Posts Tagged ‘DIY’

Gettin’ Crafty in the Kitchen: Home Canning


[Creative Commons photo via galant]

Have your tomato plants been producing like crazy? Are your cucumbers and green beans blowing up? If you’re producing more than you can eat, it’s a great time to preserve some of your summer bounty for winter! Here are some home canning tips, along with a great five-part series of videos on the topic!

DIY Gardening: Make Your Own Earth Box

Container gardening is a great way to grow your own veggies, even in a limited space. We’ve looked at making an upside down tomato planter. Now let’s make use of that patio or back porch’s floor space with a home made Earth Box! Not only does this contraption let you grow a bunch of veggies and herbs in a small space, it’s self-watering! Once you start to get sprouts, you just have to add a bit of water from time to time to replenish the reservoir if you don’t get any rain!

DIY Beauty: Make Your Own Facial Scrubs for Any Skin Type

So you’ve treated yourself to a little handmade spa action, and your skin is feeling fantastical! Now, you just need to maintain that healthy skin. Check out these facial scrub recipes for dry, normal, and oily skin!

The best way to apply your scrub is to gently massage it on with a damp washcloth, and make sure you rinse your face thoroughly when you’re done. Also, don’t miss the easy peasy toner recipe at the very bottom!

The Crafty Cookout

We’re officially in the thick of summer, and that means cookouts and BBQs galore! Here are some crafty ideas to fancy up your next cookout and divert some trash from the bin all at the same time!

Crafty Reuse: Eight Projects for Tins and Cans

Last week, Craftzine linked to an awesome tutorial for deconstructing cans over at Adaptive ReUse. Since then, I’ve been sort of obsessing with ways to reuse the metal that would normally hit our recycling bin.

Some of these projects involve taking the tins apart, while others use the entire thing to create something fun and new. There are project ideas for a bunch of different skill levels, so don’t fret if you’ve never done any metal crafting before!

Ready to get reusing? Me, too!

Recycled Tunes: Sonic Fabric


[Image Credit: Creative Commons photo by wowcool]

We love a good mix tape remix around here. Heck, some of us even knit with used cassettes. Seamstresses, don’t you fret! You can get in on the recycled cassette action, too…

Crafty Commute: DIY Projects For Your Bike

We’ve featured art made from bike parts and jewelry constructed from bike tires, but what about crafts for your bike?

Since moving within blocks of a train station a few years ago, I sort of fell out of the cycling habit. I used to ride bikes all over town, and it’s time to get back onto two wheels and back into shape! The thing about riding bikes, especially during summer in the South, is the heat. There’s no way to get around it: by the time you reach your destination, you’re going to be a little sweaty. Maybe a lot sweaty. Here are some projects to help you beat the heat!

Crafty Reuse: Glass Bottles on Re-Nest

You know we love a good glass bottle craft around these parts! We’ve featured a few awesome crafters who reuse glass bottles in their work. Of course, you won’t be surprised that we loved Re-Nests’ round up of great glass bottle craft ideas!

Kansas Teen Builds Own Electric Car from Old Ford Escort

17-year-old Andrew Loader from Lindsborg, Kansas has amazed his parents by building his very own electric car (Video) from nothing more than a clapped-out Ford Escort, some batteries and an old forklift motor.

Tired of paying last summer’s high gas prices, Andrew decided to take matters into his own hands and build the street-legal vehicle after researching the idea on the internet.

To begin with, Mom and Dad were less than impressed with the scheme. “Mom told me not to, and dad did too. I had to write a letter to Mom and her friend convinced her not to ground me or kill me,” said the industrious teenager.

Looking for Solar DIY Projects? Voltaic’s Got ‘em…

solar diy projects at voltaicWant to put solar panels on the house? Start saving… solar power is a great investment, but it is an investment… often a hefty one. If you’d like to get started with something a little less ambitious (but more affordable), you’ll find a number of good sources out there for a whole range of solar DIY projects. Voltaic, best known for its solar backpack, has joined more well-known sites such as Gary Reysa’s Build It Solar and Mother Earth News with its own collection of do-it-yourself projects.

So far, the collection is small… but there are already some really cool projects available:

Crafty Reuse: Ten Projects for Plastic Bottles

We use billions of plastic bottles every year, at a huge environmental expense. Sure, you can recycle them and feel a bit better knowing that they’ll be turned into products like Ecospun felt, but recycling requires energy and raw materials and not all plastics can even be recycled.

Why not divert all that plastic from the waste stream entirely by turning those old bottles into something new? Here are ten plastic bottle craft ideas to get you going!

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