Make It Monday: Clay Valentine Hearts

Written on February 8, 2010 at 4:28 pm, by East Coast Style (Sarah Goldschadt)

This year make your valentine a special gift that can be displayed year-round. The best part is it won’t break the bank, and it can be made with a few things you have around the house.

In addition to the ingredients for the flour clay, you’ll also need:

• heart-shaped cookie cutters (I used the fondant shapes from Michael’s)
• baking sheet
• parchment paper
• straws
• toothpicks
• yarn
• scissors
• paint (optional)
• polyurethane (optional)

DIY Tip: Use a straw to poke holes in the top of the shapes. Snip off the end of the straw once it’s used so each hole is clean.

Homemade Flour Clay

• 2 cups flour
• 1/2 cup salt
• 1 cup water
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• red food coloring
• 1 egg, beaten

Directions
Mix ingredients together and knead. If you choose to add food coloring, separate the “dough” into as many parts as you wish.

Use a cookie cutter to make shapes and brush egg on top.

Bake on a cookie sheet with parchment paper  at 300˚ for one hour.

Shapes can be painted with acrylic paint and finished with a polyurethane finish.

Note: This recipe made enough clay for three colors and two baking sheets full of shapes.

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Meredith’s Faux-Paneled Doors

Written on February 3, 2010 at 8:43 am, by Shopgirl

If you read Do It Yourself magazine, you probably know Shopgirl. She’s our go-to gal for tips, tricks, tools, projects, and hefty doses of DIY inspiration. Meredith Ladik is one of our creative lasses behind Shopgirl, and here, she shares a beautiful repurposing project she did in her own home. Enjoy! – Team DIY

To lighten the look of my 1930s cottage, I’ve brushed many a gallon of crisp white and soft neutral paint on cabinetry, furniture, trim, picture frames, and floors. Chairs and sofas, too, were slipcovered in downy white canvas. Nevertheless, something dark and unnerving remained, lurking throughout my house’s corridors: dark-brown varnished slab doors!

Rather than replace these original, nothing-wrong-with-them doors with beyond-my-budget raised-paneled doors, I decided a fresh facelift with leftover paints mixed with a little creativity was a fun and affordable solution.

Here’s what I did:

For ease, remove your door from its hinges, placing it atop a pair of sawhorses. Remove varnish using a methylene-chloride-free citrus-gel paint remover, followed by a light sanding. Prime then paint door (I used a pale-gray color in a satin-finish), allowing it to dry and cure thoroughly. (I’d recommend a week.) Rehang door.

Plot out the size of your door’s “panels” using a tape measure; a T-square or carpenter’s ruler for straight lines and corners; a pencil; and easy-release painter’s tape.

Essentially you are taping up pairs of parallel lines that become individual “frames.” The “channel” between the two pieces of tape is where you brush on paint in a lighter color such as white and in several light coats. I used leftover high-gloss white paint that surprisingly catches light for nice highlights.

When the white paint is thoroughly dry, carefully remove the painter’s tape.

DIY Tip: As you pull off the paint, slowly and gently pull it up vertically, keeping your fingers—and force of motion—close to the door’s surface. This will hopefully prevent pulling up the paint you want left on the door.

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Team DIY Month of Storage: Tip of the Day

Written on January 26, 2010 at 10:18 am, by Team DIY

Before you recycle glass jars, consider using them as under-cabinet office storage for little things like rubber bands, thumbtacks, and paperclips. Use glue or screws to affix the jar lid to the underside of your cabinet. Now you’re ready to screw the glass jar onto the lid for easy-access storage.

This idea also works in the pantry, or, here, in our armoire-turned-pantry.

Any other fabulous storage uses for old jars? Share them here!

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Team DIY Month of Storage: Tip of the Day

Written on January 14, 2010 at 7:33 am, by Team DIY

This may seem like a tiny fix-up, but you won’t believe the style it will bring to your office or craft space. And it costs zip, zilch, nada, zero!

Find your favorite scraps of wallpaper, fabric, or scrapbook paper. Pull a clean tin can out of your recycle bin. Make sure it doesn’t have any sharp edges. Cut your paper or fabric to size, then wrap it around the can. Use double-stick tape or crafts glue to attach.

Try this on a larger scale with thoroughly cleaned paint cans or coffee tins. Then, affix them to your fabulous pegboard.

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Make It Monday Guest Blog: Magazine Storage from Postal Boxes

Written on January 11, 2010 at 7:36 pm, by Girl's Eye View (Bethany Kohoutek)

Our perennially creative gal pal Christy, of Beachbrights fame, has impressed us yet again with a storage solution we adore. We mentioned last week how much we like projects that reuse, recycle, or repurpose stuff we already have. In this case, Christy shows us how to rescue something destined for the trash, and remake it into savvy storage. Check it out, then hop on over to her blog to check out her other DIY adventures. – Team DIY

 

Supplies Needed

• Ruler
• Straightedge
• Fabric or thick paper (don’t use wrapping paper like I did – FAIL)
• Mailing box glue

This is a super-easy way to organize books and magazines. I used a USPS Priority mailing box. I highly recommend using a thick paper — or, even better, fabric — for this project. You need a durable material that withstands moving on and off shelves and one that will not wrinkle with glued.

Step 1: On your box, measure 6” on one side and 12” on the opposite side. Make sure these measurements will yield a box that will fit on your shelf. Draw a straight line from the 6” measurement to the 12” measurement and cut out.

Step 2: Measure your covering material (paper or fabric) and wrap the box like a present, gluing at all critical areas.

Ta-da! Recycled organization for all your notebooks, magazines, and books!  If you attempt this project, I’d love to see your creativity. Please go to DIY’s page on Facebook  and upload your finished product images. I can’t wait to see the creative variations some of you talented peeps come up with. Inspire me!!

XOXO- Beachbrights

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Team DIY Month of Storage: Tip of the Day

Written on January 6, 2010 at 3:13 pm, by Team DIY

Here at Team DIY, we love items that can be repurposed, reimagined, and reconfigured. Today’s storage tip: Use hanging sweater storage bags to sort and separate scrapbooking papers and cardstock. Pick up a few inexpensive plastic paper storage containers that fit snugly into the canvas shelves; they’ll help you keep colors, patterns, or projects separate. No more dinged paper edges or messy piles. How do you organize your scrapbooking and papercrafts supplies?

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DIY’s Month of Storage: Tip of the Day

Written on January 5, 2010 at 1:07 pm, by Guest Blogger

Happy New Year, DIYers! Hope you all had a long, warm, relaxing holiday break, filled with plenty of glitter, glue guns, and knitting needles (not necessarily at the same time). A few items on our agenda today:

• Today we’re kicking off Team DIY’s Month of Storage here on the blog. Along with our usual slate of handmade projects, DIY inspiration, and other miscellany, we’ll be delivering a Storage Tip of the Day Monday through Friday. And look for a special storage challenge later this week!
  

• Check DIY’s page on Facebook, where there’s a lively convo going on about your New Year DIY resolutions. Join in! What one craft or DIY skill do you resolve to learn in 2010?

• The weather outside might be frightful (depending on where you live — it’s -12 degrees in Des Moines today! Brrr!), but DIY’s new issue will be delightful! And it’s almost ready to make it’s appearance in your mailbox or a newsstand near you.

And with that, we’re on to our first Storage Tip of the Day. It comes to you from Debra Wittrup, one of the classy gals Team DIY looks to for killer advice on color and design. Look for more from Debra in the next issue of the magazine! Happy 2010! – Team DIY

Labels Make The Difference

Labeling things can give you an instant organization system. Labels are the best way to identify contents and direct you when you’re putting things away. Labels can take many forms.

• Stickers and file folder labels are useful for labeling boxes, tins, and bins.
• A hanging tag is a better solution for baskets.
• Personal label makers such as the Touch label maker from Brother are handy little keyboard machines that are also fun to use. (Warning: They can become addictive!

Each room of the house can benefit from labeling.

• In the family room, multiple remotes can get confusing. Label each with its function using small stickers.
• Kitchen leftovers won’t languish to become science experiments if they’re labeled with a “use by” date.
• Labels on your linen closet shelves help you identify the full-size sheets from the king-size.

Keep in mind that labels don’t have to scream at you. They’re there to ease your workload, not create distraction.

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Ornaments for the Birds

Written on December 9, 2009 at 3:43 pm, by DIY on the Fly (Beth Eslinger)

Mother Nature dumped 15 inches of snow here in Des Moines, so with schools closed and roads pretty much impassible, we’re spending the day doing cabin fever crafts using stuff from around the house.
The first action: Little snacks for our poor feathered friends outside. Making these tasty treats is as simple as this: Tie some twine to a large pinecone, load it up with peanut butter (go for the generic variety to save some cash), roll it in fine birdseed, then head outside to hang your creations.

To minimize the mess, I hung pinecones from my chandelier, used a spatula to smear on the peanut butter, then rolled the pinecones in a bowl of birdseed and let it dry a bit over the bowl to dry before hanging outside. For a little extra flourish, string extra Thanksgiving cranberries and sliced oranges, tangerines, or whatever citrus you have to heavy string and drape it from branches outside.

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Learning to knit—from YouTube

Written on November 30, 2009 at 1:02 pm, by DIY on the Fly (Beth Eslinger)

I’ve been wanting to learn how to knit. But sitting through a night class, spending a weekend with mother-in-law instruction, or figuring out knitting code from a book was just not happening any time soon. So six weeks ago I decided to learn DIY-style: on the Web (and wearing my PJs).

First things first: I picked up a few balls of medium-weight yarn, some bamboo needles (which I now love and have several sizes), and a darning needle. After an hour of surfing YouTube videos, I landed on these easy-to-follow links, and by night one had finished a pair of fingerless gloves. The addiction had started. (By the way, if you’re looking to learn how to knit, start small like I did. Knitting is labor-intensive, so if you’re looking for instant gratification, do a quick project like gloves or a neck wrap. Heavyweight yarn speeds the process, too).

The Videos

I landed on a video series from Expert Village. Easy to follow and few distractions.

1. Learn an easy casting-on stitch.

2. To create a basic knit stitch.

3. To create a purl stitch.

So over the past six weeks, I’ve dabbled in a few patterns using these basic stitches and have made several scarves, fingerless gloves (they’re hot with all the little girls in my ‘hood), a wrap, and a pillow. I’ve figured out how to switch yarn colors, and bind off so I actually can finish projects (also from YouTube). Not everything’s perfect, but that’s part of the charm, right?

Now I’m crazily knitting up projects for holiday gifts. Fingerless gloves for the little girls (check), scarves and neck wraps for the big girls (check). And for me: I get the pink wrap with the flower pin. It took me a week of nights knitting, and is oh-so my color (check).

Next month, I’m thinking about digging into hats and maybe cableknit patterns. But that’s another whole round of videos. Stay tuned for the results.

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Make It Monday: Page-Turner Art

Written on November 16, 2009 at 6:05 am, by Art Actually (Katie Leporte)

No worries. I didn’t cut up my collector’s edition of Lord of the Rings. But that book I bought in haste at the airport five years ago? Not the page-turner I’d hoped for, so I turned it into art.

Hated a book? Hang onto it. Tear out a few pages, set aside. Better you destroy it than let someone else read it.
Plexiglas. Way more affordable than buying picture frames. I found five pre-cut Plexiglas pieces at the hardware store (8 x 10 inches). Or, you could buy a larger sheet of Plexi, measure equal sections to your desired size, score repeatedly with a utility knife, and snap.
Magnets. Get those tiny round ones in a package, found at the crafts store. You’ll want 36 small magnets for five Plexiglas sheets. See layering instructions below.

Make layers. (See diagram below for layering.) Position four magnets in the four corners on top of the first sheet of Plexi; adhere with tiny dots of strong adhesive glue (or glue that dries clear). Place four more magnets on top each of those. Add a dot of glue only to the tops of these.
Layer another Plexi sheet on top of the double-stacked magnets, making sure the sheet is perfectly matched and adhered in position to the sheet below. Add four dots of glue in the corners on top of this second Plexi layer, then add magnets. Stack another layer of magnets, add glue dots to the tops, layer Plexi. Repeat until you have the desired thickness/layers. The more layers, the more dimension your art will take on. Along with book pages, I used scraps of colored vellum, printed acetate, and photographs to layer in between the Plexi.

TIP: Using a black fine-point Sharpie, number the layers, top to bottom. A small number in a corner won’t be noticeable. If the layers get mixed up, some of the magnets will actually repell each other and not lay properly.

Total? Less than $20. Plexiglas: $12. Magnets: $3. Glue: $2. Picture hanger: $2 (adhere to the back of the bottom Plexi sheet with glue).

Photos: Marty Baldwin. Projects: Katie Leporte.

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