Plastic Strips Search Results

How To: Hang a Christmas Wreath Without Damaging Your Door

Whether you choose to hang an authentic or artificial pine Christmas wreath on your door — or an entirely different type, like ones made of paper waste or even food — chances are you've spent a year or two struggling with how to keep your decor hanging. With one easy to apply, quick to remove trick, you can skip the shiny wreath holder and any further damage to your front door.

How To: Lock Your Android Easier & Faster with Just a Swipe

Unless you're sporting an LG G3 or a mod that allows tap-to-sleep and/or tap-to-wake functionality, you're probably hitting the power button to sleep and wake your device. But that button may be awkward to hit, may be worn down, or may just stop working due to a manufacturer's error or a device drop. In any case, it is possible to end reliance on the power button, opting instead for a simple swipe gesture that will instantly lock your device.

How To: Completely Hide Your Status Bar on Your Android Device

The great thing about Android's customization is that you can either clutter up your home and lock screen with an infinite amount of awesome features and tweaks—or choose more of a stripped down minimalistic look. If you're someone who leans more towards a minimalistic look, a new mod by XDA member enryea123 will show you how to hide the status bar at the top of the phone, while still retaining its full functionality and ability to swipe it down.

How To: Make Your Photos More Fun with These DIY Bokeh Effects Lens Filters for Your DSLR

In photography, bokeh refers to the blurry or out-of-focus parts of a shot. Bokeh can be good or bad—it all depends on how you use it. There are tons of ways to create a bokeh effect, whether you go the traditional route with lens filters, digital with Photoshop, or even from your iPhone. With filters, you can use the blurred spaces to produce different shapes and colors. If you have a DSLR and want to experiment with bokeh, this tutorial by Chris Perez over on Apartment Therapy will show you...

How To: Don't Like Traditional Christmas Trees? Try Out One of These 7 Festive DIY Alternatives

The concept and structure of Christmas hasn't changed much since its inception. In its infancy, Christians recruited Roman pagans by associating Christmas with the Saturnalia, an ancient Roman festival in honor of the deity Saturn (also held in December). The pagans had long worshiped trees (as did other historical cultures) and would bring them into their homes and decorate them, something that influenced our modern holiday decorations. While certain things such as gifts and ornaments have b...

How To: Make Trippy EL Wire Headphones That Dance to the Beat of Your Music

At one time or another, we've all enjoyed the visualizations that came stock in Windows Media Player. I remember spending hours listening to my favorite album, putting the graphic equalizer on full screen, and getting lost in the flurry of colors that would dance across the screen. Well, now thanks to the imaginative mind of Instructables user yardleydobon, you can now recreate this rainbow-colored music visualizer right on top of your freaking head—with these trippy EL wire headphones, which...

How To: Enable the Hidden Facebook Chat and Notifications Feature in Firefox 17's Toolbar

As enjoyable as Facebook can be at times, it can also be a great distraction and even better deterrent of getting work done. A quick "Oh, let me check my notifications" can turn into hours and hours of Facebooking, and before you know it, you're already on your 7th Wikipedia page, all thanks to that status your friend posted. The reason I mention this is because Firefox's new 17.0 update includes many features, but the one that's been making the rounds online is the integration of Facebook Me...

How To: Convert Your Old Apple iMac G4 into a Cable-Ready HDTV

Most of us have traded our desktop systems for laptops, tablets, and mobile devices, meaning there's a lot of outdated hardware sitting in attics. Want to give your old computer a new purpose? Matthew Chappee turned his iMac G4 into an HDTV using the guide by Dremel Junkie. One thing to note before you take on this project yourself is that if you want to use it to watch cable, you'll need a converter box to get around the MPAA's HDCP restriction. But, a converter box is considerably less expe...

How To: Hack Your Mini-Fridge into a Vending Machine to Take Care of Freeloading Friends at Your Next Party

It always sounds like a good idea to throw a party... until the party gets there. Next thing you know, you're running around hiding anything breakable, and once everyone leaves, you're stuck cleaning up the mess. But the worst part is footing the bill for everything, and if you don't charge at the door, your chances of getting anyone to chip in are slim to none once the party starts.

How To: This DIY Illuminated Isomorphic Keyboard Changes Colors as You Play Music

An isomorphic (or self-transposing) keyboard is "a musical device where a grid of notes is displayed to the user and the interval change between notes in constant for any given direction." For those of you who didn't grow up playing the piano like I did, that basically means that it lets you move between keys easily without having to learn new patterns because the keys are laid out so that a chord is the same pattern in every musical key.

News: Little Boxes Turns Your iPad into an Old-Fashioned Music Box

Technology is awesome. You can use your iPad to record music or even turn your tunes into a solar system, but sometimes being plugged in all of the time can leave you nostalgic for simpler times. This new concept by Joelle Aeschlimann brings together the best of both worlds by turning your iPad into an old-fashioned, hand-cranked music box. The artist created three different music boxes, each one with its own unique song and visualization. The music boxes were made using wooden cylinders with...

How To: Treat psoriasis

Almost 125 million people worldwide suffer from what is known as psoriasis, the skin disease that's marked by red, itchy, and scaly patches that are hurtful, if not visually god-awful. There can be a little hope though for psoriasis sufferers. Though you can treat and control psoriasis, characterized by dry scaly patches of skin, the progress is often erratic and cyclical, so be patient and consistent in executing these steps.

How To: Do a yeast experiment to see how much C02 it produces

In this Education video tutorial you will learn how to do a yeast experiment to see how much C02 it produces with different types of food. Yeast is a fungus and it has to eat. After it eats, it produces CO2 gas. The bubbles in bread are produced by the CO2 gas from the yeast. Take five different types of food items and measure out the same quantity for each item. In the video it is 8gms of cookie, oil, flour, salt and sugar. Take six glasses of water and mix one packet of yeast in each glass....

How To: Store baking ingredients correctly to keep fresh

It is important to know how to keep your cooking and baking ingredients fresh. Many have either an expiration date or a "use by" date on the containers which should be followed. Shortening can turn rancid if it is kept in a warm environment. To keep it from going bad it can either be stored in your refrigerator or in a sealed container in a cool, dark, dry place. Sugar doesn't generally go bad, but it can develop moisture which causes lumps to form. If this happens then you can usually either...

How To: Make a button with a Badge-A-Minit hand press

Nathan demonstrates how to easily make a button using the Badge A Minit hand press button maker. First, load the button back into the blue ring. Place the artwork, face side up on top of the button back. Add the clear plastic circle on top of the artwork and put the yellow ring on top. Next, flip the apparatus over and put the purple ring on top of it. Then, put the green ring on top of the purple ring. Place one hand on top of the other on top of the green ring and press down firmly until it...