happy april! normally this would be an odd month to introduce a new calendar into your life, but this handy little guy is perpetual, which means “good anytime”, forever and always. we ran across something similar at a thrift store a while back and thought it would be an easy, and super customizable project that…
in honor of a brand new year, the common ‘material’ for this month’s projects will be a theme: new year’s resolutions! we all make them, we all break them, but you have to try right? this week’s resolution is “waste not, want not”. every few months i purchase my cat a scratch pad from trader…
today ac and i are packing up and heading off to VA for the holidays but today and tomorrow i’ll be posting as always. i have a few great holiday diy projects left in my inbox so today and tomorrow i’ll be posting some of them in hopes that you might have some get crafty…
now that december is here, ‘tis the season for fun and crafty holiday ideas. these paper balls are a simple way to pretty up any gift, tree, or apartment. we got our supplies from a gift wrap kit, but you can use any paper you’d like to create an endless array of festive colors and…
charles and ray eames are big heroes of ours, and their house of cards is something we look at often—not only for visual inspiration, but as an example of a perfect design object that is smart, playful and modern. this week we gathered some images from the weekly photo assignments we post on our blog,…
this fun, eco-friendly project comes from meghan mcclain and jill thomas of potbelly sandwich works. meghan and jill got a green committee going at their office (fantastic!) and decided to celebrate their inaugural meeting today with a fun project. the girls created these lovely notebooks by reusing office paper found around the company and scraps…
today’s diy comes straight from the pages of our first book, show me how! it’s an incredibly comprehensive illustrated encyclopedia of 500 things you should know, from how to make a tin-can luminary (#42) to fixing a flat tire (#400) to learning about color theory (#219). it was a total blast to put together, and…
we’ve been out of school for a while now, but this is still one of our favorite times of year. we love roaming the aisles of our local office supply store checking out all the fun, colorful back to school supplies. the other day we came across these red folders for 25 cents each, and…
with the crazy heat wave we’re having in san francisco this week, all we can think about is spending as much time as possible outside. and since balmy evenings especially are a rarity in sf, we plan to take advantage of the warm weather and prepare a few dinners to eat up on the roof…
july 4th is right around the corner, which means one thing: barbecue season has begun! so bust out the burgers and tofu dogs and don’t forget to b.y.o.b! at the end of the day you’re certain to have a little sunburn and a lot of empty six-pack holders lying around. with a bit of gift…
today’s final diy project comes from stu and janet at three potato four. we got a sneak peek into their reston, virginia home last month and several of you asked about the beautiful silhouettes by their staircase. when i spoke with stu and janet they kindly offered to share their instructions for creating your own…
we’ve been wanting to make a mobile for a long time, but it always seemed a little intimidating. what gauge wire should we use? how will we get it to balance? finally we decided to try making one with some supplies we had on hand: floral wire and origami papers. floral wire is great because…
getting a bill in the mail isn’t any fun, but you know what they say about lemons and lemonade, right? being small business owners, we get tons of bills, and over the years we’ve been collecting the ones with interesting security patterns printed on the insides. we’ve used them in various craft projects here and…
we’ve always got a stash of woodgrain contact paper laying around, because it’s endlessly useful for all sorts of decorative and crafty projects. we’ve covered everything from file cabinets to refrigerator doors to gift cards with it, and we’ve also lined the cupboards and drawers in our kitchen with the stuff. it’s super cheap and…
Each Christmas there are a handful of family members who we can count on to give us a cookie tin filled with all kinds of tasty treats. The cookies don’t last long at all, so it’s around this time every year that we find ourselves left with a mismatched assortment of festive (i.e. “wacky”) tin…
lauren and derek are off this week so i thought i’d share a little diy craft project i finished yesterday afternoon while listening to the sweeney todd soundtrack (if you haven’t seen the new version, drop what you’re doing and go. tim burton is such an amazing filmmaker). i thought it would be fun to…
it’s official. we drove by a real-life christmas tree lot today, which means that it’s time to get cracking on our holiday decorating. these paper ornaments can be hung just about anywhere (from a tree, in a window, from a chandelier) and they are super simple to make. all it takes is some paper and…
’tis the season for lists! (already… can you believe it?) we’ve got about a dozen going so far: holiday gifts for friends, holiday gifts for each other, ingredients for thanksgiving feasts, etc. we get a kick out of having “a place for everything, and everything in its place” so we like to use different notebooks…
