We all know that when it comes to designing and printing labels, it can be a huge pain. Most of us probably don’t do it often enough that we have a system down, so we inevitably have to Google around for template sheets, figure out what program to use for designing, get our printing situation all figured out, etc. It can be a daunting situation when all you want is a few simple labels.

Enter autofillPDF-Labels 1.0 from our friends at Worldlabel.com. These spiffy (and free) PDF label templates take a lot of the annoyance of label making out of the equation. As long as you have Adobe Acrobat (also free), you simply open the file, fill out a single label, and the rest are filled in automatically for you. We love little time saving shortcuts like this.

Now go label everything you own!

Related: Worldlabel Label Templates

Comments(0)

Hey everyone! Look at this cool piece of software for Macs that allows you to create models from virtual lego-like building blocks. Now you can build that awesome Star Destroyer without having to fork over your life savings for the real thing. Anyone know of a similar piece of software for Windows?

Comments(3)

These “Do Not Disturb” signs are the real deal - retro-riffic since birth. Well, I guess when they were born they were “current.” Whatever. The point is they’re cool, and they’re available in a high-res printable image so you can make your own and hang them on your door, or the doors of your hotel, or your office, or from your nose in your cubicle as you nap.

Retro Holiday Inn Do Not Disturb Signs.

Comments(1)

Nicebunny.com has a nice collection of small papercraft figures each done by a different artist. Along with the instructions and a preview of each toy there is a link to see other work by the artist. [via]

Comments(0)

This font is adorably eerie. It also has a kitschy cute name. Mark Conahan developed this Skullphabet and apparently it can be downloaded in True Type or Open Type format, which is cool (probably). It’s totally free and everyone can get a kick out of doing their whatever-committee lecture notes in this awesome font for the next presentation they have at a meeting. Hardy har har.

Okay, I’m done. [via]

Comments(2)

Spotbit.com offers a variety of awesome manuals and zines. From how to get rich, to Artzmania, an awesome indie art ‘zine based out of Malaysia (yet somehow in English!). There’s even a zine called “DIGI GRAPHYX” dedicated to graphic design (coughDIY:happylogocontestcough), there are childrens’ books, business guides, everything! 

In Spotbit you can either download a .pdf file, or for those of you haters (you know who you are), you can download the .exe file and get a whole really cool program along with it. The prog even has a page-flippy noise and you can manually turn the pages with the mouse as if it’s right in front of you. Cyber-magazines! What’s next, cyber-babies?! Er…

 17 days until the END of the DIY:HAPPY LOGO CONTEST! 

Comments(1)

Alright folks, the moment all you graphic designers, dabblers, photoshophiles, and avatar-makers have been waiting for!

DIY:happy does not have a logo. Some folks think we do (the little TV-looking thing), but we don’t. However, we’d like one! We’d even be willing to throw in some incentives, because we’re nice and fabulous like that.

Here are the regulations (not rules, for all the Libertarians):

1. The logo has to be a good size. Nothing too small… it has to be made in all kinds of sizes, and we wouldn’t want to distort your masterpiece by resizing it, right?

2. It has to be a-okay for us to print it!

3. We’d rather not having anything offensive, mean, rude, terrible, or violence-insighting. 

4. Those things said, anything goes.

 DIY:happy loves you. So, whomever wins the contest will win:

• A $20 GIFT CERTIFICATE, care of the wonderful LadyAda. Good for anything in her online store (linked here), which is a cornucopia of DIY electronics kits, components, and all kinds of fun stuff for hobbyists, electronic engineers, and weekend DIY fans!
• Buttons with the logo YOU designed on them! Good for a resume, especially for designers!
• Every button you sell will have your signature at the bottom, so you don’t have to convince anyone. Just point at your sig.
• You’ll get three free buttons, as a sample of your work!

The suspense is over, let the games begin!

SUBMIT TO: Kristi@diyhappy.com or TIPS@diyhappy.com!

Projected End Date: September 13th at 11:59 PM (CST).

 UPDATE: 14 SUBMISSIONS AS OF 10:00PM, 08-11-07.

Comments(36)

 No, DIY:happy hasn’t succumbed to spam hackers, we’re actually telling you how to keep your house or life cool without spending a billion hard-earned dollars (or a billion of your parents’ hard-earned ones).

30 Ways To Lower Your Heating Bills
The Dollar Stretcher
Ben’s Tips To Keep Cool
MSN’s 25 Tips
Lifehacker’s Reader Tips

15 Instructionals until the contest!

Comments(1)

It’s almost summer and it’s time for some pic-a-nic baskets, as a certain bear tells us. Whether you like to pretend you’re Little Red Riding Hood bringing your ailing grandmother a basket, or you’re just trying out being a picnic Scenester, here are a few helpful links to get you started:

Do’s and Don’ts: The proper picnic etiquette. Note there’s nothing about stealing baskets, eyy BooBoo? Okay, we’re done with Yogi jokes.
Picnic Essentials: How to plan and execute a proper one, without any social or executive faux pas. Doesn’t really list manners, sorry.
Picnic Tables: This teaches you how to be a hardcore picnic fanatic - make your own table!
Wikihow Picnic Checklist: Make sure you don’t miss anything!

Comments(0)

For the purposes of keeping the party involved anonymous, we’ll withhold real names from this story.

The other day, a certain “Kristy Keurkonian” was getting SLSK (soulseek for you non-users) and she came across trouble with her router/port/firewall. Having not done much port forwarding, she decided to try her hand at finding a good site online to walk her through it. Lo and behold, portforward.com came through for her, walked her through all two steps of how to do it (so she didn’t have to figure it out over the course of an hour), and everything worked! VOILA. Now instead of 32 people in the Black Metal chat on SLSK, there are 363 again, but then again it was only after I stopped using the 157 (test 5) version that it worked.

Lessons: One, portforward.com is a fabulous DIY resource, and two - If you’re going to tell a story about yourself in the third person, you’re better off not accidentally saying something like “after I stopped using…” etc. Get it? 

Comments(0)

Though this post is considered an instructable (by virtue of the fact that it’s posted to the instructables site) but it’s more of an open-ended guide for dealing with and purchasing polymorphic plastic, which is a plastic that can be melted at a considerably lower temperature than boiling water.

Oh, consider the possibilities! Toys, holders, ZOO ANIMALS! Endless.

Comments(0)

Here’s a nice resource for everyone to use when they’re trying to say something mean - but in a nice, cute, vintage kind of way. Nothing says “Your painful breakup has made me feel less alone” like an eCard that says exactly that, with a picture of a young man lifting a sadly-stacked barbell! This one’s an all-time favorite. 

[NOTE!] Yeah, we know you don’t make these yourself, but you can search them, send them, and freely distribute them yourself!

[via]

Comments(0)

We just saved everyone’s ass! Hooray for emergency kits, especially this romantic one, made of the (floral-of-your-choice) romance container (read: hat box), and a lot of suggestions and ideas ready for input on your part. This is one of those projects that isn’t very challenging, but requires (or at least benefits from) creativity. It’s life-saving for when your other half goes “Hey jerk, you’re never romantic anymore!” or “Honey, do you love me?”. Just bust out the emergency romance kit and they’ll love you forevs. We promise*.

*Unless you get dumped because you used it more than once and they figured out it wasn’t exactly a unique, spontaneous sentiment. Not our fault, we warned you. Or if they frequent DIY:happy. When we said “Spread the word” and “Mention us” we didn’t mean to your spouse or honey. Well, we did, but in a faultless kind of way.

Comments(4)

Following up yesterday’s label templates story, we now have more for all of you office supply-ish paper-loving DIYers out there. This handy graph paper generator allows you to create a PDF with custom … errr… graph paper patterns on it. You can choose how many squared you want and the size of the squares, then download a PDF to print out whenever you need it.

Comments(0)

Every once in a while I find myself searching around the web for some weird label template. Whether it be for CDs, address labels, some weird label sheet I have, or even old hard-to-find templates like VHS tape or cassette tape labels. Worldlabel offers up tons of label templates to fit almost any need you have, and plenty you don’t (There are two pages full). Best of all - they’re all free. Grab ‘em while they’re hot!

Looks like they’re all in .doc format - so if you don’t have Microsoft Word, go grab yourself a free copy of OpenOffice.org.

Comments(7)