Wednesday, July 21, 2021

Pop Star Pikachu Bow (Pokemonbounding Ep 9)


Pokemon GO Fest 2021 was music themed.  For ticket holders, you got to choose whether you wanted an encounter with pop star Pikachu or rock star Pikachu.  I of course had to go with pop star Pikachu because she's absolutely adorable, and I decided to make a bow like hers for my Pikachu ears so I could match her.  I also ended up making a mini bow for my Pikachu plushie.  Keep scrolling for more pictures, as well as instructions on how to make a bow of your own.

Pop Star Pikachu Pictures

When I completed the GO Fest special research, I received two photo bomb encounters with the musical squad I selected during the course of the research.  Aren't they just adorable?

I had to snag some pics with Meloetta, the star of the show.

I also had to include a picture with pop star Pikachu herself.  If I had more time and money, I would love to do a full pop star Pikachu cosplay, but for now, the bow will have to suffice.

Lastly, here's a picture of my Pikachu plushie with the matching bow I threw together for her last minute.  If you'd like to make a Pikachu plushie of your own, here's how I made mine.

DIY Pop Star Pikachu Bow

Materials:

*1" wide pink satin ribbon
*Thin ribbons in dark pink, white, and purple
*Packing tape
*Large pink circular or oval-shaped rhinestone
*Sewing needle and pink thread
*Scissors
*All purpose adhesive
*Elastic
*Pikachu ears to attach the bow to

Directions:

*Construct a bow following the directions outlined in this post.  That post calls for a thin ribbon, but I took a small length of the pink satin ribbon and folded it in half to create a thin ribbon to wrap around the center.

*Glue the rhinestone to the center of the bow.

*Pikachu's bow has a strip of ribbon hanging from the side.  To keep the ribbon from flailing around while I was wearing the bow, I took lengths of the pink, white, and purple ribbon and lined them up side-by-side on a piece of clear packing tape.

*Cover the ribbon with a piece of clear packing tape on top to essentially laminate the ribbons together.

*Trim the ends and cut off excess packing tape.

*Sew the strip of ribbon onto the back of the bow.  You'll want the ribbon at an angle so that it won't be in your face when you wear the bow.  I just kind of winged it here, which is why the sewing does not look particularly nice.

*Sew on some elastic so that you can attach the bow to your Pikachu ears.

*Cut off any bit of ribbon that pokes out over the top of the bow.

Wednesday, July 14, 2021

Toilet Paper Tube Spooky Eyes

Looking for an inexpensive way to provide some Halloween ambiance?  These spooky eyes are made from empty toilet paper tubes.  This craft first appeared in my Halloween 2020 'zine, but I figured I'd post it here too, in case you missed it.  

If you're a Halloween lover and haven't checked out the 'zine yet, I'd definitely recommend it.  There are crafts, recipes, activities, a quiz, and more.  While some of my projects are rather elaborate, the ideas you'll find in here err on the simpler side to make it more accessible for a wider audience.  There's fun for the whole family, assuming the whole family loves Halloween!

Materials:

*Toilet paper tubes
*Pencil
*X-acto knife or box cutter
*Glow sticks
*Waxed paper
*Black duct tape

Directions:

*Draw a spooky face onto a toilet paper tube.

*Carefully cut out the face using an X-acto knife or box cutter.

*Tape a toilet paper tube to either end of the tube with the face using black duct tape.

*Snap a glow stick so that it lights up and wrap it in waxed paper.  Slide the glow stick and the waxed paper into the tube.  The waxed paper helps diffuse the light from the glow stick.

*Tape the ends shut with duct tape.  This will help prevent light leakage, so that the glow comes only through the face and not from the ends.

Wednesday, July 7, 2021

Zombie Stitches Necklace


This picture is from a Clueless x Universal Monsters challenge I did.  This was my attempt at a 90s rendition of the Bride of Frankenstein.

Looking for an inexpensive accessory to make for spooky season?  Why not try this felt zombie stitches necklace?

This project was inspired by one in the book Felt-o-ween.  Unfortunately, the book is no longer in print, although there are secondhand copies available online.  The template is my own design and the instructions are my own, but I was inspired by a project in this book and thus wanted to give proper credit.

Materials:

*Black felt

*Scissors

*Fabric chalk or metallic marker

*Some form of clasp or closing mechanism, e.g., safety pin, jewelry clasp.

Directions:

*Print out a copy of the template below onto a sheet of 8.5" x 11" paper:

*Cut out the stitches shape and trace it onto the black felt, using either fabric chalk or a metallic marker.  Since felt squares are often 9" x 12", you may want to extend the ends out further to make sure that you'll be able to close the necklace.

*Cut out the stitches necklace from the felt.

*The last thing is to find a means of closure.  I just used a safety pin to close mine, but you could attach a jewelry clasp instead if you want a more polished end result.

Wednesday, June 30, 2021

Horror Bounding (Halloween Costumes from Your Closet Part II)


Halloween season is upon us.  Okay, so maybe it's only July, but hey, now's a great time to start thinking about your Halloween costume.  Or, if you're like me, Halloween costumes.

I'm planning on dressing up for all 31 days of October.  Now, Halloween costumes are not cheap, so I certainly won't be buying a costume for each day.  Instead, I'll largely be working with items I already have in my closet.

Last year I showed you 15+ looks I had put together using mostly items I had owned previously, with some DIY props and accessories here and there.  This year, I'm bringing you ten more ideas.  Each one of these looks is based around a character from a horror book or movie.  Some of these characters are not the most recognizable, but if you carry around a copy of the book or movie the character is from, people will probably get the idea.

I'm calling this horror bounding because I'm using principles similar to the ones I use for Disneybounding for these horror characters.  While I try to get as close to the look as I can, my goal is more to give off the character's vibe than to match their look exactly.  Here are the ten looks I came up with, using clothes from my closet (and, in some cases, Brian's section of the closet).

Sarah Bowman, Day of the Dead


Sarah Bowman is the protagonist of Day of the Dead, the third installment in George A. Romero's original trilogy.  Sarah wears several different outfits throughout the film, but one includes an open blue button up over a white thermal top, jeans, and a brown belt.  I didn't notice the belt when I was planning out this outfit, so I'm missing that element, and also my jeans are a little darker than hers.  I had to borrow both shirts from Brian, and so I had to knot the blue one at the waist so I didn't look like a small child playing dress up.  But even though it's not an exact replica of her look, I think it gives the right vibe.

Judy Rose Larson, Night of the Living Dead (1990)

Judy Rose Larson is one of the characters in the 1990 remake of Night of the Living Dead.  I don't have the same red patterned shirt that she wears, but this red plaid shirt I think still fits with her aesthetic.  I knotted it in the front, like she does in the movie.  I paired it with a yellow top, jeans, and a scrunchie.  Also, a hammer, because the characters have to board up the house to keep out the zombies.

Shaun, Shaun of the Dead

For our last zombie movie character (for now), we have Shaun, the titular character in Shaun of the Dead.  In the movie, he wears a pretty standard uniform consisting of a white button-down shirt, black slacks, and a red tie.  I actually didn't have a white button-down, so I used a white bodysuit instead and borrowed Brian's red tie.  This look was thrown together, but if I'd had more time, I probably would have made a name tag to finish off the look.

Suzy Banion, Suspiria (1977)

Suzy Banion is the lead in Dario Argento's classic horror film, Suspiria.  This is another movie in which the character wears multiple outfits.  I decided to go with Suzy's ballet practice look, in which she is wearing a black bodysuit and black leggings, and has a white lace scarf tied around her waist.  I didn't have a suitable scarf, so I used a white cardigan instead.

Carietta "Carrie" White, Carrie

Carrie White first appeared in Stephen King's novel Carrie, and has since been featured in a film by the same name, as well as several remakes.  Carrie's prom look is her most iconic, but I don't have a formal pink dress like the movie used, so I opted for a red dress, like in the book.  I added a tiara, sash, and bouquet for some prom queen vibes.  If you dump a bucket of fake blood over your head, you probably won't have to explain the look.  However, I didn't want to go that route, so I grabbed my copy of Carrie instead.

Rebecca de Winter, Rebecca

Rebecca may be dead at the start of the novel, but her presence lives on at Manderly.  This is another book with multiple movie adaptations.  For my take on Rebecca, I went with a flapper-esque outfit, in black, referencing a remark of Maxim's at the beginning of the book.  I could have gone with a faux bob here, but Rebecca had long hair up until close to the time of her death, so my look is a slightly younger version of Rebecca.

Frankenstein's Monster, Frankenstein

Here's another character that has appeared in many adaptations, both book and film: Frankenstein's monster.  The clothes vary depending on the adaptation, but in a lot of them, it is wearing a suit, so that's what I opted for.  The key thing about Frankenstein's monster is that it is sewn together from various body parts, so you'll want to create stitching somehow.  A waterproof eyeliner pencil works well for that.  In a future post, I'll show you how to use felt to create stitching.  I also added some zombie hand earrings as a nod to the monster being an undead, of sorts.

Clare, Voices in the Snow

Clare is the protagonist in Voices in the Snow by Darcy Coates, Book 1 of 4 in the Black Winter series.  Near the beginning of the story, Clare wakes up in a strange man's mansion, wearing a dressing gown and covered in bandaged wounds.  She nabs a jacket and a pair of boots from the stranger before she tries running off into the snow.  I don't have a dressing gown, so I took one of Brian's shirts and cinched it with a sash belt to give a similar vibe.  I added bandages around my neck and then finished off the look with Brian's coat and boots.

Since this is a four book series, there are several other looks Clare wears that you could opt for as well, if the dressing gown one isn't to your liking.  And if you're looking for a fresh take on the zombie genre, I highly recommend these books.  Of my 2021 reads thus far, these four top my favorites list.

Kira, aka Creepy Doll, Bunny

Kira is one of the "Bunnies" in Mona Awad's novel Bunny.  The Bunnies are a group of girls in our protagonist Samanatha's MFA creative writing cohort who are ultra feminine, basically joined at the hip, and also practice magic.  Samantha dubs Kira "Creepy Doll" because of her cute but creepy aesthetic, and that's one of my favorite aesthetics.  Kira is always wearing cat ears, so I used a pair of my DIY cat ears.  I can't remember now if the top outfit was inspired by a particular look of hers or whether I went with it because it had general creepy doll vibes.  The axe, though, that does have a place in the story, although I won't say more than that.

The second outfit was inspired by Kira's in-book wardrobe.  She has a lot of kitten dresses, although sadly, I don't have kittens licking ice cream cones or kittens wearing crowns, which are both kitten dresses that appear in the book.  She has a pair of heart shaped sunglasses, so I went with some Valentine's heart-shaped glasses I had on hand.

You can't really see my nails in either of these pictures, but my nails have sheet ghosts with bleeding eyes to match one of Kira's dresses.  For pictures of that nail art as well as a tutorial, head on over to this post.

Miranda "Miri" Silver, White is for Witching

Miri Silver is one of the main characters in Helen Oyeyemi's White is for Witching.  She wears old fashioned, black dresses that are too big because she lost weight, so I went with an oversized black dress I had that had some vintage vibes.  She also wears heels a lot, and so I went with the only pair of black heels I have.  She always wears her mother's stopped watch, so I borrowed a watch from Brian.  There's a rosy smell that follows Miri, so I added a rose necklace to symbolize that.  Lastly, there's the hair.  Before her mother dies, Miri has waist-length black hair.  When she is hospitalized, her hair is cut into a bob.  There's some strangeness about Miri's hair that I won't get into here because of spoilers, but I took pictures both ways.  In the picture above, I put my hair into a faux bob and used an app to darken it.

There you have it, ten outfits inspired by spooky books and movies.  Any other horror looks you'd like to see?  Let me know, and I may see if I can pull something from my closet.

Looking for more costume inspiration?  Check out my Instagram, @all_of_my_outfits.  It is primarily Disneybounds, but on Fridays I post a spooky look for #spookygirlsclubhouse (some of the looks you see here were for #spookygirlsclubhouse.  The rest were for book reviews for my writing Insta, @amber_hathaway_writes).  Plus, for the month of October, I'm planning on wearing Halloween costumes each day.

Wednesday, June 23, 2021

Our Vow Renewal


When Brian and I got married in May of 2020, we had to significantly change our plans due to the pandemic.  We initially hoped to have a small ceremony in 2020 and then a bigger event in 2021, but with the pandemic still an active threat, we had to scale back our plans for the vow renewal too.  However, we still had a lovely day, and I wanted to take a moment to share it with you.

Thanks so much to Corey Butler of Revolution Summer Photography for these lovely photos.  If you're in northern New England and are looking for a wedding or engagement photographer, I highly recommend checking him out.  Click here to go straight to his site.  You can also find him on Facebook at Revolution Summer Photography and on Insta @rsummerphoto.

My sis Katie and Brian had to put on my heel covers for me because they have more muscles than I do.  You can see the card soldiers I made for my wedding in the backgroun.  There was a very strong chance of rain this time around, so I kept the card soldiers at home, but I made sure they still had a part in the day.

Putting the finishing touches on my makeup.

Katie fastening my belt.  My wedding dress was a DIY project that I threw together.  Basically, I took an old romper of mine and created a belt and a tulle overskirt to make it more gown-like.  You can learn more about it in this post.  I had made the belt with snap closures, but on the wedding day, the snaps popped open any time a bent down or moved in just the wrong way.  I ended up making a new belt for the vow renewal by sewing hook and bar closures to a piece of ribbon, and that worked really well.  The belt stayed closed this time.

Entering the gardens.

Now that we're vaccinated, dad was able to walk me down the "aisle."  Also, here you can see my DIY bouquet, which you can learn more about in this post.

Brian winging his vows.

Me reading my vows.

Yay, we're still married.

Chatting with grammie.  This ended up being one of my favorite pictures of the day.  Grammie couldn't be there in person for our wedding, but I was glad she could be there for the vow renewal.

For health and safety reasons, as well as to comply with our venue's policies, we had to severely restrict the guest list, inviting only in state family members.  But we were able to include a few people who couldn't be there in person for the wedding, which was nice.

This is another one of my favorite pictures.

The flowering trees are one of my favorite things about the gardens.  I love when they are in full bloom, so it was nice to be able to snag some pictures with them.

If I had to pick a favorite picture from the day, this one is probably it.  It looks like we're in an enchanted forest.

And one more picture with flowers.

We had Subway for dinner with Little Debbie Birthday Cakes for dessert.

One of our friendly neighborhood squirrels, Chip, decided to stop by for a treat.

A close up of Chip.

And that's it.  I hope you enjoyed this peek into our vow renewal.

While this wasn't the wedding I had envisioned when I first started wedding planning in 2019, it was actually preferable in a lot of ways.  The only thing I would have changed would have been the guest count.  I wish we could have had more friends and family members there to celebrate with us.  But everything else about the day was just right.

Is there anything else you want to know about our wedding and vow renewal?  The pandemic has made wedding planning even more challenging, so if there are any insights you'd like from my experiences, I'd be happy to share.  Drop your questions in the comments, and I'll address them if I can, either in a reply to your comment or in a follow up post.

Next week, we'll be switching gears completely and diving into Halloween season.  I'm close to having four months of spooky crafts planned out for you all (but not all of them made yet, of course), and I can't wait to share them with you.

Wednesday, June 16, 2021

Pretzel Friends Clay Earrings


Love snacks?  These adorable clay pretzel friends earrings may be just for you.  I made these as a last minute craft idea to match the Food Friends dress Brian made for me (see pictures below).  If you'd like a Food Friends dress, leggings, or skirt of your own, Brian is selling them in his shop, Wayton Designs.  You can also follow him @wayton.designs on Instagram to be the first to know about his latest designs.

I have a tutorial explaining how I made these earrings at the bottom of this post, so if you want to get straight to that, skip to the end.  But first, I have some pretzely photos I wanted to share with you.

Pretzel Friends Photos

Here I am wearing the pretzel friends earrings and Food Friends dress, with an actual pretzel on hand for the photos.

Here you can see the earrings a little better.  They're pretty eyecatching in my opinion.

And one last picture with our pretzel friends.  Now on to the tutorial.

Pretzel Friends Clay Earrings Tutorial

Materials:

*Oven bake clay

*Brown acrylic paint

*Black acrylic paint

*White acrylic paint

*Pink acrylic paint

*Ultra fine nail art brush

*Nail art dotting tool

*Ear wires

*Jump rings

*Jewelry pliers

*Acrylic sealer (optional)

Directions:

*Roll out clay into a long, thin strip.

*Shape the strip of clay into a pretzel.

*Carefully push jump rings into the tops of the pretzel shapes.


*Bake according to the directions on the clay packaging.  Remove from the oven and let cool.

*Once cool, it's time to paint the earrings.  If you used any color of clay other than brown, the first thing you'll want to do is paint the earrings brown.  If your clay is already brown, then move on to the next step.

*Now it's time to paint the face.  Use a dotting tool and black paint to create two eyes and the ultra fine nail art brush to create a mouth.

*Use the dotting tool and pink paint to create pink cheeks.  Let dry.

*Use the nail art brush and a tiny bit of white paint to add white highlights to the eyes.  This step was really tricky for me, as I had to hold the pretzel inside my focal length to do it, which made the image I was seeing a little blurry.  Feel free to skip this step if you're happy without the white highlights.

*Use the nail art brush and white paint to paint on salt crystals.  Let dry.

*Optional: Once the paint is dry, you can seal it with an acrylic sealer to protect the paint from chipping.

*Use the pliers to open the bottom of the ear wires.  Loop one ear wire through each earring and clamp shut with the pliers.