Get Schooled: Stencil Your Own Tees

This won't be the easiest thing you ever do, but I'm thinking it may be the coolest. Yes, the coolest thing that you ever do. Let street artist Gigantic help you up your cred by teaching you how to stencil your own tees.

Listen, times are tough. You need to beef up that resume. How impressive will it be to employers that you can stencil them a t-shirt, any t-shirt? Very, very impressive. Now get to work!

She's Doing Quite Well

Emily Wells is the rising princess of DIY. As a musician in search of that ever-elusive beast called Creative Control, she's sacrificed big-bucks record deals and shiny new instruments to forge her own path. She's driven herself around the country on tiny tours, built her own recording studio, and I'd be willing to bet cash that she twists her own dreadlocks. Her music sounds homemade in the best way possible, right up there with other do-it-yourself goddesses like M.I.A. and Peaches, but with a slightly gentler vibe. She works hard for her sound and it shows.

She's also a singular wardrobe sensation. Whether she looks hip-hop tough in a tilted trucker, or she rocks tutus over jeans, Emily's definitely creatively controlling her outfits. While sometimes her look can be a little "hacky-sack-out-back-behind-the-dorms-later?" in a weird way I find it appealing. It looks like fun and reminds me of college. Also, I will forever have respect for a girl who records a crazy-cool cover of Biggie's "Juicy" with a heavy beat and haunting vocals (check it out here on her MySpace page).

Her new album is called The Symphonies:Dreams, Memories, & Parties and one listen will prove all of Emily's hard work has paid off.

Cheap Thrill: Paper Beads

I hate being called crafty; it makes me feel like I'm destined to be a crazy cat lady who crochets tea cosies instead of interacting with other humans. But, on occasion I have been known to make a thing or two by hand, and I think a little DIY chutzpah is an essential weapon in any fashionista's arsenal.

One of my prized handmade possessions is my paper bead necklace pictured above. I made it years ago for a college art course that asked me to construct a wearable book, and it was delightfully simple. You can make your beads of any old standard weight paper: magazine tear outs, photos, old texts, or your $.20 copy of Carter Brown's The Sad Eyed Seductress as I did.

There is a great photo stream on Flickr by sgjennin showing all of the supplies needed to make recycled paper beads:

You'll need your paper selection, a ruler, a sharpie, scissors, an old school bottle of Elmer's, and toothpicks. Start by dividing your paper into oblong triangles. The widest part of the triangle will be the width of your final beads, so use your ruler to measure out your desired dimensions and your sharpie to mark the triangles, then cut the triangles from your paper source.

Once you have your triangles, coat the "wrong side" with glue and begin rolling them around a toothpick, starting at the wide end first. When the bead is fully wrapped around the toothpick, let it sit for a few minutes just to let the glue set a bit. Then, slide the bead off of the toothpick and start rolling your next one.

Repeat the above steps until you have enough beads to string your necklace, and then set the beads aside to dry. Once they have fully dried, you can string them and either add a clasp or knot closure to secure. The final step is to wear your handmade necklace proud as a peacock and sleep well at night knowing that you not only saved a few bucks and recycled some paper, but you also made something with your two little hands.

The fun thing about recycled paper beads is that the paper you use can change their whole look. I love that you can sort of still read my beads, but the pictures below from Flickr user and Etsy star Jesssprkle show that you can choose color over content to gorgeous effect.

Make these and I'll call you resourceful, not crafty. Send me pics if you take on the project; I'd love to see what you come up with.

DIY: Punk Those Kicks!

Oooooh I stumbled upon a goodie!

I've known a few punks in my life, and I promise that beneath those spikes and mohawks there's nothing but mush. Maybe they won't show it to you right away (read: don't go up to any random punker and offer them a big hug), but get to know them and they will soon be sharing their best kept secrets about the fine art of bedazzling and hairdos involving gelatin. Ok, if you're too intimidated to befriend a punk of your own, head on over to the site Everyday Hardcore. There the host will play a safety pin obsessed Marth Stewart and let you in on all you need to know about living hardcore.

What inspired this find? I spotted these tricked out Converse over at the Free People website:

and I knew I could beat the $168.00 price tag and have some DIY fun. But, it's been a long time since I bedazzled anything. When I did glitz up my jean jacket back in the 4th grade I remember it being harder than I had expected. In an effort to locate some studding directions, I found this:

With Adam's help you'll learn everything you need to punk your kicks. Pick up a plain pair of Classic Chuck Taylor All Stars over at Converse.com for $44.99, order a bag or two of studs from StudsandSpikes.com, locate an old dart, and get going. For round abouts $60.00 you'll have a toughened up pair of sneaks that scream "I'm down with the badasses!" and you'll make mushy punk friends in no time. Just don't be offended when they call you a poser from across the street at first; remember, it's a warming up process.