Vintage jeans

[teknotoy.livejournal.com]

Anyone know any tips or hints for makin a pair of jeans vintage? You know, that rusty and faded look..

(no subject)

[turningred.livejournal.com]

i'm thinkin of turning an old pair of jeans into a skirt.
how do i go about doing this?
i dont have a clue where to start! i just kno i really want a denim skirt..and this is a cheap way of gettin one :)

any help would be great :)
thanks.
x

I'm new here

[dairy-bitch.livejournal.com]

Hi. I have a nifty idea to make a collage belt. I'm thinking I'd buy a cheap, fairly large belt and mod podge small pictures onto it. That probably wouldn't be too sturdy though. Do any of you know a material I could cover the pictures with to make sure they don't get messed up?

CD Covers

[pixelgodess.livejournal.com]

Anyone know of a good free program to make cd covers on? Perferably for Mac but I do have a PC also.

cutesy kitsch

[yyumeko.livejournal.com]

[crosspost to beadwork]a pair of earrings i just made!!
i bought these tiny peruvian beads [cows] after reading about them in may's issue of

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[yyumeko.livejournal.com]

[crosspost to beadwork]a pair of earrings i just made!!
i bought these tiny peruvian beads [cows] after reading about them in may's issue of bead and button

(no subject)

[makeyoufakeit.livejournal.com]

i thought of just posting this as a reply to the post about pre made journals, but i ended up feeling so strongly that i think it needs ot be posted where everyone will see it.

i feel that since this is a pro-craft, pro-DIY group, we all need to know how important it really is to MAKE OUR OWN STUFF. it may just be art to some people, maybe just something to pass the time by, but for others, it's a way to celebrate poverty, overcome materialistic urges, and in a way "fight the capitolists."

these are my own opinions of course, and i know that the poster was just citing a great source of inspiration for her, but i want to enforce the idea that we can MAKE these wonderful thigns we find in stores, and it doens't have to cost us an arm and a leg.

that barnes and nobles journal was probably made by a machine. think about it... and only $18 for a stack of bound pages of FAKE homemade paper??? if i had made it with my own hands, depending on what i bound it with, i would have probaby charged somebody somewhere around $12 or $15, and made a huge profit for my work.

the truth is - barnes and nobles is about as inspiring and unique as the starbuck's it shoves into it's stores. every branch is that same, and every new branch it builds forces dozens of AMAZING bookstores, record stores, and coffeeshops into bankruptcy. because they have the buying power to get cheap, manufactured, and popular "impulse" products, they have an "edge-up" on the independant bookstores around them.

just remember, every single dollar of that $18 you spent reinforces thier belief in global realization.

i will soon write a post, as a follow up, on how to make your own paper very VERY fucking cheap. i don't know much about binding books or whatever, but if it costs you $10 for binding materials, and the papermaking is virtually free.... than you've just saved $8, made your OWN creation, and fought a little against the corporate tyranny than threatens to hold us captive.

i cant believe the words "corporate tyranny" just came out of my mouth, i know i am scaring a few of you away with my seemingly conspiracy-theorist views... but stick with me.

just my thoughts.

(no subject)

[makeyoufakeit.livejournal.com]

as promised, paper making.

you will need:
- lots of paper - read step one
- a basin or big bowl or extra sink
- a blender if you've got one. there are ways around it though.
- you can make a screenout of any meshy like fabric, but the screen is also optional
- paper towls, lots of space to lay your paper out


step one. collect all your paper, instead of tossing it into a garbage bin or recycling bin. printer paper, tissue paper, thin or light paper works best. i wouldn't use magazine paper or construction paper, and newspaper would tint it a wierd shade of green, but if you want that then the consistance is really good for this project.


when youv'e got a lot of this paper, and i mean, tons!! you are ready to make paper!!!! i learned these techniques when i was ten years old, and they are easy enough for children to do even with little adult supervision. so get your kids or your neighbors kids involved!!!!

step two. shred the paper into pieces no larger than about an inch. the smaller the better. put it all in a big bag or bowl.

step three. fill a large basin (or sink you wont be using for a while) with warm water. dump all of the paper shreds into the water and stir it around for a few minutes. let all the paper get soaking wet, push it down into the bottom of the bowl. get it all wet!!!

step four. wait a few hours, prefferably over night or do step 2 and 3 in the morning, and get ready to make the paper in the evening. give it at least 3 or 4 hours!!

step five. when the paper is soaked and soggy, take a handful of the gross, fun, mushy stuff and stick it in a blender. pour about a cup of water into the blender on top of it. blend until it's full fledged PULP. do this until to the entire basin, pouring the pulp into a second bowl.

note: if you dont have a blender, let the paper soak for a day or two instead of a few hours!!! then you can kind of mush it around in your hands.... or you could borrow a blender or pick one up from the goodwill for a few bucks.

step six. when you've got the bowl full of pulp, you can do one or two things with it.

option one: take a handfull of pulp in your hands and flatten it out on a slick surface... just keep pressing and pressing until the paper is as thin as you would like it to be. put it in between two paper towels (or rags...) and try to press as much moisture out of it as you can.

option two: you can buy a flat screen with a wooden frame around it at a craft store, OR you can pick up some screen yourself (like the kind on a screen door or window...) and just use it without a frame. OR you can get a mesh fabric type of thing... there are limitless possibilities.

option three - much like option one except you can kind of mold the pulp into an object, like a bowl or cup, or you can pour a bit into a bowl and let it dry inside the bowl, again there are sooo many possibilities for it!!! the woman who taught me how to do this makes paper dragons and fish to hang on her wall with cookie cutters and just shaping the paper to form 3d art...

try to get as much moisture out of the paper before letting it dry. it may take a few days to dry, it amke take only a few hours.

you can put flowers, natural dyes, unnatural dyes, colored craft tissue paper dyes REALLY WELL. glitter is fun.... you can do ANYTHING with this paper recipie. feel free to do it however you like..... it is SUCH a great way to recycle all the paper you use.

good tiding to all,
courtney

DUCT TAPE WALLET.

[dairy-bitch.livejournal.com]

I just lost my wallet which was such a bummer but on a lighter note I got creative and thought of making my own.
Does anyone know how to make a duct tape wallet?

(no subject)

[makeyoufakeit.livejournal.com]

i made a new community for DIY stuff, crafting. it should have a political, anti-capitolist edge to it.... so if you're funky, join it.

diy revolution

thank you.

Quilling

[buhfly.livejournal.com]

It's sort of Valentine's Day-ish (yup, still going through February stuff), but you can modify it for anything....

Question...

[kittynrg04.livejournal.com]

What are some good craft sites?

(no subject)

[ruderiotdoll.livejournal.com]

I have a fish bowl that im looking to do something with..any ideas?

paper making ideas

[waterlove.livejournal.com]

you can add in a few drops of colour, or i even use leftover construction paper to make the paper have a light colour overall.

you can by nice dried little flowers at a craft shop or make your own to mix into the paper. it looks really nice. you can also throw in sparkles or anything to make the paper look fun for cards and scrap books.

also, i've never done it this way but for one of my classes last semester we were shown the paper studio at my school and there they told us to put any type of vegetation into the paper. people there used leaves, grass, etc and boiled them and mixed them in with the paper. does anyone do this? it's supposed to make the paper "stick" together better.

(no subject)

[jenxylex.livejournal.com]

would anyone be interested in buttons that said "crocheting is off the hook"? because i want to make some and i think that is like, the funniest thing ever.
so who wants one?