(Photo: Instructables)

If you don't have a tricked-out bachelor(ette) pad that reveals a water bed and mood lighting at the flip of a switch, perhaps the "Romance Pants" can interest you. Built by the team at Instructables, the pants are rigged with conductive thread and resisters that allow the zipper to interact with objects around the room.

When the pants are unzipped, sensors send signals that tell the lights to dim and the stereo to increase its volume. When you unbutton them, candles loaded with nichrome wires and shaved match tips are activated, causing them to spark and light up.

The result is a candle-lit room that bumps your sex mix. How could your makeout partner not swoon?

(h/t BitRebels)

Romance Pants - Red Bull Creation 2012 Entry by Team Instructables from Audrey Love on Vimeo.

But other than a few twee over-achievers, no one is actually going to try these. You will be too busy drinking eggnog until you fall over and combing Kmart for last-minute gifts.

Here are 50 of the crafts that you are almost certainly too lazy and/or otherwise occupied to actually do this holiday season.

Mr. Pettis.

"We leveled up to bring you this today," MakerBot CEO Bre Pettis told the crowd at the company's press conference in Brooklyn this afternoon.

The startup responsible for bringing 3D printing to the mainstream--with a nudge from Stephen Colbert, of course--announced a breakthrough: the fourth-generation of MarkerBot's 3D printing device, dubbed the Replicator 2. You'll see it soon enough. The gleaming metal rectangle graces the cover of the October issue of Wired.

In the accompanying piece, Chris Anderson writes, "The Replicator 2 isn’t a kit; it doesn’t require a weekend of wrestling with software that makes Linux look easy. Instead, it’s driven by a simple desktop application, and it will allow you to turn CAD files into physical things as easily as printing a photo."

(Photo: MakerBot)

Mr. Pettis opened the conference by comparing 3D printers before MakerBot to mainframe computers in that one only had access to them through "an elite institution," or at least sneaking into said institution at night. Of course, startup types still in the ramen phase might balk at the $2,199 price tag, a slight increase from the older version, which costs $1,749. (We wish we could 3D print a time travel device to the year when it costs $21.99).

A tiny 3D-printed house.

But in a press release, the company pintpointed its target demo. Replicator 2 is "designed for the desktop of an engineer, researcher, creative professional, or anyone who loves to make things."

Brooklyn borough president Marty Markowitz offered his trademark booster accolades, describing the Replicator 2 as "filled with Brooklyn attitude, except these days it's called Brooklyn swagger." As he walked past Betabeat, we overheard him adding, "What did I say? It's the future, huh?"

After the Replicator was revealed from under a black cloth, the Magical Mr. Pettis said, "We made it look good," outlining the difference between the Replicator 2 and the higher-end Replicator 2X. If you want it to work right every time, you get the Replicator 2, the Honda of 3D printers. On the other hand, the 2X is for "people who like to build hot rods from scratch."

Here are the specs:

WHAT'S NEW WITH REPLICATOR 2 DESKTOP 3D PRINTER

• 100 Micron Layer Resolution -- The 100-micron layer resolution setting on the MakerBot Replicator 2 Desktop 3D Printer means professional-looking prototypes and objects with less effort.
• More Build Volume -- A build volume of 410 cubic inches (11.2" L x 6.0" W x 6.1" H) gives the MakerBot Operator much more space than before to make multi-part projects and big models.
• Optimized for MakerBot PLA Filament -- The MakerBot Replicator 2 Desktop 3D Printer is designed with the renewable bioplastic PLA in mind. PLA is the most popular build material in 3D printing because of its strength and ability to make very large prints without cracking or warping.

MAKERWARE: THE ALL NEW WAY TO DRIVE THE REPLICATOR 2

• Lightning fast preparation - MakerBot's new slicing engine is up to 20 times faster than the previous technology. What's more, the software is smarter and more efficient, which results in faster and more consistent models.
• Make more things at once - MakerBot MakerWare lets the MakerBot Replicator 2 Desktop 3D Printer make multiple models at one time. Combined with the huge 410 cubic inch build volume, it's easier than ever to get more done, faster.
• Simple but powerful - MakerBot MakerWare makes it intuitive to move, rotate, and scale models. When it comes time to choose print settings, MakerBot MakerWare simplifies the process while still leaving the control in the user's hands.

The star of the show.

During the press conference, MakerBot also announced a store--stay tuned for a slideshow from Betabeat after we take the tour. Mr. Pettis called it "a place for you to see MakerBots in action and find the most unique gifts in the world."

Mr. Dickerson (flickr.com/eschipul)

DIY-ers, you may now begin crocheting celebratory pillows and other yarn finery: E-commerce site Etsy, also known as Amazon for Twee People, announced today that it has raised a $40 million Series F round from investors, including Union Square Ventures and Accel Partners.

In a lengthy blog post, Etsy CEO Chad Dickerson strayed from the typical tech funding announcement, instead choosing to first focus on Etsy's growth and continued commitment to making the world a better place through business. The DUMBO-based startup has scored a B Corporation certification, which "gives [them] a framework to measure Etsy’s success against rigorous values and responsible practices as [they] scale as a company."

The B Corporation certification is basically a commitment to doing good by doing well, which is a smart PR move, considering Etsy's artisan demographic.

Mr. Dickerson also writes that this $40M capital injection will help "grow Etsy into an economic force all around the world... we want to provide more products and services to help sellers succeed and build their businesses on the Etsy platform."

Perhaps it can also go towards helping to solve that wedding redesign flap.

Mr. Klein sans cabin.

The last time we checked in on Vimeo cofounder Zach Klein, the self-described "proselytizer of country living" was adding listings to his upstate New York real estate blog and tending to his Cabin Porn tumblr. The New York native--who also cofounded Svpply and BustedTees, is a partner in Founder Collective, and has invested in Kickstarter--still has East Coast ties in the form of a dreamy cabin called Beaver Brook that he built using a salvaged barn frame.

But yesterday, Mr. Klein finally revealed what he's been up to since moving to San Francisco last fall: an online community and app for kids called DIY. It's a zeitgeisty idea that taps into both the Maker movement and the fact that children find themselves immersed in technology at a younger age. (Yes, a rugrat who grew up playing with iPads will soon make you feel obsolete.)

Through an online portal and iOS app, DIY lets kids create portfolios of the stuff they make through a public web page. Friends and family members can encourage their work through stickers and parents can monitor their activity from a dashboard. "We’ve all seen how kids can be like little MacGyvers," the company writes in an introductory blogpost. "They’re able to take anything apart, recycle what you’ve thrown away – or if they’re Caine, build their own cardboard arcade. This is play, but it’s also creativity and it’s a valuable skill." Starting 'em early on the innovation agenda, we see.

Mr. Klein, who acts as DIY's CEO, said he met cofounders Isaiah Saxon, Andrew Sliwinski, Daren Rabinovitch at  Tim O'Reilly's Foo Camp over the past couple of years. "We became friends and I visited them in CA often, and then I moved out to SF last November to form the company together," he told Betabeat by email.

Mr. Saxon, who founded Encyclopedia Pictura and advises Open Source Ecology, will be the company's CCO. Mr. Sliwinski, who co-founded the hackerspace OmniCorp Detroit, is DIY's CTO. Their offices are located in the Mission, a block away from Dolores Park.

When it comes to fostering the Maker impulse, Mr. Klein said existing social platforms don't cut it. "Inside communities, we look for cues how to behave," he told Betabeat. "Facebook and Twitter don't promote creativity, so new members wouldn't know that it's valuable. At DIY it's clear that creativity is what we celebrate, so our kids know that to make is to be a good citizen of our community. We hope it's more fulfilling to share creative work on DIY."

Mr. Klein has no children himself, but pointed out that every Friday, DIY hosts a "Maker Club" in its office where neighborhood kids swing by, make projects with the founders, and use the app. "Plus, my inner child is very much alive. See Beaver Brook," he said, directing us to the aforementioned rustic cabin.

DIY has funding, although Mr. Klein wouldn't specify the amount. (Fellow Vimeo cofounder Jakob Lodwick, recently raised $1 million to $2 million for Elepath Studios without an actual idea for a product. A strategy that reminds Forbes of "Seinfeld.")

Mr. Klein is also hoping his community-building experience at DIY will pay off. "I feel Vimeo is one of the most successful communities on the Internet--It's prolific, creative, loving and diverse--and I'm looking back to my experience there to make DIY," he said. "I learned to embrace a personality (so many services are bankrupt of human touch!); to treat members with dignity (everyone is capable of great things!); to give members tools to distinguish themselves; and to clearly define good and bad behavior."

The startup is not short on lofty goals. "Our ambition is for DIY to be the first app and online community in every kid’s life," says DIY. It also looks like they're hiring.

The crowd behind the crowdfunding.

Over the past 32 days my fiancee and I have been running a Kickstarter project. We were trying to raise funds to build a teaching farm on an abandoned lot in Brownsville, Brooklyn. On Tuesday of this week we reached our goal of $23,000 dollars.

I've been writing about Kickstarter as a journalist for a while, but using the service myself really changed my perspective on how the company manages to successfully fund an incredible 43 percent of the projects it features on its site.

For a while I was critical of the fact that Kickstarter continued to curate by hand which projects were approved for funding. While the company has seen some incredible growth, at some point it seemed like they would lose their ability to reach web scale. I imagined they would need to take an open approach similar to Etsy if they really wanted to build their business.

But in chatting with our donors, I came to realize this selectivity creates the power of the Kickstarter brand. We received pledges from Australia to Hawaii and back again. A lot of these people had backed a dozen or more projects on Kickstarter. They had diverse interests across music, film, art and food. What they believed in was Kickstarter, and our project was one way of expressing that. 

I had chatted with Cassie Marketos, Kickstarter's editorial director, before starting the project. I wanted her opinion on how much we should try to raise, given we were doing an urban farm. "That's not how it works," she explained. "What matters is the quality of the project and the way it connects with your network."

My social networks definitely helped. Tweets from people in the New York tech community promoted the project, especially in the first week when we were looking to build momentum. The hundreds of Facebook likes we received allowed us to tap into old classmates, camp buddies and friends of friends of friends. And I was reminded of how powerful a social network Google has on file when I began crawling through my old email contacts and chats to reach out for donations.

But it was the network Kickstarter has built that really put us over the edge. Numerous journalists interested in food and education reached out after finding the project there. And of the 261 backers we have gotten to date, more than one third of our backing came from total strangers. Often, these people had already backed four or more projects on Kickstarter.

I never paid much attention to the site's slogan, "Fund and Follow Creativity", but the "Follow" part turned out to be as important as the funding. Seeing the interest in our project from Kickstarter's power users made me realize that the team there has built a powerful network of backers in large part through their editorial voice and curation, and that this brand wouldn't last if Kickstarter optimized for scale on the web and lost its human touch.

Bits byte, let's make something.

Quirky, a crowdsourced creation platform,  just raised $16 million. What numbers were those venture heads looking at when they opened their wallets? Well Quirky recently partnered with Bed, Bath & Beyond, and company says this has spurred big growth.

Since the start of 2011 it has expanded its user base by more than 40 percent to over 78,000.

The average number of ideas submitted in each weekly round has doubled from 114 to 227. A show about the company is about to air on the Sundance channel, so expect that growth to increase. 

Recently Kickstarter released some of its metrics, which showed a rapid acceleration in the amount of funding secured for projects on the site. Kickstarter raised $50 million in its first two years of existence and $10 million in just the last ten weeks.

Wired, which gave the Maker movement the cover treatment a few months back, recently declared on Epicenter that 2011 was the year the DIY movement broke out. With companies like Kickstarter, Quirky, Makerbot, Shapeways and Etsy all scaling fast, it seems like New York is poised to capture this booming market.

I will pay you to help me invent something cool. Seriously

Quirky founder Ben Kaufman prefers not to give out quotes when raising new funds, focusing instead on the details of what Quirky has been up to.

But he sure does like to raise fresh capital. It raised $6 million A round last April led by RRE and, according to Venture Wire, just closed a $16 million B round led by Norwest Venture Partners with RRE participating again.

As Betabeat has written recently, start-ups are rushing to close their financing, fearful that a tanking stock market will scare off potential investors or, at the very least, drive the valuations they can negotiate way down.

Quirky is a collaborative platform for users to submit ideas and participate in the process of refining, designing and marketing that product. Based on their level of input, users receive a certain cut of any profits once the item goes on sale.

We have seen the metrics for group funding site Kickstarter explode in the last six months. Check back here soon for a growth report from Quirky to see if it backs up the big dollars they are banking. Whatever they are, expect them to grow once the TV show about Quirky starts airing on Sundance.