today’s final diy project (and the project before!) comes from kate pruitt, an artist based in oakland california. kate’s diy crafty-ness landed her in the finalist roundup (twice!) for the 2008 diy contest and today she’s sharing a new project: canister makeovers. kate will be joining us while derek and lauren are on posting-vacation so i hope you’ll help me welcome her to the site! her introduction, material list and instructions are below, just click here for kate’s full post or click “read more” below. thanks, kate!

from kate: i love everything about candy stores, but i think it’s the endless, neatly lined rows of glass jars that appeal to me most. i wanted to recreate that aesthetic at home but give them a little more color. we use these to store our pastas, rice and other dry groceries, but you could use these in craft rooms, offices, stores, etc. or fill them with candy! the steps for this project are simple and perfect for a weekend activity. click here for the full project!

if you’re like me and live in a rental, it can be tough to deal with the less-than-ideal features of your home. without the ability to replace tile, wallpaper, or event paint it can be difficult to personalize your home the way you’d like. but today’s diy project (from designer kate pruitt) is all about working with what you have. kate wasn’t in love with her old fireplace so she decided to use jenny wilkinson’s pink ‘hammerhead sharks‘ wallpaper to cover up the dark tile. using little more than foam core, a little glue and an xacto blade, kate was able to create a custom look that won’t cut into her apartment’s deposit when she moves. kate has shared her full project instructions and materials below so click here for the full post (or just click “read more” below). thanks, kate!

today’s first diy project has gone to the dogs- well, pampered dogs that is. if you love your pet as much as julia custer norris does, you might be interested in building a custom diy feeder like she did. julia explains, “when my dog auggie became big enough that we needed to raise the feed bowls off the floor, i came up with this design for an elevated feeder. it’s a great way to re-use wooden crates, and auggie insists on vintage, so we chose an antique wooden crate for the project.” i love any project that lets you reuse found materials in a clever way so i thought this would be a fun project for the pet-lovers in the audience. julia has shared her full instructions below so just click here for the full post (or click “read more” below). if you’d rather buy something pre-made, julia sells her dog feeders right here at the handmade green. [thanks, julia!]

we love living in san francisco. this city is just chock-full of fun, talented, and friendly folks. one of them is our pal lorena siminovich, the artist and proprietress behind the oh-so-lovely petit collage. lorena’s got a great eye for color, and we’re big fans of her bold, graphic work. this week, we were the lucky recipients of a quick lesson in diy furniture collage from a true master of the form. thanks lorena! click here for the full post with instructions or just click “read more” below.

-derek & lauren

ps: we are going to be taking a few weeks off to finish up a couple super exciting projects we’re working on. thanks so much for all the diy & crafty fun. see you in a few weeks! (ed note: during the curiosity shoppe’s posting vacation we’ll have new diy projects contributed by a special guest editor)

[portrait of lorena by lisa congdon]

today’s second diy project comes from designer julie reed. in addition to crocheted and sewing some beautiful pieces for her etsy shop, julie also knows her way around a mean crocheted bath rug. and since i’ve still got affordable bath decor on the brain from last week, i thought this would be the perfect project to share. click here for julie’s full instructions or just click “read more” below. stay tuned for lauren and derek’s diy wednesday post at 1pm!

last weekend ac and i scooted up to williamsburg for burgers at dumont burger (yum) and some quick book browsing at spoonbill and sugartown (where i always end up buying a handful of new pancake and franks cards). while looking sifting through a table of incredible penguin books (and drooling over their covers), i looked up and caught a beautiful set of atlas shelves. as my mind starting mentally calculating how long it would take me to save up for a set of the real things i remembered that we had a fantastic diy-version of these shelves waiting to be posted! d*s reader susannah becket was a finalist in this year’s diy contest and was kind enough to send in the full instructions for her budget-friendly atlas-inspired shelving. if you’ve got a wall of books at home like we do, this project will certainly come in handy. click here for the full post, more pictures and instructions or just click “read more” below. thanks to susannah for sharing!

we’re always on the lookout for fun materials we can use in our diy projects. this time we found it right under our noses (actually it was right under our cats’ noses). after giving them a special treat of wet food the other day, we decided to repurpose the empty can into a handy little pincushion. all it took was some poly-fil, a strip of decorative paper, and some leftover linen from our appliqué pillow project. super simple, super cheap, and our cats are already begging us to make another one. click here for the full instructions or just click “read more” below.

have fun!
derek & lauren