Dummies.com: Crafts & Hobbies

Buying an Antique Sofa

When you buy an antique sofa, you are buying the frame. You want an authentic, quality antique frame in good condition. Just because you see old feet doesn't mean you have an old sofa. The internal frame [more…]

Capturing Better Pictures

People often claim they're constitutionally incapable of taking good pictures — that they're not technical enough, not artistic enough, or just don't have access to good subject matter. Well, guess what [more…]

Caring for Your Crochet

Because of all the time you've invested in your crochet work, it would be a shame to have your project fall apart on the first wash or discolor by being improperly stored. Follow the appropriate tips below [more…]

Checking Your Gauge throughout a Project

You need to be mindful of your gauge throughout the entire knitting process (at least on projects that are supposed to fit a certain way). Read on to see when and how to check your gauge throughout a project [more…]

Choosing Yarn for Your Knitting Project

Yarns, garment shapes, and stitch patterns must work together for your knitting project to be successful. If you plan to knit a scarf or a blanket, go ahead and let the yarn you fall in love with dictate [more…]

Collecting Various Types of Coins

Throughout the years, people all around the world have experimented with a variety of items to denote value. The natives of Papua New Guinea valued the dried carcasses of the bird of paradise. The early [more…]

Combatting Ink-Flow Problems with Your Calligraphy Pens

After you've assembled your pen, but before you begin doing calligraphy, you must get the pen to write. A unique problem for fountain pens, you will likely encounter some ink-flow issues when writing, [more…]

Common Woodworking Pitfalls and How to Avoid Them

You'd be hard-pressed to find a woodworker who hasn't had some unexpected thing ruin his project (or at least something that forced him to do a ton of work to fix it). Prepare to meet ten of the most common [more…]

Controlling the Volume of Your Hair

You can create more volume or fullness with even the limpest of locks by manipulating the roots of the hair. [more…]

Creating Paper Bag Luminarias for Holiday Decorating

Traditionally, luminarias are made of votive candles set in paper bags weighted with sand and placed in rows along walkways, driveways, and even rooftops. You can use them in new ways, however, to light [more…]

Crocheting in Circles

To begin a design that you work in rounds, you first have to create a center ring. The center ring is the foundation for all crocheted designs that are worked in rounds — just like the foundation chain [more…]

Deciding What Coins to Collect

Because money is a limiting factor, no matter how much of it you have, figure out how much you want to budget for your collection and then decide where to spend it. Here are some suggestions for interesting [more…]

Deciphering Knitting Lingo

In order to save space, patterns are written in a condensed form with many abbreviations and a lot of shorthand. As you work with patterns, you'll become familiar with the most common abbreviations — for [more…]

Discovering Your Scrapbooking Style

Scrapbooking styles aren't yet definable in a truly formal sense. Instead, they're as individual as the scrapbookers themselves, and scrappers are constantly experimenting with new looks and techniques [more…]

Discovering the Joys of Drawing

Drawing can bring extraordinary and unexpected dimensions to your life. By adding drawing to your everyday experiences, you can change how you, and others, see the world. It's a powerful tool, one that [more…]

Dissecting Calligraphy Pens

The pens you use to make beautiful calligraphy aren't at all complicated. Their basic design is simple, efficient, and centuries old. A good pen delivers the ink in an even flow and should make it easy [more…]

Doing a Double Crochet

The double crochet (abbreviated dc) is one of the most common crochet stitches and is about twice as tall as a single crochet. A fabric made of all double crochet stitches is fairly solid but not stiff [more…]

Dream Interpreting: Recognizing and Working with a Physical Dream

Dreams come in many shapes and sizes, some vague, some detailed, some frightening, some inspiring. They all contain encoded messages aimed at improving your life. As you become ready to start a dream diary [more…]

Dream Interpreting: The Emotions in Your Dreams

If you're interested in recording your dreams in a dream diary — or in interpreting your dreams — some emotion you've experienced is probably the driving force. Every time you express or deny an intense [more…]

Examining the Material Element in Chess

Some chess pieces are more powerful than others. Some are stronger than others. The element of material is concerned with this relative strength of the pieces. [more…]