Blog.DoDesignDIY.com

This is a very simple and unusual way to display one or a group of 8.5×11 inch inkjet prints of your favorite photos that uses recycled plastic water bottles. This also works well with large plastic soda bottles. Here’s the drill:

Non-retouched photos– Pic1: Lit on front & backlit; Pic2: Front Lit only; Pic3: Backlit only

1. Drink plenty of water (bottles should be colorless, clear, have a minimum of creases and folds molded in, have mostly vertical sides, and have a label that can be removed (most labels just peel off).
2. Refill the bottle(s) with tap water, to the very top, and screw on the lid securely (this prevents the bottle from distorting and adds weight for stability).
3. Remove the label(s).
4. Dry the outside of the bottle(s) thoroughly (many inkjet printers use water soluble inks that will smear if they get wet).
5. Print out (inkjet) an 8.5×11 Portrait orientation (vertical) image or photo. Use your photo manipulator software to add a border around it. See: Finding and Printing photos at Home, for details about preparing and printing your photos. Print onto Gloss Inkjet Photo Paper (Highly recommend Staples’ Photo Plus Gloss) and optionally cover the (dry) photo with 8.5×11 adhesive plastic laminate available from Staples, OfficeMac.
6. With the bottle standing on a flat surface, wrap the print around the least blemished area of the bottle. Make sure the bottom edge of the print is fully touching the table along its width.
7. Hold the print securely and tape the two rear vertical edges securely with clear plastic office tape. Two pieces of tape horizontally adhered from 1 inch of the picture edge to 1 inch of the opposite picture edge on the straightest portions of the bottle works best.

6&7a. To make the images easily changeable, add and tape paper to the back edges of the display photo to form a tube that will slide snugly over the bottle. Then no need then to fasten the image to the bottle itself.

8. Done

Suggestions for Displays and Uses:

* Group the bottles side to side on a shelf in front of a window so your images will glow with sunlight. Tape them together on the back or bottom with strong tape if needed and/or paper clip the prints together on their top sides.
* Group the bottles side to side on a shelf of a bookcase. Tape them together on the back or bottom with strong tape if needed. Optionally, place a 6 to 12 inch fluorescent strip light behind to backlight them, for a happy glow not involving alcohol. DO NOT use an incandescent or other hot lighting source!
* Tape 3 or 4 together (pictures outwards) using Duct Tape on the bottoms, for a table display.
* Use one very large high-resolution panoramic photo, printed in 8.5×11 pieces, with the pieces fastened separately to a row of bottles.
* Add food coloring to the fill water if you want the (illuminated) bottles to have a color cast.

* IF you CAREFULLY empty out the bottles without getting the pictures at all wet, then recap them, you can hang a grouping on the wall using two squares of double-sided foam tape stuck to the back of each bottle. Be careful not to distort the bottle when you apply this.
Or attach the bottles to two 1″ wide, thin strips of wood using strong (Duct Tape) tape on the back to hold them in position, then hang the assembly by the top strip.

* For a Vertical display: Using empty bottles with images cut to the bottle’s full length, CAREFULLY drill a hole in the bottom of each bottle (or use a sharp knife). Make it the SAME ID size as the pour hole. Then “string them” onto a wooden dowel or CPVC plastic plumbing pipe (with a simple stand) that snugly fits the pour hole. Make it as tall as you like.

If you invent a new use, add your comment, or email mh@DoDesignDIY.com .

See DoDesignDIY.com for our low-cost, simple, flexible, elegant, illuminated photo display lamps and frames, and more design ideas and DIY projects.

Michael

Copyright 2007, mhDesign

Cut flowers are superb, but they lose their luster after a few days. Looking for something less high maintenance?

In NE locations, in mid-spring or early summer, go into the back yard and cut some maple twigs (doesn’t work well for all tree species— the easiest way is just to try). Warmer locales, why wait? When the tree sap starts flowing in warmer weather, they are very easy to peel if you don’t let them sit too long before doing it.The bark neatly peels off the inner wood once you get started, revealing the white sheen of the wood. Use a dullish knife to start it. In late summer and fall, they are not so obliging. If it’s a wet spring, you can soak them in 90% water, 10% chlorine bleach for 24 hours to kill mold spores. Leave them in the sun to dry the surface, then make yourself a great dry arrangement, as tall as you want it. Add some dried flowers or grasses, some glossy painted dowels or other color as contrast and— voila. They mellow to a nice beigey tan and last forever inside the house. String them with white Christmas lights if you want… Dye them with Tintex… Paint them after they’re well dried…

Try it with a larger branch and make yourself an elegant rustic towel rack, pot rack (screw in large metal hooks, or use big “S” hooks or metal shower curtain rings).

Tags: plants, flowers, nature, natural, sculpture

EricGjerde is one major artist in a group of “Paper Tigers” who have photo sites on Flickr with their creations in Origami, Tesselation, and Paper Folding. For others, do a search on flickr.com for those words, and prepare to be inspired. Some of the galleries include folding instructions, for these types, and for more traditional Origami.

A far cry from Brawny towels and a far distance from folding laundry, THIS is paper and folding as never before.

Try it out, then consider alternate materials, think of the possibilities for lampshade appliques, wall decorations, coverings for privacy screens, window covers, cabinet doors— think Shoji, and then some.

Tags: paper-folding, paper, lampshades, wallpanels, screens

Visit DoDesignDIY.com for more.

One looks tells all. There’s lots more like this from the country that invented paper folding (origami).

Be the first one on your block… At http://www.ohashi-lab.bio.kyutech.ac.jp/~shin/index.html.

Are you a bright GREEN? Are you off-the-grid and over-budget? Do you just love experimenting and building stuff? Then you’ll love these Instructables from http://www.instructables.com/. I’ve selected the best of the lot that can result in real, practical application. If you don’t know about Instructables.com, you’re missing out.

Ted Baer’s Bicycle Wheel Windmill- An elegantly simple wind generator.
Here

Build a Savonius Wind Turbine or VAWT to Make Electricity
Here

How to build a heliostat parabolic reflector- like for cooking with the sun
Here

Solar Heater- Basic solar hot-air heating panels for an unheated utility building
Here

For simpler DIY projects, go to the DoDesignDIY site

The iPhoto software that comes with your Mac OS X can hold upto 25,000 images and can be used to organize even that many images or photos brilliantly, without much effort. If you use the process following, you will be able to visually access sets of images by Keywords (=Tags) in an instant. Here’s how it works. First, take a look at the picture following.

For easier reference, download and save the enlarged image to your desktop and open it in “Preview”

The image is the iPhoto application:
* Upper left pane: The purple squares are “Smart Albums”, each one with a different keyword. The complete Library view is at top. Ignore the others.
* Lower left pane: Each box is a keyword (=Tag).
* Right pane: The images shown are all for Keyword “idWEB”. My iPhoto currently has 1629 images, but only those tagged (Keyworded) idWEB are visible. If I click on the “idODD” Smart Album icon, I will then get only the images for THAT keyword. (Note: the “id” prefix is not necessary)

How to set it up (let’s assume you have 1000 images in your iPhoto library):

1. Be sure you are in Library view- this will show all the images in your iPhoto library.
2. Decide on the Keywords (Tags) you need. Try to keep each one short and simple. You can add many more later.
For example, House, Garden, Dad, Mom, Sis, Bro, Fido
3. In the screen top menu bar, go to iPhoto/Preferences/ Keywords/Add
Add each Keyword to the list using the + key. Close the Prefs window when done.
4. In the screen top menu bar, go to File/New Smart Album/
5. In the input box that appears, type the same Album name as your (first) Keyword
6. In “Match the following condition” section:

• 6a. Click on the Album pull-down, and change it to “Keyword”
• 6b. The second pull-down will automatically change to “contains”
• 6c. In the text block following, type the Keyword
• Note: Using the + button, you could add more qualifiers for this album. Ignore it for now. For simplicity sake, I do not use this feature.
• 6d. Click OK

7. Repeat steps 4,5,6 for each keyword you wish to use
8. In the screen top menu bar, go to View and make sure both “Title”, and “Keywords” are checked
9. Now you can sort your actual photos according to Keyword (Tag)-
First, try one photo only.

• Click on ONE image in the right pane to select it
• Drag it to the keyword you wish to apply (in the lower left pane)
• You will see that keyword appear in light gray type under that image

10. Now, in the right pane, AppleKey/Click more than one photo (or Shift/Click a group of contiguous photos; or Control/click non-contiguous photos) and drag to the same Keyword as in Step 9
11. Now test the results: Click on the Smart Album icon that has the Keyword you have been using (in upper left pane). You will see only those images that bear that keyword.

Notes and Shortcuts:
* By using this system, you can cut out the need to label each image individually, and you can ignore the preemptory (non-Smart) album divisions that iPhoto creates.

* In Library view, you can click on a “non-smart” album title in the right pane to select all the images in it. Drag that (non-Smart) album to a keyword in the Keyword pane, and all the photos in that album will be tagged.

* You can selectively tag any image(s) with more than one keyword (try to keep it hierarchical, and simple)

* If you drag to the wrong keyword, or want to change the keyword, re-drag the image(s) to the Reset box. All the keywords on that image will disappear. Then drag it to the correct keyword. Or hold down option as you drag it to the correct keyword.

* In Library view, in the right pane, you can move individual or groups of photos from one (non-Smart) album to another by dragging it/them to the target album title until a blue bar appears over the album title, then release. The image(s) will be moved into that album. The prior album will disappear if you move all the images out of it.

Now, if you want to see all photos that have Fido in them, you can quickly see only those, at will.

Check out DoDesignDIY.com for information on preparing, printing, and displaying your photos at home.

There’s a new store in eTown that can give eBay a REAL run for its money, money, money. And the best news is that it’s a real store where your items are sold at your price, NOT to last-second bidders for 2-cents over minimum— it’s not an auction site. Even if you keep your eBay store, this eStore is not to be ignored.

www.eCrater.com has an easy and comprehensive interface for establishing and stocking your store— no coding required. You can list as many items as you like, in up to 5 store subcategories, and can include up to 10 images per item. You can use PayPal or Google Checkout, or the usual other payment options.

You’ve gotta check this out. And while you’re there take a look at my Photo and Print Display Lamps in my store.

These and many more clever and colorful designs for paper creations were created by Fwis, a graphic design group in Portland, Denver, Cupertino and Brooklyn.

All designs are available as Acrobat PDF files for downloading at http://www.readymech.com/. They can be printed on heavy paper, cut out, folded, and assembled to create intriguing toys and decorations.

These are the first postings of our Blog, the companion site to our new website, DoDesignDIY.com .

The DoDesignDIY website and blog bring you elegantly simple products designed by our staff, constructed to our specifications, and available only in our online “Store”. We add tips and techniques, in “Tips&Tech”, and DIY projects, in “DIY”. We find and feature inspiring design sites, designs, and designers, in “Inspiration”, along with practical and instructive comments and hints to help you enhance your projects and create simple but elegant decorative accessories.

We hope the site and blog inspire you, and we welcome your comments, suggestions, and input.

Michael