Custom paint-by-number kits

Anyone else out there do paint-by-number kits when you were a kid? I used to love these and have a friend who collects completed paintings at yard sales and flea markets.. The company Easy123Art lets you upload your own photos and turns them into custom paint-by-number canvases or art paper kits complete with acrylic paints and brushes. What a fantastic gift idea for that crafty person in your life.

DIY: Paint chip art

Like this clever project by Angie over at Angelina la dawn tomato. Having recently amassed scores of paint chips while redoing the guest bedroom, I can definitely relate. I hate throwing away the vibrantly colored paper and she's found a great way to upcycle the chips.

Mother's Day pop-up card tutorial from Paper Source

© paper source

Look at this cute DIY pop-up card tutorial over at Paper Source. Be sure to download the PDF for complete instructions. It's the first item under the "materials needed" list. Dimensional cards really make an impact and I'd like to try this pop-up technique with some other themes.

DIY 3D flowers card by the creative place

© image by the creative placeGo check out this 3D spring flowers card tutorial by Ashley Connelly over at The Creative Place. Some ribbon, some scrap paper, a few stitches and voila! She has several tutorials and quite few yummy recipes as well. With Mother's Day around the corner, 'tis time to get serious about the card crafting!

DIY Maple Leaf Roses

image via haha.nuThis tutorial is from 2006, but I think it's wonderful. I ran across it on the haha.nu lifestyle blogzine, but it appears to have originated from this site. Estonia perhaps? I can't read cyrillic languages. I only have a teeny tiny smattering of Spanish, Hungarian and French. Just enough to cause native speakers to laugh hysterically. Anyway, what a gorgeous reuse of existing natural plant life into mimicking other plant life. 

Homemade DIY recessed shelves

Finally! After three weeks of measuring, re-measuring, cutting, sanding and painting, the shelves are done! The house had a narrow hallway with an arched recess that was lovely, but not very useful other than hanging some artwork because of the shallow depth. I have a lot of books and really, really love built-in bookcases so we decided to make the area into library shelving. Each end of the shelves (made of poplar) has a small wood brace for stability and triangular, wooden brackets which are staggered every other shelf for visual interest. We also went with an alkyd, oil-based paint for more durability. This is what added so much time to project as it needed to dry 24 hours between coats. There's also a strip of decorative molding attached to the front with a leaf pattern for a more finished appearance. It's going to be hard to waiting for them to fully cure so I can load 'em up with books!

ReadyMade Rake DIY jewelry organizer

I've been needing to organize my necklaces for quite some time and ran across this great article in the February/March 2011 issue of ReadyMade magazine on how to turn an old rake into a DIY jewelry organizer. What a great way to upcycle a broken garden tool.