I have a couple of designs for simple stabilizers for your digital video camera.
I have built these and have a few suggestions about use and some hacks and modifications.

The first design is from a site called
$14 Steadycam The Poor Mans Steadicam
From Johnny Chung Lee here is a link to his site where he has a kit if you don’t want to find the parts yourself.
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~johnny/steadycam/
It is basically 3-10″ iron pipes, a “T” connector and 3 end caps. A weight for the end and a mounting bolt for the camera. This is super easy to assemble except for the drilling of the end-caps. Since the pipes are iron you need a vise and a good drill and bit. Wear your googles. I have taken his advice on making a low mount. Mine is made from 2-90 degree angle pieces of steel, that I bolted together. This low rig is great for skateboarding videos, as you will see at the end of the cast. Thanks to the old man army for letting me shoot them one cloudy Sunday morning.
http://www.oldmanarmy.com

The other is from instructables and is a take-off on the FigRig. It is a steering wheel design stabilizer and is made from PVC pipe and I modified the design by using some electrical PVC conduit to make a more round appearance.
Here is the Octagon design
http://www.instructables.com/id/PVC-FIG-RIG/

So instead of all those 45 degree elbows I used the electrical PVC conduit which is pretty firm for short distances but can become a bit too flexible at longer lengths and heavier weights. So I will probably redo mine at some point and feature a top PVC pipe and side bars part to stiffen it up. There might be some other solutions- like bending PVC with heat, or maybe finding and actual steering wheel to modify.
The other mod is the middle mounting spot. Which I placed horizontal so that I could make a rest for the rig, to be able to set it down. When I use my Panasonic DVX-100 on this rig I use a Zoom Controller attached to the right hand side of the rig. The controller adjusts Zoom/Iris/Focus and Record with just your thumb it is awesome. I’ll add a picture soon. You can paint them but make sure to let it dry a nice long time. I used some black satin finish spray paint. The last mod is to add some grips using the type that a made for tennis rackets.

The real trick is practice, over time you will start making nice smooth shots. You will probably notice an immediate improvement in your shots just getting your hands off the camera. But true mastery will only come with time. The rigs are heavy, that is partly the point to add some mass to the little camera so you don’t fling it around so much. Walking with the rig is the hardest part, and will have to just be practiced. You see professionals advertising for a trained steadicam operator, so even with the big pro stuff it takes time.

Here is one extra link –
http://homebuiltstabilizers.com