DIY Floppy Disk Pen Holder

Admit it, youve still got at least half a dozen floppy disks floating around in your storage boxes dont you? Its okay we all do. If you dont then head down to your local thrift store where you are sure to find a bucket load of them so you can make yourself this cute pen holder (or flower pot or just about anything holder!).

Floppy Disk Pen Holder

This quick and easy craft requires only a drill bit and some plastic zip ties to create this chic little geeky box which is sure to liven up your workspace. Personally Id love to do this with some multi-color disks.

<3 seanalyn

DIY Recycled Shipping Envelope

Continuing with the Earth Day DIY theme heres a way to utilize your excess paper and plastic bags and save a little cash (take that FedEx!).

Shopping Bag to Shipping Envelope

Eco Etsy is dedicated to Etsy sellers who reuse and recycle to make their products, in this tutorial they show how to make a very easy eco-friendly shipping envelope. All you need to make your own envelope is a brown paper bag, a plastic bag, some scissors and a sewing machine. Click here for step by step instructions.

<3 seanalyn

Turn a t-shirt into a cardigan

Today I awoke to an email from my good friend Jenn that linked me to an awesome page with instructions on how to turn an old oversize t-shirt into a cute and flirty cardigan.

All you need is an old t-shirt, some yarn, a crochet hook and a few minutes on a sewing machine.Click here for step by step instructions.

What a cute way to reuse old shirts and add to your wardrobe without having to spend much money. Cute and cheap! A perfect combo for this tough economy!

<3 seanalyn

Mud powered clock

As many of you know my passion for domesticity and geekiness is rivaled only by my passion for eco friendly technology and the environment. Well today I found something that combines all 3 of my passions into one amazing product.

Timeless Garden by Francesco Castiglione Morelli & Tommaso Ceschi

This clock uses the mud to react electrochemically with metal terminals in a recycled plastic container and powers the clock while you grow grass or herbs on top. Its a seamless integration of eco friendly technology and domestic appliance chic. It also a way to bring some of the beauty of outdoors inside while being functional. Sadly there seems to be no release date or price on this product yet, but as soon as it hits the shelves I would love to get my paws on one.

<3 seanalyn

[link via EcoGeek]

DIY geek ornaments

Recently I posted about some adorable video game ornaments you can purchase online, but what about those of you who want to make your own? Well I stumbled across an amazing list of DIY geek ornaments on Geek Ware that will give you something eco friendly to do with that old keyboard or computer part.

Disk Christmas Box Ornaments

Old disks plus some ribbon and glue is all it takes. If you dont have any old diskettes lying around Im sure one of those useless zip disks would work (remember those?!).

Space Bar Icicles

So cute! It took me a minute to figure out what this ornament was even made out of!

Santa Mice

We all have about a dozen old mice lying around, give them a happy new home on your tree!

Keboard Word Ornaments


This is probably my favorite of all the crafts. They are so cute and so simple, any mom would be thrilled to hang one from her tree! (hint hint gift ideas for you crafty kids out there).

Graphic wrapping paper

I realized earlier today that I needed to wrap Cesar’s birthday present which I have been hiding in my office before I take it home (trying very hard to keep it a secret!). I had looked at wrapping paper at the store the other day and didn’t really see anything I liked. Everything was either too Christmasy or just too cheesy so I decided to go for an oldie but goodie….news paper recycling! Yeah this isnt nothing new of course, we’ve all wrapped presents in the comic section, but I decided to go for something a bit funkier.

I grabbed a copy of SF Weekly that was lying around the office and flipped through it. The nice thing is that most papers now have full page color ads which can make for some pretty awesome patterns. I found an amazing full page H&M ad and decided to use it for the front of the package. This is the result (please pardon the shitty camera phone quality pictures).

I personally think it came out pretty awesome and much more exciting than neon balloons. The key is to pay attention to how you place the paper on the package. Focus on the front first but also make sure the back is engaging. I like the way the text, strip club ad (hehe couldnt resist throwing that one on there) and runoff from the H&M ad make a nifty geometric pattern. As a designer I love using text as pattern and textures, so remember that you dont have to have a picture to make an interesting image.

Im thinking of wrapping all my Christmas presents this year in newspaper wrapping paper, I think its a lot more creative than regular wrapping paper and of course eco-friendly and economical (bonus!). Plus with the holidays that means there will be tons of full sized holiday ads being printed so I should have no shortage of interesting material. I really want to play with making bows out of the newspaper as well….I’ll have to get back to you on that one after some experimentation ;)