How To Make Petal Dust

Petal Dust is a non-toxic powder that is mainly used for the detailing of gumpaste flowers, it gives the flowers a realistic matte finish. Petal dust is not limited to only gumpaste flowers you can use this product on any dried gumpaste and/or fondant embellishments. Petal dust comes in all colours of the rainbow an can also be turned into an edible paint simply be adding a few drops of clear vodka or lemon extract

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Capacitive-Touch Arduino Keyboard Piano

You'll first want to collect all of the parts you will need for the project:

• An Arduino (or Arduino-compatible) microcontroller board.
• Any Arduino board should work: Uno, Leonardo, Mega, Pro Mini, etc.
• Eight 2.2 Megaohm (2.2 MO) resistors
• Anywhere between 1 MO and 4.7 MO should work
• You need one resistor per piano key
• A 2.2 MO resistor has a color code of Red-Red-Green or Red-Red-Black-Yellow
• A piezo buzzer
• Some spare wires or jumper cables
• Aluminum foil
• A foot or two should do
• Tape
• A surface to tape your keys to
• We used a scrap piece of cardboard, but it can be anything you like, even the tabletop itself!

Equipment that you may need:

• Soldering iron and solder
• You can probably get by without an iron by wrapping wires together instead of soldering, but the connection will not be as reliable
• Scissors to cut aluminum foil and tape

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Upcycle your own stenciled coffee table on the cheap!

Ever see an image on the internet and think,"Hey, that would look cool on a coffee table, or end table, or even a wall"?  Well after paying $50 for a high quality laser cut stencil, I figured there must be a way to make one for a lot cheaper.  And this is what I did:Pencil
Screw driver (or paint can opener)
Paintbrush
Paint
Wood stain
Polyurethane
Spray adhesive 
Scotch tape
Boxcutter or knife
Sharp scissors

Not pictured

Sheet of plastic or vinyl  (thick plastic page covers or plastic file folders can be cut open and used)
Printer
Printer paper
Patience

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Gardening from the grocery Store - MANGOS

I started on May 2nd  with a ripe Green Mango for $.79.

I also found Yellow Mangos on the 7th at 2 for a dollar and thought I would try them as well. A softer and smaller mango (also called Manila Mango).

If you have never eating a mango it can be a little hard to figure out what to do with it. A ripe Green Mango (the type of mango, not referring to the color) should just be slightly soft, not squishy. If it is still rock hard just leave it on a counter for a day or two.

If you look at your mango you should be able to feel or see a left and right side, almost like there is a keel at the bottom.

Make a cut and slice off each side of the fruit. There is a large flat pit in the center and you are trying to slice right next to that to get the most amount of fruit off.

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How to make solid culture medium plates for yeast culture

You will need several 100 mm borosillicate glass pyrex (lab-grade) petri dishes which can be purchased from Amazon, along with lab-grade pyrex Erlenmeyer flasks of appropriate size for the quantity of plates that you want to make.  Here I am using two pyrex petri dishes and two small Erlenmeyer flasks, since I am only making two plates and a small slant (50 mL).  If you want to also make slants, then you should purchase borosillicate glass 'slant tubes' with screw top.  Also, some other microbiological instruments like a spreader and inoculation loop could be helpful.  I made it at TechShop with some scrap metal, pliers, and a vise.  www.techshop.ws 

You will also need the raw materials that will make the solid culture medium.  You can obtain laboratory-grade materials from Amazon, or you can make your own 1.040 wort and use yeast nutrient and agar-agar to solidify the plates.  You can buy D-(+)-Maltose, Peptone, yeast extract, and agar technical (solidifying agent) on Amazon, believe it or not (autoclave the maltose separately to prevent caramelization of the sugar).  While this method produces solid growth medium that is perfect for keeping yeast in a laboratory setting, many folks don't want to shell out the dough for these materials, and prefer to make use of beer-making equipment and materials they might have at home already.  

The easy way to do this is to get agar-agar (solidifying agent similar to gelatin) online or at an Asian food store.  Then, make a simple 1.040 gravity wort using only brewer's 2-row base malt, add yeast nutrient and 20 grams of agar-agar into 1 liter of culture liquid (can be scaled down accordingly depending on your needs), and autoclave in an appropriately-sized Erlenmeyer flask (you don't want to exceed about 50% of the volume of the flask when autoclaving).  Personally, I don't have a pressure cooker capable of autoclaving my 2 liter Erlenmeyers upright and full of liquid, so I make small batches.  You can easily make up 1.040 wort and split into several batches (in mason jars) for autoclaving purposes, and these will keep in the fridge or basement as long as they are sealed.  Then, you can use this liquid for starters or 50-100 mL at a time for making solid culture medium plates such as we are discussing.  In this case, you would take 50 mL of this nice pre-autoclaved wort and add 1 gram of agar-agar to it, dissolve, and autoclave again in an Erlenmeyer flask in your pressure cooker.  

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Love a Tree? Make a Tassel Necklace

 Want to hug your tree and have it hug you back? Then, use it to make some "faux fringe" jewelry using a palm leaf.Prune your palm. Cut out a section and roll it and let it dry. It can be further trimmed later.

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Ultimate Amazing Bird Castle of Awesomeness

Come one, come all! This luxurious bird castle hotel is unlike any other! It features a central spacious living area, and is complete with four personal perches! This bird castle hotel will have birds flocking (literally) to check in! One once they're in, they'll find that they never want to leave!

Birdhouses are overlooked every day and not given a second thought after they are put up in trees or mounted in gardens. They are often just hung up and left to rot once the builder forgets all about it. However, this bird castle will show people birdhouses can be more than just a house; they can be anything you want them to be, including a castle. This castle will make people stop and wonder "Where can I get one?" and "How was it made?"

We're here to tell you that you can make this amazing bird castle yourself, and we're going to show you how.

Here's the basics on what you need:
Supplies:                                                                   Materials: 
- Rubber Mallet                                                         - 2" x 4" Solid Wood Logs
- Flexible Manufacturing System (FMS)                    - 0.5" Plywood
- Safety Glasses                                                       - Gorilla Wood Glue
- Files
- Sandpaper                                                            
- Computer (SolidWorks & MasterCAM)                   
- Endmill (Sizes: 1/8 Ball Endmill, 1/8 Flat
Endmill, & 1/16 Flat Endmill)

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