Everyone loves a fun hat to wear on New Year’s Eve … so why not make this playing-card hat and really party with style?

Happy New Year!

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Instructables user Yakeyglee has a tutorial to make an expressive clay head using household instruments and, of course, clay.

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Elegant Musings has a great tutorial on how to cover a plain bangle bracelet with any kind of paper (she used old sheet music) for an interesting accessory.

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Take a men’s shirt and turn it into a girly dress shirt with these nice instructions over at Craftster. [via]

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I’ve been keeping a journal since second grade, and after a while, it just gets … expensive. Plus, I’m extremely picky. It can’t have too many pages, but it can’t have too few. And if it’s super ornate, forget it. I want it simple and utilitarian. My journal of choice is a Moleskine, but those can be pretty pricey.

The fix? Make your own. [via]

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We’ve already told you about spoon jewelry, now try your hand at fork art. This artist uses only his own strength and tools like pliers to make them bend into incredible poses, but I’d imagine that heat would make it easier. [via]

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Make a tripod that rotates to take panoramic shots.

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I’ve seen a few examples of these on the Internet and decided to give it a try. It turned out great, but I must warn you: Melting plastic creates toxic fumes. Open windows and have a fan running to make sure you don’t knock yourself out/grow a third arm.

Ingredients:

- Plastic beads (I used large pony beads, but any size will work, as long as they’re plastic)

- Metal bowl, cupcake tin, bread tin, etc

- Oven

- Windows!!! And a fan!

To make it:

1. Line the beads in the bowl/metal object. You can also make patterns and arrangements on cookie sheets, or use a cookie cutter and place them inside. They don’t all have to lie flat, but make them only one bead deep. If you’re using a bowl, stack the beads taller than you think you want it; when the bowl melts, they will sink down and it will be much shallower.

2. Preheat the oven to around 350 degrees and pop your creations in. I ended up turning up the oven because I’m impatient, and I didn’t see any big problems with that, but it definitely smells more.

3. Keep checking the beads. It’ll take about 20 minutes or more to melt.

4. When it looks soupy and completely melted, pull the bowl out of the oven and allow the plastic to cool.

5. Flip it over and tap the bottom with a hammer or spoon to dislodge the plastic. It should come out relatively easily.

Here are some other projects I’ve found made of melted beads:

A vase. Melt the beads in a circular pie tin, then lay the disc flat on a soda can and remelt it.

A windchime. Melt them on a cookie sheet arranged in cookie cutters.

Artwork. Arrange the beads on a cookie sheet to form a picture.

Lampshade. Create a tinfoil mold of a standing plastic lampshade, and arrange the beads in it.

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Use an empty tea bag, flattened out, to make a “rocket.” Well, it’s more like something fun that soars in the air in a fiery ball, but who doesn’t love that?

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Finally, a radio frequency jammer you can build at home! This is a project we have been waiting for for a long time. Introducing the Wave Bubble. From the website:

This website details the design and construction Wave Bubble: a self-tuning, wide-bandwidth portable RF jammer. The device is lightweight and small for easy camoflauging: it is the size of a pack of cigarettes.

No more annoying cell-phone ringers in the movie theaters! The site includes the CAD files for the mainboard, schematics, and the firmware you will need to be your very own frequency pirate. Oh, and if you do build this thing, just remember it’s illegal to use it - so give it a nice spot up on the shelf and wait for the next revolution. [via]

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Make a Rubik’s cube out of dice. [via] 

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Cover those ugly picture coasters with paint and old photos to make a utilitarian scrapbook that sits out on your table.

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Make papier mache Christmas pinatas filled with candies or little treats. They pull apart instead of breaking, so you don’t have to worry about shielding your face from a blindfolded 10-year-old with a baseball bat.

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Weave a placemat out of a cereal box or a juice carton.

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Dress up one of those boring floor lamps with colorful Post-It notes. [via, via]

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