold the cases if you check out the objects link. You can follow the perforations and be able to create your own amazing wall art for your extensive CD collection. If you follow the comments on Craftzine, there are a few readers who let us know how to fold and cut the paper so that we get the precise CD case/wall art that we need. Also, check out what one of the French designers has to say over at The Style Files. The design won't work on regular paper, and their paper isn't available until next month.

Seriously, I don't see why this can't work on regular paper, even if you have to use two sheets to make one CD case. With a little imagination, you can even use your own design and color. Sure beats stacking all your CD's in a tower that takes up precious space and isn't nearly as cool as making your own wall art.

Have you heard? Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia recently announced that their magazine Blueprint, around for less than two years and full of achievable DIY domesticity, is kaput: the January/February 2008 issue, which should be out next week, is the last.

The news has not exactly been greeted with cheers of joy, and the company is apparently still trying to decide what to do with the brand. It may be folded into Martha Stewart Weddings (a decision they seem to be rethinking, based on reader feedback), or exist only as web content, or as an occasional "special issue."

The November/December 2007 issue of Blueprint directs readers to a nifty little project on its website: a printable 2008 calendar designed for display in a CD jewel case. You need:

• paper
• a printer
• a CD jewel case
• a paper cutter, or a craft knife and straight edge

Pay attention to the comments on the project at the site: you may need to change the printing scale to 85%, and you'll almost certainly have to disassemble the jewel case and flip one side so that it'll stay open as shown in the photos. The calendar itself exemplifies the appealing art direction that the magazine has been known for, but it will probably only look as good as the quality of the printer and paper stock you use. (Time to pull out that resumé paper you bought a while back!) When you're done, you'll have a stylish and practical little desk ornament for the new year.

If you have a definite opinion about the cancellation of Blueprint, or simply an idea about how Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia can address younger women who aren't as affluent as the target Martha Stewart Living reader, they're asking for suggestions on the Bluelines blog. Of course, the top suggestion so far seems to be, "Bring it back!"

Ah, designer vinyl. Companies like Kidrobot have popularized it, but these days, you can find cool, pricey, not-for-play-or-action figures even in places like Urban Outfitters. You can collect Kidrobot's Dunnys (stylized bunnies, all with the same shape but each with a surface by a different designer, usually retailing for under $10), or focus on pieces by a particular artist.

Or you can go to ReadyMech, a project of the FWIS design collective, and print some free paper models to cut and assemble, with minimal equipment. (However, for best results, you need to use more equipment than the website suggests -- more on that later). The styles are as cool as anything available in the world of limited edition art figures, but as with most DIY projects, you save money by building them yourself.

Aside from the double-sided tape and thick matte paper recommended by the designers, you might consider a craft knife (X-Acto, etc), a metal straight edge, and a bone folder, for clean cuts and crisp folds. Printing onto light card stock might be helpful: if you can only print on thin paper, you might consider gluing it to light card stock with spray adhesive after you've finished printing, because the result would be more durable. A glue stick or glue pen might not be amiss. They say that each project should take you around fifteen minutes to complete.

Click on through for tips, tricks, and what I learned from building a ReadyMech of my own!

Coming into this blog post, number four in my series about building your own computer, I finally have had some of the components delivered. I have included some pictures and information to keep you up to date, but we're not nearly ready to begin assembling parts. I'm hoping that my editors aren't getting too annoyed that I haven't started actually screwing parts together yet. Perhaps I should have told them that I didn't have $900 dollars to plunk down to buy all the parts at one time. Oh well, my intention was to walk you through this slowly any way. You can see my first three lead -in posts via this link!


This week I went through the process of choosing my hard drives. Yes, I mean drive(S), as in more than one. After getting various opinions on the subject I have decided that my new computer shall be set up with two hard drives. One will serve for daily use and the second one will be a fully updated backup kept on hand as an instant replacement just in case the first one fails. It was suggested that I could run the two hard drives in tandem, using one for the operating system and one for image storage which is a fine idea also but I have determined that I do not need that volume of data storage capacity yet and that option would still leave me needing a back up solution. I can always throw another drive in there. That's one of the advantages of building a computer from scratch.

It's that time of year again: Martha Stewart's super-awesome special Halloween issue is on the newsstands, and there's plenty of interesting material on her website to match.

The magazine features the usual mix of easy, stylish costume ideas, tricks, treats, home decor ideas, templates to print out or photocopy, and a ton of interesting ideas for Jack O'Lanterns. This year, it's a split between "good things" -- spooky-cute ideas with a slightly retro feel -- and "bad things," which are a little darker and seem to be meant for a slightly older audience (some of the finished products could frighten very young children). A couple of items come in both flavors.

The Martha Stewart Halloween web page has a lot of features in it that seem to be from past Halloween special issues (and regular October issues!), as well as some ideas and downloads from the current one. You can download templates for atmospheric black paper drapes, a paper bat garland, or Creepy Mice. Try instructions for moth-eaten curtains. Serve Gothic Grog or Witches' Brew from a coffin-shaped table, make papier-mache decorations shaped like pumpkins or black cats, burn "specimen jar candles" (you sent out Mad Scientist Invites, right?), and bake Creepcake cupcakes.

You'll find plenty of tips for costumes and makeup, too!

Singer/fashionista Gwen Stefani recently signed a promotional deal with Hewlett-Packard: she's the new spokesperson for their printers, so they've made some "Gwen's Style For You" printable downloads available on the HP site. If you use Vox, or certain other Internet services, you may already be aware of this: it's been heavily promoted in a few places. (Incidentally, this is not Stefani's first deal with HP -- back in 2005, she designed a limited edition camera for the company.)

But have you actually gone and looked at HP's page of "Gwen downloads"? The printables aren't pics of Gwen; they're much more interesting than just another photo of a pop star. Instead, they are illustrations and designs reminiscent of some of her fashion brands, particularly Harajuku Lovers. I don't think she precisely did the art with her own two hands, but she did commission and endorse it. And it's pretty cool!

Last week, we talked all about amigurumi, crocheted and knitted toys and dolls. Anything goes in amigurumi, as long as it's as cute as humanly possible.

This week, I've written an exclusive free pattern for our DIY Life readers: it's a Bomb Pop Amigurumi! (PDF download, 250K.) This pattern is written as an easy knit/crochet combo, though it can be knitted all the way through. I hope you like it!

What's a Bomb Pop? It's a delicious frozen treat that looks like a rocket with grooves on the side. The bottom is blue raspberry, the middle is white and lime-flavored, and the top is cherry red! It represents instant summertime nostalgia for millions of people.

(If you link to this pattern, please link to this post rather than to the PDF itself. Thanks!)

Edited to add: There is an error in the knit medallion base instructions (which are listed as "not recommended" in the pattern, because they are untested). Increasing on every row will not give you a flat circular medallion. Knit one plain row around the circle between each increase row, and you'll get the shape you need. (That is: cast on, do increase row, plain row with no increases, increase row, plain row, and so on.) Sorry about that!