New 52 Green Arrow Cosplay Armor Build

Hey everyone...I know I've been rather silent lately (unless you're on the facebook page Nerd Rendezvous, I do try and keep up correspondence over on that front AND more photos) I've been dealing with the troubles of adulthood. Enough with the blah! Let's see some of the progress on Ollie!
My first foray into foam armor has been full of trial and error, messy floor, trips to Harbor Freight, and lots of burning myself with various heat tools. It's been worth it! I finally finished (yes...finished) one arm guard, and here is what it looks like:

Hey! It's GA himself @chambernaut.
For this type of armor I used two types of foam: EVA (Exercise Mat) and craft foam sheets. The heat gun makes bending and forming the EVA foam sooooo easy, so I suggest investing in one (Harbor Freight $15, just sayin') you will find that you use it A LOT. Also...just a little tid bit of info...do NOT use it on the thin craft foam sheets, it's way too powerful and will torch it. You can use a hair drier for those.
I cut out a simple arm guard pattern on the EVA that was the length from GA's knuckles to a little past the elbow, and wide enough to bend down  an inch or two on either side of his arm. You then bend the sides, by using the heat gun to heat it up, and bend it along a straight line at whatever angle you want. You can actually stop there, coat it in glue or mod podge, and air brush the segmented look onto it. I mean....it's that crazy and simple. But I wanted the 3d effect, so I took pieces of craft foam and cut them into the segments, and glued them on in a layered fashion to the EVA foam base. I coated the whole exterior in glue/mod podge twice. I primed it, then spray painted it. Here is my super huge advice when it comes to these projects: Use acrylic paint and a brush, not spray paint. Better yet, mix a little mod podge into that acrylic paint. I know...you're thinking, "But spray paint cuts down painting time...and I don't have to do as many coats." Yeah you're right. But it also will crack if you accidentally lay something against it, or it needs to bend. I had nice awesome arm guards, until one of them was leaned on and now my options are, BATTLE SCARS, or START OVER. My Talons however (there will be a post on them shortly) were coated in gold acrylic paint with brush and mod podge, and have no problems. We decided that it looked really awesome when it looked like the comic book art, with all the outlines surrounding the glossy green, so we sharpied it up around the edged of each green segment.

Solid glossy piece pre-crackles. It looks much better with the black lines all over it.

EVA foam (grey) has been bent using heat gun. Lay out your craft foam segments near by in order to make it a smoother process.

Oh nothing.......Just a couple trick arrows

 Sorry guys, but that's about all I've summed up right now, but don't worry. This weekend is dedicated (from 5pm Saturday through whenever we finish Sunday) to Green Arrow's props getting done. That means arm guards, leg guards, quiver, arrows, hopefully the vest/hood, sleeves, belt/buckle and beer canisters. It looks like I won't be sleeping in order to get this done. Not to mention the other hundred million projects I'm working on :/ Stay tuned!

Don't forget to get your tickets to C4 and Comikaze before they sell out guys....and then look both me and @chambernaut up when there! You know what to look for, I'll either be Black Canary, Madame Hydra, Chay-Ara Hol, or Tala...I've even got a Kate Beckett cosplay in the works. I will definitely be forming a schedule for those looks, and more tutorials to come!

Chay-Ara Hol (Hawkgirl) Cosplay Build Part 1

Hey everyone! I know you're all (or the lucky ones at least) are getting ready for Comic Con, or various other conventions, and I wanted to share my exciting news.

I didn't feel like the list of ongoing projects was quite long enough, so I decided to go ahead with making a cosplay I have wanted to do for quite some time. Not to mention it will make for VERY good tutorials (combined with the New 52 Green Arrow Cosplay build posts)  for anyone trying to build armor using craft foam & EVA foam (exercise mat foam sheets).

This post serves as post 1 of however-many-posts-it-takes-to-complete-this-costume, and will show how I made Chay-Ara's belt and started her collar. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Hawkgirl, go...frolic in the land of Thanagar. I am particularly enthralled in the ancient Egyptian version of her so I went for a part comic, part Justice League Unlimited animated series costume idea. Here is a picture of the JLU version:

Chay-Ara Hol DC

Why have I never acted upon this urge to don ancient Egyptian garb and golden wings? I was intimidated. I just started cosplaying earlier this year, to think of constructing wings? *Scoff* Helmet? *Scoff* But you know what? I'm going to do it. I've got brains and can pick up crafts relatively easily.

So far I'm proud of the pattern making skills I seem to pick up, however, I'm going to have to learn to have a little more patience. I guess I will also admit (albeit grudgingly) I can't magically learn to do new crafts without trial and error.

Ok...so there is this crazy stuff known as craft foam. When you heat it up it can be molded into whatever you need which is super useful in the land of cosplay. I have done a tutorial on how to make it into a  Form Fitting Mask using the over/hair dryer as a heat source. The collar tutorial will build onto that foundation. For right now I will just show you my progress, and how I got there.

The belt was made from craft foam, hot glue, mod podge, (or elmers glue) paint and velcro.

I used the "Ancient History" episode of JLU as length reference for the belt. I sketched out the pattern onto some newsprint so I didn't end up wasting craft foam again *sigh*. It was a good thing because I ended up playing around with the angles of the lines about three times before deciding on the end result. This is what it looked like:

I colored in the original messy one for fun

I traced them onto sheets of scrap foam, color doesn't matter as you'll be painting over it, and cut them out.
Keep in mind there are 2 pieces. There is a large green piece underneath which gives the belt a little movement and play.

 I then cut out a strap long enough to go around my waist plus extra for velcro closure, glued the strap on using hot glue t ONE side of the center piece, painted all of them with two-three coats of mod podge (you can use Elmer's glue!) and then painted them gold with the turquoise accent piece. Let them dry!!!!!!!!!! Add a piece of velcro to the open side of the belt to be able to open/close it.

Boom! Egyptian belt for any costume, and added bonus!!! Chay-Ara Hol.

The collar is a little more difficult. I started by measuring my neck (circumference) to get the center circle of the collar (diameter). I then measured from mid neck to place on chest where I wanted the collar to fall, and then doubled it to get the overall diameter of the collar. I also used newsprint to sketch out a pattern. I then drew out two inner circles for guides for the accent pieces.

To save myself from disaster, after cutting out the pattern, I cut the whole thing in half, and drew 2 halves onto a sheet of black craft foam. I deconstructed it a bit further, by cutting out the 1st inner circle (closest to the neck) out of one half, and then broke down the outer circle into 1/4's, drew those on yellow craft foam (I wanted a raised border) and cut it all out, and glued it all together (except 1 side, really really important to leave one line open to be able to get it on/off) with hot glue. 

You can use velcro to attach,  which I will be doing towards the end of the collar. After you get everything you want to be on the collar, but before painting or mod podging, you'll want to shape it to your neck/shoulders. I highly recommend getting help for this step. Please don't be like me and have a huge burn on your neck because you tried to do it yourself. The photo can be seen on our Facebook page: Collar Burn Your arms just DON'T bend that way...unless you are a contortionist. And before we get any further, the burn is not from the foam. The burn is in fact from the genius idea to heat the collar while on my neck since I was doing this project alone.Yeah...I know...genius. So you'd heat it up either in the oven or with a hair dryer until it's flimsy, and then have someone squish it down on your shoulders, neck, chest until it's cool and molded to you. You may end up heating it up several times. I am going to put some aloe on this burn and hopefully retry this tomorrow with the use of a handy dandy assistant. I am trying really hard not to just rush right into the wings and helmet here....I have some more research to do in both those areas. :)

Crocheted Octopus Hair Bauble

Are you a mermaid? Do you often look at the ocean or go to aquariums in hope of seeing an eight-legged wonder? Do you wonder how you could adorn yourself with such a lovely creature?
If you answered yes to any of those questions...or just really like octopi keep reading!
As you may know I have gotten into crochet projects. Don't worry, I'm not switching from nerd projects to just a really very simple crochet blog. I did however want to include this particular project on the blog, as there have been several inquiries as to where I obtained such a fashion accessory.
 What exactly is "it"? Well, as the explanation is rather long, I will just provide you a picture.

You may think...OH MY GOD, THERE IS AN OCTOPUS FUSED TO HER HEAD! I assure you this is the case. His name is Count de Bubbles. I wanted a unique fascinator to go with one of my steampunk corsets, and had recently finished a truly awesome project ( I can't share it here until after someone receives it as their birthday gift) and thought, hey, there must be a way I can make a stuffed octopus using the same principles I had just learned to make aforementioned secret awesome birthday gift. Thanks to a quick foray on google...I learned there was....it's called Amigurumi. and boy is it a clever way to make a awesome gift (and cheap). The only problem is you have to be good at crochet. Which I am not...so it involved cussing out the wazoo, mistakes, and several attempts to make a pattern for you guys, as the only octopi I could find were round (and we all know octopi are not round balls.) So.....get ready for my first crochet pattern:

Body
Round 1: 6 sc in a magic ring (6)
Round 2: 2 sc in each stitch (12)
Round 3: 1 sc in first stitch, 2 sc in 2nd stitch, repeat around to beginning (18)
Round 4: 1 sc in first 2 stitches, 2 sc in 3rd stitch, repeat around to beginning (24)
Round 5: 1 sc in first 3 stitches, 2 sc in 4th stitch, repeat around to beginning (30)
Round 6: 1 sc in first 4 stitches, 2 sc in 5th stitch, repeat around to beginning (36)
Rounds 7-12: sc in every stitch (36)
Round 11: 1 sc in first 4 stitches, decrease in 5th stitch, repeat around to beginning (30)
Round 12: 1 sc in first 3 stitches, decrease in 4th stitch, repeat around to beginning (24)
Round 13: 1 sc in first 2 stitches, decrease in 3rd stitch, repeat around to beginning (18)
Round 14: Sc in first 9 stitches, chain 1 and turn your work
Round 15: Sc 29 stitches (yes you will be going over the 9 stitches you just made), chain 1 turn your work
Round 16  (FINAL STEP!!!!): Sc 9 stitches, slip stitch/tie off (WOOOO!!!!)
Stuff it with cotton, or old pillow fill. Do NOT sew the end together, you will see why later.

NOTE: this is for a little bit smaller octopus than seen in the above picture....I had delusions of grandeur..but for a better hold and better size-to-head ratio I shrunk it down a little.

Un-stuffed

Stuff it then shape it, I like the side that will lay against my head to be semi flat like a lounging octopus.

Tentacles (Each chain makes 2 so make 4)
Chain 40
In the second chain from hook, 3 sc's.
3 sc's in every stitch back to the end of chain.
Tie off, fold in half.


Alternate Tentacle: bi-colored method (Each chain makes 2 so make 4)
Use 2 colors of yarn at one time side by side. Chain 31
In second chain from hook, 2 sc's in every stitch back to the end of chain. Tie off. Fold in half.

Hair Attachment Piece
Round 1: 6 1/2 dc's into magic ring (6)
Round 2: 2 1/2 dc's in each stitch (12)
Round 3: 1/2 dc's into every other stitch (18)
Round 4: sc all the way around. Tie off.

The side facing the picture is the side you will clip to your head. Glue the tentacles to the opposite side.

One of the tentacles folded in half

Octopi ASSEMBLE!
You have a stuffed octopus body, tentacles, and an attachment piece. tuck in all the loose pieces of yarn. Now you need a hot glue gun. I'm sure if you really wanted to sew it together...you could...but after hours of crocheting...you just want the dang thing to be assembled and done, thus, hot glue gun. I laid out the tentacles how I wanted them to look on top of the attachment piece and lightly glued them (you don't need gobs of hot glue, just enough to hold it in place) down. next i made sure the body was stuffed into the shape of an octopus...not a round ball, and glued it on top of the tentacles/attachment piece.
Slide your hair comb or clip through the bottom, and voila! If you want it even more secure, bobby pin it around the bottom, and each tentacle how you'd like it to lay.
You can decorate it...put on eyes using buttons or cogs, give him or her a monocle, wings...a smilie face...anything to make it more you!

The completed Green one and almost finished lavender one:

Of course...if you've been reading the facebook page: Nerd Rendezvous you have seen a few mini updates through the last two weeks. I hope to finish a few projects this weekend to have something new for you guys soon. Fingers crossed the Titus (Nova Vol. 5) eye goes smoothly. Also...I am hoping to take pictures in all of my character outfits soon!
I'm seeing Man of Steel tomorrow, and am super excited. Maybe I will start getting organized this weekend and draw up some outlines for here so I can post more consistently! Also...Get your tickets for C4 and Comikaze now...they will sell out just as fast as Wonder Con!

New 52 Green Arrow Cosplay Update

Hey, I've been pretty lame lately. Not writing on here, because I haven't really felt like I have done anything noteworthy...and then I realize how much crap I have done. One quick note before I get to the thick of the GA cosplay.: If you are planning to go to the C4 (Central Coast Comic Con) GET YOUR TICKETS NOW. Seriously...I foresee that thing selling out like Deadpool buying up chimichangas at a chimichanga place. Here is a link: C4
There are going to be some pretty epic cosplayers there...oh, and me & @chambernaut as Black Canary (old school) & Green Arrow (New 52). So...no big deal or anything...just me with blonde hair for the day! (If you know me you know how I feel about my natural hair color! If you don't know me, disregard the natural hair color statement!)
Ok lets get down to what I have been up to..which is playing with bows, arrows, feathers, foam, and paint! And on my lazy time...yarn.

Ollie's bow is pretty amazeballs.

 

yay!

Ollie's arm guards before paint! (I will tutorial the SHITE out of this process when I am done with them!)

Flunked my first attempt at foam armor! In other news, I have child sized hands.

Reference materials, mask, clean bow, and template pieces of arm guards.

Hail Hydra!

Wally, Wally, Wally. Yes, I know...I am making that face. That face means I have mastered crochet, kicked it's patootie, and ran around with my new accessories. I'm insane.

So that's what I've been up to...I'm really excited one of my friends is getting into cosplay madness! You can stay updated with the GA cosplay pics over at Nerd Rendezvous' facebook. I am super excited for this C4. Like I said...go get your tickets now. <3

Comic or Steampunk Inspired Gift for Girly Girls

Hey you, yes you...you probably waited until the last minute or forgot about Mother's Day, didn'tcha? Yeah yeah...blah blah blah excuses, excuses. You don't want to get her the boring standard of flowers or chocolate....you want to make her cry on how thoughtful you are, and how much time you must've put into this (even though it really doesn't take that much time), right? Of course I am right. And because I am who I am, why don't we theme the gift too? And since you probably have other occasions where you need to have a quick thoughtful gift for a girl...you can alter this in anyway to fit your needs.

Now...back to my original thinking for mama. She protests the thought of one of her children spending money on her, even though we say the same yet receive presents from her all the time. I knew she had been super interested in my DIY projects, and had previously asked me to redo a pair of her orthopedic shoes with comics, which was not exactly easy. I wanted to do something I hadn't done before so she couldn't expect it, and I can't leave well enough alone. I decided to make her a "Spa Day in a Basket." But being me, and not being able to leave well enough alone I decided to theme the crap out of said SDiaB.
The first thing you want to address is what all needs to be put in a basket. Try and include everything you can think of that would make the spa feel more authentic. I figured on sugar scrubs, lotion, soft fluffy towels, candles, etc. You can absolutely stop there...if you are not me.

Since I'm me and you're still reading this, you want to tackle how to add in a theme. She LOVES Aquaman. I don't. Not only don't I like him as a character, I don't really like his color theme, especially for a spa basket...who wants orange, yellow, and green all over their bathroom? I do like tridents and underwater/mermaid themes, but I have been down that road before. Lucky me, she also likes Stephanie Brown, and I can make it feel comic themed just by  printing out my own labels to put on the spa stuff, getting a popping effect from the colors you choose, or you can completely ditch the comic idea and go for the strategic move of steampunk themed...I've already shown you how to make the steampunk roses which would add a beautiful touch to the basket (you could spray a little rose scented perfume on them too!)
You can add some fancy towel folding like I did by going here for an easy tutorial. If I didn't make custom cupcake wrappers it would've taken less than 5 minutes. LESS THAN 5 MINUTE MOTHER'S DAY GIFT IDEA FOLKS!!!!!
http://yoonie-at-home.blogspot.com/2010/07/tea-towel-cupcake-tutorial.html

So...Batgirl: Black, Purple, and Yellow. I added white to make everything pop. Also before I show you these pictures. Yes I know SNIKT is Wolverine's sound. It happens to be my favorite sound blurb so I put it in the basket.

Everything Inside:

Candle, Hand Towel, 2 Wash Cloth Cupcakes, Lotion, Soap, Shea Sock cupcake, Loofa, Back Scrubber, Skin Noms Chocolate Sugar Scrub, and the purple box is a Spa Hair Towel. 3 action sound sticks.

What is Skin Noms? Delicious natural scrubs that smell like your favorite treats, and leave your skin amazingly soft, not to mention smelling great. Find them here: Skin Noms

What are wash cloth/shea sock cupcakes? Rolled towels or socks wrapped in a cupcake wrapper. Mine just happen to have on a bat belts. Printed out on card stock and taped on.

I layered everything in so the cupcakes would stand out, and then shoved in the little sticks with the action blurbs on them.

What else can I do? What else can I make special? Flowers. The old stand by. So you get your mom flowers every year....but will she expect you to go above and beyond and create a custom arrangement just for her?

I ran out of yellow flowers, so my notes to you: always buy extra! I really hope you're lucky enough to have a mother you love and loves you more than the world. Remember to treat her extra special, not just on Mother's day but every time you think of her.

Never Stop Learning

I love to learn. My brain craves education. As part of my trying to make myself happy schtick, I took up a circus fitness class in January, I started reading and reading and reading, and most recently I started to learn to crochet, not because I felt crocheting would make me happy, or even something I considered doing before, but because I have no clue what it entails, and it's hands-on.
I thought, "This will be a piece of cake." I am always good at picking things up. Especially crafty things. And after I learn it (in what I figured would be an hour) I will be able to make really awesome crafty things for myself, family, and friends.

Day 1: I threw my laughable project at my desk after ten attempts/fails at starting a beanie with a magic ring in a puerile hissy fit. I pick it up twice more and fail both times.

Day 2: I managed to start the first two rows successfully, and did 6 rows with a TON of mistakes.

Day 3: I had to pull three rows out because I realized I did it wrong. Three rows that had taken me two hours to complete. Did I mind? No. Normally I'd be throwing a sh*t fit because I couldn't do something, but I stopped and realized I was understanding how the single/double crochets work, why those rows wouldn't work and how I wanted it to look. Do the first three rows have mistakes? Yes. Do I mind? No. Normally mistakes have me cringing. Two things: One, I realized I'd be covering most of them with the faux-hawk I am attaching, and two, I'm not good at this yet, changing those mistakes would be like forgetting the fact that I was learning. I still don't really understand it all, and only understand how to make circles and hats, and how to make those hats loose or tight right now, but I just learned the building blocks, and you know where that will lead.

So...why am I sharing this with you? I hope that you don't give up on something. Anything. Pick something. Learn it. Add it to your skill box. You may learn something about yourself or change in the process. It's satisfying. And yeah...you may find it's not actually something you want to do after all, or something you just aren't good at no matter the effort you put in *cough circus fitness cough* but that's okay. You can't be good at everything, which is what I learned from circus fitness. So I don't really want to dislocate my legs and arms to be good at something. I still took away some really cool aerial moves and awesome stretches. Go forth, push your comfort zone, and learn.

Viper Madame Hydra Cosplay Take 2 / Free Comic Book Day plans

I finally got to fix my Viper costume after the Wondercon fiasco, and perfected the scarring technique for a Healthy kids event last weekend. Apparently the small fix of the thigh holster/ make up was a vast improvement as it has made it to other pages like wild fire. So I will share them here.
I also wanted to take a moment to address the Spoiler costume which also received rave reviews (from those nerds who actually knew who she was) and will be going round two for Free Comic Book Day at my local comic book store for a contest...cross your fingers for me! At Wondercon I had lost the thigh holster (strike two for thigh holsters that weekend) and also my cloak's hood was complete fuggled the whole night. I found the thigh holster and will be fixing the hood on Friday. I strongly recommend checking out your local comic book shop's FCD events....they look huge everywhere I have seen.

Close up of the scarring effect, tutorial here: Cosplay Scars

For more pictures from the Healthy Kids Day event, stay tuned to the Facebook Page: Nerd Rendezvous

Not to mention the Green Arrow/Black Canary is still in the works, the  Bat Signal is in the works, the flat shoes are I SWEAR in the works, and many many other things. I have been dealing with an insurance/courts ordeal and have been supa busy. I hope to get to these projects soon!