Thanks for following along with my round-up during this beautiful summer!

Although summer is coming to an end, I always find time between school and homework to craft. No matter how stressed I get, beading and playing my guitar are the two activities that calm me down and focus me!

Step 1: Random Crafting

I hate those plastic hanging shoe racks. They look ugly and sway in your closet. I liked the look of this built in shoe rack. It works perfectly for tight spaces and can serve multiple storage purposes.

Making Soap out of Kitchen Grease? It may sound kind of strange, but it makes sense... Check out this tutorial from Little House in the Suburbs.

Step 2: Restoration

Restore your bicycle with these tips from Craftzine. You can buy used bikes that are in great condition, but just need a makeover. I bought a used bike for $60 when I was in college. It surely would have benefited from this tutorial.

Step 3: Jewelry

Learn how to sand cast your own jewelry with this tutorial by Ruby Girl Jewelry. This is such a cool way to make personalized jewelry out of scrap metal. I found this via Craftzine.

Step 4: Environmental Art

Ned Kahn is an amazing artist who makes large scale environmental sculptures that focus on different aspects of natures including fire, wind, and water to name a few. His wind pieces are my favorite. Here is one of his pieces called Wind Leaves. The sculptures are covered stainless steel disks that ripple in the wind. They are also interactive. Hand wheels at the bottom of the sculpture allow viewers to turn the sculptures.
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Hydroponic Solar Garden is sculpture by Amy Youngs in collaboration with Ken Rinaldo. It is a hanging hydroponic garden. All of the glass vessels that compose the levels of the garden are hand blown. Through this piece of art they hope that indoor sustainable gardens could become alternatives to industrial agriculture where vegetables are grown on petroleum-powered farms and trucked to grocery stores.

Step 5: Weekly Challenge

Every week, as part of this round-up, I want to pose our crafty community a challenge.
Take the inspiration I provide and make your own Instructable from it. Everyone who participates will get a special patch!

This week's challenge is: Multi-Purpose Storage

This table has three uses: it can be a simple coffee table, it can store books, and the top flaps can pop out to be used as a TV dinner stand.. For this challenge build a piece of furniture or re work a part of your room or closet to elegantly store as much as possible while serving multiple purposes.

Once you've made your instructable, be sure to add it to the Check It Out! Challenge Group, so I'll know to give you a patch.

Previous Challenges :

Under Armor: Under armor is correct! These industrial intimates created by Ingrid Goldbloom Bloch are made out of all sorts of metals from recycled aluminum cans, stainless steel mesh, rivets, grommets, hooks, and more. For this challenge, fabricate your own garments out of found metals!

Unique Clocks: I have seen some really unique clocks on instructables. I thought this clock make from a recycled bicycle could be inspiration to make some unique clocks from found objects.

Salvaged Barbie Doll Parts: This is one of the more unique re-purposed jewelry ideas that I have seen. At first I thought the faces and body parts were photos or maybe paintings. However, the interesting and comical compositions are created using Barbie parts! The Plastic Body Series designed by Margaux Lange is a jewelry line that combines salvaged Barbie doll parts with sterling silver and pigmented resins. Create your own instructable that uses salvaged barbie doll parts in a unique way (doesn't have to be jewelry but can be!).

Transparent Trends: Watch your toast while its toasting! Super cool. For this challenge create a project/product transparent that is not normally transparent.

Wacky Memo Pads. I found these adorable fruit slice memo pads on gallery nucleus while looking for a gift exchange project. There are so many wacky memo pad possibilities!

Lego Jewelry by JacQueline Sanchez
I heard about this high-end lego jewelry from a woman I met at MakeSF event. I decided to check it out. It is beautiful jewelry but I'm a DIYer and I don't think I could shell out this kind of money for something I think I could make myself.

Peel-away wallpaper made by ZNAK as seen on dornob.com is still open. HINT: think shelf liner, vinyl contact paper, etc...

I can't wait to see what you make!

Step 6: Events

September is just a few days and there are a bunch of great craft events to look forward to.

First Friday Craft Market - Enjoy a variety of craft workshops for children and adults. Friday September 3rd at the Historic Kennett Square Farmers Market in Kennett Square, PA.

Natural Dying - Learn some dying techniques with this indigo dying workshop. This workshop is in New York City on Saturday, September 4th at 1pm.