DIY Life

Darling origami gift bags for Halloween treats. A new vlog teaches you how to fold like a pro! – Infarrantly Creative

"The Hostess" shares entertaining ideas for the leafy months of October and November. Inspiration for fabulous fall parties is now at your fingertips. – Hostess with the Mostess

And for your next get-together, here's a recipe to bookmark: delectable (yet easy) cream cheese Danishes. Yum. – Niesz Vintage Fabric

Good shoes are so expensive! Great fit and great price ... but the looks don't thrill you? Buy 'em. Maybe you can give them a DIY makeover. Same goes for comfy but boring shoes you already own. Vintage earrings, stencil cutouts, spray painting, crochet and collage. Get some inspiration and get to work.

Blogger Vera Sunshyne's inspired and adorable Mary Janes were made from a $6 pair of garden clogs purchased from Big Lots. A little clever stenciling and cutting, superglue and embellishments of choice (rhinestones or beads look great) and look at the result. I would need a generous dose of patience to do this craft right, though.

Shoe fanatics have started a Flickr photo pool dedicated to shoe makeovers. Shoe Refashion: Refresh Your Step is a Flickr group that anyone can view, although you must be a member to add photos. These people know how to have fun with shoes. Take a peek.

Love the lamp you have but the lampshade has gotten dusty and dirty over the years? My lampshades all took a beating during a recent cross-country move. Instead of running out and purchasing a new shade -- anything but plain white is expensive -- why not remake the lampshade by covering it with some fabric that co-ordinates with your room?

You will need:

Scissors
Spray glue
Paper, for tracing the pattern
Fabric

Step One:
Lay your lampshade down on your craft paper, or the back of wrapping paper. Starting at the seam roll and trace the bottom of your lampshade until you arrive back at the seam. Then roll the lampshade back in the opposite direction and trace the top edge. For the most common style of lampshade, it will be a crescent shape drawing.

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!

Having previously used wallpaper to cover my kitchen cabinets, I'm ready to change them for a new look. Since I get bored fairly easily with my decor, I like to spruce things up about every six months, and I am so itching for newly decorated cabinets.

Thanks to help from Tipnut, I found the perfect kitchen cabinet makeover project over on Tres Chic Veronique. Using pretty fabric covered in bees and honeycombs, Veronique cut the fabric an extra inch on each side, then hammered in thumbtacks to secure the fabric to the cabinet door.

I read in the comment section of Veronique's post that Scotchgaurd was used to help eliminate grease and stains when the fabric is wiped down. If you, like me, are unsure of whether or not you want to use regular fabric on your cabinets, then maybe the best alternative would be to use oilcloth, since that can be wiped down easily.

This is Part I of a five part series detailing the rehabilitation of a "plain Jane" back yard into a really nice landscape. My son and his wife live in a cool little town adjacent to West Palm Beach, Florida. Their home is somewhat akin to a "shotgun" style, with a similarly shaped back yard.

Over the course of a week, I helped my son with the latter stages of the plan that he and his wife had begun to implement shortly after they moved into their home. The back yard is now a very welcoming part of their home, complete with paver patios and walkways, a water feature, new sod and plantings, and provisions for the future expansion of irrigation and landscape lighting.

For all things neat about your yard, don't miss Diane Rixon's Avant Yard, here on DIY Life. Additionally, if you want to consider something other than pavers, take a minute and look at my feature on some of the options.

Check out the gallery for the process involved in the initial stages of the construction and, after the jump, we'll get into the fun stuff.

Have you ever gone to a thrift store or a garage sale and seen the ugliest piece of furniture, but just knew in your heart that it could be transformed into something beautiful? Me too... sigh. Lucky for us, you and I are great DIYers that can turn yuck into fab.

Marianne Kirby picked up a plain side table at a yard sale for $5, and purchased about 1600 buttons on eBay. While waiting for the buttons to arrive, she got busy sanding and painting the little table. When she received the buttons, she applied a basic tacky glue to the tabletop, then situated the buttons in a way that pleased her eye. She let the glue dry overnight.

After the glue had fully dried, Marianne mixed and applied resin to the tabletop, allowing each layer to set before applying another, until she reached her desired amount (at least enough thickness to cover the buttons smoothly). Then, she allowed the tabletop to cure for 72 hours... and yuck turned into fab!

Since green is my favorite color, I absolutely love Marianne's new and improved side table. Of course, you can use any color buttons you wish, and arrange the buttons in a way that pleases your own eye. Just be sure to let the table top completely cure before using it.

Summer is my favorite time of the year, not only for the warm weather and outdoor food, but for the endless garage sales and flea markets. I sure do enjoy looking for an unbeatable bargain. Usually, I can find something to drag home that is in desperate need of a makeover, and is fairly cheap.

Kathy Peterson enjoys flea markets too, especially the World's Longest Yard Sale, which is hosted by several states. She managed to find a really ugly chair that was dirty and in dire need of a coat of paint and some new fabric, so she took it home and gave the chair a royal makeover.

To freshen up the chair, she removed the pad and batting, cleaned and painted the chair, and then stapled on some of her favorite fabric. When she was done, she attached fabric with hot glue to cover any exposed staples. The chair was then ready to be used for her daughter-in-law's bridal shower.

For more great chair makeover ideas, check out M.E. Williams' post on giving a new life to a thrift store chair, and my previous post on making over your boring office chair.

Walking into a candy store takes me back to the good ol' days of the corner dime store. Row after row of candy designed to make your teeth rot out of your head, and shelves with glass canisters filled with mouthwatering treats to make you bounce off the walls were abundant.

Those canisters were pretty boring though, with only a metal lid and a metal or plain wood knob. If you have these canisters at home, you can liven them up with a little fabric and new knobs, following the instructions provided by Kate over on Design*Sponge.

For this project you will need glass canisters, fabric, glue or Mod Podge, decorative knobs, a screwdriver, a foam brush, and scissors. Basically all you need to do is remove the old knob, trace the lid onto your fabric, cut and paste the fabric onto the lid, and then add a decorative knob.

If you can't find vintage canisters at the thrift store or at your neighborhood garage sales, try eBay. If all else fails, Kate says her canisters come from Target. You can find decorative knobs at your local hardware store, and the thrift store is a great place to find vintage fabric.

I love the DIY projects Derek and Lauren do on Wednesdays over at Design*Sponge. They are vacationing in Hawaii this week, but still had time to post about a great shelf makeover project straight from their friends' kitchen.

You can spruce up your Ikea shelves too, simply by covering them with woven grass cloth, or fabric of your choice, paper, or vinyl, and then applying a coat of wood stain. You'll need to follow the directions carefully, being sure that you don't staple your fingers in the process. Make sure to wear gloves, too, otherwise you'll have a hard time getting the stain off your hands.

Ikea products can be boring, so the shelf makeover is something I definitely need to try. For more Ikea makeovers posted on DIY Life, be sure to check out Francesca's Ikea bike rack hack.

Thanks to Debra and Anna you've probably already managed to organize your bedroom closed and overhaul your linen closet. Now it's time to tackle that dreaded pantry.

My pantry was haunting me, overflowing with cracker boxes and craft supplies, just begging for a makeover. Last night I took on this project and I'll share the process with you here.

What you'll need

1. Baskets (various sizes, that fit in your pantry)
2. Tupperware containers
3. Cleaning supplies
4. Garbage bag
5. Flat surface for sorting

After the break, I'll take you through my pantry transformation.