Pokemon Trainer Misty: Pokemonbounding Ep 8

This week I'm participating in a set of Pokemonbounding challenges over on Instagram, so I figured this would be the perfect time to add another post to my Pokemonbounding series.  Tuesday's theme was Pokemon trainer, so I decided to go with a look inspired by Misty.

Misty's main look consists of a yellow crop top and blue denim shorts, so that was my starting point for this outfit.  She also has red suspenders, which I do not have.  I used some red stud earrings (not really visible in the photos, unfortunately) for the red color and borrowed Brian's bracers to get the suspender look.  My shorts don't have interior buttons, so I had to tuck the bottom edges into my shorts and hope for the best.  This was fine for pictures, but if you're shooting for a more wearable bound, you'll probably want to omit the suspenders if you don't have ones that clip onto your shorts.

Misty wears red and white sneakers.  I don't have those either, so I had to choose between black sneakers or red heels.  Black sneakers felt more Misty's vibe, so I went with those even though the color didn't match her scheme.  She often wears her hair in a side ponytail, so I did just that.  Lastly, I added a Pokeball stress ball to finish off my Pokemon trainer look.

Misty's favorite Pokemon is Togepi.  I don't have a Togepi plushie, so this is where Pokemon GO AR came into play.  I was able to snag some Togepi pictures without having a physical version of Togepi.

Keep scrolling for a few more pictures of this look, including one featuring real-life Pokemon, Chip.

It's mini Togepi!  Sometimes, when placing a Pokemon using AR, the resulting Pokemon image ends up much larger or smaller than it should be.  This mini Togepi image was a fun "blooper."

I also managed to hatch a flower crown Togepi from a Pokemon GO event, so I snagged a couple of pictures with him as well.

Smeargle decided a photo bomb was in order.

Chip, our friendly neighborhood squirrel, decided to drop in for a visit.

I hope you enjoyed today's post.  If you'd like to see more crafts and outfit ideas, click here.  If you have any suggestions for my Pokemonbounding series, I'd love to hear them.  I have a few ideas for Pokemon I'd like to bound as, but I'm open to suggestions as well.

Throwback Thursday: Perler Fuse Bead Decorative Bowls

Amber's Craft a Week Blog is coming up on ten years old!  My crafting style has changed a lot over the years, so I thought it would be fun to do some throwback posts.  While my blogversary is in August, August is Halloween season over here, and so I didn't want to fill up my August post slots with non-Halloween content.  Thus, we're getting started with the throwbacks a little early, but hey, that means we get to celebrate a little longer, right?

First up, we're taking a trip back to June of 2012.  My craft blog was not yet a year old, and Perler fuse beads were one of my go-to crafting materials.  These Perler fuse bead bowls (you can find the original post with directions here) were a big hit with readers.  For years, that post was my second most-read blog post, and it still remains among my most popular blog posts, ranking now at number eight.

I didn't really know what to do with these bowls after I made them, so I hung the rainbow one on my wall as a piece of art.  It's not up there anymore, though.  I think it's tucked away in a closet.

It's been years since I've posted a Perler bead craft on here.  Maybe I'll have to make a new one in honor of my craft blog's 10th birthday.

Alice in Wonderland Disneybound Ideas

As you may have noticed if you've been following my blog for any length of time, I love Alice in Wonderland.  In fact, my wedding was Alice in Wonderland themed, and my bridal look was inspired by Alice.  I thought it would thus be fitting to close out my Disneybounding series with a peek at some of the Alice Disneybounds I've put together this past year.

Classic Alice

This one is more of a costume/cosplay than a bound, but I've used for bounding challenges and it's one of the more crafty looks I've put together.  You can find a tutorial for crafting the pinafore apron here and one for assembling a hair bow here.  For accessories, I went with pearl earrings and a key-shaped pendant.  This pendant was a gift from my Aunt Cheryl, but I made my sister a similar necklace as her MOH gift.  You can find that tutorial here.

Puff Sleeved Alice Bound

Here's a look that is close to my classic Alice look, except it's more of a true bound because it doesn't use more costume-like elements, such as the pinafore.  You'll notice that my DIY hair bow makes an appearance here too.  It's my signature Alice piece, and it makes an appearance in almost all of my Alice looks.

Bridal Alice Look

This is an Alice look more fitting for a fancy occasion, such as a wedding or prom.  This is not the exact look I wore on my wedding day (I didn't have the bow because it broke on me, and I wore a different pair of heels), but it does use my wedding dress and bouquet.  If you want to learn more about how I transformed one of my favorite rompers into my wedding dress, check out this post.

Poolside Alice Bound

This one is a super casual bound.  Even though Alice's main colors are blue and white, I tend to use blue and black more often, in part because I have lots of black garments but few white ones.  However, a pair of white shorts paired with black sandals would make this look more recognizably Alice.

I have in some flamingo earrings and I added a flamingo straw to my drink, which has a "drink me" tag wrapped around the neck.  You can find a tutorial for the "drink me" bottle here.  In the beginning of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Alice wonders to herself what good a book without pictures is.  I thought a grown up Alice might thus appreciate a graphic novel, hence my choice of "beach" read.

Keyhole Blouse Alice Look

If you've been following my craft blog for a very long time, you may recognize this top from my Alice in Wonderland birthday party years ago.  I didn't yet know that Disneybounding was a thing, but that look was probably my first Disneybound.  The structure of the top has sort of Victorian vibes, which I thought was fitting for Alice, and the keyhole cutout seemed like the perfect nod to Wonderland.  It's hard to see in this picture, but inside the keyhole I have that same key shaped pendant as in the first picture.  I also am wearing key shaped earrings.  That white rabbit is actually a purse, sort of.  The pocket in its back is too small to hold even my phone, so it's not the most functional, but it's a cute prop.

Tim Burton's Alice

There are many different representations of Alice.  This look I put together based on some of the promotional images for Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland which showed Alice holding a white rabbit.

Artistic Alice

This rendition of Alice is based on a gorgeous drawing by Deanna Davoli.  You can see my inspiration piece here.  I matched the items pretty well, the tutu, the corset, the "drink me" vial, etc., but I didn't really capture the Gothic vibes of the original.  I'd like to redo this look sometime to better match the aesthetic of the artwork.

Steampunk Alice

Alice in Wonderland was written during the Victorian era, so a steampunk inspired Alice look seemed like a natural choice.  I'm accessorizing with a prop pocket watch and key earrings.

Goth Alice

I participated in a series of aesthetic challenges back in January, and one of the prompts was goth.  If you've seen my Alice in Halloweenland/dark Alice look, this is a slight variation on that basic idea.

Dark Academia Alice

Another of the aesthetic prompts was dark academia.  I used a navy plaid skort with light blue accents and a black sweater as the base of this look.  To make it more recognizably Alice, I added my Alice bow.  I also have on a cat pearl necklace to represent Dinah and the Cheshire Cat.  My book stack consists of Alice in Zombieland, two different editions of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, and Alice in Wonderland and Philosophy.

Soft Girl Alice

The soft girl aesthetic is laden with pastels, especially pink.  While I could have tried to piece together a soft girl look using light blue, I decided instead to envision Alice in pink.  I swapped out the black bow for a pink one, added a pink belt with hearts (for the Queen of Hearts), and used a cameo necklace with a heart charm, a black bow, and a pink rose.

This concludes my Disneybounding series.  I hope you enjoyed it.  Would you like to see more Disneybounding?  Bounding that's not Disney?  I have a bunch of spooky and bookish looks I've put together for my book reviews (which you cann find on my writing Insta, @amber_hathaway_writes) and various spooky challenges.  Maybe I'll do a round up of those ideas as we move into Halloween season.

Cherry Headband for Lilo and Stitch Chocolate Cake Disneybound

Disneybounding is not limited to Disney characters.  It extends to all things Disney (as well as Disney-owned franchises such as Star Wars and MCU).  In one of my favorite Disney movies, Lilo and Stitch, Lilo gives Stitch chocolate cake to try to reduce his "badness level."  The cake in question has white frosting and cherries on top.  While you could create a Disneybound by simply using items in red, brown, and white, I wanted to go a bit more whimsical and literal, and I thought a cherry headband would be perfect.

This hair accessory could also be great for a Halloween costume.  There are plenty of sweet treat looks that would go well with a cherry on top.

Materials:

*White oven bake clay

*Rose-shaped silicone mold

*Artificial cherries

*Headband that matches your hair color or cake theme

*Glue

Directions:

*Place the clay into the rose mold and create five rose shapes.  Press a cherry into each one to create an indentation.  These are going to be dollops of decorative icing.

*Remove the cherries from the clay and bake the clay in accordance with the directions on the packaging.  Remove from the oven and let cool.

*Once cool, glue the cherries into the center of the clay rose shapes.  Let dry.

*Once dry, glue to the headband.  I ended up only using five of these on the headband.

Lilo and Stitch Chocolate Cake Disneybound

Here are a couple of pictures of the completed look.  I don't look exactly like a cake, but I think this look still has strong cake vibes.

To complete the look, I added a brown dress, a white belt, and white heels.  The brown is supposed to represent the chocolate, although unfortunately I didn't have any clothes that were the right shade of brown for that.  The white belt is the icing through the middle of the cake.  I didn't have brown shoes in the right shade, so I went with white shoes instead.

Have you been enjoying this series?  I'm curious to know what you think.  Tune in next week for the final post in our Disneybounding series.

Disney Princesses: Belle and Rapunzel

In today's installment of the Disneybounding series, I'll be showing you a couple of Disneybounding ideas for Belle and Rapunzel.  I'll also be linking to some crafts I've made on this blog that could help pull these looks together.  If you've seen my Halloween Costumes from My Closet post, then you've seen the Belle ideas before, but I thought they would fit nicely in this series as well.

Belle's Blue and White Outfit

This is one of Belle's more iconic outfits, second only to her yellow ball gown in terms of popularity.  It's also my personal favorite.  In the film, she is wearing a blue dress with a white blouse underneath.  I used a blue romper and white top as the base of this outfit.

Belle is well-known for her love of reading, so I had to add some bookish accessories.  You can't see my pendant well in this picture, but I'm wearing a book pendant with a little red rose on the cover (another nod to Belle).  Check out this post to find out how to make a book pendant of your own.

I also added a book bag which I painted the cover of.  I don't have a tutorial for that one, since it was a bit of a disaster (I used leather paint on faux leather, which is not as breathable, so the paint is still a little tacky), but hey, it looks nice.

Belle's Yellow Ballgown

One key element of Disneybounding is wearability.  I used a yellow romper as a stand-in for Belle's yellow ballgown.  Not as fancy, but far more convenient for my day-to-day activities.  I paired it with the same book pendant and some artificial roses I had on hand.

Rapunzel Look 1

Rapunzel really has one signature look, namely her purple dress.  I used a lavender romper as the base of this look, but to make it a little fancier, I added the overskirt that I made for my Gastly Pokemonbound over top (You can find that tutorial here).  The gold belt is mostly just there to hide the black elastic on the overskirt.

For accessories, I had this funky brooch that looked a bit like the sun symbol from Rapunzel.  I attached it to a necklace to make it into a pendant temporarily.  I also added a flower crown for the flowers that Rapunzel has in her hair.

Rapunzel Look 2

Here's a second take I did on Rapunzel's purple dress.  As you can see, I used a lot of the same elements, like the flower crown and the sun pendant.  Instead of the lavender romper, I opted for a light purple skirt and corset.  I have done a flower crown tutorial on here before, if you're interested in making one of your own, but honestly, they're so cheap online that it's probably not cost effective to make one unless you have a large store of artificial flowers on hand.

And that's a wrap for this week.  Stay tuned for more Disneybounding posts.

An Introduction to Disneybounding

One of my many Alice in Wonderland Disneybounds.

This month I want to shift gears a bit and tell you about my new pandemic hobby: Disneybounding.  If you’ve been following this blog for a while, you may have picked up on the fact that I love dressing up.  Disneybounding is another avenue I’ve found that lets me play around with my outfits.  It’s less over-the-top than costuming and cosplay, so it works better for everyday wear.  In today’s post, I’ll give you a brief introduction to Disneybounding, using some of my own Disneybounds as examples.  Later on in this series, we’ll explore specific bounds and crafty accessories you can make for them.

What is Disneybounding?

Disneybounding is like cosplaying, but less elaborate.  Instead of trying to replicate a character’s look exactly, Disneybounding uses a character’s color scheme and symbolic accessories to try to capture and convey the character’s essence.  You don't need bulky cosplaying accessories, like swords, or character masks, or anything elaborate.  All you need are some solid-colored clothes (there's definitely room for some patterns and prints too), maybe a few accessories, and a little imagination.

Is Disneybounding Limited to Disney Characters?

No.  Disneybounding extends to anything Disney, including things like rides and food.  It also extends to franchises that did not originate as Disney, but that Disney now owns and operates, such as Star Wars and Marvel.  You can apply the principles of Disneybounding to media that has nothing to do with Disney as well.  These are often referred to as bounds or rulebreaker bounds since they’re not Disney, but it’s the same basic idea.  There are also mashups, where you take elements of different characters and combine them in a cohesive look.  These mashups often combine Disney characters with non-Disney characters, such as Disney x Clueless or Disney x Mean Girls.  When it comes to bounding, the sky is the limit.

How Do I Disneybound?

What makes a Disneybound is open to interpretation.  In this section, I'll go through my main considerations when putting together a Disneybound, but this is intended to give you ideas, not to give you hard and fast rules.  If you want to learn more about getting started with Disneybounding, you may want to check out the book Disneybound: Dress Disney and Make It Fashion by Leslie Kay.  She's the person who coined the term "Disneybound" and she runs the Disneybounding website, so she's way more of an authority than me.

As I go through my Disneybounding process, I'll be using these two Disneybounds as examples:

Ariel from The Little Mermaid in her classic mermaid color scheme.

Ursula from The Little Mermaid.  This look was for a villains masquerade challenge, hence the last minute mask.

I'll divide my Disneybounding process into four categories: color blocking, silhouette and style, accessories, and makeup.

Color Blocking

Disneybounding relies heavily on color blocking.  Let’s say you want to bound as Ariel and are using her mermaid look for inspiration.  Her main colors are purple and green, so a purple top and green bottoms would provide the perfect base for your outfit.  Or maybe Disney villains are more your jam, and you want to go for an Ursula look.  Her main colors are black and purple, so a black dress with purple tights would work well as an outfit base.

Silhouette and Style

Consider also whether the silhouette and style of the clothes you’re working with can express anything about your character.  For example, Ariel is a mermaid.  I thought this sequined top was reminiscent of scales.  Now, Ariel’s purple shell top isn’t scaly, but we’re not trying to match her look exactly, so it doesn’t matter if the “scales” are on top or on bottom.  Having some sort of sequined garment can add to the mermaid vibes.  Her clothes are fitted, so choosing tighter-fitting garments made sense to me.  Ursula's dress is fitted on top, but she has all those tentacles on bottom that kind of flare out away from her body.  I chose a dress with a fitted top and puffier skirt to reflect that.

Accessories

Accessories can really help bring your character to life.  For Ariel, I opted for pearl accessories, since pearls come from the ocean.  I didn’t use anything unique to Ariel or ultra creative there.  However, my Ursula accessories were more specific to her character.  She takes Ariel’s voice and keeps it inside a shell necklace, so I used some clay to recreate her shell necklace.  Likewise, she has tentacles, and I decided to make some tentacle earrings as a nod to this.

A word of caution: there are tons of cute Disney-themed accessories available.  If you’re planning on buying some or investing money into supplies to create some, keep versatility in mind.  Is this an item you can use for multiple bounds?  A pink hair bow might be a good accessory choice because there are a number of Disney characters who wear pink bows (e.g., Marie, Minnie Mouse, Daisy Duck, and Georgette).  There are also lots of Disney characters with pink as part of their color scheme, for whom a pink bow might fit perfectly with their vibe.  A pink bow has a lot of versatility, whereas something more character-specific may not.

If it’s specific to a particular character, is this a character you could see yourself bounding as often?  I love Alice in Wonderland (we’ll have a whole post devoted to her later in this series) and bound as her frequently, so it seems reasonable to me to invest in Alice-specific accessories.  Ursula is probably my favorite Disney villain, and since I already had clay on hand, it made sense to put together a couple of accessories that would suit her.  However, there are lots of other characters that I don’t really bound as frequently enough to justify buying a character-specific item, regardless of how cute it is.

Makeup

Makeup can be another great tool to help you with your bound.  Bounding as a character with purple skin, such as Ursula?  Add some purple eyeshadow.  I don't usually do anything too elaborate with my makeup, but if you love creating makeup looks, this can be a great avenue for enhancing your bounds.

Disneybounding Inspiration

Looking for some ideas to help you get started?  I’ve included some of my bounds below, and will be featuring more as the series progresses.  Need even more inspiration?  The internet is full of bounding ideas.  Pinterest and Instagram are two great resources for bounding inspiration.  There’s also the official Disneybounding website.

Milo Thatch from Atlantis: The Lost Empire

I put together this look for a “character crush” challenge.  It should probably come as no surprise that I went with the bookish, slightly awkward Milo for this one.  I don’t have a lot of neutrals in my wardrobe, so I couldn’t match Milo’s color scheme exactly, but I thought the brown dress and white sweater came close enough for an outfit base.  Adding a red bowtie and a pair of Brian’s old glasses really helped pull the look together.

Ariel's "Kiss the Girl" Look

Ariel has three main colors in this outfit: white, black, and light blue.  I started with a light blue romper and then layered a white shirt and black corset over top.  Ariel is wearing a blue bow in her hair in this look, so I added a blue bow in my hair.  I also added some pearl earrings as a reminder of Ariel’s connection to the ocean.

Cinderella from Cinderella

Cinderella’s ball gown is light blue, so I used my DIY wedding dress, which is light blue, as the base of this look.  Cinderella has a blue headband, so I added a blue headband.  I used a high heel necklace to symbolize her glass slippers.

Magic 8 Ball from Toy Story

The theme for this challenge was 90s Pixar, as in choose a Pixar character and make it 90s.  I thought the dress and headband had 90s vibes, and fit well with the Magic 8 Ball’s color scheme.  I designed a magic 8 ball window and printed it, and then held it in front of my stomach to finish off the magic 8 ball effect.

Jenny Foxworth from Oliver and Company

This was my look for an 80s Disney challenge.  Jenny has a few different outfits in the film, but one is a seafoam green dress and blue leggings.  I used a seafoam green sweater and blue skirt to approximate the colors of her outfit.  She has her hair partially up in a scrunchie, so I added a scrunchie to my look.  I also wore a cat necklace and socks with cat silhouettes on them to represent Oliver.

Alice in Wonderland x Clueless

This was a look I put together for a Disney x Clueless challenge.  I thought the plaid skort had strong Clueless vibes, and the light blue accents in the skirt also kind of matched Alice.  Alice’s other main color is white, so I paired it with a white blouse and white tights.  Headbands were big in Clueless, but instead of a plain headband, I went with Alice’s signature bow.

This is just a small sampling of the looks I’ve done.  If you’d like to see more of my Disneybounds, I post them to my Insta account @all_of_my_outfits.  I also post a lot of spooky/horror looks as well as some general outfit pictures. 

Next week we'll continue our exploration of Disneybounding, so stay tuned!

Frankenstein Nails

 

Here's one final Halfoween nail art idea: Frankenstein nails.

Materials:

*Green nail polish
*Black acrylic paint
*Ultra fine nail art brush
*Nail polish base coat
*Clear nail polish top coat

Directions:

*Paint on your base coat.  Let dry.

*Paint your nails green.  Let dry.

*Using your ultra fine nail art brush, paint on stitching.  I painted a couple of lines at differing angles across each nail and then painted x's and lines across them to make the stitching.

*Seal with a clear top coat.

Here's how my right hand turned out, in case you were wondering.  The lines are thicker and there's less detail because my left hand is not as good at painting as my right, but they still have Frankenstein vibes.

I hope you've enjoyed this Halfoween nail art series.  Are you doing anything to celebrate Halfoween?  I'd love to hear about it.

Next month we'll be switching gears completely, so stay tuned!