You are here: Home / Archives for DIY

DIY Reed Diffuser

March 5, 2015 By Leave a Comment

What you need:reed-diffuser-instructions
• Glass bottle or vase with a small neck opening
• Diffuser reeds (or bamboo skewers)
• 60 ml alcohol
• 60 ml water
• 50-100 drops essential oil (orange is the best)

What you do:
• Make sure your reeds or skewers stick out several inches from the top of the container for maximum scent.
• Mix together alcohol, water, and essential oil in the container.
• Stick the reeds or bamboo skewers inside.
• After about an hour, flip the reeds over to saturate the top part of the reeds that stick out above the oil level. (This helps to speed up the process of the oil soaking up from the bottom diffusing through the entire reed.)
• Rotate the ends of the reeds or skewers once a week to refresh and prolong the fragrance.

Tip: You can substitute alcohol and water with 120 ml vodka.

Filed Under: Holidays, International Women's Day, Leisure & Activities, Mother's Day, Recycling, Valentine's Day Tagged With: , , , , ,

DIY Ballerina

January 24, 2015 By Leave a Comment

What you need:DIY Ballerina1
• Flexible wire
• Napkin
• Mod Podge
• Thread
• Pliers
• Scissors

What you do:DIY Ballerina2
• Bend the wire into a “skeleton” of the figurine.
• Tear the rest of napkins into 1/2 inch wide strips.
• Take your wire outline and wrap it with paper strips, then cover it with the Mod Podge.
• Let it dry.
•DIY Ballerina3 Fold the napkin as if you were going to cut out a snowflake.
• Choose the right length of the dress for you ballerina and cut the napkin.
• Round the  hemline.
• Curl the “dress” in two directions for the best folds.
• Prepare at least two dresses for one ballerina.
• Make  little holes at the top and the sides of a dress and put it on a figurine.
• Take a thread and wind it around the waist of the ballerina.

Filed Under: Crafts, Leisure & Activities, Paper Tagged With: , , ,

DIY Barometer

October 14, 2014 By Leave a Comment

What you need:barometer
• Scissors
• Tape
• Balloon
• Jar
• Elastic rubber band
• Straw

What you do:
• Cut the balloon in half.
• Discard the piece with the neck on it.
• Take the remaining piece of the balloon and stretch it across the glass or jar.
• Keep it stretched firmly across and seal it down with the rubber band, around the rim of the glass jar.
• Tape the straw onto the balloon lid; the straw should be sitting one quarter of a way on the lid, with the tape about 1 inch from the edge of the straw end that is sitting on the balloon lid. The straw is your indicator “needle”.
• Trim the straw if it’s too long, but leave more length off the jar as what is attached to it.
• Put the finished glass jar next to a wall and tape a piece of paper or card to the wall behind it.
• Mark the current position of the straw on the paper, and mark one above and below the mark, about the same length away, and label the high and low pressure.
• Check the straw regularly and keep marking its location on the paper for a few days.

Filed Under: Science Tagged With: , , ,

Modeling Clay

January 29, 2014 By Leave a Comment

What you need:Modeling Clay1
• 4 cups flour
• 1 cup of fine salt
• 1 1/2 cups water

What you do:
• Work the ingredients together to form the clay.
• Store the clay in a sealed container until it is needed.
• Bake the finished pieces on a non-stick cookie sheet at 350°F for approximately one hour or until they are slightly brown around the edges.
• Cool the baked clay items on a wire rack before using them or painting them.

Filed Under: Crafts, Leisure & Activities Tagged With: , , ,

DIY Hedgehog

January 12, 2014 By Leave a Comment

What you need:DIY Hedgehog
• Old paperback books
• Pompom
• Googly eyes
• Glue

What you do:
• Remove the front and back cover from the book.
• Starting on the first page, fold the page in half inward.
• Fold the corners of each page inward.
•  Repeat these folds on each page, but after the first page, make the folds toward the front cover, this holds the first folds in and keeps them from unfolding.
• Glue googly eyes.
• Glue a pompom for the nose.

Note: Makes a great pencil holder.

Filed Under: Crafts, Leisure & Activities, Paper Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Elf on the Shelf

December 15, 2013 By Leave a Comment

What you need:Elf on the shelf
• Sock
• Jingle  Bell
• Googly eyes
• Tacky glue
• String
• Stuffing
• Ribbon
• A rubber band

What you do:
•  Fill  the toe of your sock with stuffing to create your elf’s body and head.
• Tie off and secure the body and with a string.
• Tie the top of the sock.
• Glue the  jingle bell to the tip of the sock.
• To form the elf’s nose, use your fingertips to grasp a small bunch of stuffing about halfway down from the top of the sock. Wrap a rubber band around the base of the bunch to secure it.
• Glue on the eyes.
• Decorate with a ribbon.

Filed Under: Christmas, Crafts, Holidays, Leisure & Activities, Recycling Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

DIY Suncatcher

August 13, 2013 By Leave a Comment

What you need:DIY Suncatcher
• White glue
• Food coloring
• Flat lid from large yogurt, sour cream, margarine or butter container or top of old Tupperware
• Whole punch
• Ribbon

What you do:
• Pour a generous amount of glue into one of your plastic lids and swish it around to cover the entire inner surface.
• Put one or two drops of each color of food coloring around the glue.
• Give your child a toothpick to swirl the colors around in the glue.
• Let dry.
• Peel the suncatcher off the lid.
• Punch a hole through the top.
• Add a ribbon, and hang in a sunny spot.

Filed Under: Crafts, Leisure & Activities Tagged With: , , , ,

DIY Poppies

July 22, 2013 By Leave a Comment

What you need:DIY Poppies
• 2  coffee filters
• red paint
• paintbrush
•  scissors
• 1 green pipe cleaner
• 1 small one-inch piece of green pipe cleaner
• 1 medium black pom-pom
• white craft glue

What you do:

• Flatten the coffee filters and then paint them red. Let them dry.
• Layer both coffee filters and fold in half.
• Fold in half one again so it is only a quarter of a circle.
• Holding the folded filters at the point, cut both left and right corners off, rounding as you go.  When you open them they will resemble four leaf clovers.
• Place one filter on top of the other, offsetting so that you can see all eight bumps.
• Hold filters together and poke the chenille stem through the center of both filters.
• Leave about an inch poking through and bend it down to secure.
• Holding the “stem”, gather the bottom of the flower up into a cup shape and wrap the small piece of chenille stem around the bottom of the coffee filters. Tighten to secure.
• Open  the flower up and glue the pom-pom to the center. Allow glue to dry completely.
• Gently gather and scrunch the flower in your hand, then release.

 

Filed Under: Crafts, Leisure & Activities, Paper Tagged With: , , , , , ,

DIY Sundial

July 12, 2013 By Leave a Comment

What you need:DIY Sundial
• Clay
• Pencil
• 12 Rocks
• Sun

What you do:
• Place a pencil in a ball of clay.
• Every hour mark the hour with a rock.

Filed Under: Crafts, Education, Leisure & Activities, Science Tagged With: , ,

Photo Transfer

July 8, 2013 By Leave a Comment

What you need:Photo Transfer
• Canvas
• Gel medium
• Brush
• Laser Printed Photo

What you do:
• Coat your surface with a thick, even layer of gel medium – make sure there are not thick clumps or bubbles in the gel.
• Place your laser printed photo face down on the gel medium and press firmly making sure the entire surface of the image is flat with no bubbles.
• Let dry completely.
• Spray with water or use a damp rag to saturate the paper with water.
• Once the surface is wet,  gently start to rub the paper away.
• Continue until all of the paper is gone.  You may need to add more water as you go.
• When the entire image is paper-free, leave it to dry completely.
• Paint  another layer (or two) of the gel medium over the entire image to keep your transfer safe.
• Display!

Filed Under: Crafts, Leisure & Activities Tagged With: , ,

Ocean Crafts

July 1, 2013 By 2 Comments

 Put your creativity to work with these ocean-inspired crafts for kids and adults alike.

DIY Jellyfish cover

 

shoebox aquarium

Whale

DIY Squid cover

Octopus

Seashell snails

Brain Coral Reef

Egg Submarine cover

 

Salty Sinking Water Cover Final

Filed Under: Crafts, Leisure & Activities Tagged With: , , , ,

DIY Sock Owl

June 10, 2013 By Leave a Comment

What you need:DIY Sock Owl
• Sock
• Fiberfill/stuffing
• Scissors
•White felt
• Tacky glue
• Paint
• Brush

What you do:
• Cut the bottom part off the sock all the way up to the heal.
• Stuff the cut off part leaving the top inch empty.
• To make the ear tuffs fold the back side of the cut edge of the sock over the front side and glue it to the front of the owl.
• Poke in the material formed on each side to make the ear tuffs.
• Use a little glue to keep them closed.
• Cut circles for the eyes. Glue them to the face of the owl.
• Cut  the beak from white felt.
• Glue it to the face.
• Color the eyes and the beak.
• Let them dry.
•  Cut wing shapes from sock left overs and glue them to the sides of the owl.

 

Filed Under: Crafts, Leisure & Activities, Recycling Tagged With: , , , ,
Next Page »