By Tara Bellucci

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When we started this blog at the end of October, we promised "that the super hip crafters, makers, doers, designers, bloggers, and other DIY-ers doing amazingly cool things right here in the Hub [would get] the coverage they deserve."

So, with 2013 already upon us, and New Year's resolutions being feverishly scribbled before parties get into full swing, we thought we'd share these 13 do-it-yourself ideas from local Boston bloggers. If your New Year's resolutions include trying new things, we've got you covered. From beauty and fashion to home decor and homemade booze, there's a little something here for everyone.

By Tara Bellucci

Melissa and I spend a good deal of our days typing away at Collaboratory 4.0, a new co-working space for majority women-owned businesses located inside 40Berkeley, a hip hostel in the South End.

As you walk up the curved staircase to the mezzanine home of Collaboratory 4.0, the first thing you notice is the writing on the wall. Literally. IdeaPaint coats nearly every vertical surface in the space, and we've covered it with doodles, to-do lists, and business plans.

By Tara Bellucci

Bracingly tart, we don't often enjoy our official state berry straight from the bog. But add a little sweetness, and the cranberry is a perfect addition to your holiday feasts and fêtes. Here are three of our favorite ways to enjoy this tangy treat.

As far as DIY gifts go this holiday season, infused salt and flavored salt recipes have to be in the top five most popular. Not only are infused salts super quick and easy to make, but they're versatile and thoughtful when blended with a friend's favorite flavors and prettily packaged.

If you're looking for a last-minute DIY gift to make for Christmas presents with only one or two days to go, try making one of our all-time favorite infused salt recipes: Sriracha salt.

By Tara Bellucci

It's hard to shop for the crafty guy or gal who prefers to do everything themselves. Whether the DIYer on your list is into sewing or cooking, is an adult or a kid, one of these ready-made kits is sure to get their creative juices flowing.

By Tara Bellucci

Whether it's a good workout, some quality time together, or an afternoon spent learning a new skill, we love to give (and get) experience gifts. With so many daily deal sites out in the marketplace, offering discounts on everything from fitness to family fun, we thought we'd cut down on your holiday shopping time by rounding up the best deals in the arts, outdoor, food, and fitness categories. But hurry up! Time is limited on most of them, so don't miss out.

By Tara Bellucci

Folded cloth napkins are an easy, inexpensive way to elevate your Thanksgiving table. They may look like they take a lot of time, but they're quite easy once you know how. Here are 5 different designs that take just one minute to create. Decorate your place settings, no butler necessary.

When you're an avid DIY-er living in an apartment rental, there are few things more frustrating than being bound by a lease or a landlord that doesn't allow you to put stuff on the walls. (And, at least from my firsthand experience, Boston is full of those apartments.) Fret not, fair makers: several reusable, removable products aim to ease your nesting woes, like the catalog of modern wall decal designs from Blik in Los Angeles.

Inspired by a Shoestring interview we did last year with Kara Butterfield, a Syndey expat living and working in Boston as an interior stylist, extolling the virtues and vision of using wall decals as a modern apartment decor solution, I finally broke down and bought a huge "Olivia" wall decal headboard from designer Mina Javid (one of Blik's best-selling decals). The installation instructions marked it as "Grab a Pal" in difficulty, so on a recent Saturday morning, I called Kara up and enlisted her to help me install the decal on my bedroom wall.

By Tara Bellucci

BCAE Facebook page/cocktail photo by Justin Ide

Whether you're looking to save a little cash or explore a new passion, there is no shortage of DIY classes to choose from. That's definitely the case at New England's oldest adult education non-profit, the Boston Center for Adult Education. From sewing and floral arranging to canning and crafting, if there's something you are dying to DIY, you can get hands-on instruction at the BCAE.

By Tara Bellucci

Heidi Murphy/White Loft Studio & styled by Maggie Battista

Some of Maggie Battista's homemade cocktail concoctions.

A doyenne of the DIY pantry, Maggie Battista is a lady you love to know. Always one to make tasty bits and bobs from her garden or bring some delectable morsel back from a weekend trip, she's generous with her goodies as well as her go-to sources. In 2007, Maggie started Eat Boutique as a gift box service to share local, small-batch producers that create "food that hugs you back."

With the recent launch of the the Eat Boutique shop and another of her hugely popular local markets coming up, Maggie takes a break to chat creative cocktails and tipsy Italians in our latest Maker Moment:

By Tara Bellucci

Stonybrook Fine Arts

Decorate your fingers at Stonybrook Fine Arts' Make A Ring Workshop.

If you're looking to expand your DIY repertoire or meet other crafty citizens, greater Boston is chock full of classes and events this November. Here are our favorites for the coming month:

Raise your hand if you ever re-purposed a piece of thrift store, hand-me-down, or Craigslist furniture in college by slapping on a new coat of paint, hiding its humble origins, to make it look shiny and new. Pretty much everyone? That's what we thought.

For decades, the "shabby chic" crowd has elevated that pastime to an art form, bringing castoffs back to life with a finely crafted "antiqued" look, and they've had one major, time-saving secret weapon: milk paint.

Staring her 30th birthday in the face, pink slip from her Los Angeles-based online magazine in hand, Marisa Lynch went to drown her sorrows in a showing of the end-all, be-all of 365-day-adventure journeys: Julie & Julia.

By the time she walked out of the theater, Marisa was inspired to use the sewing skills she inherited from her mom, a home economics teacher, to turn secondhand fashion rejects into stunning runway knock-offs. Plus, because it was the height of the Recession and she was newly "funemployed," Marisa decided she was going to do it all for less than $1 a day, and her blog New Dress a Day was born.

By Tara Bellucci

But one thing I don't like is buying something you can make with what you already have. Pumpkin pie spice is the biggest offender of this. If you occasionally bake, the odds are your pantry contains all the ingredients to create your own pumpkin pie spice from scratch, no trip to the store needed.

Hold on to your glue guns, Cantabridgians and Somervillens: there's a new sheriff of craft supplies in town. As you may have noticed, especially if you hit Shaw's for groceries or TAG Hardware for batteries in preparation for Hurricane Sandy last week, maker market superstore Michaels has opened its doors in the Porter Square Shopping Center (37 White Street, Cambridge).

Open for business exactly one month today, Michaels' new urban outpost boasts more than 37,000 square feet of craft supplies and classroom space (in the former Burlington Coat Factory location).

By Tara Bellucci

On November 7, the pair will be in Boston signing their first book, Young House Love: 243 Ways to Paint, Craft, Update & Show Your Home Some Love. To celebrate, we asked them our Maker Moment questions. Sherry shares her first project and biggest fail, and find out when they actually call in professionals:

By Tara Bellucci

Tara Bellucci

Swappers bring vanilla extract and vanilla sugar to the Boston Food Swap.

Vanilla. It's the world's most popular flavor. If you're looking for a homemade hostess or holiday gift, here are two super simple DIYs that anyone can do and everyone will like.

Nearly every baking recipe calls for vanilla extract, and nearly everyone (no matter how infrequently they bake) has a little bottle in their pantry. Those little bottles don't come cheap, and you can actually make your own extract for pennies per ounce. It's as easy as adding beans to booze. Really! If you have a couple minutes, you can have homemade vanilla extract for you and everyone on your gift list this year.

By Tara Bellucci

Cheesecloth is a kitchen workhorse, but did you know you can use it to create quick and easy Halloween decorations and costumes? Here are some simple ways to turn this staple into seasonal and scary decor.

Five years ago today, I launched Shoestring Magazine as a fun and empowering guidebook for urban resourcefulness and living well on a budget, which led to a heavy dose of do-it-yourself (DIY) tips and tutorials and a front-row seat to the burgeoning DIY movement. My team and I can't think of a better way to celebrate our milestone birthday than with the launch of this new local DIY Boston blog for Boston.com. We're stoked to share what we've learned, as well as to showcase the best of what Greater Boston has to offer in the way of local DIY classes, local DIY experts, and local DIY resources. We might even host a DIY Boston workshop or two ...