How-To Guides from WonderHowTo: Page 41

When I was a little kid, my parents often eschewed cakes for my birthday parties, and instead opted for ice cream sundaes and banana splits. It made perfect sense: ice cream is so easy, and you can get multiple flavors to ensure that everyone is happy.

From day to day, it can be difficult to remember everything that's required of you. I tend to forget exactly where it is I'm supposed to be during my busiest moments, and it's even easier to delete each day's events out of your brain when there's so much else that dominates your mind.

Although wear and tear on kitchen knives is unavoidable, it's extremely frustrating when I can't cut through tough, fatty tendons in meat or even make a clean slice through an onion. If you don't have a steel rod or water stone to sharpen your knives, or even a cheap knife sharpener, you can get creative by using a coffee mug and even a newspaper.

You can easily make your own fruit bowl like that. Check out this video for step by step instruction.

The peanut butter and jelly sandwich has officially left the building. When you eat this every other day in elementary school, you've sort of reached your limit. The thing is, peanut butter itself is delicious and quite versatile if used in the right way. Let's explore this kitchen cabinet staple and showcase it via the three dinner courses.

Rice water refers to the cloudy water that is leftover after washing rice in a bowl, or the excess water drained from a pot used for cooking rice in boiling water. Whichever method you prefer, rice water can be saved in a separate container once cooled, then used for a number of beauty, health, and home uses.

A friend of mine is a classically trained chef, and she often invites me over to her house to eat whatever goodies she has concocted. A few years ago I asked her the cliché question that every chef is sick of answering: "What's your favorite food?"

On days when it's too hot to even drive to the convenience store in an air-conditioned car to get an iced Slurpee, it's better to stay indoors and make your own summer Slurpee at home.

Arcade games have always been more about chance than skill (at least when I play them). Whether you're at a children's party at a Chuck E. Cheese's or drinking it up with your pals at a barcade like Dave & Buster's, you'll find similar games that hold the golden ticket to fun and cheap prizes that no one needs—boy, do you want them.

My favorite finishing touch to any dish is a tuile. Small, elegant, and simple—even its name makes it sound delicate. Tuiles are garnishes that are malleable when directly removed from the oven and crisp up as they cool down. I love them because they complement both savory and sweet dishes and can add a nice alternative texture to creamy dishes. Read on to learn how to transform this warm, workable dough into a variety of crispy, light accents.

Learn how to manually remove the vocals of a song on your computer leaving only the instrumentals. This doesn't work on all songs.

If you need to remove vocals from a song in Pro Tools first you need to open Pro Tools and load the song. First, you need to split this track so go to Track and click split to mono. Now, mute this first track. Next, you want to remove the stereo by panning each the bottom to 0. Now, flip the phase by going to the bottom clicking EQ plugin. Now the vocal is pretty much gone.

Want to create an instrumental or a cappella from a song? Learn how to remove vocals or instruments from MP3s using a freeware program called Audacity for Windows, Mac, and Linux.

In this how-to video, you will learn how to remove the vocals on songs using Ableton. First, open the tracks you want to remove the vocals from. Go to utility and select the preset difference. Drag it to the audio track. This will remove vocals.

This will work for nearly any song. Upload your chosen piece (simpler pieces work better), and then follow along with the procedure so you can remove the entire vocal track and end up with a song that's purely and completely instrumental.

In this video tutorial, viewers learn how to remove the vocals from a song using the program, Audacity. Begin by opening Audacity and import the song into the program. On the left side of the track, click on the downward arrow and select Split Stereo Track.

Do you think that Avril Lavigne has nothing on you when it comes to belting it out on the mic? Then you probably prefer karaoke versions of songs to the real ones so you can hone your vocal chops to your favorite tunes.

GarageBand is a powerful tool for Mac OS X that lets you edit and tweak audio tracks. One of the many audio editing capabiltiies of the program is the ability to reduce the vocals in a song. Take a look at this guide on how to edit the song's vocals so they aren't so loud using the AUGraphicEQ tool.

Update: this article is referring to the 1.9 pre-release beta version, which is now commonly referred to as 0.1.9, released in October of 2011.

Want to treat your furry best friend to a new pet bed? All you need are two identical pieces of fleece, batting, and a pair of fabric scissors. The best part is that there is zero sewing involved.

Bored of your old leggings lying around in the closet? Here's how you can re-use them as a crop top.

Eyebrows have a defining impact on your look. Learn how to make them look bold, arched or natural with these easy tips.

Want fuller lips in minutes? Here are three simple ways to plump up your lips before pouting for a selfie!

Want to lighten your lips naturally? Getting baby pink lips is easier than you thought. Watch this video to learn how to get kissable lips in minutes.

Watch this video to know which shade of lipstick best complements your skin tone.

Ripped, worn out denims are all the rage this season! Give your denims some distress by ripping them using a pair of scissors, chalk, tweezers and sandpaper.

There is no greater food to master than steak. If you can make a steak that's only marginally better than your neighborhood Applebee's, you'll still have friends waiting outside your door for steak night. And if you can make steak as good as that expensive gourmet steakhouse you went to for your birthday? Well, your popularity is about to increase dramatically.

Knowing how to cut and slice raw meat is a skill all omnivorous cooks need in their arsenal. However, raw meat's limp and gelatinous character can be challenging to work with, especially when you're trying to slice it into symmetrical, attractive sections for a stir-fry or a stew.

Tin cans have resin linings that contain bisphenol-A (BPA), which has been linked in animal lab testings to a number of ailments that include reproductive problems, heart disease, and obesity. Tomatoes are high in acidity, which means that the content of canned tomatoes eats away at the resin lining, which causes BPA to leach into what you eat. Long story short: avoid canned tomatoes at all costs.

How to make a Striped Macrame Rainbow bracelet. This bracelet looks good from both sides and its easy to make.

Making the bed is a challenging task, but trying to put a duvet cover over top your comforter is a challenge on a whole different level.

While it is common sense to toss empty water bottles into the recycle bin, most people do not know that it is also important to remove the plastic bottle cap before recycling. Plastic bottle caps and plastic bottles are made up of different plastics, and the plastic found in bottle caps are not as useful for recycling centers as the plastic found in bottles.

Thanks to the internet and its increasingly lack of privacy, secrets don't even seem safe in our own homes anymore. So how do you hide your secrets, stash your cash, or keep your valuable jewelry out of sight where no one can find it? Well, the answer might be right above you... if you're standing under the threshold of a door, that is.

When you look at an Italian flag, what do you see? Green, white, and red? Well, I see a Caprese salad. And no, I do not need to have my vision checked. It simply means that I have the eyes of a chef.

Cheetos fingers is defined as the unpleasant (but mostly pleasant), oddly-colored residue left on the thumb, index finger, and middle finger after ravenously eating through a bag of—you guessed it—Cheetos.

"Tempering chocolate" is one of those intimidating-sounding kitchen tasks that keeps novice cooks away from some really fun stuff like making candy, chocolate-dipped biscotti, and fruit.

Many have tried to prove (or disprove) that tennis ball lock picking really works, but it still seems up for debate. Mythbusters have supposedly debunked this technique (watch the video). Someone over at the Auto Blog also has tested this car lock method with failed results (watch the video).

Locked out of your car and need to break in ASAP? Unlace a shoelace from one of your shoes and you've got yourself the only tool you need to open your car door from the outside.

Have you ever locked your keys inside of your car before? I net you have, you've felt the frustration, you've felt the pain, but don't pull out that cell phone just yet... you don't need a locksmith.

This video shows you how to unlock a car door with a hanger but warns it isn't easy and may take some practice. First you will need a hanger as long as your arm, then insert the hanger in the hole on the left side of the window. Try to feel around and find the pin inside the hole. After you find the pin pull up on it. Try not to lock your keys in your car so you don't have to do this anymore.