How-To Guides about Novelty

Want to add a personalized touch to your favorite gun? Looking for some ways to dress up the stock on a new rifle? Checkering a gun stock is a way to add a little unique twist to your favorite rifle or gun. It is not an exceptionally hard technique to master, and you only need a few basic tools to do it. This tutorial from Midway USA shows you how to create a custom checkered gunstock for any wooden stock.

Bored in your cubicle all day? It's time for helicopter wars! This video shows you how to make a fun and simple helicopter out of some basic office supplies. The materials you will need are: a big paper clip, a smaller paper clip, a large aluminum can (such as from Rockstar or Monster energy drinks), a ruler, Scotch tape, a rubber band, a pair of pliers (if you have a Leatherman multitool, those will work just fine), a pen you can take apart for the long tube, a pair of scissors, and some plain...

Turn the Nerf Vulcan EBF-25 so the bottom side is facing up.

The english version of this how-to is found here.

If you're serious about spinning pens, you probably already know how awesome spinning with a modified one is. The G2 is great by itself, but stretched out like this it looks cool and spins great. Watch the video to learn how to make it.

Instructables user BrittLiv uses a moldable silicone called sugru to sculpt this awesome doorstop of South Park's miraculously indestructible Kenny McCormick.

Not only will this wood-block pistol make you the terror of your next family activity night, it'll actually improve your Jenga game! Through science! For, you see, the faster you can knock a block out of a Jenga tower, the shorter the amount of time over which it can exert a frictional force on its neighbors. Which means the whole kit-and-caboodle is much less likely to come tumbling down.

A laser vortex is a basically a tool and allows you to make a circle of red laser light quickly and easily for creating lightshows, especially useful when combined with a fog machine. This video will teach you how to make one for cheap out of parts your can find at any hardware store.

It is a rainy day and the children are bored. What can they do? Mom has a great idea, make play dough. You have all the ingredients in the house. Ingredients you will need: 2 cups flour 1 -cup salt 1-cup water 1-tablespoon oil Few drops food coloring Add all of the ingredients together. You can use any color of food coloring you want. Mix together. You can use a spoon or your hands. Make sure it is mixed very well. It takes a lot of stirring to get it to look like play dough....

In this tutorial, we learn how to recycle a plastic bottle to make a toy bottle rocket. First, take a large plastic bottle and a sharp knife, then cut it in half. After this, take the side with the cap on it and then paint on the inside of the bottle. You can paint whatever you want on the inside, feel free to use different colors and get as creative as you want! From here, take some bottle caps and poke holes in the center of them. Then, string these together by pushing a string in the middle...

In this video, we learn how to do an orbit at an orbit light show. The light should spin clockwise in one and and counter clockwise in the other. You must pay close attention to keep these spinning back and for. Start out by winding the lights up and mastering this so you can produce different shapes. After you learn the wind up, learn how to make the stars with it by winding it up one direction and let the orbit in the middle unwind itself in the opposite way. Once you're comfortable, you will...

It stretches, it squishes... it's silly putty! You can make your own toy putty at home, using a simple recipe of school glue (don't get the washable variety), borax, water and food dye to add a bit of color. Mix and then let it dry out a bit. Silly putty!

The key to a good steampunk paint job is getting the distressted metallic look just right. This tutorial shows you how to add a lot of aesthetic appeal to your next steampunk prop mod, whether it's goggles, binoculars or something entirely different.

3-D is the next big thing for Hollywood, but 3-D glasses can sometimes be expensive. You can take a pair of sunglasses and turn them into your own 3-D glasses wtih just some packaging plastic, permanent markers, scissors and super glue.

Oobleck, a word coined from the Dr. Seuss book "Bartholomew and the Oobleck," has contemporarily come to define the substance created from mixing cornstarch and water. This mixture is notable for its dilatant properties, and as an inexpensive and non-toxic Newtonian fluid. While seemingly liquid, under pressure, the substance reacts as a solid. Gentle treatment, however, will allow the material to remain in its fluid state. More simply put, this sh*t is crazy.

This video will show you how to create wheels for a fingerboard using a lathe. First, you should take a plastic tube and insert it into your lathe, using various drill pieces to cut down the plastic tube to the correct size. After this has been done, a drill which is attached to the lathe and adjusted to go straight through the tube can be made to create a hole through the center of the tube. You can then insert a small piece of metal into the tube in order to create the holder which will...

In this tutorial, we learn how to make a dream catcher. You will need: 1 metal ring, leather, sinew, decorations, scissors, and a clothes pin. First, wrap the leather tightly around the ring. Clip the clothes pin on the top so you don't have to hold it as you go around the circle. After this, remove the clothes pin and cut the leather off. Then, tie it at the bottom with a double knot. Next, measure the sinew to 3 yards, then pull it apart. You will be left with very thin strings. use a folded...

Remember the Wonder Twins from DC Comics? If you're familiar with the extraterrestrial superheroes, then you know all about those rings they wore. They would touch rings and says "Wonder Twin powers, activate!" to ready their superpowers.

If you recently purchased a Midwest catapult kit and need help putting it together, this next video is for you. In it, you'll get the step-by-step instruction for constructing your catapult. It's not very difficult to follow and makes life easier when putting this together. And if you don't own this product, you can always watch the video and build one yourself. Good luck and enjoy!

If you are planning on making a diorama for a school project or anything else, using real like effects can be a big boost. Water effects can have a great looking effect, but using actual water can be messy and won't get the job done.

In this video, you'll learn how to make your very own floam. Floam is a fun little toy, kind of in between slime and silly putty, and you can make this with just a few household items. Just search in your garage, and with a few ingredients, you'll be making magic in no time at all!

Remember Harry Potter and the Triwizarding Tournament from "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire"? If you consider yourself any type of repectable Harry Potter fan, then you know that Harry retrieved a dragon egg from his challenging dragon during the first round of the tournament.

Yoshi has evolved from a simple Mario sidekick into one of the most beloved figures in all of gaming. This video will teach you how to translate your love of this perpetually-famished dinosaur into another medium: Legos. Learn how to make a model of Paper Yoshi, from the Paper Mario series, out of Lego blocks by watching this video. The artist here uses a computer program for his demonstration, but you can use real blocks obviously if you have enough of them!

Ozymandias, the smartest man in the world, is certainly one of the most intriguing of the many intriguing characters from the comic The Watchmen. This video features detailed instructions for making a custom Ozymandias Lego minifigure. Combine with the other Watchmen hero minifigures and act out whatever scenes from the comics your like!

Do you still think that Michael Jackson is the King of Pop, even in light of the many controversies that surround the end of his life and his untimely death? Do you also love Legos? The show your love for both. This video will teach you how to make a custom Lego minifigure that resembles Michael (Michael from the "Beat It" music video to be exact) using only paint and some hobby tools. Memorialize the King of Pop in a special using the instructions from this video.

Luigi is the comic relief / punching bag character in the most popular series of video games of all time, Mario. There are many different models of Luigi that you can make or acquire made from plush and die-cast. This video will teach you how to make a two-dimensional (at least by Lego standards) model of Luigi out of Lego blocks. The video uses a computer program, but you can use real blocks obviously should you so choose. Would make a great wall hanging!

The Star Wars universe is vast and diverse, and for the Lego Star Wars-modeling enthusiast, knowing how to make the dizzying number of different types of figures from the series is key to creating accurate-looking scenes. This video features detailed instructions for making a shadow clone commando custom Lego minifigure. Complete your set!

If you are trying to make an accurate representation of a Star Wars battle out of Legos, completeness is crucial. Just because you've made a hundred Arc Trooopers doesn't mean you are done, you've got to make each one appropriate to their job on the battlefield! This video features instructions on how to make Arc Trooper gunner and heavy gunner custom minifigures. Pop them into their appropriate gun emplacements on your Lego battlefield and impress your friends with the accuracy of your replica...

The Watchmen are one of the most intriguing set of characters in the history of comics. If you love both the comics and Legos, then this video is for you. It features detailed instructions for making a custom Lego minifigure of Rorschach using basic hobby tools. Make the whole team, and start solving some tiny crimes!

If you are the type of Lego enthusiast who like to construct full-scale models of famous battles and scenes out of your blocks and minifigures, then accuracy is probably important to you. If making a Star Wars: The Clone Wars scene, the Arc Trooper pilot is an important element of most of them. This video features detailed instructions for making a custom Arc Trooper pilot minifigure out of basic hobby tools. Stick him in a plane and he'll be ready to fly Republic forces into battle.

No Star Wars Lego battlefield depicting the events of the popular animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars, is complete without Clone Trooper Captain Fordo. This video will help you to remedy any Fordo deficiencies in your battleground scene by teaching you how to construct a minifigure of Captain Fordo. There, now your Arc Trooper army is complete.

Has your Lego arsenal grown stagnant relying on the supply of weapons offered it by the Lego corporation? Take matters into your own hands. This video features detailed instructions for building a sniper rifle out of Lego blocks that one of your Lego minifigures can hold. This will make this piece a deadly force on the Lego battlefield.

The Ghost is one of the most important vehicles in the Halo universe, allowing the Covenant forces to move quickly and dangerously across any environment. This video features detailed instructions for building a model of a Ghost yourself out of Lego blocks.

Do you love both Halo and Legos? You aren't alone. This video features a Halo / Lego enthusiast showing off his completed model of a Warthog jeep from the popular Halo series of video games, then taking it apart in order to show you, the viewer, how to build it yourself. It is a little harder to follow than some Lego videos that show the whole construction process, but if you are Lego-proficient enough to have all of the pieces that you need to complete this model, you probably don't need that...

Daredevil is one of the least conventional and most popular Marvel superheroes, having been played by Ben Affleck in a recent Hollywood movie. This video tutorial will teach you how to make a Daredevil Lego minifigure using only simple hobby tools. He looks very cool, and should be more than a match for any Lego villain that you can throw at him.

Venom is one of the coolest bad guys in all of Marvel comics, the iconic evil counterpart to Spider-Man. This tutorial will show you how to make a Venom Lego minifigure using only Legos and paint. He looks very cool at the end, and will make a formidable opponent for your good-guy Lego minifigures.