DIY Life

Notebooks are a necessity for school, but your kids may not get excited about the plain white paper and solid-colored cover. Sure, they are likely to plaster the front of their notebooks with the likes of "I [heart] David Archuleta 4-eva'," but why not suggest a venture slightly more creative than that?

There are some fun ways kids can decorate their notebooks for back-to-school, and make them uniquely theirs. For instance, using spare scrapbooking supplies, your kids can make their notebooks fit their favorite theme, whether that be cupcakes or super heroes.

Or, get some stencils, gel and glitter pens, and construction paper to embellish those notebooks and unleash those kids into a decorating frenzy.

A project like this one could go in so many directions; only time and creativity are the factors. So let your kids use the backs of their notebooks for their love graffiti, and proudly show off their artwork on the front covers.

It's getting close to your big day. You've done everything you can to keep your wedding plans simple and frugal. You've made your own invitations, created centerpieces yourself, made your bouquet and even your guest book.

Now, how will you thank your bridesmaids? In keeping with your frugal DIY wedding, a thoughtful and unique hand-made gift sounds perfect.

Spa products
Wouldn't it be fun to have a spa day with your bridesmaids? Since this is an expensive luxury, you could thank them with some homemade spa products instead. Try some of these:

• Facial products: Make a cleanser, scrub, mask, and moisturizer to pamper your bridesmaids.
• Foot products: Create a soak, scrub, and butter -- those feet will be worn out from dancing at the wedding!
• Body products: Make bath salts, body scrub, hand scrub, and body oil, so she can be soft all over.

Are you looking for last minute ideas for gifts, or party and wedding favors? Or perhaps you never have a piece of paper in your purse or briefcase when you need it.

Help is here, with this tutorial teaching us how to make sticky notebooks. Michelle made sticky note books for her daughter's kindergarten classmates, using 3M Post-it Notes in Ultra Colors, and scrapbook paper.

With a knitting needle, she scored the scrapbooking card stock so that it would fold where she needed it too. She placed the sticky notes on the card stock, taking off the last page so that the notes would stick to the paper. She then made circle closures for the notebook, closing the notebook with embroidery floss.

Customized to your specific needs with the appropriate paper and colored notes, these sticky notebooks could be used for grocery lists, notes to yourself (or family members), wedding and party favors, or even as gifts for the person who forgets everything. I think they would also be nice for little fingers to stay occupied on short trips.

[via: Whip Up]

Making handmade soap is an art form in itself. You can create swirls, layers, confetti, and textures in your cold process soap. It makes sense that you'd want to wrap your soap in a beautiful way too.

Your first instinct might be to use cellophane or another clear wrapper so you can see the gorgeous details of your soap, but if you make cold process soap from scratch, you will want to choose a more breathable wrapping.
The cold process soap likely retains some moisture from the curing process, which, unless you have been drying your soap for a year or so, is still not complete. Also, due to the high amount of naturally occurring glycerin in cold process soap, moisture is naturally attracted to it and you'll possibly end up with a soggy, moldy bar of soap if you use plastic.

After the jump, I'll share multitudes of wrapping ideas to make your soap look classy, country, funky, or somewhere in-between. In the meantime, peruse the gallery for some visual ideas.

The other day, I found an interesting and easy decorative glass vase tutorial over at CasaSugar. I thought to myself, "That's pretty cool for around the house, but I bet it would also be perfect as a wedding centerpiece." In fact, it turns out that the project originated at DIY Bride.

This is really as simple as picking up some rub-on transfers you like, along with a clear glass vase that has a smooth surface. After making sure the vase is completely clean and dry, just cut around the transfers you like, then use the burnishing stick that comes in the package to carefully rub designs onto the vase (exactly as you would if you were rubbing them onto paper).

The transfers are sold in almost any store that carries scrapbooking or other craft supplies. Thousands of designs are available, but if you can't find any rub-ons that you like in your area, the DIY Bride post has a list of online resources.

This project is as versatile and stylish as your imagination (for example, the right transfers would make it great for Mother's Day), but this is not exactly a new tip: a few months ago, this concept also ran in the Winter, 2008 issue of Somerset Life magazine, where it was used to decorate glass bottles and jars. Please join me after the break to read more about the appealing ideas that were presented there.

Picture frames are popular Mother's Day gifts, there's no doubt. They're also popular gifts for aunts, grandmothers, and cherished caregivers.

Rather than plucking a picture frame off of the shelf at your favorite store, however, why not give your mom a keepsake photo gift that she can treasure forever? DIY Network has directions for a fold-out memory book for anyone who treasures pictures of loved ones.

The album is made from envelopes, which are glued together in a "chain" by adhering the flap of one to the back of the next. After that, quotation stickers and other embellishments are used to decorate the envelopes. Mat your photos and journal on the back of each, then fold it all together for a thoughtful, sentimental gift.

This is also a perfect gift for those who live far away, because it's small and easy to mail!

These handy storage containers are an interesting twist on the pencil case, making them a great place to store craft or school supplies. My youngest son suggested that it would also be good for collecting rocks. Really, it's a convenient carrying case for storage or collecting of any kind (and not just kids' stuff either!). While the little ones are making collection containers and pencil cases, you can be designing your own for use as a gift box.

Materials

• Tall chip container
• Plain 8 1/2 x 11 paper
• Scrapbook paper
• Glue
  
• Push pin paper fasteners
• Ribbon
• Embellishments of choice

Depending on how you plan to use them, or who gets to be the artistic director (you, or your kiddie crafter) you'll end up with very different results. Have a look through the gallery to see how ours turned out. Follow me through the break for step by step instructions.

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.

If you've ever wished you could make scrapbooks of your kids' lives the way all the cool moms you know do, then you ought to take a look at Smilebox. It's an online scrapbook maker that lets users create their own cool scrapbooks to post on a blog, email, or print out to show off to others.

Smilebox requires Flash 9 to run and only works on Windows for now. Since I'm all thumbs when it comes to crafts -- especially scrapbooking and other uber-creative projects -- I wasn't sure I believed the Web site's claim that I could create my own scrapbook in "less than five minutes."

That turned out to be true.

Once you register, the site walks you through each step, from choosing which of your digital photos to use all the way to emailing the finished scrapbook of your kids to an unsuspecting grandmother. Each design is customizable, some even down to the color of the flowers, and the end results are pretty slick indeed.

The basic service is free, but you can pay to upgrade to other plans for additional features and ad-free projects. While Smilebox is clearly aimed at moms, I could easily envision my elementary school-age children using it to create scrapbooks of their own. Be sure to bookmark the site, it's a great rainy day project for the kids.

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.)

These mini saddle-stitched books are a great way to use paper scraps and make sure you always have a neat little book on hand. Personally, I'd gladly trade-in scrounging through my purse and scribbling a number on an old receipt for pulling out one of these stylish little books, and keeping my notes all organized.

Jessica Jomes made her books 3X4, but you could choose whatever size fits your needs. This is a great use for old scrap-booking paper, magazine covers, or even kid's art. Have fun with which decorative paper you choose. Here's what else you'll need:

1. Blank scratch paper
   
2. Clear contact paper
   
3. Decorative paper
4. Ruler
5. Something that cuts paper - If you have a paper cutter, this will give you the cleanest look
   
6. Stapler
7. Pin

You'll find a full tutorial on the site. While you're there have a peek around, I think this site is a real gem, and I'm sure we'll find more inspiring projects coming out of Jess and her orange office.

Mainstream scrapbooking has grown by leaps and bounds in the last decade, developing a much more sophisticated look than the one initially associated with it when it emerged as a major hobby in the mid-1990s. Nowadays, I hear a lot of my friends talk about how scrapbooking appeals to them, and how happy they are to have discovered "alternative" scrapping.

Until pretty recently, a lot of people felt neglected and unwelcome and in the scrapbooking scene, based on the products that were most readily available -- which can seem boring to them. Many of those people tend to be young, single people with full-time jobs and no kids, though they may have a pet who is like a child to them; they're hipster types who would rather do a layout about an indie rock show that they went to -- or that they performed in! -- than one about a two-year-old making bubbles.

(That layout is probably adorable, but it's likely that however cool she is, the mom in question didn't have much trouble finding paper and embellishments for it that she didn't find bland or embarrassing: she is the market's target customer.)

Of course, it's not true that hip, youthful scrappers were unwelcome, and since this demographic is a hungry market, plenty of products have come out for them in the last couple of years (though, even now, many ostensibly "youth-oriented" scrapbooking products actually seem to be aimed at the parents of teenagers, in a "we'll look back on your rebellion and laugh" sort of way). Today, I'm writing about some of the coolest scrapbooking stuff I've ever seen. Read more about it after the break.

Each week, we'll show you how you can take a trendy decorating idea, garner inspiration from it and recreate a reasonable facsimile in your own home, easily and cheaply.

Our fun little DIY Inspirations feature has taken us from photos to mantels , from Better Homes and Gardens to Pottery Barn, all with the intent of finding inspiration for DIY projects to make our homes more beautiful.

This feature has been keeping track of all of my inspirations, but this week I found a little treat on Flickr that I thought was a fun way to keep track of your inspirations.

Flickr user Gnome G made an online photo scrapbook of home decorating inspirations. I love this idea, because whenever you get the urge to recreate something in your house to be more wonderful, you can just look at your scrapbook and get inspired all over again.

Is it easy to do? You bet. Simply find the photos you want, copy them to Flickr and create a set. The FAQs should have all the information you need to do this if you've never used Flickr before.

And the best part? It takes up no room in your house, so you can even decorate Zen.

Here at DIY Life, we like to have a photo with every post. When we don't take the photos ourselves, we often use photos from Flickr that have been tagged with a Creative Commons license. Finding the right photo can require a lengthy search, during which we get to see a lot of great photos that don't quite fit the mood of the post we're trying to illustrate.

I've noticed that many of the photos I've considered lately have been tagged with "project365." I thought that this must be some kind of web challenge, and I couldn't resist trying to learn more about it. It turns out that Photojojo, a great site with lots of DIY photography information, has popularized the concept.

Find out more about Project365 after the break.