Indie arts and crafts:
DIY Arts and Crafts Ideas
The joy of silly putty
Science fact - silly putty was first marketed for adults not children! We look at the history and science of silly putty, and discover some extraordinary things one can do with it.
DIY Arts and Crafts Ideas
How to decoupage
If you're looking for arts and crafts ideas, learn how to decoupage with every crafter's dream: Mod Podge. As both beginner and Master Crafter, you'll be able to enhance furniture, picture frames and more. Decoupage for all!
DIY Arts and Crafts Ideas
Needlepoint kits
Arts and crafts: Felicity Hall does great needlepoint kits for the modern stitcher, complete with needlepoint stitches and patterns. Make your own needlepoint pillows, like, now!
DIY Arts and Crafts Ideas
Needlepoint instructions
Arts and crafts: These handy needlepoint visual guides will help you nail your needlepoint stitches - from basket weaving to blocking. Get stitching!
DIY Arts and Crafts Ideas
Knitting ideas: Curious cat toy
Arts and crafts: Knitting ideas and knitting patterns - Knit this little pink cat as a charming and quirky knitted gift.
DIY Arts and Crafts Ideas
How to make a record bowl
A record bowl is recycled consumables so it's cheap and ethical to make and you don't need any special equipment. Record bowls make great gifts, plant pots or picture frames and they say something about who you are.
DIY Arts and Crafts Ideas
How to make an octopus hoodie
Halloween costumes: Forget about the sexy bunny and kitten outfits! Forget any other advice we've ever given! The only thing you should even consider wearing this Halloween is a home-made octopus hoodie.
DIY Arts and Crafts Ideas
How to make a T-shirt dress
Indie arts and crafts: Jo Anne Yada shows you how to take two old T-shirts and turn them into a flattering T-shirt dress. Hooray for arts and crafts.
DIY Arts and Crafts Ideas
How to turn an old dress into a skirt
Indie arts and crafts: Isn't it nice to have an indie craft tutorial that truly embraces *all* style subculture? Well, nearly all of you have got an old dress. Even the men. And you can turn it into a skirt. Simple, eh? Good times, good times...
DIY Arts and Crafts Ideas
How to tie-dye
Indie arts and crafts: Transform humble jeans or hoodies with our guide on how to tie dye. Once you know how to tie dye correctly you can be as sophisticated or as messy as you please...
DIY Arts and Crafts Ideas
DIY Piercing craft: How to make plugs from wooden dowels
Indie arts and crafts: Face it, neat-looking plugs are hard to find and can be a bit pricy. Wooden dowels are inexpensive and can be found at craft stores universally! Yes, people will think you are very bizarre when you're in the craft isle and remove your plug to see which dowel fits in your ear...
DIY Arts and Crafts Ideas
How to make your own pair of skinny jeans
Indie arts and crafts: Apart from your health, your soul and your actual best friend, jeans are a mook's best friend. Now learn how to make gorgeous skinny jeans yourself by customising an old pair of generously boot-cut jeans or flares...
DIY Arts and Crafts Ideas
How to make a lolita blouse
Indie arts and crafts: Do those cute ruffles on that shirt make your heart ache with longing? Loli-mooks of the world, help has arrived. Yes, it's a simple sewing tutorial on making a Lolita blouse that is still indie enough to pass as standard daywear in your wardrobe.
DIY Arts and Crafts Ideas
How to make a gothic lolita headdress
Indie arts and crafts: How to make an elegant Gothic Lolita headdress. With lace, ribbon and love your DIY lolita fashion will rival any Lolita brand site. Kawaii!
DIY Arts and Crafts Ideas
Get crafty - punk up your wedge sandals or boots
Indie arts and crafts: Get crafty! Attack your summer sandals with acrylic paints and collages to let their little sandal souls flourish!
DIY Arts and Crafts Ideas
How to make a gothic lolita parasol
Indie arts and crafts: Come summertime, every little gothic lolita needs the chaste and dainty protection of a pretty lace and ribbon parasol. Forget pricy lolita fashion - turn your old umbrella into a thing of loligoth beauty!
DIY Arts and Crafts Ideas
How to make a skull butterfly hair clip
Indie arts and crafts: Rossana shows you how to make a cute skull butterfly hair clip from scratch. Whether you love Mexico's Day of the Dead, or candy colours, or have watched Blue Velvet too many times and associate blue skies and cute robins with Bad Things, these charming skull accessories will delight your fiercely beating little heart. And Rossana not only sells these pretty things, she has one to give away to the first person who emails her!
DIY Arts and Crafts Ideas
How to make a detachable collar
Indie arts and crafts: Detachable collars are a super-easy way to transform an outfit. They work particularly wellwith a plain black or grey t-shirt, but can be worn over strapless dresses or worked into any style with custom embellishment.
DIY Arts and Crafts Ideas
How to make record art
Indie arts and crafts: Do you look through your record collection and wonder how the hell 'Hooked on Classics' ended up there? Fear not. Your moment of aural foolishness can be turned to good use, because there's a way to transform it into art.
DIY Arts and Crafts Ideas
Crafting ideas - Turn a book into a jewelry box!
Indie arts and crafts: Our crafting tips guru turned an old book into a jewelry box using a couple of leftover Altoids tins for drawers. Whether your literary heart belongs to pulp fiction, victorian diaries or 1940s wartime codebooks, express yourself through arts and crafts with this nifty booky jewelry box.
DIY Arts and Crafts Ideas
How to make a hooded scarf
Indie arts and crafts: Mookychick shows you how to customise an old sweatshirt to make a scarf with a hood attached. It's handy when you don't have a hood on your jacket, and it adds interest to a normal scarf when the hood is down.
DIY Arts and Crafts Ideas
How to make a goth sunglasses case
Indie arts and crafts: Sunglasses are huge but sunglasses cases don't seem to have got any bigger. Stupid cases! Here's how to make one large enough to house a huge pair of sunnies. It's coffin-shaped, so you can pretend you'll turn to ash if you take the sunnies off in the daytime.
DIY Arts and Crafts Ideas
The ancient paper mache art of cartapesta
Indie arts and crafts: An intricate process, Cartapesta was originally developed for creating church statuary and architectural detail. Use cartapesta to make sumptuous hand-torn roses or bead necklaces that weigh like popcorn but look like stone. Find out more.
DIY Arts and Crafts Ideas
Knitting for absolute beginners
Indie arts and crafts: You may be tired of buying clothes that are made badly and rip or tear. You may be considering cheap and meaningful presents for Christmas. The chances are that if you don't knit, you'd like to, or will know someone that does. Knitting is no longer a symbol of the stereotype of the housebound woman - it's a wonderful and emancipating hobby. Learn to knit a simple rectangle, and we'll show you a few creative things you can do with it.
DIY Arts and Crafts Ideas
Got your own craft trading stall? Now build your clientele and find gigs!
Indie arts and crafts: Now that you've learned how to start an indie business, and how to build your own craft trading stall, Leslie explains her methods for finding gigs and building up a list of clientele.
DIY Arts and Crafts Ideas
Indie crafters: Make your own craft stall!
Indie arts and crafts: Calling all indie crafters with an eye for business! Today's lesson will tell you how to build your own portable trading stall so you can start getting your business out there...
DIY Arts and Crafts Ideas
How to make a binbag dress
Indie arts and crafts: With Halloween coming up, everyone is looking for (cheap) original costumes. A binbag dress has an enticing aura of punk promise, it's more tacky than all the eighties put together and it's almost free!
DIY Arts and Crafts Ideas
How to shorten a pair of trousers
Indie arts and crafts: If you're shopping for second hand denim you usually get the dilemna - go for the right waist size or the right trouser length? Thus you end up with long hemmed jeans that fray to feckery as they get dragged underfoot. Pretend you always intended them to be that way - or do something about it.
DIY Arts and Crafts Ideas
Make your own paper
Indie arts and crafts: Making paper is rewarding and creative. DIY businesswomen take note - it can also be a great way to prevent identity theft, save the environment and cut rising business costs, all in one! Leslie Crews shows you how to make paper, spending as little money as possible.
DIY Arts and Crafts Ideas
Make your own decorative fairy lights
Indie arts and crafts: Most people (and shops) have cottoned onto the idea that fairy lights are a pretty, creative and inexpensive form of secondary lighting that shouldn't just be reserved for the Winter season. Here's a great way of making your own, with no need to sew.
DIY Arts and Crafts Ideas
How to make a cushion cover
Indie arts and crafts: A cushion cover is one of the easiest things you can make if you're willing to do a bit of sewing and stick in a zip. And it's high on the kudos - everyone will see your cushion cover the minute they walk into your room and look around for somewhere to sit down. Which will happen often - people are lazy that way.
DIY Arts and Crafts Ideas
How to make a pillowcase skirt
Indie arts and crafts: Pillowcases come in lovely fabrics, so why not make a skirt out of one - either elastic waisted or zipper? Oh, and it's probably a fine idea to make one out of a pillowcase that isn't see-through...
DIY Arts and Crafts Ideas
Get hooked: make your own beaded brooch
Indie arts and crafts: A wired brooch is cheap and easy to make, and can feature your personal touch - from tiny glass beads to lucky plastic butterfly charms. Esme from Paisley Chainsaw tells you how to make your own...
DIY Arts and Crafts Ideas
Rug hooking made simple
Indie arts and crafts: Rug hooking is a simple craft to learn. It recycles rags and old T-shirts to make pretty, decorative rugs and mats. Etsy's Islandsweet (Shawn O'Hagan' learned the skill in Newfoundland, and tells you how.
DIY Arts and Crafts Ideas
How to make a personalised leather belt
Indie crafts: Making a leather belt from scratch and personalising it with the right equipment could be cheaper than personalising it through a shop. And you get to keep the tools and work leather as a hobby! Allison from 'Sunny Rising Leather' shows you how.
DIY Arts and Crafts Ideas
How to make a felt fashion bug
Indie crafts: Felting is an ancient way of mixing fibres together. Learn how to make a felt fashion bug in bright colours, non caveman-style...
DIY Arts and Crafts Ideas
How to make a felt cupcake keyring
Indie crafts: Learn how to make an extra sweet cupcake key ring out of felt thanks to etsy crafter Dotty Ral. This cute felt cupcake is easy to make could also be used as a zipper pull on a coat, purse or bag...
DIY Arts and Crafts Ideas
How to decorate your room for a black light party
Throwing a themed party? Or want to turn your room/toilet into an unearthly glowing dream? The Mookychicks give you the lowdown on decorating your room so it glows under a UV black light...
DIY Arts and Crafts Ideas
How to make a cute message board out of egg cartons
The only downside to making this charming message board is that you'll need to get through a lot of eggs. Mookychick suggests a massive cake-bake (then sell the proceeds to charidee. Or store the cake in your freezer. For a day will come when you're starving. And it's winter. And the wolves are scraping at your door).
DIY Arts and Crafts Ideas
A floral revolution: Basic flower arranging tips
Let's have a floral revolution! Let's take a semi-punk approach to flower arranging, where individuality is king! Flower-arrangements don't need to be perfect to be pretty - they just need to suit you and your personality. So here's our guide to basic flower-arranging on a budget...
DIY Arts and Crafts Ideas
Vintage OOAK doll restoring
Meet DollyD, the mastermind behind Dollytopia OOAK doll restoration. Her workshop is stuffed with vintage and modern barbies rerooted with blue punk hair and customised with alternative clothes and accessories. View her work and find out more.
DIY Arts and Crafts Ideas
Mooky Tips for a DIY Halloween
If you don't have the cash to splash out on a cliché Halloween costume this year, why not dive in and make your own? From medieval maiden to burlesque tease queen, here are just a few ideas to get the ball rolling... the rest is up to you!
DIY Arts and Crafts Ideas
Make a Juice pouch bag!
This lunch bag is brightly-coloured, waterproof, easy to make and durable. It makes great use of Kool-Jammer or Capri Sun pouches.
DIY Arts and Crafts Ideas
DIY Gift ideas
From memory gifts for your best friends to party kits for tiny babybugs, Ruby Mae comes up with homemade gift kit ideas that won't cost a bomb and have a lot of heart. Make love, not war - DIY-style.
DIY Arts and Crafts Ideas
5 Ways to live green without breaking the piggy bank
Being a hippie doesn't have to be a dirty secret any more. Living green is a solid worldwide trend, opening up a new world to people who believe it's possible to combine their big-city 'live more want more' life with eco-friendliness and thriftiness. Check these five basic suggestions for green living on a budget, then check out our green-living articles below.
DIY Arts and Crafts Ideas
Craft tips: How to make your own kanzashi flowers
Kanzashi are hair ornaments used in traditional Japanese hairstyles. One of their main features is the application of intricate little fabric flowers. With a step-by-step photo tutorial and video provided by uber-craftette Spangle, we show you how to make your own cute kanzashi flowers. These can go on brooches, bags, hairpins, fridge magnets... oh, how kawaii!
DIY Arts and Crafts Ideas
Decorate your dorm room on a student budget
We all want a room like the one in magazines, but when you're a poor college student existing on handouts from the bank of mom and dad, those dreams are too many paychecks in the future. Creativeness can go a long way to making your room look chic and hot by transforming it into a proper hangout for you and your closest buds.
DIY Arts and Crafts Ideas
How to make a duct tape purse
When it comes to affordable DIY style, duct tape has always been a girl's best friend. It comes primarily in black or silver (tasteful), it's incredibly strong and it sticks to itself. Perfect for customising just about anything - jeans, bracelets, you name it... and this week, Stella Rivet shows you how to make an entire purse out of duct tape. Is there no end to its glory?
DIY Arts and Crafts Ideas
How to make a button bracelet
A cute button bracelet has a chunky vintage feel and is an easy gift you can make with all those leftover buttons you have lying around.
DIY Arts and Crafts Ideas
How to make and customise a denim belt
You don't need to be a genius at sewing to make customised and recycled denim belts. You do need to exercise your imagination about how to customise them. It also helps if you have a sewing machine - but a pair of scissors, some nail polish and superglue will do.
DIY Arts and Crafts Ideas
How to make a plastic bag rug
The wonderful Stella Rivet shows you how to make a rug that is pretty and really cool, it's extremely easy and it costs next to nothing to make. And it's ethical - because it's made entirely from recycled plastic bags!
DIY Arts and Crafts Ideas
How to make a choker and more... with velcro
You've seen velcro on trainers, sofa covers, clothing - the list is endless. It is a great way to quickly open and close something, and although it has an industrial look there are all sorts of ways to get crafty with velcro if you want to make your own clothes and jewellery.
DIY Arts and Crafts Ideas
How to go dumpster diving
The DIY ethic is an anti-consumerist stance that says you don't have to buy to get what you need. Dumpster diving is a legal, easy and much-fun way to start rejecting consumer sensibilities.
DIY Arts and Crafts Ideas
Make your own Victorian Christmas decorations
Make your own Christmas decorations: Oh, do let's have a Victorian Christmas! We show you how to make pretty little Victorian decorations as Christmas gifts to make your tree feel like it stepped into the late 19th century.
DIY Arts and Crafts Ideas
101 Make your own Christmas gift ideas
Make your own Christmas presents: If you love crafting, you're feeling a bit thrifty and want to make your own Christmas present, we have 101* Christmas gift ideas that are cheap, fun and crafty to give you inspiration.
DIY Arts and Crafts Ideas
How to make your own Christmas crackers
Indie arts and crafts: Why not make your own Christmas crackers this year? They're slightly cheaper - especially if you make more of them. More importantly, it means you decorate them to suit you (black and pink crepe paper would be the Mookychick choice) and you can fill them with your own gifts and sillies, from skull rings and candy necklaces to cherry lip balms and beautiful poems...
DIY Arts and Crafts Ideas
How to recycle toilet rolls
Indie arts and crafts: Aren't toilet rolls amazing? Christ, yes. They're little cardboard treasures. Next time you're riding the porcelain bus, print this article out and flick through our nearly 101 uses for a recycled toilet roll. From DIY christmas crackers to making lampshades, you'll be amazed and occasionally bewildered.
DIY Arts and Crafts Ideas
Indie Arts and Crafts ideas
Indie arts and crafts ideas - craft tips, sewing tips and craft ideas for DIY ethic - Mookychick
