knitty.com by Kristi Porter I must confess to a feeling of postmodern nostalgia for what-never-was tinged with some sort of tweenage pop-icon fandom when I scoured the city's grocery stores in search of the elusive lemon-lime. I felt sheepish as a paid for my 16 gaily colored packets. And I felt giddy when I added water and the bright colors and fruity smells issued forth. But I wasn't making Kool-Aid for myself or even the kids to drink. It was for my yarn. Since powdered drink mixes are readily available and reasonably non-toxic, it makes a great entrée into the world of fiber dyeing in your own kitchen. What fibers to use: Kool-Aid dyeing works only on animal fibers: wool, mohair, alpaca -- even human hair! What you'll need: What to do: To get your yarn ready, wash it lightly in mild soap and then let it soak in the sink as you continue your preparations. There are two basic methods of setting the dye: stovetop or microwave. Rest assured, your finished products will be washable.
How to Make Paper Mache Tear lots of strips of newspaper. These are the "clay" of your sculpture, to be applied to the form you choose for your project. Tear rather than cut your paper. This helps you to feather the edges of the paper, giving you a smoother finished project. Design a form. Use balloons, cardboard, chicken wire, a group of boxes, toilet paper or paper towel tubes--or anything else you like. Make your paper-mache paste using a mixture of flour and water. Dip one strip of newspaper at a time into your paste. Place the newspaper strip onto your form and press it to lie smoothly. Continue placing your strips of newspaper onto your form, overlapping each as you go, until you have completely covered it. Repeat steps 4-6 to create more layers on your form. Paint your masterpiece and decorate it with ribbons, beads or any other decorative touch you can dream up.
Indoor Water Gardens - Martha Stewart Home and Garden As anyone who has snorkeled can attest, the cool aquamarine light underwater casts an enchanted glow on everything in its domain. Perhaps this explains the allure of water gardens. Small freshwater gardens are fun to create and simple to care for. And all you need are a few floating or submerged greens in a vintage aquarium, an apothecary jar, or a sleek glass cylinder. Those that can remain entirely submerged in water, such as anubias and parrot's feather (Myriophyllum), are known as true aquatics. When choosing plants, keep in mind that some will need twelve hours or more of bright light daily. Rinse gravel thoroughly to remove dust, which can cloud the water, and salt, which can damage roots and leaves. A few plants, such as black taro (Colocasia) and bamboo plant (Calamus), may be sold potted in plastic containers. After a few weeks, begin fertilizing the plants with tablets made specifically for water gardens.
Build/Make/Craft/Bake: How-to: Hammered flower and leaf prints Get out the hammer, it's how-to Tuesday and we have some botanical prints to make! I learned this technique, which makes an image using the natural dyes in plants, from my college roommate Sarah. It's great for making cards or simple botanical prints. Actually, you'll need a little more than just a hammer. Here's a supply list: flowers or leaves to printwatercolor or other rough, acid-free paperselection of hammers (including ball-peen or cross-peen, if possible)hard work surface (cutting board, slab of wood, etc.)paper towelsscissorspentweezers or toothpicksacrylic finishing spray (optional) Start by going on a walk or visiting your garden to find leaves and flowers to work with. Then set up your work surface. Next, trim any chunky or squishy bits off of the plants and arrange them on your watercolor paper. Cover the plant with 2-3 layers of paper towels. On the paper towels, sketch the borders of the area you'll need to hammer. Peel back the paper towel to check your progress.
How to make gift bags from newspaper When I bought something at a store recently, the clerk handed me my purchase in a bag made from a newspaper. I liked it very much and had to make some more—thus today's DIY recycled newspaper project: gift bags made from the Wall Street Journal. You can vary the dimensions, of course, but here's what I used to create a bag that's 5" tall, 4.5" wide, and 3" deep. Stack two sheets of newspaper on top of each other. This will be a two-ply bag for extra sturdiness. Cut out a rectangle that's 15.5" wide and 8.25" tall. Fold a flap 1.25" down from the top. Cut two pieces of cardstock or chipboard to 4.25" x 1", then glue them on the widest two panels just under the top fold. Put glue on the outside of the 0.5" tab and bring the left-most panel over to form the body of the bag, aligning the cut edge of the panel with the folded edge of the flap. Upend the bag so the 2" flap is now up. Put glue on both flaps and fold them inward to form the bottom of the bag.
V and Co how to: jersey knit bracelet - StumbleUpon i don't know what it is about this time of year that makes me just want to have my bare feet in the sand, be watching the sun setting into the ocean, and breathing in the warm salty air of the beach...as i get older, more and more i find myself missing that place i used to go to almost every.single.day. as a teen. (my skin doesn't miss it. as a matter of fact, i now wish i listened more and DID put SPF on my face...hindsight is 20/20). my mom calls me from her walk on the beach almost every morning...*sigh*yeah, i get a little homesick around this time of the year. heck on my pinterest my "dreaming of summer" has the most pictures in it. ah yes. i miss my ocean. case in point. this bracelet, brought a flood of memories, not because i used to have one like it but because i can totally see me wearing it by the beach, not caring that it's gotten salty and wet, because i can totally make another one in like less than 5 minutes flat when i get home. *sigh* okay... *cut off excess tails!
Anthropologie Pratia Tank Top Tutorial February 6, 2010 1:59 pm Per popular demand, here is the Pratia tank tutorial! Start off with a t-shirt or tank top. What I did was get a larger t-shirt so I could gather it at bottom like the pratia tank. I cut off the sleeves so it would be a tank. Measure your neckline and get a piece of chiffon that length and fold it in half. Pin it to the inside of your neckline with it peeking out. Since I cut the sleeves off my T, I wanted to finish the edges. Stitch it. I highly recommend interfacing where you are going to be adding the embellishments, otherwise it’s going to sag. For the flower pieces, here is the shape and dimensions I used. Fold your pieces in half and cut that petal shape out. I used the extra sleeve pieces, cream chiffon(the kind that won’t fray) and another grey jersey I had. How many do you need? Lay two petals on top of one another, as shown. I did a small ‘X’ shape to stitch them so they stay in place. Just add more, and more, and more, and more………(It’s time consuming.
page corner bookmarks | I Could Make That - StumbleUpon This project comes to you at the request of Twitterer @GCcapitalM. I used to believe that a person could never have too many books, or too many bookmarks. Then I moved into an apartment slightly larger than some people’s closets (and much smaller than many people’s garages) and all these beliefs got turned on their naïeve little heads. But what a person can always look for more of is really cool unique bookmarks. Placeholders special enough for the books that are special enough to remain in your culled-out-of-spacial-necessity collection. Page corner bookmarks are cute, practical and deeply under-represented in the world.* They’re easy to make, easy to customize, and will set you apart from all those same-same flat rectangular bookmarks. If you like this tutorial, here are a couple others that might be up your alley. For the monster-loving adults in the room, try some googly-eyed paper monster wine charms. What you’ll need: Putting it all together: 1) Follow steps 2 and 3 from above.
New Green Mama: Reversible Messenger Bag Tutorial Here's what you will need: Main body -2 pieces of home dec weight fabric or corduroy measuring 14" x 12" (Fabric A) Main body-2 pieces of contrasting home dec weight fabric measuring 14" x 12" (Fabric B) Flap- 1 piece of Fabric A- 12" x 11.5" Flap- 1 piece of Fabric B- 12" x 11.5" Back Pocket- 1 piece of Fabric A- 14" x 8" Back pocket- 1 piece of Fabric B- 14" x 8" Small Pocket- 1 piece of Fabric B- 7" x 12" Strap- 1 piece of Fabric A- 6" x 42" Depending on the weight of your fabric, you may want to interface it. I purchased 1 yard of each fabric and had plenty of fabric left over. Let's get started. Cut out all your pieces. Cut a 1 inch square out of the bottom corners of all 4 pieces. Interface pieces. Take your strap piece and iron each side towards the middle. Then fold in half and iron. Round the corners of the flap pieces. With right sides together sew the flap pieces together leaving the top open. Clip the curves. Turn right side out and iron. Stitch across the bottom of the pocket.
{every}nothing wonderful: Tutorial: Repurposed Envelopes (From Magazines to... Note: If you like this idea, be sure to check out how to make paper ruffles to add to your envelopes! Super quick and easy tutorial for you today. I have a drawer full of these and use them for everything - bills, letters, you name it...my mom does too, actually! I recently received an oversized catalog for baby strollers (why? I have more than one that I barely use). The pages were huge and mostly images - perfect for envelope making. To start just pull pages out of your catalog or magazine with images you love. Other supplies you'll need: Pencil Glue - glue stick or craft glue - whichever you prefer Old envelope or envelope template. If this is a project you see yourself recreating in the future or with other papers you could invest in an envelope template kit, or you can print templates (you'll need to print at 100% on a larger format printer) from Designer's Toolbox on a heavy stock (mount to board for a longer lasting template). Next, cut out along the lines. Happy re-purposing!
beltmaking 101 Finally–the long-awaited beltmaking tutorial! way I make my fabric-covered belts has been learned from a mix of trial-and-error and vintage manuals. The supplies are simple, and making a simple pass-through belt is quite easy. Supplies: 1″ wide stiff belting (available at JoAnns), 1/4 yard fabric at least 45″ wide, buckle for 1″ belt (see sources at the end), pattern paper, thread, scissors, ruler, pins. Begin by measuring your waist and adding 6″ to 8″ inches to the length (I tend to err on the side of more, especially for a belt using a pronged buckle). Cut the belting the length of your waist plus the extra. Using the paper pattern, cut one layer of your fabric. Fold the fabric around the belting, wrong sides out. Gently work the seam to the center of the belting width, and press seam open. On the shaped end of the belting, stitch along the point being sure to backstitch at the beginning and end. Remove belting and turn the fabric right side out.
DIY Solar Lamp: Make Your Own Eco-Friendly Sun Jars | Designs &Ideas on... - StumbleUpon The principle is simple and seductively clever: solar lights that store energy during the day and release light at night. These can be purchased ready-made in a variety of colors (yellow, blue and red) but they can also be built at home. A simple, less-technical approach involves buying a conventional solar-powered yard lamp and then essentially harvesting it for key pieces to put in a jar. This is simply a way of taking an existing solar lamp design and appropriating its parts to make something more attractive for display around a house or home. A more electronically-savvy individual can take the more complex route and built a solar lamp from the ground up using small solar panels – though the aesthetic result may not be as impressive. Whatever route you choose to go, these are fun and sustainable gadgets that make it easy to go green, automate the process of turning on lights at night and can add some color to your porch, patio, garden or windowsill.
Kitchen Garden Planner | Preplanned Vegetable Gardens by Gardener's Supply With our free online planner, you can design a super-productive vegetable garden, based on square-foot gardening techniques instead of traditional rows. Just drag and drop crops to the planting grid and the planner fills in the number of plants. Or choose from 16 pre-planned gardens. Get Started or Expert Advice and Resources
Design*Sponge ? Blog Archive ? diy project: ?kokedama? string garden The days are getting longer, and the sun is shining more; I can’t think of a better time to get my hands into soil and play around with some fun plant experiments for spring! I’ve seen kokedama — Japanese moss balls — looking great hanging in homes, but I never realized how easy they are to create. Netherlands-based designer and all-around super-creative Aura Scaringi made this simple tutorial for crafting your own hanging kokedama garden using a combination of peat soil and akedama, or bonsai soil. Like all of Aura’s work, the results are lovely — I can’t wait to try it out for myself. CLICK HERE for the full how-to after the jump! Materials a tiny plant; moss can’t stand direct sunlight, so choose a shadow-loving plant. Instructions 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.