Tag Archives: DIY

Mini Diy : Party paper decoration from old comic book

Take a colorful page from an old comic or magazine, round off the corners an then cut it into a long ribbon that you can hang or drape over your table.

I’ve done this for my kids birthdays for a few years, and it’s a fun fast way to save both money and the environment.

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DIY: Upcycling a childrens bathrobe into a cuddly bear

I had a small soft, fluffy pink bathrope that my daughter had outgrown, and some stuffing from a cheap ikea pillow that got torn apart during washing.

I cut off the seams, and tried to get the most I could out of the material, and and ended up with two cute Japan-inspired teddybears and a little pillow.

I chose the shape, and my daughter the buttons for the face.

All hand stiched, using only left over materials. The fluffy material is very forgiving, so even if your sewing skills are pretty bad, you can’t really notice.

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I made the second one for the daughter of a friend. She is younger, so instead of buttons the eyes are made with cloth from a pair of pants, sewn on, to make safer for a toddler. It also has a tiny picket for hiding candy from mom and dad :)

The tail and ears are made from the bathrobe belt.

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DIY: My first “acoustic laptop”

My first piezo-instrument

A picture of my first experiment with creating an acoustic laptop, which basically is miked wooden box with a interesting soundgenerating objects inside.

Really easy to make, all you need is a piezo element (you’ll find them in those cheap birtdaycards that play music, or you can order them online.

The piezo element is soldered to a headphone jack and then glued to a wooden box. Plug the box into an amp, I used my guitar amp, and you’re all set.

Video: Acoustic laptop in action

Lydeksperimentklubben 14.12.10 from Arnfinn Killingtveit on Vimeo.

When used in this way the piezo turns into a really sensitive “microphone”. If you stroke a feather over the wooden box, you will hear it as clearly as if you did the same inside you ear, it is quite exiting the first time you try it!

The piezo works by picking up vibrations and turning them into electrical signals, so the fun part is finding interesting objects to put in the box, like I have here. Springs and rubber bands are obvious choces, but the fun part is just rummaging through drawers looking for weird stuff and trying them out.

Here are some of the things I tried in my box:

-Pink wine bottle cap with a heart on a spring. Makes a deep and rytmical sound when you hit it with you finger. Sawed off and glued to the bottom of the box.
- Two rubber bands, creates a melodic bass sound.
- Large metal spring, has a very deep metallic sound, scratch it hard with your nails and it’s almost like a bass guitar with extreme fuss.
- Brass lion face, sounds like a bass drum when you tap it carefully.
- Three needles, simply pressed into a joint of the wood. These are my favorites, they have different tone depending on how far into the wood you press them, and rings almost like glass when you pick them with your nails.
- Wind up toys! These where a huge success, creating rythm and drama. You can eighter just let them loose, or hold them in your hand and touching them to the different objects.
- Electric cappuccino mixer. This was really a must, it gives you control and is also really loud as you let it vibrate next to an object! Must be heard to be believed!

I had so much fun making these, hope you’ll try it too!

Will try to put up some audio or video soon.

A little less clutter:
flickkah

vibrobot

Vibrobots (Tekno S03E04)

VibrobotI sessongens siste Tekno-sending lagde jeg en handfull “vibrobots”, små vibrerende skapninger satt sammen av veldig enkle deler. Her er en video som viser hvordan de oppfører seg. PS: Den observante seer klarer kanskje å se hva noen av vibrobotene er laget av ? :)

Vibrobots, eller vibrerende roboter om du vil, er muligens et litt misvisende navn, men de har blitt et lite nettfenomen, sikkert fordi de er så ukompliserte å lage, og derfor er et passende nybegynnerprosjekt for folk som vil leke med lettbeint diy elektronikk.

Episoden kan lastes ned i HD via BitTorrent:
Tekno Sesong 3 episode 4 – 1280×720 (”HD-Ready”)
Tekno Sesong 3 episode 4 – 1920×1080 (”Full HD”)

Mini-DIY: How to make your own Laptop mounted Document Holder

Mini DIY - Homemade Laptop Document Holder

Silje wants a document holder for christmas, and I’m googling to find one that attaches to her laptop screen. But until I can find something to buy I wanted to try to build her one, to tie her over.
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FrankenDog – DIY animatronics – Bringing a dead i-cybie robot dog back to life

i-cybie_hode

Do you have dead toys lying around? In this video tutorial I give new life to a dead i-Cybie robot dog whose “brain” was destroyed after it short circuited and almost caught fire. Learn how to animate the dead!

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