How To: Trade Your Sanity for a Novel in One Month

Well, I haven't been posting as much as I should lately, what with rehearsals and Halloween costume-making and procrastination and such. I haven't even made the things I want to send out to my partners for the shop blog and swap yet, which is horrible! It's proving a lot harder than I thought it would be. But I WILL get them sent out by the end of the month, never fear!

Another thing that's taking up a bunch of my time is preparing for November, which, as some of you may know, is National Novel Writing Month. If you are a writer, but have never been a WriMo, you might want to try it out. It's a month-long writing marathon... goal: 50,000 words. You can't start until midnight, the morning of Nov. 1st, and you must stop at the end of the 30th. It's based on the idea that if you really want to get something done, you need a goal and a deadline. It's crazy, sleepless, productive fun!

For more information, check out the website... http://www.nanowrimo.org

Paper Mache Hats...

So for all you crafters out there who have ever thought of making your own top hat out of paper mache...

Don't.

After much recutting and reshaping I finally have the base for my top hat down and it is so ridiculously hard and inflexible. If I wasn't only going to wear it for one night, or if I didn't only have 18 days left to finish my costume, I would completely start over.

That being said, here's a great paper mache resource: http://www.papiermache.co.uk/

Lately I've been getting caught up with "real life", meaning school and the play I'm in and the ever-ongoing job search, mostly. Also my boyfriend took his camera back and I have no clue where mine is, so it's a bit hard for me to do product photos, blog photos, etc. Of course it's his camera, not mine. I need to find my camera... or get a new one...

I made a really cute Halloween necklace last night. It's a candy corn necklace. I'd show you all if I could.

Anyway, sorry for the recent sluggishness and total lack of tutorials. I'll try to get back on the ball. =)

Good News!

WOW - Such a great day today. So many good things happened!

First, on the way home, I succumbed to temptation and stopped at a yard sale. And I'm glad I did! I got FIVE broken watches for just $2! Can you say steampunk jewelry? And even if I can't come up with anything to make, watch parts go on etsy for like $10! I might actually make some money soon.

Second, I have a contact who can get me a spot in her local craft fair on the first of November... Hallelujah! It seems the universe has heard my prayers... If I can't seem to get a job, at least I can make some money selling my jewelry!

Third... what was third? Oh! I found two bobby pin sets I'd made a while ago and haven't listed yet, and they're ADORABLE. I can't wait to get them up.

AND I found the book I've been looking for, A Feast for Crows, by George R.R. Martin, which is fabulous.

Of course, now that I might be in this craft fair thing I don't know when I'm going to have time to build up a stock for it AND make my Halloween costume... maybe it's a good thing I don't have a job, eh?

I wish you all the same sort of luck I've had today, and better!

Corset Tutorial and Preliminary Pattern

I used a brown paper bag to make the pattern on, because it was the easiest way to get a large piece of paper. As it was, it wasn't big enough, and I'm going to have to redo the pattern before I test it out with an old sheet to see if it actually fits before doing it in the velvet.

I used a tutorial that I found online after many pages of searching through google. It's pretty good, too, though I did make some changes to the general instructions.

Here it is, for those who are interested.

I'll be writing a tutorial myself, based loosely on this one, but since I need to remake the pattern anyway I figured I would just do it then.

If you're wondering about the front section being so large, it's because the front is going to fold over itself.

Pictures, as promised

OK, first things first... here is my sketch of the costume.

Obviously, I don't have a wacom tablet and my scanner is broken. But I think you can get the gist of it here...

The corset is black velvet with gold braid, gold buttons, gold fringe, and tails.

The jacket is short and red, with gold epaulets and black velvet cuffs and collar. Gold buttons on the cuffs.

Pants are black, stretchy and fitted, with a stripe of either gold or blue down the side.

Spats end at the top of my calf, and button up the side. They're the best I can do for tall boots. They're black pleather.

Plus a wire form papier-mache'd and covered with cloth for the hat, which is actually fairly close to actual haberdashery, only they have special cloth that they harden with water instead of paper mache. Big difference, ya?


Here's the fabric!~

Black pleather - VELVET - yellow cloth - red for the jacket - stretchy black pants - silky turquoise shirt.



I can't get the true color of the yellow to show up in the photos - it's not this buttery, really. That flower is SO going on my hat.

Thrift Store Bonanza!

OK, first of all, a quick shout-out to my fabulous followers, all TEN of you! I love you all. And I'm so excited that it's in the double-digits! Pretty soon the little box with your pictures might actually be all the way full!

That being said, I'll move on to the main reason for this post. My boyfriend and I changed our minds YET AGAIN about what we were going to be for Halloween. First it was Steve Erwin and Stingray... then it was Gladiator and Lion... and now it's Lion and Liontamer! I'm the liontamer!

And we're definitely sticking with this one, for two reasons: 1: it's too late to change our minds now, I only have a month to make the costumes and 2: the thrift store was having a 60% OFF sale this evening so we bought a bunch of clothes to take apart and use the fabric!

I got a red dress to take apart and use for a short jacket, and another dress with yards and yards of crushed black velvet to make a corset top with tails out of. Then I got some stretchy black pants which I will have to fit to my legs cuz they're WAY too big, and some black pleather pants to cut apart and make into black leather spats cuz I have NO boots.

Also a truly hideous dress with bright yellow fabric and a silky turquoise shirt.

Total cost: around $15. Say it with me: I. Love. Salvation. Army.

I'll post pictures of all my goodies tomorrow, plus a sketch of my costume.

All I have left to buy is gold braid, and something to make the epaulets on the shoulders. That will probably be the most expensive part... I wonder if there's anything I could substitute for gold braid...? I'll check around online.

And of course I'll be documenting the entire costume-making journey on this blog, and telling you how to do everything so you can have a costume as awesome as mine will be too! Stay tuned. =)

How to Make Action Figures Into Charms

Ok, this isn't what I planned to write for my next tutorial, but I'm putting a bunch of ninja earrings and necklaces in my shop very soon, so I figured I might as well photograph the process and make it a tutorial!

You will need:

• A thumbtack
• A headpin
• A small action figure, probably rubber or a plastic that isn't too hard or brittle.
• Glue, if your action figure isn't rubber.
  
• Jewelry pliers - it doesn't really matter which kind, even crimping pliers would probably work.
  

Step One: Get your ninja!


I'm using ninjas in this tutorial... I have them in 8 different colors and 12 different poses. LOL.

Step Two: Find the center of the ninja's head.

You want to find the point that's above the neck, because you want the hole we're going to be poked to poke down into the neck and not to come out under his chin.


Step Three: Poke Him!


Step Four: Poke him again! This time with the headpin. You might need to trim the headpin down a little.

Push the pin in with the pliers.

Step Five: Voila! Admire your new pendant or charm.


If your action figure wasn't made of rubber, which will tighten down over the headpin, glue the headpin in.

This also works great with those cute Japanese erasers!



And the little pop-top containers from the 25-cent machines that the ninjas come in are great packaging for small items!

These are a pair of earrings I just made that I will be listing on the shop as soon as possible. There's a matching ring, too! =D