Arts & Crafts — How-To Videos, Articles, & Inspiration « Arts & Crafts

How To: Fold a Heart-Shaped Box for Valentine's Day

You've got a great gift for your sweetheart on Valentine's Day. Awesome. Now, how are you going to present that lovely gift of yours? Wrapping paper? Cardboard box? Decorative bag? If any of those things are your answer—you're not trying hard enough.

How To: Fold a Magic Rose Cube—A Flower in a Box Origami Puzzle

To play off Gertrude Stein's famous quote, a rose is a rose is a magic paper cube. And with this paper folder's guide, you'll learn how to make your very own magic rose cube from paper using the Japanese art of origami. This design by Valerie Vann, and folded by YouTuber German Fernandez, is great for Valentine's Day or any other day where a paper puzzle rose is needed. Just be prepared... it's a not just a puzzle origami rose, it's a puzzle folding it.

How To: Origami a vagina

In this how to video you will learn how to origami a vagina. What better way to honor your lady than to make her a paper replica of her vagina.

News: Make Optimus Prime Papercraft

Papercraft + Transformers = Fanboy nirvana. Papercrafting is enjoying a renaissance thanks to its nerd-love. Popularity of card modeling boomed during World War II when paper was one of the few items whose use and production was not heavily regulated. Micromodels, designed and published in England, were a popular source of military-themed modeling designs.

How To: Draft a Sleeve Pattern

A well designed sleeve is very important to creating a top or jacket that fits comfortably. Get your correct measurements before you begin. Please view the following step-by-step instructions and accompanying video and diagram to create the basic sleeve.

How To: Sew quickly by hand without using a sewing machine

Sewing by hand can actually go quite quickly if you don't have access to your sewing machine or if it's broken. Hand sewing can also be useful if you're working with especially delicate fabrics, attaching an applique or making a small repair.

How To: Draft a Basic Bodice Pattern

Unlock the secret to clothing design. If you can draft and sew a basic bodice you can design virtually any kind of t-shirt, blouse or other top! Attach a skirt and you now have a dress! Take your measurements by using the guide in the " How to Take Your Measurements" section and let´s get started! If you would rather just whip up an easier beginners t-shirt go to How to Design a Quick T-Shirt.

How To: Increase Stitches at the Beginning of a Row

When you make an actual garment you will have to know how to decrease and increase stitches. For this article we'll deal with just the increase.

How To: Fold an Origami Rabbit

Origami Rabbit Choose your paper. Recommended Paper

How To: Origami a dollar bill box

Dollar bill origami is fun, simple & cute. All you need is a dollar bill and some origami folding skills. Spend your spare dollar on some creativity... and you will end up with a cute origami figurine. Watch this origami money tutorial to learn how to fold a box with a dollar bill.

How To: Make a Three Dollar Origami Flower

Despite being bombarded with so many things to do each day, we still somehow find ourselves in a mid-afternoon lull where there's nothing better to do than stare at the adventures of a piece of lint darting across our computer screen.

How To: Easy Infinity Square Knot Yin Yang Friendship Bracelet Tutorial

To make this bracelet you will only need to know how to make a square knot. This is a good bracelet for beginners and it looks very interesting.

How To: Make a paper Optimus Prime Transformer

Make your own Optimus Prime out of paper. It even transforms!

How To: Make a cute origami elephant for beginners

Is your best friend's baby shower speedily approaching and your mind out of ideas for a cute and cheap way to decorate the party? Then you've come to the right place. These tiny blue origami elephants would make great pieces of decor as centerpieces on the dining room table and placed on counters around the house to emphasize the baby theme.

How To: Fold a Unique Paper Sculpture

This ornament can be challenging for a novice, but rewarding for everyone who takes the time to complete the project. With its notably awkward and fascinating texture, you will be sure to impress all who see this.

How To: Knit on circular needles

Elizabeth Zimmermann demonstrates knitting on circular needles. She also gives us tips on how to deal with twisted stitches.

How To: Make a multilayer stencil in Photoshop

Multilayer stencils require a little bit more planning than a single layer, but are still easy to make, especially with the the help of Photoshop. Watch this video tutorial and learn how to digitally modify an image to create a multilayer stencil.

How To: Make an Origami Backpack (3D)!

In this tutorial, I will show you how to make an origami backpack! Origami: (Back to School) Backpack!

How To: Origami a 3d star

Origami a 3d star, or a star folded with only one square paper.

How To: Fold the Record-Setting Glider-Style Paper Airplane (Guinness World Records)

We've all attempted to fold a paper airplane before, right? One we hoped would sail majestically through the air for a good while but just ended up nose-diving into the grass. Paper planes, an invention likely as old as paper, are models of engineering; and they must account for the same dynamics as real planes, from drag force to stability to weight. So what is the perfect design?

How To: Make Chain Mail Armor from Start to Finish

This article is a guide for making Chainmail Armor from start (simple wire) to finish (a finished chainmail shirt). We will be using the European 4 in 1 weave, as this is the most common weave. This is the weave that you usually see in movies. There are several sections to this guide: Materials, Making the Rings, Weaving the Rings, and Making the shirt.

How To: Fold an Origami F-18 Fighter Jet Out of a Dollar Bill

Origami is an art form, but origami using dollar bills? It takes this art form to a whole new level! In this three-part video tutorial, learn how to fold an F-18 Hornet fighter jet plane out of a dollar bill, origami-style.

Trippy DIY Animations: Use These Printable Templates to Make Your Own Moving Optical Illusions

YouTube illusionist Brusspup has used everything from mirrors to fire to create his optical illusions, but his latest trick is a little more 2D. Using a printer, a transparency sheet and a piece of regular paper, he made several illusions that trick your brain into thinking they're actually animated when the transparency is slid across the paper.

How To: Make a Paper Plane That Flies Far | World's Best Paper Airplanes

In this tutorial, I'm gonna show you how to make another amazing paper plane that can fly really far. GUARANTEED.

How To: Throw a paper airplane far

This video will teach you the three most important tips which you will need in order to throw a paper airplane far. First, you will need to use your dominant or stronger hand. Next, you will need to throw the airplane as if you were throwing a baseball, taking a slight forwards step as you throw it as well. Finally, you will need to make sure that you release the paper airplane at the proper point of your throw, at the maximum part of the arc and not when your arm starts arcing downwards. By ...

How To: Draft a Basic Pant Pattern

Written Instructions with accompanying video for anyone who wants to make a basic pant exactly to your measurements! Please get your correct measurements before you begin from How to Take Your Measurements.

Money Origami, Flower Edition: 10 Different Ways to Fold a Dollar Bill into a Blossoming Bloom

The very first banknotes were used by the Chinese in the 7th century, during the Tang Dynasty. Before it was used as a true currency, paper money was used as part of a deposit system in which merchants would leave large amounts of coins with a trusted associate and receive a paper receipt for the transaction. The reason was simple—the copper coins used as currency at the time were heavy.

How To: Make a Macrame Turtle

How to make a knotted Turtle, Tortoise, Tortue, Tortuga, Tartaruga.. You can use this turtle as a keychain, pendant in necklace, earrings etc..

How To: Make an Origami Lily Flower

this tutorial explains how to make a traditional origami lily from one sheet of paper. No cuts, no glue needed. You'll Need

How To: 10 Easy, Last-Minute Origami Projects for Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day is a day for love, but it also just happens to be the time when every flower shop in town hikes up their prices. Chocolates are still relatively cheap, but I never understood why you have to give the gift of bigger love handles when something more creative gets the job done at a much cheaper price.

How To: Create a cute off the shoulder sweatshirt by cutting off the collar

Got a bunch of old, chunky sweaters accumulating in your closet? Of course you can donate them to Goodwill, but we're betting that you can get a lot more mileage out of those babies than you think.

How To: Make HEMP LEAF (DIY)

How to make Macrame leaf. Looks like a hemp leafs.

How To: Make watermarks in paper for security

Don't fret too much if your watermark is barely noticeable when you're finished with this project - the less obvious it is, the better a job you've done. Watermarkers are present in many types of paper, especially the monetary kind. If you hold up a ten dollar bill you'll see a watermark of Thomas Jefferson's face on the right, proving the bill is real.

How To: Use brads for craft projects and scrapbooking

This video shows some basic tips on how to use brads for crafting. Learn how to make use of brads as a basic part of many arts and crafts projects, especially scrapbooking.

News: 50 FREE Papercraft Robot Downloads

One of the greatest things about the internet? Free papercraft downloads. Enjoy Botropolis' collection of 50 fun robots. Just download, print, and assemble. My top ten favorites below. Wall-E. Robocop. Optimus Prime. R2-D2. The Terminator. Poseable Toy Robot. Retro Bot. Godzilla. Poco Bot with 6 rotation points. Robot Owl.