Golden Snitch Prop

It's the Golden Snitch!

This is a really quick project but requires a few tools. Here's how to make your own Snitch like this one.

Tools:

• hot glue gun & one hot glue stick
• electric drill (e.g. a Dremel with a drill bit)
• scissors
• fine-tipped paint brush
• blunt/wide-tipped paint brush

Materials:

• a wooden ball
• two yellow feathers
• gold acrylic paint
• light yellow acrylic paint

All of the above (excluding the drill, perhaps) should be available from your local craft store.

Directions:

1.  Using a drill bit the same size as your feather stems, drill two holes in the wooden ball, angling the hole in the direction you want the feather to come out.
2. Stick the feathers into the holes to make sure they fit. Use scissors to trim the feathers to your desired length. Then take the feathers back out of the holes.
3. One hole at a time, squeeze hot glue into the hole and then shove the tip of the feather in. Before the glue cools, twist the feather so it's facing the right direction. Then repeat for the other hole and feather and let the glue cool.
4. Using a blunt-tipped brush, paint the ball gold. To minimize brushstrokes and keep the nice wood grain visible, paint on a very light layer, let it dry, then add one or two more layers of paint until the wood color is covered.
5. Using a fine-tipped paint brush and light yellow paint, detail on a design to give your Snitch an aerodynamic, athletic, or magical appearance. I just made up a design, but if you want you could find reference photos from the Harry Potter movies and try to create a movie-accurate Snitch. You'll note the "real" Snitch is not a completely smooth ball. To add texture, you could use gold puffy paint to "draw" the design on.
6. Finish with a light coat of gold over the light yellow. I also edged the yellow with a darker gold to give it the illusion of depth.

Cosplay Prop - Vanilla's Spoon

I absolutely love the anime series Yumeiro Patissiere. It's about Baking desserts, what's not to love about that? (I'm a total foodie).

So this is Vanilla, the main fairy the helps the student out as she learned.  I made the outfit, wings, and spoon prop. 

I found this foam piping  (super flexable) material in the hardware store.  Honesty I dont know what it's suppose to be used for, but that's the magic of aim lessly wandering and finding wonderful material.

I made the M logo of the spoon with sparkle craft foam and coloring the foam pipping with a black marker.

I created a harder back surface for the spoon handle end using the thicker presentation form boards.

Remember using the Iron for the Chi ears?  Well using that technique again.  I'm ironing this foam to help form it into the spoon base.

Need to hold it in it's shape as it cools

Now for the gold coloUring, via spray paint.

I love using old shower curtains.  It can be bunched up so you can get to areas like the underside.

Attach everything to a wooden dowel for a handle and vola.  Now I just need to know how to fly away.

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!

Tutorial: How to Make a DragonBall

 For all those DragonBall Z fans out there, here's a cosplay prop for you.

Ingredients

·         Glue

·         Stars (beads, or in this case clearance Christmas decorations)

·         Plastic Orb Ordainment (popular at Christmas Time)

·         Gold Pigment Powder, (Perfect Pearl Gold)

·         Optional Resin Spray

1)      Optional Step, saw off the loops that are used for hanging the orb.  Ok to be I didn’t do this yet,   . . . because I forgot

2)      Start by swirling the gold pigment powder on the inside of the plastic orb.  It will cling to the inside and leave a film of translucent gold in the orb. 

3)      Optional step.  Spray a layer of resin on the powder to set it.  If you don’t do this step, over time some powder my get lose and start to pool.  A reason I don’t like this step is because as the resin dries it also pools giving an uneven look to the gold finish.

4)      Dab the corners of the stars with a little bit of clear glue, carefully place into the orbs, and allow time for it to dry.

5)      Once the stars are secure (in this case after a 12 hour dry), glue shut the orb.

6)      Now the DragonBall is done.  Time to Cosplay!

7)      Well in my case I’m not done yet.  This is actually for Gohan’s hat from when he was a child.  I don’t know if this is a real DragonBall or not I’ve never watched the series.  In case you’re wondering, I’m making this for a friend’s little boy.

Riven Costume complete!

Time: 2 weeks from start to finish
Cost: $0.00 for supplies (I used leftover scraps from other projects), $20 for the wig

Progress Photos:
http://craftersindisguise.blogspot.com/2011/10/starting-new-costume-project-riven.html
http://craftersindisguise.blogspot.com/2011/10/costume-progress-riven.html
http://craftersindisguise.blogspot.com/2011/10/costume-progress-rivens-armor.html
http://craftersindisguise.blogspot.com/2011/10/riven-costume-finishing-touches.html

Details:
armor and sword = blue styrofoam insulation, painted with acryllics; the spikes are made of Model Magic (by Crayola).
leather pauldron = leather draped over shaped buckram and plastic.
shirt & skirt = white cotton gauze fabric from JoAnn's Fabrics.
bodice & tabard = purple velveteen fabric, wooden buttons handpainted silver, white trim.
arm guard = plastic cranberry juice jug (from Costco), black plastic snow sled (from Target), fun foam, acryllic paint, Mod Podge
sandals: added flashing tape and paint to hide the sequins.
glove: from my closet, originally from Army surplus (borrowed from my Cobra Trooper costume).
arm wrap: a bandage from the medicine cabinet
wig: Anime wig from Party Supply store.
belt: from my closet, previously used with a pirate costume

[Staff of Infinite Mysteries] Part 2: let there be LIGHT

After I built the staff I needed to make it awesome.

So I bought a lightsaber and took it apart.

There went $35!

I haven't messed with wires and batteries since the third grade, so I enlisted my husband's help. He's a smart dude. He let me do the shopping part. I bought some wire, a soldering iron and flux and electrical tape. Then we proceeded to take out the sound effect piece (don't need my magical staff sounding like a lightsaber!) and moved parts around so that I would be able to shove the thing into my staff.

Ignore the Costco cutlery, that was left on the counter from a BBQ the weekend before.

All of those pieces went inside of the tube except for the switches and battery wires.

Everything got secured with black electrical tape.

After getting all of the components secured inside the butt of the staff, I had two long wires that needed to be hooked up to batteries. We determined the best way to do this and allow for changing batteries in the middle of the day would be if we used the battery pack from the lightsaber and just strap it onto the side of the bottom of the staff (remember that handy metal pipe I had down there? Perfect place to strap a battery back to).

So the next step was to Dremel off the excess bits on the battery pack so it looks less like a lightsaber, then spray paint it black. I made sure to put tape over the connections so those wouldn't get sprayed.

The lightsaber only lit the bottom half, so for the top half I used EL wire.

I think this might be the coolest thing I have made yet. I remember farming Karazhan for this staff night after night on my poor little level 70 undead priest.

<< GO BACK TO PART 1 on CONSTRUCTING THE STAFF

[Staff of Infinite Mysteries]

I finished my staff for my Tier 4 Priest costume from Warcraft and debuted it at PAX Prime 2011!

Here are some pics of the work in progress.

I started with a clear acryllic plastic tube. This is the bottom piece which I made out of Crayola Model Magic, then painted with acryllic paint. I formed the Model Magic around the top of a plastic cranberry juice jug, which fit around the acryllic tube. Oh, I also used purple cellophane wrapping around the tube and then painted black over parts of it.

Above the bottom piece is a piece of metal pipe I had lying around. I bought it when I was making a lightsaber a few years ago. It is rougly painted to blend in with the rest of the staff. It gives some balancing weight to the end of it.

This next piece was made of purple FIMO then painted with a combination of glow blue paint and white acryllic paint. In the game graphic it looks like it glows so I wanted to give that effect with paint since I wasn't going to build LEDs into it. It turned out when I was carrying the staff around all day at PAX I often rested this piece on my hand to supprt the weight of the staff on my shoulder. Worked as if I'd designed it that way.

The large piece here is made of Model Magic, then there is a purple FIMO ring, then a piece of metal pipe. I used thin craft foam inside the pipe in one layer to give it a snug fit against the acryllic tube.

Near the top I cut diamond out of the painted cellophane so the light would shine through brighter, like in the graphic.

The "head" of the staff is made of blue Styrofoam insulation foam. I bought one big sheet of it, had to have the guys at Lowes cut it in half for me so I could fit it in my car.

First I cut the shape out with a hot knife, the sort that has one long thin blade about 4 inches long. Then I sanded it down and shaped the edges with a hotter hot knife, the sort that just has a razor blade on it. Then I gave it one coat of primer (leftover from my furniture-painting projects!) and added on black paint and several layers of purple and white and silver to get the look I wanted.

This post is getting long, so I will talk about the electrical madness in another post!
>> CONTINUE TO PART 2: LET THERE BE LIGHT

Convention Cosplay Planning

PAX is coming up and I need to get crackin' on my cosplay projects if I want to have a different outfit to wear each day! Alas, the amount of work I need to accomplish my goals is somewhat unrealistic. This calls for some project planning.

Target Costumes:
Day 1. Priest from World of Warcraft
Status: Costume complete. In process of making a [Staff of Infinite Mysteries] (prop).


Staff of Infinite Mysteries

Day 2. Vin from the Mistborn Trilogy
Status: Costume complete, mistcloak needs minor repair. I want to make a Giant Koloss Sword (prop).

Day 3. Miss Fortune from League of Legends
Status: Not started.

"Miss Fortune" from League of Legends

Step 1: Sort out your priorities.
As it stands, I have two wearable costumes, but both costumes are lacking without the props. My first goal should be to finish the [Staff of Infinite Mysteries], which I have already started working on. However, my next goal needs to be the Miss Fortune costume because there is going to be a League of Legends costume contest and I want free LoL stuff! Once I finish my staff I need to start working on that costume right away. If I have two nights left and it looks like I can't finish Miss Fortune on time, I will work on the sword and get that done, but I would rather have a completed Miss Fortune costume so I don't want to spend two nights working on a sword I don't really need. Miss Fortune, on the other hand, needs two guns, and I know those props are going to be more difficult to create than the giant Koloss sword; the sword is bigger but quite simple to make.
Step 2: Plan your time.
First, made a list with three columns: A)Costume/Prop, B)Action Item, C)Date and filled in the details for each step I need to complete. Then I color-coded by action type (minor/easy=grey, workshop=blue, primer=yellow, painting=orange, sewing=white). It will be more productive to do similar projects at the same time. I left off Aug 19 because I will be busy that day, but I assigned all of the other tasks to different days. However, looking at my list, I don't think there is any way I can get all of this done! I should have more time to work on the 18th, but there is too much crammed into the 24th and 25th. However, if I am running behind I can eliminate the Mistborn items on the 24th and 25th because of my priorities.

Step 3: Get workin' and stick to schedule!
How much do you think I can accomplish? We'll just have to find out after PAX!

Tutorial - How to Make a Foam Cutting Table

Why use a foam cutter?  Well let's look at this picture below.  The piece on the left was broken naturally while the piece on the right uses the cutter.  Now do you want your sword to look all bumpy?  That's going to slice up a body really cleanly.

But playing with foam is stil great for cosplay so over the past 4 years I have purchased two foam cutters (between $10 - $25).

So you can start off with a foam cutting knife and slice through your foam with a cutting drawn on.  But many time after i do it, and i flip the piece to the other side, I realized that I had not been holding the knife exactly straight.  So all my sizes on the drawn side is pretty, but but all the work on the backside is all misproportioned.  Looks quite bad.

hard to tell in the photo, but in real life the two sides aren't even . . . .

I used a foam cutting table (like a band saw table but with a hot wire) back in high school.  It was pretty fun to play with, but why would you pay that much for something that would just take up space and you would rarely use?  So let's make our own

I used a small bed side dresser to tape the foam cutter and let it stick up straight past the end of this computer desk.

Be careful you dont hit the knife on the table.  I accidently melted a line on the table molding (my boyfriend wasn't very happy to see that damage on his desk).

So just like using a bandsaw, you start sliding your piece against the knife and push it naturally to let it cut. 

It's also awesome on holes because you slide the piece onto the knife.

Here's my cut piece.  Lines are smooth as much as my hand can glide (if you are more picky you can you a straight edge to act as a guide if that's what your piece calls for).