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We threw a superhero birthday party for my son’s first birthday, so obviously we needed to make a DIY superhero cape for every baby who was coming! The party was actually a joint birthday party for my son Darrol and his best baby friend Donovan. Darrol and Donovan are four days apart, and we are so excited about planning joint parties for these guys for years to come. Donovan’s mom Kip is super crafty, so we got together for a crafternoon before the party to make these DIY superhero capes and some party decorations....

My in-laws have been in town visiting us, and every morning when they come over, they bring us coffee! I SUPER love my caffe latte with soy milk, but I’ve been feeling some serious disposable coffee cup guilt. Fortunately, the holiday-themed Starbucks coffee sleeves are especially festive this year, so I slipped them off of all of our coffee cups and upcycled them into gift toppers. You can see that the ones from our local Starbucks are basically designed to be put on handmade gifts, but all of the holiday-themed styles work well....

The Tide Chandelier was the first thing I saw, it is an extraordinary mish mash of found objects arranged in an amazingly intricate and precise way. For Stuart it is a statement about the amount of debris on our shores. Everything he used to create this chandelier was found washed up on a particular part of the Kent coastline. The Millennium Chandelier is another narrative piece, constructed from 1000 Party Poppers collected on 01....

Are you getting your backyard cookout-ready? Instead of buying new furniture, check out how Rachel Denbow from A Beautiful Mess turned an old deck chair into a statement piece. More Mending Goodness: On the Mend: 4 Stitches to Repair Damaged Clothing, Repair a Roller Shade with Fabric My husband and I are lucky enough to have a set of vintage aluminum deck chairs, and I’ve been dreading the day that the webbing starts to go....

Check out the below list of my favorite DIY board games for your own inspiration, then go off and make exactly what YOU want, too! Fox and Geese This is THE easiest DIY board game, because all you have to do is print the free pdf game board! To make your own game board from scratch, all you need is a ruler and a pencil. Baby’s First Board Game Got a very young kid who wants to get in on the board game action?...

A watering can made from a plastic jug takes about one minute to complete, AND this DIY plastic jug watering can works better and holds more water than a lot of those cheap-o watering cans that look cute but cost real money. It’s a no-brainer! To make this, you’ll need: a plastic jug of any type or size. You can use an old soda bottle or milk jug, but I like to upcycle a gallon-sized water jug, because I’m lazy and I don’t have to rinse it....

These delightful flower arrangements are not your grandma’s old fashioned creations. Murphy has breathed new life into tired floral centerpieces by adding wire, beads, and other unusual accessories to create stunning centerpieces that will surely be the focal point of your room or celebration. While the season for fresh flowers in most areas is over, the holidays are coming and many love to have beautiful centerpieces for parties or a focal point on the holiday table....

The simplicity of the skirt also makes it highly suitable to be sewn from a variety of recycled fabrics. Depending on the look and the fit that you want, you could sew a skirt from vintage sheets or other linens, a well-fitting pair of pants, another skirt or dress, or a lovely blanket. Need something a little more unusual? Sew a skirt from a shower curtain, a bath towel, or your favorite curtains!...

Derek Markham at our sister site Ecopreneurist reports that company founder Forrest Curran “has turned to crowdfunding, with a campaign on Kickstarter, in part to raise money to purchase equipment and establish distribution channels.” If you’d like to support the Purple Buddha Project, you can pledge as little as a dollar. Backers who pledge $45 or more can get upcycled jewelry from Curran’s collection. “Every jewelry piece is constructed from UXO, bomb, bullet, and plane parts from remains of conflict in the countries of Cambodia and Laos,” Curran explains....

I found an old lampshade at a thrift store and thought it was the perfect shape for my vintage lamp. I didn’t like the fabric on the outside, though, so I decided to give it a makeover! What You Will Need: An old lamp shade Twine. If you can, use hemp twine! Scissors How To Do It: Remove the fabric from the lampshade. I simply cut into mine and tore the fabric off of the metal base....

You don’t want to forget all the wonderful memories that you made on your vacation, do you? That’s why travel journals are so valuable. Just a couple of lines of text or a sketch or two every day, and you’ll be amazed at the detailed memories you’ll be able to pull up every time you look back on your travel journal. I created my first travel journal 18 years ago, and I remember that vacation so much better than far more recent vacations that I took but didn’t write about....

Gently glowing, flickering luminaries are a beautiful sight in the evening. They’re also an excellent, easy kid’s craft. Using any old glass jar as a base, kids will LOVE pasting colorful tissue paper squares to make pretty pictures, and they’ll be thrilled to see how gorgeous their creations look that night, with a lit candle inside to start the magic. These upcycled glass jar and tissue paper luminaries can be created during a rainy morning at home, and they’ll be ready to use by nightfall....

Until I actually tried to work with it. After totally thrashing the cutting mat for my Cricut, I realized that the wallpaper in this particular swatchbook was waaaaay too brittle to do most of the wallpaper craft projects that I’d had in mind. And of course, there’s no point in actually wallpapering with any of the hundred or so 20″x20″ samples. Or is there? Imagine a huge number of wallpaper swatches, all in complementary colors and patterns....

First, I rounded up all the mateless socks I had. I found these three socks with dots that would work perfectly. Then, I found a few baby mason jars from a random canning experiment. Next, just slide the sock over the mason jar until it is snug around the bottom (so that the jar doesn’t wobble). Fold down the sock to the inside, and voila! If your sock is really long compared to your jar or pot, you can cut it down....

Got your own piece of vintage furniture that needs a face lift? Here’s what Nicole used to redo her vintage cabinet: +screwdriver spackle sand paper and a power sander Danish Oil paint brush MDF board +drill and drill bits shelf clips primer high gloss paint in white and mint green new hardware to replace the drawer knobs Want to see how she did it? She goes into the process and shares a ton of gorgeous photos of the finished piece here....

Thanks so much to all of the fine folks who helped out with tips and suggestions! Below the fold, you’ll find links to all of the posts from this series. If you feel like there’s a sort of craft that was left out, definitely hit me up! For Specific Crafty Aches and Pains Craft Show Recovery Jewelers Edition Knit and Crochet Edition Metal- and Wood Working Edition Scrapbooker’s Edition Seamstress Edition Soap Maker’s Edition...

Have a stack of newspapers that you want to recycle and repurpose? We have 30 awesome DIY projects that you can create! A lot of newspapers are exclusively online now (which is way better for the environment), but I know quite a bit of people who still receive newspapers. You can of course recycle newspapers in your recycling bin, but every now and then, there are DIY projects using newspaper that catch my eye!...

You can make anything you can dream of! Corrugated cardboard is a practically perfect craft supply. It’s sturdy, takes glue and paint like a dream, is easy to bend and cut, and best of all–when your new creation has finished living out its worthy life, you can most likely toss that corrugated cardboard right back into the recycling bin where it came from! Corrugated cardboard is one of my favorite craft supplies, and after you check out my list of favorite corrugated cardboard projects, below, I think it’s going to be one of your favorite craft supplies, too!...

But the reason why underwear is generally so cheap to buy? It’s generally because: For these reasons, it’s well worth the effort to at least experiment with sewing your own underwear. Even if you don’t replace all of your underwear with DIY versions, even if you simply make one pair and call it a day, it’s a valuable experience to see the work and the materials that go into it....

1. Wine Box Basket Over on Chic Cyclists, there is a nice how-to on transforming a wine box into a basket. Milk crates and other sturdy containers are also great to turn into bike baskets. 2. Bike Pannier If you do a lot of biking, you may need a bike pannier. This is a side bag or container that holds your belongings. Crazy Guy On A Bike teaches us how to make sturdy, weather-proof panniers out of kitty litter tubs....