ToolGirl Mag Ruffman

Mag's Free Plans and How-to Videos!

Mag's Free Plans

ToolGirl's online How-To Videos

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Big Announcement!

In a new partnership with Lowe's Canada, Mag will be producing a video series of fun, colourful projects that families can build together! 

Whether it’s a giant chalkboard for the kitchen, a photo puzzle for toddlers, a birdfeeder for the backyard or a skateboard ramp for the whole neighborhood, Family Constructables will cover step-by-step building for all ages.

Each 3-5 minute episode will be accompanied by downloadable step-by-step instructions loaded with extra tips and mini-lessons, so even if parents aren't experienced in building, they can learn alongside their kids!  

For parents and children, building something together can be a lifelong bonding experience.  They share the best of themselves as they conceive, invent and problem-solve their way to a successful creation.

By offering an online destination for kids and parents to search and choose projects for their family, Lowe’s is ensuring that generations to come will know how to work with their hands and build soul-satisfying projects with their own children. The video series will launch on Lowes.ca in 2012.  

Recycled paper basket | Design*Sponge

via www.designsponge.com

Anyone else remember learning to sew in Home Ec using paper templates with a spiral pattern (and shrieking as you went off course at full speed)?

Well, sewing on paper just came back in a big way. This is a cool improvised basket constructed from packing paper sewn into lengths with black thread.

Beer Bottle Cap Table

via diygadgets.blogspot.com

Continuing my fascination with round things plunked in grout, this would be a great treatment for a basement bar top or even a backsplash.

Make your own lapboards for eating, playing, drawing, writing, reading

This is a set of lap boards I made from my friend Leah.  They're made from 1/4-inch oak plywood cut into 10"x16" rectangles, with photos applied using t-shirt transfers (you can do this).  These boards have lots of uses including preventing spills at family buffet brunches!   

Leah chose a few of my photographs from around the farm and we applied them to sanded plywood

Sometimes the transfers have raggedy edges but I kind of like the randomness.

 

Amanda Edwards and her penny-tiled floor

via www.mandolinmosaics.com

I know, I know, I'm obsessed with coin flooring this week!  Amanda Edwards' stunning kitchen floor is tiled with pennies using black sanded grout. Then Amanda sealed it with clear polyurethane.  And this is only a sliver of her skill.  Lift your spirits in under 5 seconds; visit her web site to see the breathtaking stained glass works she spins from her limitless imagination. The colours and movement in her pieces will make you feel like you just took a vacation.  

Nickel Tile Floor! A DIY Bathroom Renovation

via www.apartmenttherapy.com

After the penny tiling investigation (in the previous post), I discovered some long-suffering souls who figured out one way to solve the coin-embedding mystery in their bathroom renovation. Their step-by-step instructions are a testament to determination.

Tiled Penny Floor

via www.curbly.com

It's gorgeous, even if it belongs in the curriculum of the Kill Me Now School of Decorating. So tilers, do you think they used black grout? Or did they use clear epoxy over the pennies?

Homemade easel for kids

This was one of the more successful Christmas presents Daniel and I made for our little friend Charlotte (3). 

We used poplar, small hinges and string.  

The red side of the easel is a chalkboard (homemade chalkboard paint, baby), the other side is a dry-erase board cut from a cheap 4x8 sheet of white bathroom paneling.

Charlotte's mum clamps newsprint to the whiteboard side any time Charlotte wants to paint. The easel folds flat for storage.  

P.S. I forgot to take step-by-step photos during the white-hot frenzy of creation so let me know if you want instructions and I'll build another.

Hanging a curtain rod {made simple}

via missmustardseed.com

Here's a brilliant idea from a decorator who hangs lots of curtains; make a template with pre-drilled holes.  Just flip the template to do the opposite side of the window.  Saves a ton of fussy measuring and speeds up the job by about 600%.

Make The Best of Things: DIY crackle finish with Elmer's Glue and paint

via makethebestofthings.blogspot.com

I've always used fish glue (from Lee Valley Tools) or 'mucilage' - the paper glue we used in kindergarten with the little slitted pink rubber top - to create crackled and crazed paint effects.  

The minor aesthetic problem with mucilage and fish glue (which, just FYI, smells like dead fish) is that they both give a very glossy effect to the cracks, which looks sort of cheesy on some projects.

Using white glue or carpenter's glue offers a much softer matte finish, as detailed on this lovely blog, Make the Best of Things. I love this girl's work and I never thought of doing a crackle finish on cloth. How cool. She gives lots of detail about her experiments in creating crackle finishes with different base coats and degrees of thinning (both glue and top coat). Give 'er a click, eh.

Turn your artwork or photo into DIY wallpaper

I love this concept from young entrepreneur Matthew Pullerits.

Choose from millions of high res shots or upload your own image to Ink Shuffle, a Toronto company that will print a custom mural for you.  And it's easy to remove if you want to replace it, unlike most wallpaper I have known.  Plus Ink Shuffle's adhesive won't damage walls.  If you're an artist, you can earn royalties by uploading your images.

Here's how to get your own DIY wallpaper.  Prices start at around $50 - an average wall costs around $250. Every order is custom sized to fit your wall.  (as big as 20x20 feet)

 

 

 

 

d-i-y leather cabinet pulls (via holton rower) | The Improvised Life

via www.improvisedlife.com

Roofing nails are the secret to these leather pulls.  Freakishly cool.

The Periodic Table of Swearing

via thatslikewhoa.com

This is a great icebreaker for corporate parties or staid family reunions. Each button emits audio of a geeky swear. And the swears are British too, so they sound peri-Shakespearean.

DIY Chalkboard Paint

You can buy chalkboard paint in green or black, but why limit yourself to those scholastic-y colours? Maybe you want to make a chalkboard wall in the kitchen for a family communication center, or maybe you're making a kids' art table like this...

...and it would be fun to use a colour other than black or green.  

So get a quart size can of flat paint in any shade you like (I used Olympic Premium Zero VOC because it dries in an hour, has no odour and carries a lifetime warranty) and pour the amount of paint you'll need into a separate container.  Then add unsanded grout powder (available in the tile aisle) with the ratio of 1 rounded tablespoon of unsanded grout to 1 cup of flat paint.  Stir it up well and then roll out 2 or 3 coats on the surface you want to transform into a chalkboard.  You can use a hair dryer to speed up the drying time if you're rushed.  Cool eh?  

Vicky Sanderson's de-stressing gift guide

This is a guest post written by my lovely colleague Vicky Sanderson, a triple-threat guru in the fields of entertaining, decor and cooking! Vicki writes Hot Home Products, a weekly column on home improvement, décor and housewares that appears in the Toronto Star and on YourHome.ca - Follow her on Twitter: @vickysanderson 

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Feeling seasonal stress already? Relax. It’s supposed to be fun, remember? Just in case that wise yogic counsel didn’t induce calm, here are three ways to instantly dial down the holiday pressure.

Give gifts that encourage family togetherness. Nothing says downtime like a couple of movies in a row on a snow-soaked afternoon. Choose a family favourite, such as Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – just out in a collectible box at HMV  — and add a classic, such as West Side Story. 

Foodie Blues?

Enough with all the cooking already!  Stock up on high-quality prepared foods from a specialty retailer like M&M Meat Shops. Pop their frozen pot roast in a slow cooker, which will produce a delicious cooking-all-day aroma (nudge, nudge) before adding veg and — if you like — a splurt of red wine. Serve with a pre-mixed salad and artisanal bread. For dessert, pull out M&M’s mini cream puffs, Nanaimo bars and tiny, perfect fruit tarts. When folks compliment you on the meal, sigh with exhaustion, daintily wipe your brow and say they were worth every ounce of the trouble you took. 

Be a Pig Hero

Remember what it’s really all about, and make a donation on behalf of someone far, far away whose life isn’t as blessed as yours. Consider, for example, World Vision, which partners with local communities in developing countries to improve lives.  A donation of $50 and a family receives two hens and a rooster; $40 buys a pig. The bonus here – you’ll raise a smile when you tell folks you gave pigs and poultry as presents this year.

 

Transfer your (or your kids') art onto ceramic tiles

I've discovered a cool new technique. I've been tranferring photos onto wood for a few years now to make coasters and all kinds of fun projects.  But the other day I tried it on a glazed ceramic tile and it worked!

I had a young friend draw directly onto t-shirt transfer paper using a Pilot rolling ball pen.  Then we cut out the drawing, turned it upside down and placed it on a 4-inch ceramic tile, then applied a hot iron to the back of the transfer.  

After we peeled off the backing paper, we had a perfect image on the tile surface. We put some parchment paper (the silicon-coated paper used for cooking) over the image and reheated it for a few seconds with the hot iron just to smooth a few bumps in the plastic transfer film.  Looks pretty cool right?  Which of your relatives wouldn't love a set of coasters from a budding cartoonist?  

You can also use crayons and markers to create images but be careful not to tear the delicate surface of the transfer paper. Also, Sharpies don't work very well - they blur and run under the heat of the iron.

TIP: Apply felt dots to the back of the tile to prevent sharp corners and edges from scratching delicate surfaces. 

This technique also works reasonably well with photographic images printed on t-shirt transfer paper using an inkjet printer.  Make sure the tiles are grease-free by wiping them with a little rubbing alcohol before applying the transfer.

 

Green Toys - Building tools for kids

Plastic kids' tools made from recycled milk cartons.  Great for fine motor skills, developing 3D aptitude and eye-hand coordination.  What's not to love?  For ages 2+. Thanks to Kevin Fraser for the heads up.  

Home-Dzine - What can you do with an old pallet?

via www.home-dzine.co.za

Wow, check out the beds, benches, racks, tables and even wall paneling! Most pallets are made of hardwood, so with some sanding and a bit of a linseed oil, they clean up to rustic chicness.  

Sugru - Duct Tape for Makers and Gadget Lovers - Forbes

via www.forbes.com

When a Forbes reporter says "This is one of my favorite products," you gotta get some! (I got my first Sugru the day they launched in 2009. They sold out in one day.)

Wood Bike Basket by AvieArts

via www.etsy.com

And just who wouldn't be attracted to a guy with a wood basket for his bike? And if he made it himself, even more points. And if a girl made it for him, he must be well and truly loved.

Photo Blocks for Kids

I've been working on making more blocks for kids after reading this fantastic New York Times article about how educators are returning to blocks and unstructured play.  WHAT A HUGE STEP FORWARD!  Because fingers can do so much more than work on a computer keyboard or a tablet surface, and kids with 3D aptitude have, when given the chance, amazing ways of expressing themselves.  They're the makers, builders and artists of tomorrow.

Here's a little preview of photo blocks made from poplar.  

 

How-to for Kids, Coming Soon to Lowe's Canada

Thanks to my friends over at Road to Avonlea for the update on my latest producing venture! 

 

Christmas sugru! (A wee holiday offer.)

via sugru.com

The folks at Sugru are running a special; you get a 4th pack when you buy 3. In case you haven't heard of Sugru, it's a fantastic, moldable silicon compound that cures to a semi-flexible toughness and it bonds chemically with so many substances that you will be hard pressed to find anything you can't fix or improve with Sugru.  It's the perfect antidote to the culture of obsolescence!  Sugru comes in black, white, green, orange and blue, and you can blend colours to get a huge range of shades.  I always have some in my purse, in my make-up bag and in my toolbox to mend or append anything made of metal, plastic, stone, leather, ceramic, glass, wood and fabric.  Cures at room temperature to waterproof, dishwasher-proof, freeze-proof ruggedness.   

Gorgeous Rustic Knothole Photo Frames

Tree Craft: 35 Rustic Wood Projects That Bring the Outdoors in

A fantastic book from a lovely craftsman, Chris Lubkemann, who uses hand tools, imagination and savvy 3D aptitude to make stuff with that forever quality.  

You can see a project excerpt over at the Craftzine blog.

The dazzling designs of Christy Oates

What a brilliant human being this girl is to come up with this blend of woodworking and fine art.  Dare you not to be inspired.

MFA Thesis Gallery Exhibition - Christy Oates from christy oates on Vimeo.

Urban Rustic Design

via www.eieihome.com

A new way to build cool furniture - drink wine!  Is this not the coolest chair ever? (It has no lumbar support but you can just upcycle all of the corks into a cushion.)