Craftzine.com blog: Tech Accessories Archives

Archive: Tech Accessories

February 23, 2010

DIY Play Laptop

I love this DIY play laptop made by Amida of Journey Into Unschooling, perfect for little hands and curious minds to play with.

Amida writes:

I made this laptop out of a discarded panel that I had removed from a play kitchen. The keys were salvaged from a keyboard headed for e-waste and can be pressed. The monitor is a reflective sheet of paper and the body is covered with construction paper. It was a totally no-cost project, made with materials I had on hand.

February 22, 2010

I love this clever personal theater kit, perfect for turning that sleek little media player into a magical movie theater. I'd love to customize it with little people in the seats! Not sure I'd want to watch a full movie on it, but it would be fun for kids or as a vivid decoration at a party. (Photo of the kit contents after the jump.)

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February 1, 2010

How-To: Groundhog iPod Touch Case

This adorable groundhog iPod Touch (or iPhone, or gadget of your choice) case is simple enough to whip up just in time for Groundhog Day tomorrow. Mollie of Wild Olive shows you how! I love that his shadow is part of the design.

January 23, 2010

How-To: Plush Screen Duster

Alittlestranger writes:

Dust Bunnies love to hang out with you while you work on your computer and help you clean your screen with their noodly tentacle-y legs. They are very easy to make and make great gifts! I've included two patterns so you can make a bunny or an alien one.

In addition to sharing the pattern and instructions for making your own. she also sells these dust bunnies in her Etsy shop!

January 22, 2010

Intern's Corner: How to take real photos with the iPhone

CRAFT: Intern's Corner
Every other week, CRAFT's awesome interns tell about the projects they're building in the Craft: Labs, the trouble they've gotten into, and what they'll make next.

By Ed Troxell, photo intern

Last month I traveled to the Big Apple, New York City. This was my first time to the metropolis and I know it won't be my last. Of course I was excited to be going to New York with two friends, but what I was really looking forward to was seeing, and capturing in photos, the life of the big city.

I will note that I did not bring my SLR camera. I know, what is wrong with me, but I prefer to haul the least amount of equipment and go unnoticed as a photographer. This way I can capture real moments. The minute someone sees a camera you usually end up losing your shot. I did take with me my handy Canon point-and-shoot and, you guessed it, my iPhone.

Anyone who has an iPhone knows that its 3.2-megapixel camera is nothing compared to a point-and-shoot digital camera (though Apple is rumored to be adding a 5MP camera to the 2010 iPhone). While I shot 98 percent of my trip with my Canon, I did end up shooting that 2 percent on my iPhone (when I forgot my camera in our apartment). Yes, the photos may look good on the screen of your iPhone, but they don't always look so good anywhere else, and you can't print them too big.

Rockefeller Plaza Christmas tree. Not bad for an iPhone shot.

Yet, despite this, I've noticed that many people use their iPhone (or Blackberry, don't get me started on those) as their primary camera. So I decided to check out the best tips for shooting with the iPhone. Although I don't recommend using it as your main camera, these tips should help you get better quality photos:

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January 4, 2010

iPhone Cases From Magda Sayeg

My iPhone case is pretty beat up so I'm very tempted to get one of these with designs from Magda Sayeg of Knitta Please from Uncommon. There's also the option of uploading your own artwork, so you could customize your case with your own crafts! [via artyarn]

December 21, 2009

How-To: Simple Leather iPod Case

Cathe Holden shares how to transform thrifted leather scraps (from purses, etc.) into gorgeous iPod cases, complete with beautiful vintage image transfers. She's provided a pattern for the case, as well as downloadable images to use as embellishment.

December 14, 2009

Aniomagic Soft iPhone Remote Kit

If you want to make your own fabric-based remote control for your iPod or iPhone, Aniomagic made a kit for doing so. It's a switch made with pieces of conductive fabric and uses conductive yarn to connect it to a special iPod/iPhone dock connector. Easy peasy, circuit squeezy. [via Fashioning Technology]

More:

How-To: Sewable iPod Remote

November 30, 2009

Juice Box to Jukebox

Header Supercraftykidz

By Jessica Wilson My friend Alexander (age 8) has an iPod shuffle. While he loves to listen to all his happy tunes, he is not a fan of the clippiness and wishes he had something to better house his mini jukebox. We didn't have MP3s back when I was a kid. We didn't even have CDs, but believe it or not we did have music and tunes and cassette tapes and Walkmans (which are a lot like iPods but bulkier). My Walkman was some no-name drugstore gadget but it still had headphones and played my favorite Oingo Boingo tapes to perfection. Size-wise it was a bit on the bulky side, and the plastic built-in clip didn't last too long so I made myself a cozy of sorts, but back then I called it a purse.

Even as a junior high kid I thought outside the box. My first foray into fashionable crafting consisted of turning McDonaldland cookie boxes into purses. It was easy enough to do as long as I had a roll of packing tape and a yard or so of ribbon. This project plays on my old school sensibilities, but since all you lucky ducks use the much smaller iPod you can get away with something a bit smaller than a cookie box. Hopefully, Alexander will approve.

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November 16, 2009

Crocheted Laptop Sleeve

Yoonie-at-home shows you how to make a crocheted laptop sleeve complete with felt flower and button embellishment.

November 5, 2009

How-To: Sewable iPod Remote

Here's a quick and easy soft circuit project from Instructables user craft-tech:

There are a lot of really cool iPod remote control projects: some have simple buttons, some react to heartbeat or body motion, and others are designed to interface directly with software running on a computer. However, not one of them is truly wearable, or speaks to the unique needs of e-textiles designers. They have been mostly prototypes, and are seldom intended for serious, daily use. With this in mind, we took our time to design a system that is tiny, robust, and very easy to incorporate into your project. The end result has three components:

1. a tiny, complete circuit that sits *inside* the dock connector

2. four pieces of conductive fabric that form the two buttons of the remote

3. two-channel conductive yarn to connect the sections (we spin it ourselves)

More:

New Soft Circuit Kits in the Maker Shed and Massive Soft Electronics Roundup

October 23, 2009

Captain Electric and Battery Boy

Captain Electric and Battery Boy is a heady fashion project with electronic elements in the clothing that respond to the actions of the wearer. The three dresses in the collection, Itchy, Sticky, and Stiff, each create a different thought provoking paradox. Stiff translates pressure into soothing music, Sticky harnesses the power of the wearers struggle against restraint into blue light. But my favorite, Itchy, makes good use of the agitated fidgets caused by it's purposefully uncomfortable and oversized wool necklaces. With enough fiddling, the kinetic energy powers jewel-like LEDs.

Tech Accessories Home | Next >

Craft: transforming traditional crafts

DIY Play Laptop

Personal Theater Kit

How-To: Groundhog iPod Touch Case

How-To: Plush Screen Duster

Intern's Corner: How to take real photos with the iPhone

iPhone Cases From Magda Sayeg

How-To: Simple Leather iPod Case

Aniomagic Soft iPhone Remote Kit

Juice Box to Jukebox

Crocheted Laptop Sleeve

How-To: Sewable iPod Remote

Captain Electric and Battery Boy