Hipster Havens - Design Styles of the Poor but Crafty

DIY - Making a lampshade is fucking hard!

     Have you ever wondered how in the hell other people's DIY projects always turn out so perfectly?  Do you spend countless $$ in materials only to produce an item strikingly similar to one you made in 3rd grade?  Relax, some of us suck too. In case you happen to also be DIY challenged, I thought I'd let you in on a little project of mine that turned out like shit.

Make the world's crappiest lampshade in

                only eleven easy steps!

Step One:  Buy an old funky lamp at your local thrift store. $15 is more than I'd have liked to spend but it's cool, dirty and I need a bedside light.

 

Step Two:  Realize that the shade you had in mind is cheesy and think, "Hey, I write a design blog - I'll make one myself!"

Step Three:  Bask in the thought of your readers witnessing your mini-miracle of creation.

Step Four:  Get out the construction paper, wire hanger, elmer's glue and anything else you used in 2nd grade. Pour yourself a congratulatory glass of wine.

Step Five:   Attempt to bend the freakishly strong hanger into something mildly resembling a circle.

Step Six:  Keep pasting layers of cardstock on top of each other until it could pass for a shade.

Step Seven: Finally understand that one hanger and a bunch of paper do not make a lampshade. Dig around your house for anything else that holds shape. Have another glass.

Step Eight:  Attach old origami paper and janky metal strip to exterior of shade.

Step Nine:  Decide that metal and paper can not be held by .99 cent glue. Screw strip in place.

 

Step Ten:  Take cute antler salt shaker you got for Christmas and rest it on the top like a finial.  This will fall off the second you breathe so don't.  Take Hipster Havens photos...........

 

                                   .............and, viola!

Step Eleven:  Drink 'til she's pretty.

It looks better from far away. Hope this helps the rest of you not feel like losers.  Maybe my mom will tape it to the fridge.

 

 

Finally -a DIY for those of you on house arrest.

Yeah, it took two weeks. Yeah, it's completely useless. I don't care. I love this totally handmade, plush Nintendo system. Designer blueblythe from crafster.org dyed the felt, hand-sewed and embroidered all the details.  She even made interchangable Duck Hunt and Super Mario screens for the television. Definintely ranks right up there as one of the most enjoyable wastes of time I've ever seen.

DIY - Turn your heartache into poetry (and fridge art)!

It's a universal fact: break-ups fucking suck. They worse than suck. They are heart-wrenchingly, expectation-shattering, mind-numbingly painful. You try and remember all the bad things about the person who broke your heart but images of the two of you running through a field of daisies keeps annoyingly popping in. Well, here is a project to help you remember that sometimes break ups can be a good thing.

                        6 simple steps for making your smooshed

                 soul laugh again (all while making fridge magnets).

Step One:  Take your therapists advice and make a relationship pros/cons list. Then, cross out the pros and add to the cons. Write down every horrible, wicked thought you've had since the big break. No matter how ridiculous or petty, being nice here won't score you any points. In fact, the more outrageous, the more you'll laugh and the better you'll feel.

Step Two:  Transfer to a computer program. Here we used InDesign. Make sure to include words like: He, She, We, is, had, and, a.  It will help your poetry flow like Wordsworth.

Step Three:  Choose a background color that matches your mood. Print on photo paper.

Step Four:  Unwrap Self-Adhesive Magnet Strip - Can be found at any hardware store.

Step Five: Attach magnetic strip to the back and cut strips to size.

Step Six:  Attach to fridge and make all the funny little sayings your brain was telling you all along anyway.  Have a little laugh and give yourself props for being creative. You'll live!