Hot Arts & Crafts How-Tos
How To: Knit a stitch through the back loop
This video shows how to knit a stitch through the back loop. It's the way you can twist your knit and tight the fabric by stitching through the back loop.
How To: Cut fabric with your Cricut
Cricut can be used to cut fabric. In order to cut fabric with your Cricut, you will need the following: Steam A Seam 2 (a double stick fusible web), blue painters tape, iron, and the Cricut with cartridge.
How To: Create a vintage-looking mini scrapbook album
In this seven part series, you're shown how to create a whimsical mini-scrapbook with a very vintage, Alice in Wonderland feel. From taking your materials out of their wrappers to the final pen stroke, this video series will show you how to create a beautiful "World of Wonder" scrapbook. A lovely gift idea for the Lewis Carroll fan!
How To: Hack the HTC DROID ERIS smartphone's cardboard box into the Android Bot logo
This is actually quite amazing. If you own an HTC DROID ERIS cell phone, then that cardboard container it came in can be turned into that tiny, but terrific Google Android Bot. The Android Bot logo is known across the world now, and it's odd that their box can be broken down perfectly to recreate it. Was this on purpose, or accident? Anyway, Nextraker found the secret, and he's going to show you how it's down. With just a few basic cuts, you too can have your own little green Bot.
How To: Make two different sized paper booklets without tape, glue or staples
Homemade booklets are the way to go for back-to-school. Forget about pricy spiral-bound notebooks, make your own paper booklets, and make them without any tape, glue or staples! This is all paper and folding techniques. If you're an origami god, this will be so simple for you to make. Plus, you'll learn how to make two different version of this paper booklet: one big and one small. These are great for notes, to-do lists and school projects.
How To: Make a crochet diamond-embellished granny square for left handers
There definitely exists logic behind calling these fuzzy crochet squares granny squares. After all, the cozy texture and delicate, retro motif do remind us of Sundays visiting Grandma while she served us tea and sandwiches and she knitted the day away.
How To: Make a glossy wallet using magazines
Make a hip and functional wallet using the glossy photos taken from old magazines. Your wallet will be colorful, trendy and have pockets for both your bills and cards. All you need in addition to the magazines is a pair of scissors and some clear tape.
How To: Make a hemp phish bone keychain with three beads
Phish bone keychains feature a highlighted midsection with three different colors of hemp (in this video we use regular rafia-colored hemp, red hemp, and green hemp) that surround wooden beads.
How To: Make an Egyptian clasp from 20 gauge half hard silver wire
If you're an advanced jewelry maker who's looking for a beautiful challenge, then you've come to the right place. This Egyptian clasp, which features a rounded loop head pin, a bunch of spiral curls, and a longer rounded loop headpin, is among the more difficult clasps you can make, but as you can see, the results are quite spectacular.
How To: Make a simple hemp bracelet clasp with a wood bead
Hemp jewelry is crunchy granola chic no matter how you style it. Made of rustic, slightly frayed natural hemp and adorned with natural materials like seashells and wood beads, hemp jewelry is as surfer chic as you can get.
How To: Make a blue lamp work bead with Latticino and Frit
One of the coolest beading effects is the kind that suspends various materials - from flowers to Latticinos - in a clear glass case. Swirled or marbeled shapes can also be added for interest, but either way the resulting work is like looking into a prehistoric block of amber and peeking around at such curious fragments.
How To: Make a beautiful pendant with a head pin
Pendants are like the stars of your necklace. Without them, you'd only have a boring necklace chain or cord. Pendants add excitement to a necklace as well as show off some of your individual style and charm.
How To: Make a sliding knot necklace for heavy pendants
The phrase "you can never have too much of a good thing" isn't particularly true when it comes to jewelry. While we love our bohemian tree pendants and dangling chandelier earrings, we don't like the fact that they weigh five pounds and pull down on our ears and/or necks.
How To: Make gold stone stringers by casing it in clear glass
These gold stone stringers look like glistening incense sticks and are incredibly beautiful. Check out this jewelry making tutorial to learn how to turn gold stone lumps in blue and an orangey yellow into long sticks, or stringers, made of these melted lumps.
How To: Make a soothing water bead using clear glass
Water beads are gorgeous, luminous beads with surfaces that look like waves on a pond, teeming with various hues of robin's egg blue, sea foam, white, and deep navy blue. Water beads can actually be made yourself from clear glass beads.
How To: Make a blue floral pendant necklace with two clasps
Don't be a bore and think that all necklaces have to end with a single clasp! While single clasp closures are common, they can also be a pain sometimes to open and close (if you've ever had a tight necklace that moved during the day to the back of your head and you didn't know where the clasp went then you know what we're talking about).
How To: Make the candles for the boilers on pop-pop boats
Pop-Pop Boats are a fun way to mix science with fun! And one of the key components of making the boat work is the heat that powers the boiler through the candle. This video will show you a great step-by-step guide on how to make the small candles that go into the candle holders for the boats as well as how to prepare the wicks properly.
How To: Craft a knotted bead necklace with a lobster clasp
When it comes to jewelry making, knots are one of the easier techniques for adding a prety motif while creating a harmonizing feature for the rest of the elements that go on your necklace/bracelet.
How To: Make jump rings to make chain mail jewelry
Jump rings are super functional in jewelry making, allowing crafters to connecting disparate sections of a necklace easily and also serving as their own minimalist decor. If you're into the look of chain mail (which is just that - lots of chains connected together via jump rings), then you should check out this video to learn how to craft your own jump rings.
How To: Make a coiled top dangle with pliers for jewelry making
When it comes to making earrings or necklaces, you could take the easy way out and just add a normal head pin to the top of your bead or pendant. But what if you like to create motifs with the wire itself? A great way to start embellishing with wire is by creating this coiled top dangle, or a wrapped head pin.
How To: Open and close a jump ring with chain-nosed pliers
Jump rings serve a variety of purposes in jewelry making, the most common of which is connecting adjoining sections of a necklace, bracelet, or earring. If you would like to integrate jump rings into your jewelry crafting then check out this video to learn how to open and close a jump ring using two pairs of chain-nosed pliers.
How To: Attach an EZ-Crimp™ to a wire for jewelry making
An EZ-Crimp is a very useful tool in jewelry making; with a rounded loop on one end and a flat rectangulr space equipped with a hole on the other, it allows for the attachment of a piece of wire (inserted through the hole) and can be used to close a necklace.
How To: Make an easy looped headpin for jewelry making
What exactly is a head pin? In jewelry crafting, a head pin is the small wire loop on top of a bead that allows the bead to be attached to a necklace or an earring. If you're looking to get into making your own jewelry, then creating a headpin is one of the most basic skills you'll utilize for the rest of your career.
How To: Attach a pendant to an earring hook easily
What is the absolute, most basic thing you need to know in order to asemble an earring? Attaching the earring to its earring hook, of course. By learning how to do this, you'll be able to create a neverending host of funky earrings, from cool guitar pick earrings to drop pendant earrings.
How To: Make cute "Alice in Wonderland" Queen of Hearts inspired earrings
The Queen of Hearts would simply fawn over this pair of "Alice and Wonderland" inspired earrings, especially since a pair of red heart pendants is the focus. Pretty and uber feminine without being over the top, you can flaunt these earrings at any occasion, from school to a midafternoon tea party with the Hatter.
How To: Make a tri-strand necklace with a dichroic glass pendant
Yeah, we know the title of this video sounds confusing (dichroic what?), but a tri-strand necklace with a dichroic glass pendant is simply a fancy term for a necklace composed of three strands with a glass pendant hanging from the bottom.
How To: Make fashionable chunky glass pearl drop earrings
We've always had the impression that the only women who wear pearls are those who also own McMansions and tie cable knit sweaters around their shoulders at yacht club soirees. But now that we've seen this jewelry craft - a pair of chunky blue green glass pearl earrings - we're taking a second glance at these pearl things.
How To: Make a simple and quick origami crane for beginners
When it comes to origami, does it get more basic than the crane? Well, other than an origami box, an origami crane is one of the essential beginner origami projects that origami students learn on their way to achieving folded bliss.
How To: Create an eerie watercolor background for a Halloween card
Can you believe we're only a few weeks away from the official start of fall? We loved the lazy days of summer, but we can't wait for one of the best holidays ever invented: Halloween. We don't know about you, but we're already getting out our bat garlands and jack-o-lanterns in preparation for this spooktacular day.
How To: Make a simple origami Christmas elf for beginners
Christmas will be here before you know it, which means weeks of festive parties, spending quality time with friends and family, and, if you're the crafty type, making presents and other favors for friends. This year, surprise your loved ones with a truly unique gift by making this Christmas elf.
How To: Make an easy origami goldfish with tiny fins
Okay, so we have to admit something to you: This isn't actually an origami craft in the strictest sense of the term. Origami dictates that an object be folded into being from a single sheet of paper, but for this goldfish we take a bit of a shortcut, literally. Instead of folding to get all the pieces in place, we make a few cuts to facilitate the fish-forming process.
How To: Fold an origami box and lid by Dave Brill
The origami version of a box and lid may seem like one of the simplest origami projects out there, but you should consider this origami box and lid the hard mode version of an otherwise beginner origami craft. Rather than use two sheets of paper total - one for the box and the other for the lid - this origami project only involves one piece of origami tissue paper.
How To: Make a triobite bar using two different colors of nylon thread
Who knew that knots could be their very own art form? According to TIAT, or Tying It All Together, knots can be sexy, sensual, and beautiful. And we're totally getting that by the looks of this pretty triobite bar.
How To: Make a simple origami CD case for beginners
Whatever happened to the mix tape? A few years back, there wasn't a better and more meaningful gift to give someone than a mix tape full of jams specially tailored to his/her tastes. But with MP3s and internet streaming being the most popular forms of music listening these days, we suppose it's no surprise the mix tape has died out like the dinosaurs.
How To: Make a quick and simple origami envelope
Honestly, we're getting a little tired of purchasing mass-produced cards. Not that we don't adore Papyrus, with its often handmade-like cards and pretty details, but more and more we're finding we enjoy gifting our friends and family something authentic for special occasions.
How To: Make an origami crab for intermediate students
Summer is quickly coming to an end (oh no!), so bask in your last few glory days of sleeping in and playing all day by, well, sleeping in and playing all day. But you should also consider making this adorable sea crab, a sort of testament, if you will, to the summer months spent out by the sea.
How To: Make a cheerful origami penguin for beginners
We don't know where the penguin trend started, but for the past couple of years the arctic animal has been getting some serious loving. From "Happy Feet" to Club Penguin, penguins are flopping around everywhere in the public conscoiusness. And who can really blame our fascination with penguins, given their chubbiness and adorable waddling?
How To: Craft an origami sun-like spritzer circle
So we have to admit something. We're not entirely sure what this project is. It looks like one of those Sweedish straw ornaments you hang on the tree during Christmas, but then again it could also just be an abstract representation of the sun.
How To: Fold a Basic Origami Crane for Beginners
Alas, you have hit the mother of origami projects, the one project from which all others originate and from which all origami folders begin their journey to paper tweaking bliss.
How To: Make a menacing origami bull for advanced origami folders
The basic tenet of origami is to create an object - a bird, cube, monkey, etc. - using a single piece of paper. And while for the most part this is possible, there are notable exceptions, including modular origami and this menacing red bull.