Interiors: Revival tactics By Clare Nolan UPDATED: 19:00 GMT, 3 April 2010 Leftover fabric pieces, flea-market finds, a handful of beads and buttons… It’s amazing how a few thrifty treasures – and a little imagination – can help you create a chic and unique home If you can’t bear to throw away much loved but chipped or cracked china, put it to good use as decorative planters for easy-to-care-for succulents. You can mix colours, sizes, patterns and styles of china – the more eclectic the collection, the better it looks (car-boot sales and charity shops are great sources, and the high street has some cheap and cheerful options, too). This is bunting with unique appeal – use images of your choice (eg, photocopied photos, tear-outs from magazines) to decorate each triangle. Simply cut out a paper triangle to use as a template – an equilateral triangle of about 15cm is a good size, but you could incorporate more than one size if you wish. Transform plain curtains by sewing on pretty panels and pockets.
Visual Inspiration: 30 Beautiful Vintage Web Designs - StumbleUpon A popular web design trend in recent years has been the use of vintage-inspired aesthetics — an antagonistic juxtaposition to our depiction of the Web as being the space for modernity. These site designs feature design elements like low-saturation color palettes, distressed and aged elements, textures, and items and people representative of the yesteryears like outmoded technologies (such as radios and TVs), pin-up girls, and World War I/II memorabilia. Amelia Earhart Book Targetscope Level 2 Design mediaBOOM The Hipstery! Visual Secrets Transformology Heartbreaker Fashion Custom Design reklama-audio.pl Prahba Farinella Torpedo Juice Festiki The New York Moon DeVotchKa Team Fortress 2 Mom & Popcorn CSS Tinderbox Francesco Molezzi Five Cent Stand Tricycle Terror Thigpen Designs Tecsky Web Design Style 4 you this by them Lataka Edgewater Sea Dream Studio La Masa Mimatta Author: Jacob Gube
20 PSD Tuts That Will Turn You Into A Photoshop Guru :: Reflex Stock Pho... Many people can use Photoshop, but only a select few can call themselves gurus. Learn all the methods in the 20 tutorials below and you’ll be well on your way to joining this elite. Rather than focus on tuts for beginners, intermediates or advanced users, we’ve simply chosen ones which produce jaw-dropping effects. All of them are easy to follow, although most do require at least some prior knowledge and experience. 1. Follow this tutorial to create dazzling, multi-layered, semi-transparent lettering, with a Perspex-like quality. 2. 3D Pixel Stretch Effect File this tutorial under “simple but effective”. 3. Turn a simple cityscape into a torrentially flooded wasteland. 4. Become the master of light and glow on Photoshop with this brief, easy-to-follow guide. 5. Use masking tools, layers, gradients and lines to turn your favorite piece of 3D text into something more colorful and commercial. 6. Mental waves do not exist, but if they did they’d look rather like this. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12.
Inside Story: Easy DIY Wall Decals + Downloadable Patterns! Is your space craving some change? Only have an afternoon to spend sprucing? Welcome to the last installment of ‘Inside Story,’ our four-part interior design series featuring super simple, low-commitment projects you can conquer in just a few hours. Our Associate Product Manager Fontaine will teach you how to create your own decorative wall decals using minimal supplies and simple skills. Don’t stress about sticking them either—Fontaine has some tips for bubble-free adhesion, too! Part IV: DIY Wall Decals by Fontaine, MC Associate Product Manager Scissors Pencil Masking tape Vinyl contact paper Credit card or ruler Downloadable patterns (linked below) 1. 2. 3. 4. Fontaine’s Tips: Look to our wall decal round-up post for a little inspiration if you’re crafting your own design! About Laura With a passion for events, interviews, and her pet aloe plants, Laura strives to live in a world where writing poetry evokes celebrity status.
Olivine — Welcome Glass Etching Have you ever done any glass etching? Well, neither had I before today. But wow. Such an easy, yet sweet little touch that you can add to any glass. Check out my new and improved etched Trifle Bowl. The perfect bowl for desserts of all kinds…..and even a great place for fresh fruit on the counter. Glass etching is also a great way to stamp your name on your pyrex dishes, to make sure they come back to you. And how about adding a little extra detail, just because…… (Edited to Add: The font used here is called Smiley Monster and I downloaded the font for free here.) Sweet in every way. Are you wanting to make your own? (This technique permanently etches your glass. First, you’ll need a piece of vinyl with an adhesive back, like the vinyl you buy for vinyl wall decor. Then peel away the shapes, leaving the negative space all in one piece. The Silhouette code for the bird/branch is: bird_on_branch_C00044_23067 01/18/2010 Then peel the vinyl backing away. See how there are air bubbles? Good luck!
Tutorial: Homemade Sidewalk Chalk by Michelle Vackar, Modern Handmade Child One of our favorite outside activities at our home is drawing with chalk on the driveway. You can play hopscotch, four-square, and of course draw and create silly stories. My daughters and I were talking one day as we played hopscotch about how to make chalk and I thought to myself, let’s try it! It ended up being quite a lot of fun. What you will need: • Toilet paper or paper towel tubes • Scissors • Duct tape • Wax paper • Small bucket or disposable container to make the recipe • ¾ cup of warm water • 1 ½ cups Plaster of Paris • 2-3 tablespoons of tempera paint • Paper bag or a “mess mat” ** we made six tubes of chalk – we simply doubled the above recipe Step 1: If you are using paper towel tubes, cut each tube in half, so it is roughly the length of a toilet paper roll tube. Step 2: Cover one end of each tube with duct table to hold the contents within. Step 3: Cut as many pieces of wax paper as you have tubes.
Chalk White Arrow Quick Tips: Instagram your images using Photoshop | Abduzeedo | Graphic... Instagram reinvented the photo sharing on our social media structure. It's a fast, beautiful and fun way to share your pictures to friends and family. And what I like the most about Instagram, are the various schemes that offers you to filter your pictures with your own little touch. My all-time favorite Instagram filter is the "Nashville" and today, I will show you a quick tutorial about how to achieve that same effect on your images. Step 1 Open your image in Photoshop and double-click on the background layer to make into a layer and named it Nashville. For this tutorial, I've used an image from Patrick Smith from Patrick Smith Photography. Step 2 Create a new layer and fill it with the color (Red: 247 , Green: 217 , Blue: 173) and leave the opacity to 100% and your blending options to "Multiply". Step 3 Click back on the "Nashville" layer and click Image > Adjustments > Curves. Step 4 After click Image > Adjustments > Levels, change the gamma (the middle) to 1.36 and the input to 236.
Pillow Case Box I ditched school work today in favour of some crafting :) Here is my creation; A fabric box made using an old pillow case and some cardboard! I started with a plain white pillow case from the thrift store. We live in a tourist town, so lots of plain white hotel linens end up at the thrift store. Woo-hoo! I trimmed off the band at the open end of the pillow case and later used it as a handle on the box. I then sat the pillow case on the counter to create a flat base. I then marked straight lines across the corners... Difficult to see the pencil marks, but they're there! Then I sewed along the pencil lines. The triangular flaps were long enough to sew together, so I did :) Here you can see the box standing up, but it has no support. Inside of the box... (note: this is a great time to attach a handle to the box. To give it some support, I used some cardboard I had lying around. I made a box shape using the cardboard... ... ... Here it is looking tidy-ish: Ta-da! The bottom of the box: Inside the box:
A Beautiful Mess Watermark Tee by Sweet Verbana - StumbleUpon Hello U-Create readers! I am so excited to be guest posting here today. It just so happens to be my first guest post and I'm still a little shocked that it's here at Ucreate, one of my favorite blogs! A little bit about me.. I'm from a little town called Keller, Texas. I'm a junior at Texas A&M University (whoop!). I'm working on my education degree and expect to be an elementary school teacher in just two short years. When I'm not busy studying for classes, I love to sew. I just started blogging in May and have already met all kinds of wonderful women, I hope you'll stop by and say hi too! Watermark Tee Tutorial What I love about this project is that it's completely customizable. Materials: Elmer's Blue Gel Glue (it must be the blue gel, white won't work) Fabric Dye (RIT is my tried and true brand) A white cotton Tee, Tank, Dress etc. Tutorial: If you're unfamiliar with Batiking, it's a method of dyeing fabric in which you create a design with a dye- resist. Step 1: Prepare Step 2: Design
Cute as a Button - Amazing Button Crafts from Around the Web Lately I keep coming across the most adorable button crafts. I seriously want to do them all. The Freckled Nest has two fantastic button crafts that are so cute I had to share them both. First, Spring Button Flowers - This is adorable and I love the simplicity of it. Second, a Framed Cork Display Case for a Button Collection - This reminds me of butterfly specimens and would be perfect to hang in a craft room. The Factory Direct Craft Blog has a wonderful tutorial on how to make fun button stamps using wine corks and interesting buttons. Ellen's Creative Passage shows how to make a few different beautiful button bracelets. I saw this button color palette at Creating While Waiting. I love this button explosion t-shirt from iCandy Handmade. At MarthaStewart.com there is a great simple tutorial on how to turn your favorite buttons into cute little fridge magnets. I love love love scanner art and I think it can be such a fun activity to do with kids (or all on your own).
Do-it-Yourself DIY String Wedding Lanterns Yarn Chandeliers - StumbleUpon Jessica of Wednesday Inc shows us how to make those gorgeous twine chandeliers from the inspiration shoot she shared with us this morning. Using balloons, glue and twine, you can also make these lanterns for your wedding – and then bring it home and use it as your very own mid century lampshade. What you will need are: balloons, glue, yarn, tray for glue, corn starch 1/2 cup of Corn starch, 1/4 cup of Warm water, clear fast drying spray paint, hanging lamp cord or fishing line (depending on your desired final product), and a lighting kit if you’re looking for a fully functional lantern. Are you getting excited to try to do this at home as much I am? Instructions: 1.