Link-O-Rama

FREE TUTORIALS

Planning a night garden party once the weather warms up for the spring? Here’s a free tutorial on how to make glow-in-the-dark jars that only costs 20 cents each.

This free tutorial on how to make weathered-looking signs includes instructions on how to transfer anything printed on an ink jet printer to the surface of your project.

Here’s a free tutorial on how to make your own Raggedy Ann-style doll.

Here’s a video tutorial that shows how Sonia Singh of Tree Change Dolls takes used thrift shop dolls, removes the original factory paint, and re-paints their faces. She especially has a talent for taking Bratz dolls and making them look less like overly made-up tarts and more like real people.

Valentine’s Day is tomorrow. Still haven’t found anything appropriate for your Valentine? No problem. Here’s a free tutorial on how to make a DIY Confetti Painted Heart Mug that you can quickly whip out in about an hour or less.

MISCELLANEOUS LINKS

Here’s a map of the United States that emphasizes the most iconic movie filmed in each state. It’s kind of cool that The Blair Witch Project is considered the iconic movie for my state (Maryland) since I thought it was an interesting film. (Avoid the sequel at all costs—it totally sucks.)

How the anti-domestic violence organization, No More, is more focused on branding and feel-good corporate marketing than on actually helping domestic abuse victims.

Here is a cool stop-motion animation showing artist Jon Rolph recreating a Piet Mondrian masterpiece with Legos

Here’s a realistic looking midcentury American town that is actually made up of 1/24 scale miniatures.

A fascinating story about a novelist named Barbara Newhall Follett who published her first novel to major critical acclaim at 13 only to mysteriously vanish without a trace just a few years later. (By the way, you can now download for free her first novel that she published at 13, The House Without Windows & Eepersip’s Life There, right here.)

Another fascinating story about a man known as Australia’s oldest man, 109-year-old Alfie Date, who spends his days knitting small sweaters for penguins injured by an oil spill.

Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day, which is when the much-hyped movie is finally unleashed to the world that I like to call Fifty Shades of Twilight Fan Fiction (because Fifty Shades of Grey originally started as Twilight fan fiction—all this “writer” did was to turn the vampires and werewolves into human beings, made the female character just a few years older than the teenaged Bella, and included lots of sex and BDSM). Instead of shelling out money to watch this in the theaters, here are some cheaper—and far more enjoyable—ways of experiencing the movie for yourself.

• Gilbert Gottfried reads Fifty Shades of Grey in a hilariously booming voice.
• George Takei drolly reads the same book, which is also hilarious.
• The Fifty Shades of Grey movie trailer as reenacted by Lego Minifigs.
• The Rambling Curl: Fifty Abusive Moments in Fifty Shades of Grey.
• Fifty shades of grey, tacky merchandise.
• Fifty Shades of Grey: Some of the novel’s funniest, least sexy lines.
• Fifty Shades of Buscemi, featuring Steve Buscemi as Christian Grey.
• 7 kinky books and movies that are way better than Fifty Shades of Grey
• Fifty Shades of Earl Grey.
• Fifty Shades of Pink, starring Barbie and Ken.
• Rosie Reviews: Fifty Shades of Grey.
• I felt dirty watching Fifty Shades of Grey—and not because of the sex.
• Consent Isn’t Enough: The Troubling Sex of Fifty Shades.