Fire­flies are such sum­mer­time treats (for the eyes. Don’t wor­ry, I don’t eat them), but I haven’t seen too many around in the city. These fire­fly jars aren’t as amaz­ing as the real thing but they’re pret­ty cool to look at! There isn’t real­ly a how-to for them, but Cur­bly, where I spot­ted them, sug­gests flick­ing glow in the dark paint into mason jars. Or, one could try these from Fru­gal Fam­i­ly Fun, involv­ing bat­tery-pow­ered LED lights.  

 

I’ve told you that I love head­bands. Haven’t made too many of them though. But this one I will like­ly make soon! Knot­ted head­band tuto­r­i­al from You Seri­ous­ly Made That. Might also make a cool belt! Hmm.

 

I like jew­el­ry made of old cut­lery and I’ve always want­ed to buy them when I see them in the shops (but I could nev­er afford them :S). I would buy them because I thought it involves heavy machin­ery to bend/shape/form met­al cut­lery, some­thing that I can’t make at home. But appar­ent­ly there is a way to make them with just a good ol’ ham­mer and pli­ers, like in this tuto­r­i­al of a spoon pen­dent by Busi­ly Spin­ning Mom­ma! 

 

This is so sim­ple, but it made me laugh! A pock­et-size pup­pet for those long bus rides or doc­tor’s wait­ing room, per­haps? Goo­gly eye hand pup­pet from Make and Takes.

 

This, my friends, is a way to screen print with­out a screen! Bril­liant! Just an embroi­dery hoop, some mesh/sheer mate­r­i­al, and Mod Podge! How-to on Craft­gr­rl (via 52 Crafts in 52 Weeks).

 

I’ve nev­er made soap but always been intrigued by the process. I like the ones that come embed­ded with a rub­ber ducky or oth­er small toys. But a sheet of print­ed trans­paren­cy would also make a sophis­ti­cat­ed and styl­ish embed­ding option — makes a love­ly wed­ding favour or Christ­mas gift! How-to on Ruf­fled.

 

A very sculp­tur­al pen­dent made com­plete­ly with can­dy wrap­pers. I love recy­cled crafts :D From Michele Made Me.

 

Always won­dered how this gra­di­ent is achieved — now an easy-to-under­stand tuto­r­i­al! (I think the stripes on the shirt helps a lot) From Cot­ton & Curls.

 

In our small apart­ment, a table­top iron­ing board would be handy, so when­ev­er I’m work­ing on a sewing project I don’t have to haul out the iron­ing board that takes up half the liv­ing room (OK, I’m exag­ger­at­ing a bit…). Last time we went to Ikea I was look­ing at the loose shelf boards in the as-is sec­tion and I won­dered if I could make an iron­ing board with a tow­el wrapped around the board or some­thing… and then a cou­ple of days lat­er I came across this tuto­r­i­al :D From Lil Blue Boo.

 

These ice cream cone charms look so much fun to make, with sharp­ened wood­en dow­els and caulk­ing! Not to men­tion that they’re so very cute. From Paper Plate and Plane.

 

I’ve made felt­ed mush­rooms for my ter­rar­i­ums before (my first posts of this blog, actu­al­ly! :D), but I just kind of free-formed them. But here’s a detailed tuto­r­i­al! From The Mag­ic Onion.

 

Hand­made poly­mer clay that dries very hard with­out bak­ing, involv­ing white glue, corn­starch, lemon juice and oth­er house­hold mate­ri­als! Sounds amaz­ing, because those Fimo clay is expen­sive! Must try this some­times. Recipe on The NewNew Blog. 

 

Also from The NewNew Blog, reversible fab­ric scrap pen­dents! Very quaint. 

 

These were made from pop­si­cle sticks! When I think of bend­ing a pop­si­cle stick I can only pic­ture it snap­ping. Head over to Suzy’s Art­sy Craft­sy Sit­com to see how they’re formed to fit the wrist :D

 

When my watch strap was falling apart last year I thought about cro­chet­ing a replace­ment, but then we went to Hong Kong and I had it replaced in a lit­tle booth on the street. This would be great inspi­ra­tion for cro­chet­ing my next watch strap! From Kootoy­oo.

 

I’d love, love, love to have this suc­cu­lent cof­fee table in my home one day (made from ship­ping crates!). Not some­thing I can make because I’m not handy like that, so I guess I can only dream… or per­haps make up oth­er ways to make it :D Def­i­nite­ly great inspi­ra­tion, from Far Out Flo­ra. (Also check out this even big­ger project, the suc­cu­lent din­ing table, made from ship­ping pallets!)

 

More junk into trea­sure — this is just mes­mer­iz­ing. Made with fus­ing plas­tic bags togeth­er. More pho­tos on Cur­bly.

 

Final­ly, a great list from Real Sim­ple (one of my favourite mag­a­zines :D) of sum­mer­time new uses for old things. My favourite is the colan­der ice buck­et and old show­er cur­tain as pic­nic blan­ket lin­er (I’d prob­a­bly ditch the blan­ket and just sit on the show­er cur­tain though). And I did­n’t know that tea bag is a bug bite soother! 

Hope you’re enjoy­ing the sun­shine and super warm weath­er of sum­mer! Hap­py week­end! :D

 

 

Mike down­loaded Angry Birds on his phone and I’ve been play­ing it a lot this week­end. My first time play­ing the game was at the doc­tor’s office; it was going to be a long wait and I for­got my book. Then I was hooked — absolute­ly hooked and total­ly under­stand why every­one’s mak­ing angry bird plush and (playable!) angry bird cake and angry bird cro­chet pat­terns! And here’s an awe­some video of angry birds LIVE! XD

 

 

It’s not just for the iphones — it’s a free Chrome app too, so I can play it on my com­put­er when Mike’s out with his phone. Yikes. I’m going to get a lot done these days… now if you would excuse me, I’m going back to fig­ure out how to beat this new level!

Have a great Sun­day, every­one! :D 

 

 

I quite like this idea, maybe for putting togeth­er a series of small prints, or a book in a box. From Martha Stew­art Liv­ing.

 

 This reminds me of those fun mag­net­ic fridge poet­ry sets, except more poet­ic, with the imagery of a riv­er. From Made by Joel.

 

Any idea? You, too, can eas­i­ly make a maze rug! Check out this post on Cur­bly!

 

Dou­ble-sided fab­ric head­band! That’s like, two head­bands in one to match dif­fer­ent out­fits! Fab­u­lous :D How-to on Hap­py Togeth­er.

 

I love the look of this head­band too, like a crown of lau­rels. Knit­ting pat­tern from the awe­some Sweat­shop of Love.

 

More head­bands! I do like head­bands, they go well with my bangs. And I’m seri­ous­ly con­sid­er­ing mak­ing one of these. Now I just have to find myself a nice colour t‑shirt. Very detailed instruc­tions on Make It and Love It.

 

I’ve seen plen­ty of pil­low­case skirts and tops, but nev­er seen a full-length dress made of a bed sheet! The key, of course, is to make it so that it does­n’t look like one is walk­ing around draped in a bed sheet. I’ve often con­tem­plat­ed mak­ing a pil­low­case top but wor­ry that every­one would be able to tell right away that I’m wear­ing a pil­low­case… any­way, I digress. But this dress is AMAZING! The pat­tern on the vin­tage sheet is gor­geous. Read more on the mak­ing of the dress on Run­ning with Scis­sors.

 

More foam tray print­ing good­ness. I’ve attempt­ed this method before, it’s so much fun I should do more of this. Sty­ro­foam tray sta­tion­ary tuto­r­i­al from Smooth­peb­ble.

 

I’ve attempt­ed these before too! For a project in print­mak­ing class. I drew the design on trans­paren­cies with a hot glue gun :D was fun but the “stamps” were wonky and a bit annoy­ing to han­dle. These stamps from the tuto­r­i­al on Craft are made with clear sil­i­con caulk­ing on Plex­i­glass — I’m sure it’s much stur­dier and eas­i­er to use!

 

Very styl­ish bath mat! I love the sim­ple knit cable design. Tuto­r­i­al from A Com­mon Thread.

 

Love­ly fab­ric lanterns, mold­ed on bal­loons and jar lids and stiff­ened with white glue. Bril­liant idea. From Make Grow Gath­er.

 

Can’t believe how easy it is to make scratch-off paint! Just metal­lic acrylic paint mixed with dish soap! Martha’s tuto­r­i­al is for a wed­ding save-the-date card, but this could total­ly be a fun par­ty game or some­thing. Or greet­ing cards. Or just make scratch-off cards for fun!

 

Also bril­liant are these mason jar sip­py cups — so much more styl­ish than the plas­tic ones. And yay to no spillage! (Prob­a­bly not for tod­dlers though, I think, as they are glass) Actu­al­ly, I would total­ly use one of those — yay to no bugs falling into my drinks at out­door bar­be­ques! How-to on A Bit of Sun­shine.

 

I love how sim­ple this is — just pineap­ple, banana, coconut milk, and ice! Can’t wait to get some coconut milk and try it :D Recipe on Make and Takes.

 

I’ve men­tioned how much I love the idea of cup­cake in a jar — here’s a red vel­vet ver­sion! Mmm cream cheese frost­ing… From Not Martha.

 

Sim­ply awe­some way to orga­nize desk! Via How About Orange.

 

Every­thing about this is so beau­ti­ful. I espe­cial­ly love the tiny switch. Book lamps were avail­able for pur­chase at this Etsy shop but now it’s sold (not that I could afford it any­way. I can only admire them with my eyes). (via Inspire Me Now)

 

Much more afford­able (and makes me equal­ly hap­py) is this pan­da mug set! :D Isn’t he clever? (not that I will spend the mon­ey. I will be con­tent just hug­ging it with my eyes). From Mod Cloth (also via Inspire Me Now).

Hap­py Fri­day, every­one! :D