Creatures of Fantasy

I made a Venn diagram that compares unicorns, Satan, and Your Mom. Because it had to be done.

And hey, if you want it on a T-shirt, I can oblige.

Come See Us at Geek Girl Con '12!

Cosplay or Costuming? What is “cosplay,” what is “costuming,” and how are they similar or different? How do you approach a new costume project? Costume Reproduction – when and how is accuracy important? Poses & Personality – how do you bring your character to life?

We will be hosting our Intro to Costume Crafts and Cosplay panel for the second year in a row at Geek Girl Con! According to Geek Girl Con Sunday Programming the panel will be on Sunday, August 12, at 12:30 PM in RM204.

Make sure you buy your tickets now before they sell out! Last year they did sell out, so folks showing up at the door were unable to purchase tickets. Don't be a sad panda and miss out on all the fun!

Arc Reactor for Iron Man

Are you ready for the Avengers movie?

Halloween 2008
Michael has been bulking up since then so he can be Captain America instead...

Meet my brother-in-law, Michael Mulligan. He is a professional actor and a pro at making movie props. He made this Arc Reactor and gave it to my husband (who is a big comic book fan) for Christmas back in 2008. HOW COOL IS THIS?

This is a completely handmade custom replica of Iron Man's "arc reactor".

It lights up with LEDs!

Michael also made this custom shadowbox and mounted it inside so it can be displayed in our living room. A cable runs out the back so I can plug it into the wall to turn it on instead of relying on batteries.

It looks amazing, whether it's turned on or off!

Seriously, how's this for a night-light? Every geek needs one!

Random Fact: if you have the Collector's Edition of World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King, pull out the behind-the-scenes DVD. Michael's in it doing movement acting for undead warriors!

JigglyPuff BluePrint

I had a friend back in high school that was really into JigglyPuffs. One day during my Computer Aid Drafting class I made this for extra credit in AutoCad





The top view needs a little work, but not bad for a high school student I would say

-SmallRiniLady

Geek Girl Con report

The first annual Geek Girl Con help in Seattle was an awesome success. Doors opening for Saturday and Sunday and selling out tickets within two hours each day.

SmallRiniLady and Ava got involved and has a panel to talk about "Costume Crafts and Cosplay". So much material we will devote a week to it later this year to cover the material we presented.

SmallRiniLady also held a booth in Artist Alley selling lots of her cosplay and hair accessories. From there she got to see all sorts of Geeky Girls and many of their geeky male supporters (suprisingly a lot of them attended, which is always awesome).

Let's see what kind of people attended geek girl con.

Lots of Star Trek Fans


Including zombie versions


Video Games, her bag is knit!


Even some of the plushies get to be cosplayed

Anime Fans


Comic Book Fans



Ok this is apparently the first female super hero




Ok . . . so this green arrow is the version from the SmallVille TV series



Dr Horrible Sing-A-Long Blog was awfully popular





So was Dr Who, but I didn't catch any one in a Tardis outfit though I heard that there was one wandering around.

The closing ceremonies for the convention was a Sing-A-Long Labyrinth (1986 Henson) showing. Which ment the Jarad Cosplayers and multiple puppet making Panels



Star Wars Puppets


Sock Puppets



This is SmallRiniLady's little Sock Puppet, he was manning her booth for a while, brough in some customers while scarring away others.

So not everyone has to dress up in cosplay, but just dress up.  This family has a fun story.  They tried to make little tricorn hats.  So they kinda screwed up but ended up with fortune cookies instead.  Still makes a fun hat.

How are you any more geeky than a GIANT multi side Dice

Waking the Dragon

I've been practicing my tablet drawing!

"LFG"

To create this picture I sketched it in pencil on paper first. Then I scanned it into my netbook, hooked up my Wacom tablet, downloaded GIMP and started inking over my pencil sketch. Note: You have to change the pen sensitivity from "opacity" to "size" in the GIMP drawing pen settings.

See this picture on deviantart

Visit to X Factor Taping

We saw the X Factor auditions in Seattle!

It was the first round of auditions with the judges and we had AWESOME seats right behind the sound guys. We were totally geeking out about the sound system... and had a laugh because it looked like they were running Windows XP on at least one of their laptops.

These people look familiar...

We had three favorites of the night, but the one I am rooting for is Taura, who is in college studying automative engineering so she can one day open her own auto body shop. She's a great representative of a strong female AND has a great voice.

For show info, check out http://www.fox.com/thexfactor

Cosplay Week #4 - Badges

Like a border on a picture, a sprinkle of sparkles on a fairy wand, the flutter of a dropping feather from flapping wings.  The little touches to a costume just make it all that more convincing that you are that character and not just a fanboy.

I have gone through many characters in which badges were a part of their being.

1) OS-Tan.  Windows Operating System Personas.  Being a Microsoft Employee I know what a MS Badge looks like so I was able to duplicate it and create a MS Badge for the OS Characters.  Being in the town of Microsoft, many employees recognized the badges as I walked past.  Even if they didn't know what character I was, they knew I had something to do with Microsoft.




2) Misato Katsuragi from Evangelion, I create a Nerv Badge for her to use to go in and out of the Command Center.  This design was pulled right out of the manga.

3) Harley Quinn in the Batman Arklam Asylum Video Game.  She steals the credentials from one of the employees so she can gain access into the Asylum. 

Getting Geeky with Personal Finances

Finances are boring - but making charts and graphs is fun! It is even more fun if you can see your earnings over time to see how much money you save each years, or as a monthly average.

Personal Finances 101 for Kids
 
If you have kids, it would be a fun craft project to create a poster-board chart so your kids can track their own finances on a smaller scale. When it comes to kids, this is the only situation where the Comic Sans font is admissable. Usability tests say Kids are more attracted to Comic Sans than Times New Roman or even Verdana.

Example of a kiddie financial chart

Start by writing down the date in the first column. You can track every month, week, or at random times, it doesn't matter too much. If your kids have an allowance, update their charts when you give them their allowance or each time they get money from gifts or chores.

The second column shows all of their income from allowance and chores for that time period. The third column shows how much they have spent. Using red and green and + and - symbols will help emphasize what the columns mean. The last column indicates how much money they have in their piggy bank at this point in time. You can demonstrate that Savings is equal to the last Savings amount, PLUS what you earned, MINUS what you spent. (e.g. $6.00 + $1.00 - $2.50 = $4.50 for 8/1/2010)

Adult finances are more complicated!

Microsoft Excel is my spreadsheet designer of choice, particularly the newer version with better default color options. Digital is the way to go if you are dealing with lots of numbers since you can use functions like sum() and vlookup() to do the math for you. Plus, if you show it to your financial advisor, he will be impressed!

The best thing about the following chart is that it's a great way to track your credit spending and keep a rein on your accounts. You'll easily see all of your accounts at once.



Numbers are completely fictional.

  Adult finances deal with a lot more variables. But you can still track your spending using a chart like this fictional example. This is pretty much what I do, but with a few more accounts. Keep in mind that this doesn't track cash at all - it assumes that any cash I deal with is withdrawn from one of my credit union (or bank) accounts, so if I get any cash under the table, like a Christmas gift, then it doesn't factor into my calculations.

The object here is to sum up all of your "cash" on hand - that is, what you have in the bank. I have a sum() column to show the total checking + money market + savings. But I need to keep track of what I have spent on my credit cards as well to really know how much I actually have. So the next few columns show the balances. If I make a new row right after I paid off my card then it would show $0.00 balance. I added the due dates for my credit cards here so I have an extra reminder of when I'll need to pay the bill. The last column totals up the Total Cash - Total Charges to tell me how much I have.

Again, these number are completely fictional.

Last but not least, I can highlight the Date and Total Cash - Credit columns and make an instant graph of how my money has changed over time. If you keep track of this, it will be easier to know if you need to curb your spending - ideally you want the line to be going up like this one. If your graph is really exciting, you could print it out, frame it and hang it on the wall in your home office.

Glowing Xbox Christmas Bells

So as you might have learned, both me and Ava work in the Tech industry.  I happen to work at Xbox . . . now you can take a moment and go "whoah" ka ka ka.  Sorry I'm being prideful.  Back to the story.  For our 'Holiday' party our invite came with a picture of bells that glowed the Xbox logo. COOL

Thus we start with some Bells purchased at our local dollar store.





Shove some green glow sticks inside
and turn off the lights. 



ka ka ka, loop them through a hair tie and Vola, instant hair accessory.

Our 'Holiday' party was at two downtown clubs that they rented out.  Walk around in a crowded dark room was a great way to show these off.

Don't they look awesome?

-SmallRiniLady

Materials:  Bells, GlowSticks, Hair Ties

Star Wars Paper Snowflakes

I saw Wil Wheaton's tweet about Star Wars Paper Snowflakes and knew I had to pick up a pair of scissors. I just happened to have some scratch paper nearby...

This was a fast and fun craft project, I totally recommend it!

Got Mana?

Do you ever find yourself OOM? Do you rely too much on friendly Druids who can spare an Innervate spell? THERE IS A SOLUTION!

Now you can make your own [Mana Potion].

For a magical Halloween display I illuminated the mana potion by placing a battery-powered LED light underneath it.

I cut the top off of a clear plastic cup and Mod Podged white tissue paper over it to create a diffusing shell that the LED sits within.

Never go Out Of Mana again!
Materials (for one mana potion):
1x [Yaley Gel Candle Wax]
1x [Yaley Candle Dye Block - Blue]
1x [Glass Vial] (with stopper)

1x [Piece of Gold Trim] (just enough to wrap around the rim)

* all of these items can be found at craft stores such as Michaels or JoAnns.

You will also need a small funnel, super glue, a small cooking pot, and access to a stove/burner.

Instructions:

1. Follow the directions on the Gel to heat it and add blue coloring. Keep adding more blue coloring until you get it dark enough.

2. Carefully pour the blue gel into your mana potion using a funnel (or make a funnel out of aluminum foil). Do not let it touch the sides because it will stick - you want it to fill up from the bottom.

* At this point we realized we did not have enough gel to fill the entire vial and decided that a half-filled vial would look stupid. So, after pouring in the gel, I rolled the vial around to cover all of the sides thoroughly to give the illusion that it was full. If I did this again I would make enough gel to fill the entire vial.
3. Tap to try and remove bubbles - do not stick anything in there because it will just add bubbles. Leave the vial alone and don't touch it until it has cooled and turned to a "solid" gel. If you move it at all, you will get bubbles or the gel will creep up and stick to the sides instead of settling correctly.
4. Add the stopper.

5. Attach the gold trim using super glue.

WARNING: Do not try to drink/eat/ingest this potion, it is just a PROP. If you want a drinkable mana potion, try water + blue food coloring.

EDIT: My husband demands credit for stealing this idea from WoWInsider.com. He did buy the materials and bring the project home. But I am pretty sure I did all of the gel-pouring myself. And added the gold braid detail, and made it light up. :)

Product Review - EL Wire

No, that's not a really long glowstick-necklace-thingy. It's a battery-operated glowing electroluminescent wire!

EL wire = Electroluminescent wire. Like glow sticks, only better!

This stuff is pretty awesome if you want to light up a costume or prop (TRON, anyone?). The wire can be cut, it doesn't get hot and it's flexible and movable and reusable.

Hook it up to a little battery pack with a switch and imagine the possibilities!

I picked up a white 10-foot set with the techno strobe switch (it has three settings: on, off, and strobe).
The wire itself comes in lots of colors, can be cut to any length, and now there is even EL tape (like a wider tape strip instead of a wire).

This stuff a little hard to find since it's a relatively new product on the market. Fortunately I found a guy in Seattle who sells it. He said he'll be at Norwescon next Spring too. It sounds like a lot of people are using this stuff for costumes (and Norwescon is all about the costumes).

Check it out: http://seattlelumin.com/

Into the Purple Woods

There is no place more magical than the forest home of the Night Elves, bathed in an aubergine haze beneath a giant tree.

Disclaimer: This was one of my first acrylic paintings, certainly my first landscape. I am totally cheap because I am using the paints you get for $0.89/tube at Michael's. Someday when my skill has improved I will invest in the nicer, more expensive acrylics.

I achieved a cool panoramic effect by using two square canvases side-by-side. Normally these are supposed to be positioned vertically on a skinny piece of wall between two doors.

I don't always do things the normal way.

I started with a screenshot of Teldrassil on my computer monitor and then painting the scene on the canvas beginning with the background and layering my way to the trees and rock in the foreground, trying different techniques in order to make it look like the representation on my monitor.

In case you happen to NOT be one of the millions who plays World of Warcraft and you are wondering "What the heck is Teldrassil?", I am happy to inform you that tTeldrassil is a setting in the game. You get to frolic in this purple forest for your first 8-to-10 levels, if you start the game as a Night Elf like I did the first time I played it. Actually, my first Night Elf character was a Rogue named Avalyn.

BTW Into the Woods is a really fun musical. If you ever get a chance to see it, go! I love the duet the princes sing, "Agony".