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The latest DIY ideas, techniques and tools for the kitchen, garage and backyard from food to furniture to fun & games for your family.

Make: Projects – Pages of a forbidden tome

Make: Projects – Pages of a forbidden tome

They could be from The Necronomicon, Unaussprechlichen Kulten, or simply Poe’s “quaint and curious volume,” but everybody needs at least a few tattered leaves of ancient mind-blasting arcanum lying around to impress guests. Especially around Halloween.

This tutorial presents an easy method for producing weathered “antiqued” paper without much expense. The trick of soaking white paper in coffee or tea to give it an old, yellowed look is very familiar, but the process for selectively burning the edges of the paper is my own invention. A simple and safe chemical treatment is used to selectively burn the page, only where it has been applied, upon mild heat treatment.

Dowloadable Owl Masks

Love owls? Artist Joseph Paul Johnston is offering free downloadable Screech Owl and Barn Owl masks on his blog. Simply download, print onto cardstock, cut out, attach elastic, and wear. Johnston originally designed these in Illustrator for a “dress up like a bird” themed party, but they’re great for a last-minute costume idea.

The Petaluma Whiskerino

I think it’s fairly clear that the craft world is in the midst of a trend. A trend almost as big as bird silhouettes, almost as big as the skull and crossbones, almost as big as the octopus. It’s the mustache, and it seems to be, ahem, growing on everyone. From ‘Nifer’s amazing pieces of […]

Halloween Doodle Embroidery

By Vickie Howell If you’re like me, you pretty much start celebrating Halloween by about September 15th. Skulls, witches, bats, and ghosts make me smile like a kid at Christmas (no disrespect). Instead of keeping the visions of pumpkins dancing in my head, though, I prefer to sew them onto cloth. Join me won’tcha, by […]