DIY: glow stick spatter

In honor of these velvety, somewhat mysterious, warm and dark summer nights experienced by those of you closer to the equator than Alaska, here is some do-it-yourself glow stick magic to try.

Here's a glow stick lantern resembling fireflies in a jar.
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The instructions at BuzzFeed DIY are

1. Cut open a glow stick and shake the contents into a jar. Add diamond glitter.
2. Seal the top with a lid.
3. Shake.

Note that this image with and without instructions can be found at many sites on the web; two others are Curbly, "How to: Make Glowing Firefly Jars," and Emma Rae's Halloween, "The Glow of Halloween."  The identity of the original poster is a mystery.

For tips on how to handle glow sticks and their glowy contents, here's a video by Anne Helmenstine:
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If you want more official information on how safe it is to open up a glow stick, take a look at this MSDS (a PDF), found at Glowsticks Ireland.

ActiveDark has some cool ideas for glow crafts.  Here's an image of glow sticks in balloons.
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Ah, summer.

-- Marge

DIY + Easter

Easter is fast approaching (March 31 this year).  While you may not be one who celebrates this religious event, who can resist celebrating the profusion of color and renewed spirits of spring.  So get your food coloring out and gather any other crafty items you might need and give one of these do-it-yourself projects a try.

At Curbly, a "DIY design community for people who love where they live," user CapreeK has posted a Roundup of  "12 Modern Easter Egg Ideas."  Below is a sampling of the ideas offered:

At Babble, a Disney blogging site, contributor kenziepoo offers "6 DIY Easter Ideas for 2013."  My favorite is this paper mache (vs. papier-mache) bunny:

Scraphacker, "the hub for 'scrap-cycling' innovation & D.I.Y. innovation 'scrap hack' inspiration," is offering Easy Easter DIY tutorials.  This is the perfect site for pack-rats (like me).  How about chocolate birds' nests or edible placecards?

Divine Caroline, part of the Ladies' Home Journal Real Girl Network,  offers "A Completely DIY Easter Party" by user FaveCrafts.  Links that are associated with the projects suggested in this article  take you to a FaveCrafts site.  While the ideas are good ones (Wild Misted Easter Eggs by Terri Sproul are shown below), I felt I was trapped in someone's sales campaign.

Even the Huffington Post is has DIY articles.  Huff Post blogger Kathryn Kattalia writes about Sock Bunnies from A Creative Cookie, a blog at Blogspot:

Arggh! Blogs, blogs everywhere.  My apologies if it got confusing.

-- Marge