DIY Life

I have a fascination with pretty paper, but I balk at buying it. I just don't send out enough correspondence to cover the cost, since I prefer to use my cell phone or email to keep in contact with my loved ones. Besides, my love of pretty paper has resulted in a drawer full of lonely, unused stationery.

For those that prefer to use snail mail, but also balk at buying notebooks, lined or graph paper, I have the perfect solution for you. Printable Paper has hundreds of papers styles that you can download and print for free, including graph paper, lined paper, financial paper, music paper, and letter paper. The site also has stationery, cash receipts, fax cover sheets and even business cards for you to download and print out. For a small fee, you can print out matching envelopes for your gorgeous stationery.

Now, you no longer have to worry about running out of any kind of paper. Just pop over to the site and print out what you need. I was truly amazed at the pretty stationery. Not bad for free. If you don't want to pay for the matching envelope, download it for free by checking out this post by M.E. Williams. If you have your own image in mind and want to create your own stationery template, check out this post by Debra McDuffee.

via: Lifehacker

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]

Printing your own design on fabric can save you loads of money, especially if you have the perfect design in mind. Cloth transfer sheets can be very expensive, and you can't always find the design you want for that special project you may have in mind.

You can print your own designs on fabric using freezer paper and an ink jet computer printer. All you need to do is cut your fabric and a piece of freezer paper to 8.5" x 11", iron the fabric to the shiny side of the freezer paper, put the freezer backed paper into your ink jet printer, and wait for the printed paper to dry.

You can find freezer paper at your local supermarket. It is not cheap, but it is very handy for any kind of project you may need. I grew up on a farm, and we used freezer paper to wrap up all of our freshly butchered meat. My point? I am loving the fact that freezer paper can be used for so many different craft projects, including using freezer paper to stencil a design on a T-shirt.

Wouldn't it be cool if you could make a pumpkin jump out every time people came to the door on Halloween night? Well, you can, with a basic stamp microcontroller, a park zone stoplight, and a hacked Epson printer. It sounds like an odd combination of materials, but Michael Seppanen teaches us how. Check out his instruction on how to make your pumpkin appear automatically by sensor.

Personally, it seems like a lot of work for a result that I'm sure could be easily achieved another way. Still, if you want a good Halloween prank, and live for the thrill of hacking things together, this is probably something you'll enjoy.

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!

Rub on transfers are a very cool and fun addition to any kid's crafting stash. You can add charm and flair to your project with these little things. The problem is that sometimes they are hard to find or you can't find the pictures you want.

I found this cool way to make your own rub on transfers with easy to find things that many of us already had around the house at rubber stamping fun. With this project you not only get the fun of using the transfers you get to have double fun by creating them yourself.

You'll need a printer, a transparency, hairspray, spray hair gel, and a hair dryer. I won't give away any more than that though. Check the article for full details. So have fun and give your craft stash one more trick up its sleeve.