Print this page

Top Five Easy DIY Holiday Gifts Featured

Rate this item
(0 votes)

Through the eyes of Amy...

We know that the Holiday Season can be quite the burden on your wallet, so if you're feeling crafty we have some DIY projects that you gift to your special somebody! These projects are fun, easy, and spread holiday cheer without having to spread out your finances.

1. T-Shirt Designs
Get creative with your digital designing skills and create a design that can be ironed onto a shirt with special icon-on t-shirt transfer paper. Take care to follow the printing instructions in the packaging carefully and take note of the washing instructions.

2. Handmade Clay Charms
From Polymer to Fimo clay there are many types of bakeable clays you can use to mold your very own custom-designed charms. Simple tools such as a small blade or texture tools would help you add detail to your charm as well.

3. Printed Towels
Get some fabric paint, sponges, scissors, and blank towels. Cut the sponges into whatever shape you want, dip the sponge design into some fabric paint and splot away on the blank towel for a simple and fun design.

4. Chalkboard Frames
Stay organized throughout the summer with your very own chalkboard by taking an inexpensive frame and painting the glass with chalkboard paint. Glue a strong magnet onto the back of your new chalkboard so that you can put it up in your room.

5. Personalized Tote Bags
Some fabric dye, fabric paint, a blank tote bag, and paint brushes are all you need to create a personalized tote bag. Whether it is for the beach or casual shopping, you will be going out with flare.

Feel free to share photos of your own results of these do-it-yourself projects!

Read 375568 times Last modified on Tuesday, 26 July 2016 12:47
Monday, 10 November 2014 22:00

21792 comments

  • Comment Link ClintonLop Saturday, 28 June 2025 18:13 ClintonLop

    ‘Like wildfires underwater’: Worst summer on record for Great Barrier Reef as coral die-off sweeps planet
    tripscan войти
    Great Barrier Reef, Australia
    CNN

    As the early-morning sun rises over the Great Barrier Reef, its light pierces the turquoise waters of a shallow lagoon, bringing more than a dozen turtles to life.

    These waters that surround Lady Elliot Island, off the eastern coast of Australia, provide some of the most spectacular snorkeling in the world — but they are also on the front line of the climate crisis, as one of the first places to suffer a mass coral bleaching event that has now spread across the world.
    https://tripscan.biz
    трипскан
    The Great Barrier Reef just experienced its worst summer on record, and the US-based National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced last month that the world is undergoing a rare global mass coral bleaching event — the fourth since the late 1990s — impacting at least 53 countries.

    The corals are casualties of surging global temperatures which have smashed historical records in the past year — caused mainly by fossil fuels driving up carbon emissions and accelerated by the El Nino weather pattern, which heats ocean temperatures in this part of the world.

    CNN witnessed bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef in mid-February, on five different reefs spanning the northern and southern parts of the 2,300-kilometer (1,400-mile) ecosystem.

    “What is happening now in our oceans is like wildfires underwater,” said Kate Quigley, principal research scientist at Australia’s Minderoo Foundation. “We’re going to have so much warming that we’re going to get to a tipping point, and we won’t be able to come back from that.”

    Coral bleached white from high water temperatures on the Great Barrier Reef, Australia. CNN
    Bleaching occurs when marine heatwaves put corals under stress, causing them to expel algae from their tissue, draining their color. Corals can recover from bleaching if the temperatures return to normal, but they will perish if the water stays warmer than usual.

    “It’s a die-off,” said Professor Ove Hoegh-Guldberg, a climate scientist at the University of Queensland in Australia and chief scientist at The Great Barrier Reef Foundation. “The temperatures got so warm, they’re off the charts … they never occurred before at this sort of level.”

    The destruction of marine ecosystems would deliver an effective death sentence for around a quarter of all species that depend on reefs for survival — and threaten an estimated billion people who rely on reef fish for their food and livelihoods. Reefs also provide vital protection for coastlines, reducing the impact of floods, cyclones and sea level rise.

    “Humanity is being threatened at a rate by which I’m not sure we really understand,” Hoegh-Guldberg said.

  • Comment Link PhillipRaf Saturday, 28 June 2025 18:09 PhillipRaf

    “We’re asking everyone to take it slow, avoid driving through standing water, and use alternate routes when possible,” Rosenlund urged.
    tripskan
    Rainfall in Grand Island began Wednesday afternoon but the intensity picked up quickly after dark, falling at more than an inch per hour at times.

    A total of 6.41 inches of rain fell by midnight, which made it the rainiest June day and the second rainiest day of any month in the city’s 130-year history of weather records.

    The National Weather Service issued a flash flood emergency — the most severe form of flood warning — at 11:45 p.m. CDT Wednesday for Grand Island that continued for several hours into Thursday morning, continuously warning of “extensive flash flooding.”
    https://tripscan.biz
    tripscan войти
    Multiple rounds of heavy storms tracked over the area late Wednesday into early Thursday morning and ultimately dumped record amounts of rainfall. A level 2-of-4 risk of flooding rainfall was in place for Grand Island at the time, according to the Weather Prediction Center.

    More than a month’s worth of rain – nearly 4.5 inches – fell in only three hours between 10 p.m. CDT Wednesday and 1 a.m. CDT Thursday. Rainfall of this intensity would only be expected around once in 100 years, according to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration data.

    Climate change is making heavy rainfall events heavier. As the world warms due to fossil fuel pollution, a warmer atmosphere is able to soak up more moisture like a sponge, only to wring it out in heavier bursts of rain.

    Hourly rainfall rates have intensified in nearly 90% of large US cities since 1970, a recent study found.

  • Comment Link Williampouby Saturday, 28 June 2025 18:00 Williampouby

    Покупка дипломов ВУЗов по всей России и СНГ — с печатями, подписями, приложением и возможностью архивной записи (по запросу).
    Документ максимально приближен к оригиналу и проходит визуальную проверку.
    Мы гарантируем, что в случае проверки документа, подозрений не возникнет.

    - Конфиденциально
    - Доставка 3–7 дней
    - Любая специальность

    Уже более 3056 клиентов воспользовались услугой — теперь ваша очередь.

    [url=http://inforepetitor11.ru/]Узнать подробнее[/url] — ответим быстро, без лишних формальностей.

  • Comment Link JosephGut Saturday, 28 June 2025 17:59 JosephGut

    Мы предлагаем оформление дипломов ВУЗов в Москве — с печатями, подписями, приложением и возможностью архивной записи (по запросу).
    Документ максимально приближен к оригиналу и проходит визуальную проверку.
    Мы гарантируем, что в случае проверки документа, подозрений не возникнет.

    - Конфиденциально
    - Доставка 3–7 дней
    - Любая специальность

    Уже более 4950 клиентов воспользовались услугой — теперь ваша очередь.

    [url=http://inforepetitor12.ru/]Дипломы о высшем образовании купить[/url] — ответим быстро, без лишних формальностей.

  • Comment Link WilliamPyday Saturday, 28 June 2025 17:55 WilliamPyday

    Many left-wing preppers also have guns.
    трипскан вход
    Killjoy is open about the fact she owns firearms but calls it one of the least important aspects of her prepping. She lives in rural Appalachia and, as a transgender woman, says the way she’s treated has changed dramatically since Trump’s first election. For those on the left, guns are “for community and self-defense,” she said.

    Left-wing preppers consistently say the biggest difference between them and their right-wing peers is the rejection of “bunker mentality” — the idea of filling a bunker with beans, rice, guns and ammo and expecting to be able to survive the apocalypse alone.

    Shonkwiler gives an example of a right-wing guy with a rifle on his back, who falls down the stairs and breaks a leg. If he doesn’t have medical training and a community to help, “he’s going to die before he gets to enjoy all his freeze-dried food.”

    “People are our greatest asset,” Killjoy said. When Hurricane Helene carved a path of destruction through Asheville, North Carolina in 2024, Killjoy, who used to live in the city, loaded her truck with food and generators and drove there to help.
    https://tripscan.biz
    трипскан вход
    Inshirah Overton also subscribes to the idea of community. The attorney, who came to prepping after enduring Hurricane Irene in 2011, owns a half-acre plot of land in New Jersey where she grows food and has beehives.

    She stores fruit, vegetables and honey but also gives them to friends and neighbors. “My plan is to create a community of people who have a vested interest in this garden,” she said.

    At one point, Overton toyed with the idea of buying a “bug-out” property in Vermont, somewhere to escape to, but desire for community for her and her two daughters stopped her. In Vermont, “no one knows me and I’m just a random Black lady, and they’ll be like: ‘Oh, OK, right, sure. You live here? Sure. Here’s the barrel of my shotgun. Turn around.’”
    This focus on community may stem in part from left-wing preppers’ growing fears around the climate crisis, predicted to usher in far-reaching ecological, social and economic breakdown. It cannot be escaped by retreating to a bunker for a few weeks.

    As Trump guts weather agencies, pledges to unwind the Federal Emergency Management Administration and slashes climate funding — all while promising to unleash the fossil fuel industry — climate concerns are only coming into sharper focus.

    They’re top of mind for Brekke Wagoner, the creator and host of the Sustainable Prepping YouTube channel, who lives in North Carolina with her four children. She fears increasingly deadly summer heat and the “once-in-a-lifetime” storms that keep coming. Climate change “is just undeniable,” she said.

    Her prepping journey started during Trump’s first term. She was living in California and filled with fear that in the event of a big natural disaster, the federal government would simply not be there.

    Her house now contains a week’s worth of water, long-term food supplies, flashlights, backup batteries and a solar generator. “My goal is for our family to have all of our needs cared for,” she said, so in an emergency, whatever help is available can go to others.

    “You can have a preparedness plan that doesn’t involve a bunker and giving up on civilization,” she said.

  • Comment Link Haroldavela Saturday, 28 June 2025 17:53 Haroldavela

    This company says its technology can help save the world. It’s now cutting 20% of its staff as Trump slashes climate funding
    tripscan войти
    Two huge plants in Iceland operate like giant vacuum cleaners, sucking in air and stripping out planet-heating carbon pollution. This much-hyped climate technology is called direct air capture, and the company behind these plants, Switzerland-based Climeworks, is perhaps its most high-profile proponent.

    But a year after opening a huge new facility, Climeworks is straining against strong headwinds. The company announced this month it would lay off around 20% of its workforce, blaming economic uncertainties and shifting climate policy priorities.
    https://trip-scan.top
    трипскан
    “We’ve always known this journey would be demanding. Today, we find ourselves navigating a challenging time,” Climeworks’ CEOs Christoph Gebald and Jan Wurzbacher said in a statement.

    This is particularly true of its US ambitions. A new direct air capture plant planned for Louisiana, which received $50 million in funding from the Biden administration, hangs in the balance as President Donald Trump slashes climate funding.

    Climeworks also faces mounting criticism for operating at only a fraction of its maximum capacity, and for failing to remove more climate pollution than it emits.

    The company says these are teething pains inherent in setting up a new industry from scratch and that it has entered a new phase of global scale up. “The overall trajectory will be positive as we continue to define the technology,” said a Climeworks spokesperson.

    For critics, however, these headwinds are evidence direct air capture is an expensive, shiny distraction from effective climate action.

  • Comment Link Nelsonplode Saturday, 28 June 2025 17:50 Nelsonplode

    Despite prepping’s reputation as a form of doomerism, many left-wing preppers say they are not devoid of hope.
    tripskan
    Shonkwiler believes there will be an opportunity to create something new in the aftermath of a crisis. “It begins with preparedness and it ends with a better world,” he said.

    Some also say there’s less tension between left- and right-wing preppers than people might expect. Bounds, the sociology professor, said very conservative preppers she met during her research contacted her during the Covid-19 pandemic to offer help.
    https://tripscan.biz
    tripscan top
    There is a natural human solidarity that emerges amid disaster, Killjoy said. She recalls a cashier giving her a deep discount on supplies she was buying to take to Asheville post-Helene. “I have every reason to believe that that man is right-wing, and I do think that there is a transcending of political differences that happens in times of crisis,” she said.

    As terrifying events pile up, from the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East to deadly extreme weather, it’s hard to escape the sense we live in a time of rolling existential crises — often a hair’s breadth from global disaster.

    People are increasingly beginning to wonder whether their views on preppers have been misconceived, Mills said. “There is a bigger question floating in the air, which is: Are preppers crazy, or is everyone else?”
    Killjoy has seen a huge change over the last five years in people’s openness to prepping. Those who used to make fun of her for her “go bag” are now asking for advice.

    It’s not necessarily the start of a prepping boom, she said. “I think it is about more and more people adopting preparedness and prepper things into a normal life.”

    Evidence already points this way. Americans stockpiled goods in advance of Trump’s tariffs and online sales of contraceptives skyrocketed in the wake of his election, amid concerns he would reduce access. Shows like “The Walking Dead,” meanwhile, have thrust the idea of prepping into popular culture and big box stores now sell prepping equipment and meal kits.

    People are hungry to learn about preparedness, said Shonkwiler. “They have the understanding that the world as we knew it, and counted on it, is beginning to cease to be. … What we need to be doing now is figuring out how we can survive in the world that we’ve created.”

  • Comment Link Harveyskalk Saturday, 28 June 2025 17:30 Harveyskalk

    “Generally, if people were more informed about the average
    [url=https://tripscan.biz]tripscan войти[/url]
    (environmental) cost of generating a response, people would maybe start thinking, ‘Is it really necessary to turn myself into an action figure just because I’m bored?’ Or ‘do I have to tell ChatGPT jokes because I have nothing to do?’” Dauner said.

    Additionally, as more companies push to add generative AI tools to their systems, people may not have much choice how or when they use the technology, Luccioni said.

    “We don’t need generative AI in web search. Nobody asked for AI chatbots in (messaging apps) or on social media,” Luccioni said. “This race to stuff them into every single existing technology is truly infuriating, since it comes with real consequences to our planet.”
    https://tripscan.biz
    tripscan top
    With less available information about AI’s resource usage, consumers have less choice, Ren said, adding that regulatory pressures for more transparency are unlikely to the United States anytime soon. Instead, the best hope for more energy-efficient AI may lie in the cost efficacy of using less energy.

    “Overall, I’m still positive about (the future). There are many software engineers working hard to improve resource efficiency,” Ren said. “Other industries consume a lot of energy too, but it’s not a reason to suggest AI’s environmental impact is not a problem. We should definitely pay attention.”

    Sign up for CNN’s Life, But Greener newsletter. Our limited newsletter series guides you on how to minimize your personal role in the climate crisis — and reduce your eco-anxiety.

  • Comment Link JohnnyTow Saturday, 28 June 2025 17:29 JohnnyTow

    ‘Extraordinary rainstorm’ floods Nebraska city, triggers water rescues
    [url=https://tripscan.biz]трипскан вход[/url]
    An entire June’s worth of rain fell in just a few hours over Grand Island, Nebraska, Wednesday night, triggering life-threatening flash flooding that inundated neighborhoods, stranded motorists and forced water rescues.

    Crews have responded to dozens of calls to assist motorists stuck in flooded roads since torrential rain began Wednesday night, according to Spencer Schubert, the city’s communications manager. The flooding has also displaced an unspecified number of residents from their homes.
    https://tripscan.biz
    tripscan
    “At this time we have no injuries to report,” Schubert said early Thursday morning, noting some rescues were ongoing.

    Torrential rain caused sewers to back up into several homes and sent floodwater running into basements, according to a Thursday news release from the city. Some affected residents took shelter at local hotels or with friends and family.

    “This was an extraordinary rainstorm and is very similar to the historic rains seen in the 2005 floods,” Jon Rosenlund, the city’s emergency director said. “We will be actively monitoring rivers, creeks and other drainage areas over the next few days for future flooding issues.”

    Flooding in 2005 turned streets into rivers in Grand Island. At one point, the city tore up a major road to open up a channel to drain flooding away from homes, CNN affiliate KHGI reported.

    The central Nebraskan city is home to around 53,000 people and is about 130 miles southwest of Omaha. The rain came to an end around sunrise Thursday, but the danger remains, with a flood warning in effect until 7 p.m. CDT.

  • Comment Link mostbet_kg_chEr Saturday, 28 June 2025 15:28 mostbet_kg_chEr

    мостбет казино https://mostbet11030.ru