Tag: featured

Concrete Succulent Planters

This week I made some small concrete planters, using old plastic containers as molds.

This was my first time working with concrete, but I do have some mold making and casting experience from school, albeit rusty. If you’re a newbie like me, these two free Instructables Classes will be extremely handy:

Supplies

For this project, you will need:

  • Concrete mix (or cement mix, mortar mix, since we’ll be sifting out the gravel)
  • Small gravel (or reuse from concrete mix)
  • Plastic mixing containers & stir sticks
  • Plastic containers with an appealing shape, of various sizes
  • Plastic drinking straw
  • Strainer
  • Hot glue
  • Heavy-duty scissors
  • Utility knife
  • Pliers, awl, etc. for demolding
  • Gloves (optional but recommended)
  • Dust mask
  • Small succulents or other plants
  • Potting soil with good drainage
  • Succulent gardening tools (optional)
  • Decorative sand (optional)

To keep up with what I’m working on, follow me on YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, and subscribe to my newsletter. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases you make using my affiliate links.

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Matte Finish Motorcycle Tank Painting

I painted this tank a while back and just hadn’t gotten around to editing it because the tank still awaits some custom art, a topcoat, and final mounting on my boyfriend’s hardtail xs650. But hey, when that happens maybe I’ll do a part two! No need to keep this DIY hostage until then, so here it is. This Instructable chronicles the tank’s journey from bare metal through two coats of automotive primer and two coats of Hot Rod Flatz matte automotive paint. It was my first time using the Preval sprayers and I thought they worked well for our circumstances (having no compressor-powered spray gun or prior experience with automotive paint).

Supplies

To keep up with what I’m working on, follow me on YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, and subscribe to my newsletter. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases you make using my affiliate links.

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Cat Portrait Patches

RIP Beatrice, 2000-2017

I made embroidered patches to memorialize my cat, Beatrice. You could use this technique to create an embroidered patch from any image, really. I’m going to walk you through the things that I did, but there’s a bunch of different tools you could use instead for each step to arrive at a similar result (like tracing directly from the computer screen like in my similar 2008 ‘ible).

For an excellent introduction to embroidery, try Jessy’s free embroidery class.

Supplies and tools:

To keep up with what I’m working on, follow me on YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, and subscribe to my newsletter. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases you make using my affiliate links.

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Wire Wrapped & Beaded Earrings

These wire wrapped and beaded earrings are a great first project to make with wire. You’ll learn to manipulate wire with your hands and pliers, shape wire with a hammer and bench block, and open and close jump rings to attach your creations to ear wires. This project is an excerpt from my free Instructables Jewelry class, so if you like it, be sure to check out the other new skills you can learn!

For this project, you will need:

To keep up with what I’m working on, follow me on YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, and subscribe to my newsletter. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases you make using my affiliate links.

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Beaded Wrap Bracelet

This tutorial guides you through the steps to create a beaded wrap bracelet.

You’re welcome to experiment with your materials! The colors, shapes, and sizes are all matters of personal taste. Here is a list of the supplies used to create the bracelet shown throughout this project:

To keep up with what I’m working on, follow me on YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, and subscribe to my newsletter. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases you make using my affiliate links.

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Vintage Motorcycle Seat Restoration – CB200

This project is about creating a new seat for my motorcycle, a 1975 Honda CB200T.

I picked up a trashed old seat on eBay because my current seat is in good condition, and there’s no sense in tearing apart a perfectly good seat. Plus then I wouldn’t be making my bike inoperable while working on this project.

The main reason I wanted to change my seat is to lower standover height since I’m extra short. I also welcomed the opportunity to customize any aspect of my bike, since I am a motorcycle beginner.

Supplies:

To make this project, I used the following materials:

and the following tools:

To keep up with what I’m working on, follow me on YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, and subscribe to my newsletter. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases you make using my affiliate links.

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Quilted Vinyl Pencil Case

To practice sewing upholstery vinyl on my home sewing machine, I whipped up a quick pencil case for holding my bullet journal supplies on vacation in California.

It all started with my new DIY motorcycle seat rebuild. I ordered some upholstery vinyl, fabric-backed foam, thick UV-resistant thread, and some bigger needles for my home sewing machine in the hopes of sewing my own seat cover. Although I have access to an industrial sewing machine, I like writing tutorials for you that are realistic to make at home. I’ll walk you through the process of creating this small pencil case, aka my practice project with these new-to-me materials. My primary resource in learning the techniques used here is a motorcycle seat cover tutorial by Sailrite, which is also the vendor of most of the materials used. If you are new to sewing, check out Mikaela’s Machine Sewing Class and Jessy’s Hand Sewing Class to get up to speed on the basics (especially the zipper installation).

For this project, you will need:

To keep up with what I’m working on, follow me on YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, and subscribe to my newsletter. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases you make using my affiliate links.

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DIY Hair Scrunchie

Behold, the humble hair scrunchie! This fabric hair accessory has a somewhat contested reputation in fashion history, but there’s no denying its practical use as a gentle hair tie and fun DIY sewing project. Whether you’re planning a 90s throwback party or just want to wear something soft while sleeping, scrunchies whip up quickly and require very little fabric. Practice your skills from the Instructables Machine Sewing Class with a small batch of scrunchies.

For this easy sewing project, you will need:

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Silver and Amber Ring

Over 15 years ago I made a silver ring with a bezel-set amber stone in a jewelry making class, and I’ve been wearing it ever since. In this project, I’ll walk you through my process for recreating this ring (a newer, nicer version of the original).

For this project, you will need:

To keep up with what I’m working on, follow me on YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, and subscribe to my newsletter.

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