From traditional crafts to modern crafts, we’re covering news and interesting projects to educate you and keep you inspired. Design trends and pop culture related projects are here to inspire.
Bonnie writes “Do you have a big, bare wall just begging to be decorated? Instead of smothering it in posters, why not take it to the extreme and make your own cartoon mural? You don’t need paint or anything that might take forever to cover up later. Just grab some tape, construction paper and a few other materials to transform a boring wall into a wow-provoking masterpiece!” Link.
Who didn’t spend hours as a kid playing with Shrinky Dinks? I was always in awe in front of the oven with the light on watching my creations shrink down into a hard piece of plastic. Now you can make your own! Just get yourself some #6 plastic. Most plastic containers you get from many bakeries and restaurants for food items “to go” are #6. You can make anything from jewelry, key chains, magnets,and push pins. The beauty of it all is watching them shrink! Link.
Aaron writes “Most of us cannot afford fancy 7.1 surround sound systems or feel that we do not utilize the computer’s audio functions enough to reap the benefit of one. However, most of us have stereos. That and a few cables is all you need to enjoy a nice audio system without damaging your bank account. In this article, I will show you an easy way to use your stereo as computer speakers for a nice sound system at a very low cost.” Thanks Star! Link.
Jakob writes “I saw the article on Boffer weapons you ran. I’ve made an even more detailed description of both a simple and advanced sword with blow-by-blow documentation. I don’t play live role acting, or similar games. But I had to make Boffer weapons with my scouts and I figured I might as well document the process so you could benefit from it as well. The description is both in danish and english.” Link.
Here’s a great step-by-step photo tutorial on how to make a stuffed felt monster. There are lots of great tips including using a chopstick to help push out corners when turning over the fabric. The end result is a cuddly monster that’s easy to make. Link.
Excellent guide on replacing capacitors in old radios “Second only to power cords, capacitors are the most failure-prone components in old radios. In a professional overhaul, it is common to replace all of a radio’s large electrolytic capacitors and small paper capacitors. This article explains how to do just that. In many cases, this “recapping” is all that the radio needs to be restored to health.” Link.
Paul from Dotmatrixsynth makes musical instruments out of printers, here writes – “I’ve got an ongoing project, reprogramming the firmware in these 1985 Epson LQ-500 printers to turn them into musical instruments. I originally just wanted to make a sort of homemade mellotron, but it’s evolved into a much deeper project. These printers (like all printers) have a computer inside that operates all the motors and handles the parallel port, etc. The software that drives that computer is all on an EPROM (a reprogrammable ROM chip.) I remove the EPROM, erase it, and reprogram it with my own software that I’ve developed by reverse engineering the printer and its computer.” Link.
