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.

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.

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!

Dragon's Eye/Monster's Eye Nail Art

 

Need some more spooky fun nail art ideas?  Maybe these monster's eye/dragon's eye nails will be up your alley.

Materials:

*Nail polish base color, e.g., purple, gold (this will be the color of the eyes)
*Black nail polish
*Nail polish base coat
*Nail polish top coat
*Black nail art pen or ultra fine nail art brush and black acrylic paint

Directions:

*Paint on your base coat.  Let dry.

*Paint on your base color.  Let dry.

 *Using a nail art pen or nail art brush, draw out the eye shape.  Let dry.

*Using black nail polish, paint the area outside the eye black.  Let dry.

*Seal with a clear nail polish top coat.

Cracked Porcelain Nail Art

     Originally I was trying to do a marbling technique. After ruining my thumb nail trying to smudge the black lines with isopropyl alcohol, I decided that I liked the cracked design that I had going on.  It reminded me of a broken porcelain doll.  While the cracks are perhaps a little thick up close, they're quite visible from a distance, which I like.  Another nice thing is that you don't need any special nail art tools.  All you need is some nail polish and a Sharpie.  These look great for every day wear, but could also be a nice addition to a Halloween broken doll costume.

The nail art isn't clear here, but I can still see that there's something going on with these nails.  It actually looks kind of marbled, I feel like, although it doesn't so much when you get up close.

Materials:

*Clear nail polish base and top coat
*White nail polish
*Black Sharpie

Directions:

*Paint nails with a clear base coat.  Let dry.

*Paint nails with a coat of white nail polish.  Let dry.  Follow with an additional coat of white polish if needed.

*Once the white polish is sufficiently dry, use a Sharpie to draw cracks on your nails.  Let sit for about half an hour or so.

*Carefully seal in the design with a clear top coat.  I found that the Sharpie smudged pretty easily, although not really much worse than the nail art pen I had smudged when I applied the top coat.  For a less smudgy alternative, you could use black acrylic paint and an ultra fine nail art brush to draw on the cracks.  That's probably how I would have approached this if I had been shooting for this aesthetic from the get go.

Jack O'Lantern Nails

 

Looking for more spooky nail inspo?  These jack o'lantern nails may just fit the bill.  If I were to try these again, I'd probably freehand the faces, but painter's tape is great if you find it difficult to paint precisely on as small of a canvas as your nails are.

Materials:

*Rose gold nail polish
*Green nail polish
*Orange nail polish
*Yellow nail polish
*Painter's tape
*X-acto knife
*Nail polish base coat
*Nail polish top coat

Directions:

*Apply nail polish base coat.  Let dry.

*Paint nails rose gold, except for the accent nail (or accent nails).  Paint those nails orange.  Let dry.

*Paint the tips of each nail green.  For precise lines, you can use painter's tape as a guide, although you will want to let your nails dry for several hours first, so the painter's tape doesn't peel up the paint.  I usually let it dry overnight before applying painter's tape.

*Cut jack o'lantern face shapes out of painter's tape to create a stencil.

*Apply the painter's tape stencil to accent nails.  Make sure your nails have been dry for many hours before you apply the painter's tape, to minimize the odds that you'll peel up the tape.

*Paint yellow nail polish over the stencil and then peel up stencil.  Let dry.

*Apply a clear top coat.  Let dry.

Redrum Nails

We're counting down to Halfoween with some spooky fun nail art.  First up we have these The Shining-inspired redrum nails, which are fun to play with in the mirror.  Whether you're a fan of Stephen King's book, Stanley Kubrick's movie, or the 1997 miniseries adaptation, these blood red letters could be a great nod to The Shining.

Materials:

*Blood red nail polish
*Opaque polish color close to your nail color
*Nail polish base coat
*Nail polish top coat
*Ultra fine nail art brush

Directions:

*Paint on a nail polish base coat.  Let dry.

*Paint on a couple coats of a polish that is close to your nail color to try and make your nails look a little more uniform in color.  You could also paint them a light solid color, such as cream or light blue.  This is just to create some sort of base over which to paint the "redrum."  Let dry.

*Using an ultra fine nail art brush and blood red polish, write out "R" on your left ring finger nail, "E" on your left middle finger nail, and "D" on your left index finger nail.

*On your right hand, write "R" on your index finger nail, "U" on your middle finger nail, and "M" on your ring finger nail.

*Seal with a clear top coat.

Sheet Ghost Nail Art

Looking to add a touch of spookiness to you day?  These bloody-eyed sheet ghosts are the perfect mix of creepy and cute.  These were inspired by a dress the character Kira (aka Creepy Doll) wears in the book Bunny, but hence the bleeding eyes.  However, you can use this same process to create ghosts with undamaged eyes.

Materials:

*Sky blue nail polish or other base nail polish color

*Nail polish base coat

*White acrylic paint 

*Red acrylic paint 

*Black acrylic paint

*Brown acrylic paint

*Ultra fine nail art brush 

*Nail art dotting tool

*Clear nail polish top coat

Directions:

*Paint on your base coat.  Let dry.

*Paint on your base color.  Let dry.

*Use white acrylic paint to draw sheet ghost shapes on your nails.

*Use some black acrylic paint and a dotting tool to make mouths for your ghosts.

*Mix together red, black, and brown paints to create blood colored paint.

*Use a dotting tool to dot on blood red eyes.  Or, if you don't like the bleeding eye aesthetic, you could dot on eyes using black paint.

*Use the nail art brush to draw little blood drips coming from the ghosts' eyes.

*Seal in the paint with a clear top coat.  Let dry.

Tombstone Valentine's Chocolates

If you saw last week's post on repurposing a Valentine's chocolate box to give it a spookier touch, you may be wondering what you should fill your creepy chocolate box with.  Why not make some tombstone chocolates?  If you don't have any spooky molds on hand, keep an eye out around Halloween season.  I got the silicone tombstone molds I used from this project from Joann this past fall.

Materials:

*White chocolate baking chips
*Black candy melts
*Silicone tombstone molds
*Microwavable bowl
*Spoon

Directions:

*Pour some white chocolate baking chips into a microwavable bowl and add some black candy melts.  The black candy melts can be pretty overpowering, color-wise, so I'd recommend only putting in about a quarter as much of the black candy melts as you did the white chocolate.

*Microwave for about 1 minute, then take out and stir.  The candy melts and baking chips will likely not be completely melted yet.

*Pop back in the microwave for another 40 seconds, and then pull out and mix.  My chocolate was completely melted at this point in time, but if yours isn't, pop it back in for another 30 seconds.  Be careful not to over microwave, though, or the chocolate will harden up and won't pour correctly.

*Pour melted chocolate into molds.  Tap against a hard surface to minimize air bubbles and get the chocolate into the crevices of the mold.

*Freeze for 10 minutes.

*Pull the chocolate out of the freezer and pop it out of the molds.  Now you've got some spooky candy for yourself, or to give to someone special.

DIY Zombie Manicure

 
Looking for the perfect manicure for your zombie Valentine's Day shindig?  These nails will have you looking like you just crawled out of the grave.

I've done a post on zombie nails before, but if you're looking for a simpler, more wearable undead manicure, this one may be a better bet.  Also, this one has a photo tutorial, so if visual cues are helpful to you, then this one may be more useful.

The fake bruising actually looks a bit more muted in person than the above photo shows.  I've included a picture from the book review photo shoot I was using this nail art for to give you a better sense of what the end result looked like:

Materials:

*Semi opaque nail polish in a shade close to your natural nail color (I used arm candy by Sally Hansen)

*Light purple nail polish (I used tempest by Sinful Colors)

*Dark purple nail polish (optional)

*Nail polish the color of dried blood (I used garnet by Sally Hansen)

*Nail polish base coat (I used the regular base coat by Holo Taco)

Directions:

*Paint on a base coat and let dry.

*Add 2-3 coats of your semi opaque nail polish, maybe even more than that if your skin is much darker than your natural nails.  Our overall goal is to make it look like the nails are peeling away from the skin, so you want to minimize the appearance of the line separating where the nail meets the skin.  It's okay if it's still visible at this stage, as we'll be adding more of our semi opaque polish later, but it should be less noticeable.

*Add some light purple nail polish going most of the way up toward where the nail meets the skin.

*I then dabbed on a little dark purple polish, but I ended up covering over it with the dried blood colored polish and it didn't really show through, so you can probably skip this step and still achieve similar results.

*Now it's time to add the dried blood color.

*The dried blood color shows up pretty dark initially, but with a few more coats of the opaque polish, you can reduce the intensity so it looks like bruising under the nail instead of blood on top of the nail.  The picture below shows what it looked like after a couple of coats of the opaque polish.  I think I ended up adding another coat after that.

I used these nails for a book review, so I didn't do my usual full zombie look.  (I was dressing in the vein of Gertie Shea from The Winter People.  She's not necessarily exactly a zombie, but she is undead.)  Here's what my finished look was like:

The nails may look a little less convincing up close, but from a distance, I think they look pretty convincing.

Got any zombie craft ideas?  General Gothic Valentine's Day ideas?  I'd love to hear them.  Message me in the comments, or tag me @amberscraftaweekblog on Insta.

DIY Shiny Alolan Meowth Plushie + Shiny Alolan Meowth Pokemonbound

 

As some of you may know, the Kanto region Meowth is my favorite Pokemon.  I'm still trying for a shiny Kanto Meowth, but I was lucky enough recently to catch a shiny Alolan Meowth.  Alolan Meowth is pretty cool too, so once I caught it, I knew I wanted to make an Alolan Meowth plushie to match, as well as an Alolan Meowth cosplay.  I ended up using the same Meowth ears template for my shiny Alolan Meowth that I used for my Kanto Meowth, so I won't be doing a separate post on that, but if you want to make your own shiny Alolan Meowth ears, you can use the template in this Meowth Pokemonbounding post and the Meowth color scheme in the post you are reading now.

First up, I have some pictures of my shiny Alolan Meowth look.  After that, I'll show you how I made my plushie.

Shiny Alolan Meowth Look

Here is my Meowth look, complete with my Meowth plushie and an AR photo of my in-game shiny Alolan Meowth.  My romper and shoes aren't quite the right color, so I'll have to keep my eyes out for periwinkle blue clothes, but I had fun with this look anyway, and on the whole, I'm happy with it.

And here's Meowth being ultra cute.

One last picture for good measure.  I'm trying to hold my hand like Meowth holds her paw.

DIY Shiny Alolan Meowth Plushie

Materials:

*Periwinkle blue felt
*Purple felt
*Black felt
*White felt
*Scissors
*Periwinkle blue headband (or one that matches your hair color)
*Fabric glue or all purpose adhesive
*Gold cardstock

*Pillow stuffing

*Blue thread

*Sewing needle

Directions:

*Print out a couple of copies of the Alolan Meowth template given below:

*Cut out the following pieces: Two copies of Meowth's body and head from periwinkle blue felt (one front piece and one back piece), four arm pieces from periwinkle felt (two front and two back), four leg pieces from periwinkle felt (two front and two back), two tail pieces from periwinkle felt (one front and one back), two ear shapes from black felt, two inner ear shapes from purple felt, two eye shapes from white felt, two pupil and lid pieces from black felt, one mouth from black felt, two teeth from white felt, one tip of tail piece from purple felt, two tip of feet pieces from purple felt, and a coin shape from gold cardstock.  Here is what all of these pieces look like when cut out:

*Glue the inner ear pieces onto the outer ear pieces.  Since my Meowth is going to live on a shelf, gluing seemed appropriate, but if you are planning on actively using your plushie, or making it for someone who will actively use it, in the steps where I glue, you'll want to sew.

*Glue the pupil and lid pieces to the eye pieces.

*Glue the tip of tail to one of the tail pieces.

*Glue the tip of feet pieces to two of the feet pieces

*Cut a long, thin strip of black felt and cut it into segments.  Glue those segments to the coin shape to create the coin details (see picture in the next step).

*Glue the face pieces and coin onto the head.  At this stage, these are the pieces you should have glued or sewed together:

*Now it's time to start sewing the appendages together.  Place two arms wrong sides together and sew using a blanket stitch, leaving an opening for stuffing.  Stuff and sew closed, and repeat the process with the other arm.

*Place two feet pieces wrong sides together and sew using a blanket stitch, leaving an opening for stuffing.  Stuff and sew closed.  Repeat the process for the other foot.

*Place the tail pieces wrong sides together and sew, using a blanket stitch.  The tail can be tricky to stuff with how thin and curvy it is, so you can either sew the pieces together without stuffing, or stuff and sew closed.  At this stage, you should have these pieces stuffed and sewn together:

*Now it's time to start assembling Meowth.  Sandwich the appendages and ears between the front and back parts of Meowth's head and torso.  Sew around the edge with a backstitch, leaving an opening for stuffing.  After sewing but before stuffing, Meowth should look something like this:

*Stuff and sew closed.

*I left Meowth's whiskers for last, gluing the front and back pieces together.  However, you could also trim the whiskers from the back piece for Meowth, since the whiskers don't really need reinforcement.

Gastly Pokemon Plushie

 

Love Pokemon?  Or perhaps you're looking for handmade gift ideas for the Pokemon fans in your life.  Either way, Pokemon plushies are an adorable option that many Pokemon fans, perhaps even you, would love.  Today I'll be showing you how to make the ghost type Pokemon Gastly, but if Gastly isn't your favorite, then I have tutorials for Zubat, Snorlax, Meowth, and Magikarp.  Plus, stay tuned for two more Pokemon plushie tutorials coming later this month.  Also, if you love Gastly, be sure to check out the Gastly inspired look I made this summer.

Materials:

*Purple felt

*Black felt

*White felt

*Red felt

*Pillow stuffing

*Red, black, and white thread

*Purple tulle (optional)

Directions:

*I unfortunately didn't make a template for this one; I just kind of eyeballed the pieces.  I have a tutorial on making your own Pokemon plushie template here, though, so if you don't want to wing it, you can follow these steps to make your own template.  You'll want to cut out two large circles from black felt, four eye shapes (two front and two back) from white felt, two pupils from black felt, a mouth from red felt, two little fangs from white felt, and a gas cloud shape from purple felt, and also from the purple tulle if you're using tulle.

*Begin by sewing the pupils to the eyes with black thread.

*Next, it's time to construct the eyes.  Place two eye pieces wrong sides together and sew along the edge using white thread and a blanket stitch.  Leave an opening for stuffing.

*Stuff and sew closed.

*Repeat the process to make the second eye.

*Next, it's time to work on the mouth.  Sew the fangs to the mouth using white thread, and then sew the mouth to the body using red thread.

*Sew one of the black circles (the one without the face) to the gas cloud shape using a running stitch.

*Start sewing the circle with the face over top the plain circle, also using a running stitch.  Leave an opening for stuffing.

*Stuff and sew closed.

*Lastly, it's time to sew on eyes.  I don't really have a good explanation for what I did here.  I just brought the needle through the bottom layer of the eye felt and the top layer of Gastly's felt a bunch of times, until the eyes seemed like they were on securely.

If you love Pokemon and plushies, stay tuned, because I have two more Pokemon plushie tutorials I'll be releasing later this month.  Since I'm going to be posting a bunch of Pokemon plushie tutorials this month, I'm considering waiting until December to do my next Pokemonbounding video.  If you have any Pokemon you'd like to see as either bounds/costumes or as plushies, let me know.  I'm thinking potentially an ice type for December, but I don't have a specific Pokemon in mind.