With a pair of hands, some raw materials and imagination, you can make a lot of things you’d otherwise buy. Your do-it-yourself projects may or may not measure up in quality to manufactured goods, but at least you’ll know whom to complain to if you’re not satisfied.

Drawing on tips from the book The Bust DIY Guide to Life, Alpha Consumer highlights several crafts-you-can-use projects.

Here are three that stood out:

* Candles — Using a milk carton, candlewick, wax and coloring chips, you can form your own mood-lighting emitters. You melt the wax and pour it into the carton to shape your candle.

* Fingerless gloves — With some stitching skill and stylish vision, those handy with needles can turn a pair of old socks into hand-warmers.

* Teeth whitener — Blending together a mixture of sea salt and sage leaves with a mortar and pestle, those who eschew whitening strips can cook up a substance that will supposedly brighten your teeth when you scrub it on them with a toothbrush.

6 DIY Projects That Save Money [Alpha Consumer]

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