Cosplay Creation! Demon Hunter Day 3

It's been a couple days since my last bout of work, so I figured while waiting for more paper mache to dry (to be featured in the next post), I'd get my progress up on here.

I slipped on a slightly too big t-shirt and stuck some padding inside the shoulder to use as the base of the first shoulder piece.  With the help of my husband, we put down a layer of masking tape, followed by a layer of duct tape.  I carefully slipped the shirt off, and thanks to the not so stickiness of the masking tape, was able to carefully pull the shirt out from the form.

I trimmed the shape down a bit, then used aluminum foil to add some addition detail to the form.  Aluminum foil is a pretty great material to add additional volume and shape as it's light and can hold its form.  Then I realized I needed to stop work on the shoulder and work on a more logistical issue.  I couldn't place the holding clips on the shoulders until I knew exactly how and where they would need to be.

Time to make the harness.  I had some extra heavy duty felt lying around from an old project.  I sketched out a shape on some paper, transferred it onto the felt, and cut it out.  Next, I fished some more key chain rings out of my bead box, and stitched them onto each 'corner'.  I included a small square of felt behind each one I stitched for additional re-enforcement.  I attached some bias tape for straps, then tested it out.

I tied it to the rings I added to the chest piece, and was not disappointed with the results.  It held it in place perfectly.  It also felt pretty comfortable, always a plus for costumes.

Bigger plus?  It looked pretty kick ass in the back.  I plan on adding some decorative work to it so that it can be worn as is, or I can attach a back plate, or possibly a quiver.  I like the flexibility this piece will be able to offer as far as being able to interchange pieces goes.

Alright, back to crafting.  Until next time!

Cosplay Creation! Demon Hunter Day 2

Hooray costume making!  I am so excited.  It's been a while since I had a really cool project to work on.  Today I went browsing at the Dollar Tree and Micheal's.  I didn't buy anything other than glue, but just browsing through the aisles got the gears in my head turning.  Turns out the Dollar Tree has different types of floral foam.  I'm tucking that away for possible use down the road.

So I got a rough shape trimmed down for my chest piece.  I also added rings for the straps.  I figured I wanted them integrated into the structure since they are going to be holding not just the chest and possibly back piece, but also the shoulders.

Paper mache time!  The duct tape was great for creating the general form, but I do want this to be a rigid piece.  I figured the cheapest, easiest way to get this was paper mache.  I mixed up some glue, and got to work.  I kept the pieces on the shorter, and mostly thinner, side.  It makes it easier to form it around the curves.  I just took my time working, trying to keep it as smooth as possible to minimize work down the road.  

First layer!  But see that bowl on the left?  I never fail to make either way less, or way more glue than needed...

First layer complete!  I have it resting on a small inverted bowl to give it support as it dries.  I'm hoping that the shape doesn't get distorted.  I think it'll be alright.  If not, at least I've only got maybe a dollar's worth of materials invested in this so far.  

So now I just have to sit and wait for it to dry a bit, then I'll add another layer and decide where to go from there.

Cosplay Creation! Demon Hunter Day 1

Convention time is about a month away, and I am ready!  Well, mentally I am.  But costume wise, I've just started.  For one day, I'll be re-using my Death cosplay from last year.  It was fun and easy, and it gives me a freebie costume for one day.  

For a second day though, I plan on doing something more elaborate.  After much agonizing and debating, I decided to go with the Demon Hunter from Blizzard's Diablo III.  I don't plan on doing a specific set, more of a rendition based on both official and fan art.

Mostly, this is a learning opportunity.  I've made costumes before, but armor is new to me.  This will be on a budget.  Eventually I want to break into some of the specialty materials I've been seeing around, but that will have to wait.  So for this creation, it'll be about stuff I've got around the house and things that can be found thrifting.

Last night I started on the chest piece.  I actually used taping methods I've seen for everything from corset making to dressmaking form creation.  I slapped some plastic wrap on myself, used some masking tape to secure it, then got to work with duct tape.  This was the end result.

I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out.  It was my first time to do this, and it was simpler than I thought it might be.  I took my time, worked carefully around the bust to retain the shape, and only accidentally stuck the duct tape to my skin once.  Now I just need to trim the neckline and bottom to the right shape, and then it's on to the next step!

Geek Holiday: Christmas Movies

Ok, so usually I post on Sunday, but I felt that this next post really needed to wait until December, so I put it off a day.  I'm going to kick start this month by talking about Christmas movies.

I like to start the season with National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation.  It's been a long time tradition in my family to watch it after over indulging on turkey.  With all the holiday 'what can go wrong' cliches (on steroids of course) that you can think of, it makes for some truly relate-able humor.  I don't get tired of watching this one every year.

Another yearly favorite is A Christmas Story.  Ralphy's struggle to make it through the holidays, with a quest to get the grail of presents, it truly is a classic.

And my absolute favorite to watch every year are the Home Alone movies (the first two of course).  These usually get multiple watches, a few of which are usually just through the climatic criminal smack down.  I don't know what it is, but I can't get enough of Kevin's triumphs.

I love many other holiday movies, from Scrooged to Jingle All the Way, but let's talk about the one movie that never makes a favorite list ...

The Star Wars Holiday Special.

<waits for gasps of revulsion to quiet>  I know, I know, but hear me out.

Now I had heard about this....gem quite some time ago, but never gave it any additional thought since every reference to it I heard was rather derogatory.  However, it truly came onto my radar last year while binge watching Nostalgia Critic Christmas movie editions.  Nostalgia Critic is hilarious, by the way.

Anyways, my initial thought was, "Oh, it has all the original cast, how bad could it have been?"  and decided to give it a shot. That was the last optimistic thought I had.  For all that I love Star Wars, this was cringe inducing.

However, I think it's worth...well, maybe not full on watching, but having on in the background (maybe while decorating your tree) at least once.  Kind of like one of those things you do just to be able to say you did it.  If you can't stand to watch it in its entirety, do give Youtube a visit and check out the Nostalgia Critic's abbreviated version.  His commentary is not only funny, but gives you the company that the miserable love.

Now to make a cup of tea and try to find my voice.  Have fun!

Celebrity Nerd: Weird Al

So first, I was bad and did not post last week.  I had been sick, and was not feeling particularly inspired to do anything more than sleep.  However, all that sleeping paid off, and I'm feeling better than I have in a long time.  This is good what with Black Friday looming large in the all too near future.  But on the bright side, TURKEY!  Yay.

Anyways, recently I was bopping around on Youtube, and like most people who have a clicking problem, eventually wound up on random things not related at all to what I was first looking at.  I ended up listening to song after song by Weird Al Yankovic.  I listened to old favorites, and some of his newer stuff that I had never seen before.

I first started listening to him back in middle school.  I was in a drama class, and we had to form groups and do a lip sync to a song of our choosing.  I suppose in retrospect, Weird Al was the inevitable choice for my group given who was in it.  Anyways, we stuffed pillows into over sized shirts and preformed to 'Fat'.  I was hooked after that, and since it was still the days when CDs were a thing, I went out and bought 'The Food Album'.  I still can't listen to any of the original songs they parody without thinking the Weird Al lyrics.

While browsing his rather extensive collection, I realized that there were quite a few awesome nerd/geek songs.  I thought it might be fun to compose a list of my favorite five.

5.  Yoda



The title is pretty self explanatory, but 'Yoda' is a song about the famous little green guy himself, set to 'Lola' by The Kinks.

4.  FOIL



This is one of my more recent discoveries, and I love it.  'FOIL' starts out referring to its typical use for food storage, so at first I thought it was another food song.  It takes an interesting twist though, and I think it fits in a nerd song list quite nicely.  'FOIL' is set to 'Royals' by Lorde.

3.  Word Crimes



'Word Crimes' is the perfect anthem for all the grammar Nazi nerds out there.  Weird Al gives the masses a schooling on the English language.  It is equal parts education and hilarity, and it automatically became one of my favorites before the song even halfway through.  'Word Crimes' is set to 'Blurred Lines' by Robin Thicke.

2.  The Saga Begins



A long time favorite of mine, 'The Saga Begins' is essentially a breakdown of Star Wars Episode I.  Set to Don McLean's 'American Pie', Weird Al, as Obi-Wan, takes us through the tale of young Anakin.  I know this is the second Star Wars reference on this list, but lets face it, Star Wars is definitely high up on the list of geek/nerd royalty.

I almost put 'The Saga Begins' at number one, but I felt that since this is specifically a list of nerd songs, that the number one slot belonged to another favorite of mine...

1. White & Nerdy



Cram packed with nerd and geek references, 'White & Nerdy' tops my list of Weird Al's nerd themed songs.  I think this song is a hilarious super stereotype of all the varying nerd-isms out there and worthy of the top slot on my list.  I think it's only made all the more humorous by being set to 'Ridin' by Chamillionaire and Krayzie Bone.

Weird Al, I want to thank you for your work.  You've been celebrating the joys of nerdiness long before it was cool, and I salute you.  So everyone, have a listen, and don't be afraid to take joy in the things you love.  Now if you'll excuse me, I feel a song coming on...

Geeks' Day Out

Hello, hello!  It's been a great weekend in this geek's household.  My husband and I both had the weekend off this time around.  We stayed up a little later than usual, slept in much later than usual, and simply relaxed.

We've been watching Fairy Tail, and have finally just about caught up to where we were the last time we were watching it.  It had been a while, so we decided to start over.  I've also been working on my story.  I wrote about 1,400 words last night, and hope to write a little more later today.

But loafing around the house hasn't been the only thing I've done this weekend.  My husband and I went on a little date today.  We started out at the library, where I found myself split between great luck and bad luck.

The good luck?  I'm about to finish the fourth Odd Thomas book, Odd Hours, and was hoping to snag the next one.  There were only two of the Odd novels on the shelf, and they happened to be the two I needed.

The bad luck?  The library was working on some reorganization.  Definitely a necessary task, and I am glad to see any house of books working on its contents.  However, I must say I was disappointed when I went to my favorite spot to look for potential reads and saw this...

The spinner of Science Fiction/Fantasy books was being redone, and all of the books had been pulled.  Being my go to section, it did cut my visit a little short, but I had what I wanted in hand, so I count the stop an overall success.

The next part of our outing was a stop at Best Buy.  My husband had received a mystery coupon, so we went to find out its worth, and then pick out loot based on the value.  Sadly, I have nothing of excitement to put here.  It was the minimum five dollar coupon, and being in need of some canned air, that's what we got.

The final part of our date was dinner and a movie.  Our budget friendly version cost less than ten bucks.  I had been craving a slice of Costco pizza for something like a month.  For anyone who hasn't been, they have the super giant single slices (much like Sam's does).  We grabbed a couple slices and a soda, and filled up.  With my craving quieted, we headed to the dollar theater.

I know a lot of people who want to turn up their nose at dollar theaters, but the one near us is actually quite nice.  I'm not a huge movie goer, and usually reserve those outings for movies I'm super excited about.  Most others I wait for Red-box or Netflix to get.  However, my husband comes from a family that regularly went to the movies, and likes to indulge a little more often than I do.  For those occasions, we usually hit up the dollar theater.  We decided to go see Maleficent.  It had looked interesting, but I wasn't convinced I wanted to shell out the cash to see it in theater.  It was pretty good, and I would probably even watch it again, but I'm still glad I waited to see it on the cheap.

Now we're home again and settled in for an evening of more loafing.  And probably Mac n' Cheese.  Mmm...now if you'll excuse me...

Hope everyone has a good week!

Halloween Madness

I hope everyone had a fun Halloween.  I know I did.  My brother came up to visit with his girlfriend, so we dressed up and went out for a night of drinking, dancing, and general merriment.

The club we went to was packed.  I have largely gotten over my intense dislike of crowds, but despite the fun I was having, I had to step out a couple times for some air.  I ran back in once I heard Thriller playing though.

Figuring out my costume was an issue this year.  Many costume elements from the past couple year are too big for me now.  And deciding on something new to do took a good bit of debating.  I decided to reuse what I could to be an assassin.  Pretty easy to dress in black, grab a cape, and be done with it.  However, I really wanted to add some sort of bodice to it, so I rummaged through my craft stuff and Pinterest boards.

I found a basic technique for making patterns, and several large sheets of black craft felt.  I went to work.  I didn't really document the creation process largely because it was entirely experimental.  I've actually never attempted any type of armor construction before.  There were mistakes, alterations, and plenty of experience gained.

This is the visual guide I used to create the basis of my pattern.  Using the tape technique, I made some cuts and came up with this.

I traced the pattern and its reverse onto the craft felt, cut it out, and stitched back up the cut lines created.  I then attached a bottom band, and added the side panels that would tie in the back.  That last bit was not as straight forward as I thought it would be, but I kept at it and got results that I was happy enough with.  

The fit ended up being pretty great, and all that it needed was some embellishment.  Seeing as I started this project two days out from Halloween, I kept it simple.

I felt happy enough with it to wear it out, and I thought it made a nice addition to my costume.

Like I said, lots of black, and tah-dah!  Semi-instant assassin.  I was ready to skulk through the night.

I will be the last thing you see before the light at the end of the tunnel...

It was pretty comfortable.  I'll admit the walk from the car to the club was a little chilly, but not horribly so.  If it had been colder, I could have easily worn a long sleeve shirt instead.  I did take the cape off though as it felt like a little much to dance in with how thick the crowds were.

A good night all around.  Now, off to eat some of that left over candy...