I love this brilliant hardware sorting box from Craftster user Wulf. A simple series of graduated boxes allows pieces of hardware to be dropped into their proper storage location. [via Dinosaurs and Robots]

This weekend I went nuts spring cleaning. I opened boxes of things that have been packed away for ages, including my husband's grandmother's sewing supplies. I found many wonderful things in her sewing basket, including a wooden egg for darning socks, tiny crane scissors, and lots of vintage bias tape. I also found this strange needle, and I have absolutely no idea what it's for! I could use your help in identifying it, dear CRAFT readers. Can you offer your ideas in the comments. and bonus points if you have an example of something made with a tool like this. Thanks in advance!!!

One interesting historical example of upcycled crafting is bottleneck guitar- or as it is now widely known, slide guitar. The unique resonant sound of slide guitar was originally formed by playing with a glass bottleneck over one finger and running the slide up and down the strings. While the materials for making slides have evolved, bottles are still a popular choice of material. We were given one, and as it has been used over the years, the piece has developed some lovely scratches that give the glass beautiful character. Slideplayer.com has two great ideas for making your own, including a "Burning Twine" method that sounds really cool (and drunkenly dangerous).

What do you want to hang on the wall? Is it a shelf? A photo? Do you have a neat magnetic organizer that needs to go up? Or just a hook for hanging your towels? No matter what you need to mount to the wall, it's always best to do the job right, and there's nothing better than a good drywall anchor. They come in many shapes and sizes, so follow my tips for setting 4 different types of anchors — for whatever load they might need to bear.

Matt Mets @ MAKE writes:

Here's an interesting, if possibly questionable idea. The folks over at Flowering Elbow converted a sewing machine into a scroll saw. If you've got an old sewing machine, it could be just what you need for cutting thin pieces of wood!

This month's theme of Make Space for Crafting has got me thinking about designer/hacker/artist Emily Albinski's helpful 101 feature on SketchUp, Google's free 3D modeling software, which originally appeared on the pages of CRAFT Volume 09. As Emily writes in her intro:

For decades, computer-aided design (CAD) applications were expensive tools used only by a limited circle of designers and engineers. Now Google has offered CAD to the masses, with SketchUp, a free program that's intuitive to use.

In this tutorial we'll be modeling a charging caddy: a box to house a power strip and chargers, with a compartment on top for your cellphone and other handhelds.

Pictured above is a split shot with the left half depicting part of Emily's SketchUp drawing of the caddy and the right half showing half of her finished caddy. Use the tutorial to create a charging caddy like Emily's or learn from the tutorial and then design your own craft supply organizing caddy. You can even use it to sketch your dream craft space, or just about anything else you can think up.

Here's the full tutorial shared with you in our Digital Edition. You can also still pick up a physical copy of CRAFT Volume 09 over in the Maker Shed.

I received the most special gift this Christmas. My husband, Chris, was holed up in our garage most nights since November, feverishly working on a secret project for me. He's never attempted a woodworking project before, but tackled this project with absolute determination. I'm a huge space geek, and have been fascinated with the night skies almost all my life. I've talked of wanting a good telescope, and it would have been very easy for my husband to just make a stop by the store to pick one up. That he spent weeks working on this for me makes it the most special gift I've ever been given.

Watching him get so excited about the project's progress and work through difficulties and come up with ingenious solutions of his own was so much fun. My only disappointment was that I couldn't be out in the garage working with him. When he unveiled the telescope on Christmas Eve, I was stunned and very excited. When I looked through the eye piece and gazed upon the moon - crystal clear and full of gorgeous craters - I started crying. We've already taken it out almost every night since Christmas Eve, and I can't wait to get it out to a truly isolated spot to really see what she can do!

There's just a little leftover staining to do, but otherwise the scope is complete and working beautifully. Now Chris thinks I should sew a nice dust cover for it.

Yep, that's right, we have crickets Cricuts! No, not those chirpy little insects! These are electronic paper cutting machines! The Maker Shed carries the original Cricut Machine, the portable Cricut Create, and the larger Cricut Expression. All of these machines allow you to cut paper, or other materials, without a computer. Check out the full line of Cricut machines in the Maker Shed.

Claire of Needle Book shares how she made this lovely spindle with simple tools and techniques.

I wanted to make one that was a little bit fancier, functional and even nice looking, while still not requiring any real woodworking skills. The results were better than I expected, and these handmade spindles work really well!

Since I dabble in so many different crafty activities, I've become a real gear junkie. I've come to believe that having good tools is the way to really enjoy the practice of creating, and in many cases can produce a more satisfying final output. Here are some tools that would be perfect for gifts! I try not to duplicate tools from previous guides, so check out the 2007 Crafty Tool guide, too!

Plush stuffing fork (13.95)

If you're in the practice of making plushies with long tentacles, Heather Bailey's plush stuffing fork works way better than an old chopstick for getting stuffing down into the tiniest contours.

Well Twi-hards, the time is here. That special day in November when you no longer have to dream of powdery white skin and the smell of blood (and teen angst) in the morning. You can live it, man. Well, vicariously through the screen presentation of the much anticipated debut of the Twilight Saga's New Moon.

To celebrate, we've ditched the not-so-vamp-friendly knitting needles for a kinder, gentler (read: can't be used as a stake) yarn tool: the Knifty Knitter Flower Loom, to make the Ode to Alice Cullen wrist warmers. Gather 'round, Twi-sters!

I'm leaving for a 3 week trip bright and early tomorrow morning, and in preparation, today I gathered the supplies for a fun travel art kit. I went to Art and Soul, my local arts and crafts shop in Sebastopol (where our Craft Intern Lindsey works!). I found some great things there. All the kit needs is water, and my creative energy. With just it, I can draw, color, paint, and blend. It's a simple and compact collection of tools, including: Moleskins, 6 shades of watercolor crayons, paintbrushes for blending, a fine point ink pen, and two very intersting pencils. One is a graphite pencil that blends with water, and the other is a blue ink pencil.

If you have a great travel art kit, share a list of the contents in the comment section! Bon Voyage!

Kristin Boehm has posted a great detailed tutorial on how to make a lightbox out of K'Nex pieces for product photography. She was digging for the perfect materials and stumbled across a box of K'Nex from her childhood, and the rest is history.

Handmade clothes are one thing. A handmade dress reminds us that DIY hasn't always been a lifestyle, it used to be just life!

I found this treasure at my local junk store. This vintage piece is almost more art than function at this point. I love all the worn details: the bent and rusted metal neck, the faded blue pattern marking lines, the frayed edges of the canvas.

Maya of maya*made came up with a clever way to quickly mark dozens of circles for cutting out of felt. Tracing around a round object isn't necessarily a new method, but her trick for transferring the circles from a round object (rather than tediously moving, tracing, moving again) is brilliant. Check her blog to see how it's done.

Here's a handy gear technique: use a jug-carrying knot to make a secure strap for your bottle.

I am in love with a new tool. It's a simple Ashford Flick Card. I have had my eye on a pair of $60 hand carders for a while, but this flick card was less than $20, so I went for it. The card is basically a brush with thin, sharp, bent teeth. Interestingly enough, I found the tool at my local feed store, not the craft store.

I frequently travel all around with tons of wool roving. This year alone I've done almost 10 events to promote Feltique, taking all my supplies and letting people learn about felt. And while wool roving is relatively inexpensive and easy to store, some wool in my collection has been toted around with me for literally 3 years. The wool begins to naturally felt to itself, pick up lint and bits of debris, and in general become messy looking. And no one wants to make art with a cruddy looking tangled lock of fleece. That's where the flick card comes in.

While watching a movie last night, I sat on the couch and pawed thru my pile of roving, matching up colors and combing them out. I didn't really have a technique, I just stuck the locks onto the teeth of the comb, and brushed them. I picked the wool off, then brushed it again, repeating until all the tangles had been pulled out. The result is as if I went shopping and bought all new supplies. Having fresh fluffy piles of color is really inspiring. I can't believe I waited so long to get one of these tools!

If you have a question for Ask CRAFT, shoot me an email at becky@craftzine.com, or drop us a note on Twitter! We'd love to answer your crafty questions on any topic: technique, projects, crafty culture, or anything else! Each week the answers are here; include your name, where you're from, and your website or blog if you have one!

Susan writes in:

I see these expensive rotary cutters in the stores. What makes them better than a sharp pair of scissors or a knife? Are they worth it?

Rotary cutters are great! Here are some cases I'd use them instead of scissors or a utility knife:

Quilting and precise geometries

Quilters comprise a large portion of rotary cutter owners, and it's not by accident. Using large clear rulers, quilters can cut out very precisely-shaped pieces for intricate quilt work. Since most quilt pieces have straight lines all around, the rotary cutter makes quick work of highly geometric shapes cut from fabric or paper. You can use a smaller rotary cutter to cut curves.

Cutting odd or delicate materials

Leather, silk, window screen, and other overly delicate, snag prone, or unusual materials are best cut with a rotary cutter. For one, you can get a straight line cut from a movement-prone fabric because once you get it flat on the table, you don't have to lift it to cut the line, like with scissors. Denser materials benefit from the rotary cutter because the blade isn't sliding through the length of the cut, but rather rolling down over the material, preventing snags that can happen with a knife.

Decorative edging and scrapbooking

Rotary cutters have interchangable blades, and you can get decorative edging blades to make cuts in paper for scrapbooking. Unlike patterned scissors, the blade is circular like a ravioli cutter, which makes the pattern endlessly and seamlessly repeatable.

Cutting multiple layers

Rotary cutters can easily slice many layers of material at once, which is great for multiples in fabric, paper, etc.

Increased speed

Trimming seam allowances is super fast with a rotary cutter. You can cut with a push motion or a pull motion, unlike a knife which must be pulled. This helps prevent RSI and lets you work however's comfortable. Because you can cut multiple layers at once, making oodles of the same piece, like for quilting, is a dream.

Please be careful using any rotary cutter, as they're very sharp. It's best to get one with a safety feature that pulls the blade back when not in use. Watch your fingers when cutting against rulers, and keep this tool away from small children. Check out this great introductory tutorial on working with rotary cutters on the Purl Bee. Have tips or stories about how and why you use a rotary cutter? Share them in the comments!

More:

• HOW TO - Cut Curves with a Rotary Cutter
  
• How-To: Recycled T-shirt Necklace
  

I'm a rebel. I've always tried to avoid picking up habits from my parents. What can I say? I'm just anti-authority and I love to teach myself. So despite almost 30 years of fighting it, I have finally realized you can't always deny the effect your dad has on you. And for that, I consider myself to be quite lucky.

My dad, Steve Morris, is a crafty maker who invents, repairs and most of all, improves most things. He has introduced me to many adventerous hobbies, including welding and abalone diving. He loves to encourage my own work, and has even requested a needlefelted cuff for one of the handlebars on his Harley (I'm working on it dad!). I want to share three of the more important lessons I have learned from his diligent teaching (whether I wanted to learn them or not). These lessons might seem mundane, but they stick with me, and I often hear my dad's voice while I'm working- generally reminders to be respectfull of my tools, and that shortcuts might not be the best way. Even though he didn't teach me how to sew or felt, he taught me about crafting, and about the importance of having good form.

Dad Lesson 1: Everything is better in it's original box.
My dad's car battery charger is still in its original packaging, lending it an extra level of authenticity. He taught me that this is a great way to keep things tidy and secure, and I learned that over time, the original box also adds nostalgia to an otherwise mundane object.

Dad Lesson 2: Always keep the camera strap around your neck.
My dad's Minolta camera is my favorite of his tools. When I was a kid, he generously let me use it- as long as I followed the only rule- WEAR THE STRAP. It's a habit I still have, and the only reason I've never lost my camera off the Golden Gate Bridge.

Dad Lesson 3: Don't pull on power cords.
I've always been a tiny bit lazy, and it took my dad's vigilant instruction to break a very bad habit. I used to yank power cords right out of the wall, from the furthest possible distance. "What's the harm?" I used to ask. Well, the outlet, the plug, and the sewing machine are all relieved that he made me walk over to the wall, every time.

Instructables user cr8ive1 writes:

This is how I make steel doming punches to shape soft metals (gold, silver, copper, brass) for jewellery making. Doming (or dapping punches as they are often referred to by jewellery makers) punches are expensive for what they are- basically highly polished pieces of curved steel. I have a few commercially made punches and a brass dapping block but I needed larger ones for a project. I couldn't justify the expense knowing they would only see occasional use, so I made my own. For this project I've used an old carriage bolt (domed bolt). As I don't have a lathe to remove large amounts of material a piece of preshaped steel was important to reduce the need for labourious hand work (this project is about saving money not losing time).

Hey jewelry makers, how do you improvise your own tools? Post in the comments.

Gareth @ MAKE found this simple setup for transferring your old film to digital. From the Flickr user svofski:

A lens (or a macro lens, or a lens with extension rings) is inserted in the circular hole in front. A negative holder made of two sheets of vinyl with spacers is at the opposite end. After film is inserted, the box is closed and camera is aligned.

Since any remote source of light will be hopelessly out of focus in such setup, no special diffuser is really necessary. I normally use LCD display.

Instructables user Saul shows us how to make an easy chalk holder from a piece of bamboo. If there's none in or around your back yard, maybe they have small decorative pieces at your local import store, or maybe even the thrift store! This should be useful for all you schoolteachers out there who've yet to change over to a white board.

Handmade Detroit did this awesome video review of the Yudu screen printing machine. It has a hefty pricetag, but this video review has even me convinced that it it might be worth it. Via Core77.

In this week's video, I'll show you how to turn a 2D barcode into a knitted scarf! This is a fun way to get information from a garment into an electronic device, such as a cell phone equipped with a barcode-scanning camera. Anyone who takes a picture of my scarf can decode the message. I used Photoshop to modify the QR code I got from Kaywa (whose barcode scarf inspired me to make my own!) into a usable knitting pattern, but you could easily use graph paper instead. I programmed the pattern into my computerized knitting machine, a Brother KH 930. If you know how to do stranded knitting (learn how here), you can knit this without a machine - just use really small needles! As a side note, a friend and I are working on an interface to download patterns directly from the computer to the knitting machine, instead of having to sit there and input every colored stitch. We'll keep you posted!

Subscribe to the CRAFT Podcast in iTunes, or download the m4v (iPhone) or mov movie.

More:

• QR Code Cake
  
• Semacode Needlepoint
  
• Space Invader and 2D Barcode Scarf
  
• Skeleton Cardigan - CRAFT Pattern Podcast
  
• Skeleton Cardigan Part 1 - CRAFT Video Podcast
  
• Skeleton Cardigan Part 2 - CRAFT Video Podcast
  

Wild Olive shares a PDF download for this clever embroidered scissors cozy, perfect for protecting your snips.

Craftster user Ammasmama created these gorgeous handmade knitting needles by casting items like glitter and yarn in resin. She even provides a tutorial so you can try making your own!

Marc @ MAKE found this amazing three-part tutorial about French knitting, the kind done with a loom. It goes over creating your own knitting loom and using it with recycled plastic bags to knit a reusable (and very strong) purse or grocery bag. Be sure to see all three pages!

From the pages of CRAFT:09:

The Green Issue is packed full of recycling projects! Subscribe to CRAFT.

The Craft Apple shares her tips on cutting curved edges with a rotary cutter, which can take some getting used to. Check out her blog post on the subject, which even features a video.

Mister Jalopy tips us off to these crazy new scissors from The Container Store, which are like having not three, not four, but FIVE scissors in one!