After having a look over on the RPF (Replica Prop Forum) I had inspiration to what my next project was going to be and I decided to make an Audrey II from little shop of horrors

This is the original and the picture I have been basing my work from.  It had been such a long time since I seen the film and this seemed to be the best picture I could find that showed the detail and was also not the giant man eating variety as I think that would of been a bit big to have in my house and I would worry about Roslin and my cat if I had one of those as they are just snack sized.

Firstly I started off by obtaining the coffee tin.  Ebay has been very handy in doing this project and I managed to purchase one from the states, my tin cost about £5 with extra for shipping.  Really happy with the tin as I like it is showing its age but there is pristine tins available but you may have to pay more for this.

Next I purchased some Dry floristry foam and filled the tin with it.  This would give me something to attach the foliage to and also support the main bud without having to look at using oil based clay (Plastercine) to hold it all in place.

Next I purchased a sheet of Artificial wire moss again another buy from ebay costing a whopping £1.29 and cut this to fit the inside of the tin.  This will cover the Florist foam and gave the look that there was mossy soil there not a big block of foam.  I decided on wirey moss as this would be able to be teased up at the stock and would not lie in the tin with a smoother texture like foam based moss.  As you can see in the picture I think the effect works well.

Next up is the trailing ivy.  Again another ebay purchase, I purchased silk ivy leaves which are normally used as cake decoration, these you can get very cheap I got 24 for £o.90.

I twisted these together into a trail with the leaves facing different directions to give it a bit of a wild look, symmetrical pattern would not of been as effective.  I made one long trail and two shorter which drape over the side of the tin.  These are still needing some work, the stalks are still to be painted red and some of the leaves are to be cut to make them irregular sizes so the plant doesn’t have identical leaves, am hoping this will help make the plant look more realistic.

Now I decided to start on the bud.  As a base for the bud I used a high density polystyrene Modelling egg.  I wanted the bud to be fairly large like the one I have been working from so I got 100mm eggs to use as the base.  This would allow the stalk to be inserted directly into the egg along with the leaves that encase the bottom of the bud.  I used pipe cleaners as the stalk but once I got onto the next stage I realised that it was going to be to heavy, after some thought as to what would provide enough support and be thin enough to be hidden within the pipe cleaners I contacted my Dad again who supplied the metal rod that I used for the tail in the flying monkey costume and asked for more.  The rod was inserted in the centre of the pipe cleaners and provided support for the head but also would allow her a little movement so she can bob a little if a breeze hits her.

Next up was the tricky bit how to add texture as just now it looks like some kind of see creature, I’m thinking squid!  Anyway the options were to carve the egg which would be difficult as the polystyrene would bobble and I was unsure I would get the effect I needed.  next was to make it in a soft clay and make a cast and then make a resin bud but this for now is a bit beyond me but it is something that I may try in the future.  So I decided to cover it in DAS air drying clay and sculpt the lips moth and veins into it.

As you can see you sculpting worked well for the larger veins, once dry thread dipped in PVA gule will be attached to provide the thinner thread veins.  The leaves I had a choice to either sculpt onto her or buy silk rose leaves.  I found on ebay again rose leaves that had a hint of pink to them for £1.55.  So I snapped them up and when they arrived they were better than I could ever of hoped unlike the picture that follows the base of the leaves were pink turning green at the top.  These were arranged around the stalk to the leaves would curl around the bud and would also help hide where the stalk attaches to the bud.  Please excuse the clay this will be cleaned off later.

The bud was then left to dry, this was a bit of a pain to do as I didn’t want her touching anything to make sure the veins would remain intact while she dried, bed came up with a great idea and our banana holder was hooked onto the handle of one of our kitchen cupboards which allowed it to be suspended and allowed it to dry.  The end of the pipe cleaners were covered in gaffa tape to keep them together so separating the pipe cleaners gave me a hoop which she could hang from.

Next I started to work on the backing leafs.  Again another cheap Ebay buy £.50 for several attached to one stalk that I cup off the stalk and glued together so the leaf was double sided.  Sticking out of the leaf is amber nodules, to do these I have ordered some amber beads from Ebay again so until they arrive I have used clothes pegs to make the gaps when sticking them together.  I used hot glue to stick them and when the pegs were removed gaps were left to attach the beads when they arrive.

Some painting will need to be done to the stems and the veins in the leaf and the beads will need to be guled into place but as you can see it’s coming along now.  I made three leafs in total one large for directly behind the bud and two to sit at either side.  In the tin they went  and they will provide the backing  foliage.

So far so good.  Next is attaching the spindle veins.  Instead of sculpting them directly on I used thread dipped in PVA glue.  This would allow me to be precise about where they were placed so I could get the texture and detail I wanted but this out going cross eyed and trying to sculpt them. This is work in progress at the moment got a lot more veins to add before it’s ready for painting but I am happy so far.

Once the veins were completed I moved back onto backing leafs, They needed a little painting adding red stalks and veins.

The Stalk coming from the clay bud made from pipecleaners wasn’t really lookng very plant like so next I wrapped making tape around them and covered it in PVA glue.  Once this was dry it was ready to be painted along with the completed bud.

Painting was done with Acrylic paints using an airbrush and some manual painting.  I would like to thank Ben for helping me with most of the painting and doing a great job with the lips and vein detailing.

The finished bud then had the leaves glued into place at the rear at the stock, as to hide any join.  I used hot glue to fix them in place so to allow the leaves to bend around the shape when being stuck into place.

This was then put in to the tin and an exra layer of the fake moss was added.  The painted leaves were then added to the tin also.

The last thing to be done is to make the little nodules for the leaves, not really sure if they are nodules but only way I could think of describing them.  Anyway these are made out of Milliput and again painted with Acrylic paints.  I made them egg shapes and pinched the badse so that they would be flatter when slotted between the two leaves.  I did think about using amber coloured beads to do this but the problem was that they had holes in them and also the size and shape.  Using milliput allowed me to make the nodules for the centre leaf bigger as the leaf itself is larger and smaller for the other two leaves.

As you can see when slotted into place they are not making the leave bulge to much.  Once painted again using acrylic paints I plan on using hot glue to hold them in place and at the moment the space for slotting them in is larger than the nodule so this will also be hot glued together so there will be no gaps.

The nodules heave been painted with Acrylic and a dry brushing of red.  Hot gluing them in place proved to be a bit tricky as the leaves either stuck together instantly with the heat attracting them to each other or crumpled a little again due to the heat but I think it has given a good effect when they have all been put into place.

So with all the nodules in place I am happy to say Audrey II is finally finished.

Most recent project was inspired by Ben who found an article on line describing how to build the internet from the IT crowd so had a bash and it’s not to bad even if I do say so myself.  The internet was from an episode of the IT crowd Series 3 episode 4.  If  you have missed the sketch in question you can view it here : The internet

We followed the instructables guide.

First step was drilling a hole and inserting the silver bevel, this will hold the LED.

Next step making a circuit the would allow the LED to blink, there is kits you can buy which would be a lot easier than building from scratch, but we gave it a bash.

Our LED was a little large so Ben filed it down so that it had a little tension in the bevel but was still bale to be manoeuvred into place so it was raised slightly out of the bevel.

And finally we have the finished internet with blinking LED.

Some important facts you should know about the internet…

1. The internet is surprisingly small!
2. The internet is wireless!
3. The internet is very light! (of course the internet doesn’t weigh anything!)
4 The internet lives at the top of Big Ben! (where it gets the best reception)
5. Before being borrowed, it MUST be demagnetised! Preferably by a Grand Master of The Internet such as Stephen Hawking.

For Christmas this year my husband and myself made a dolls house for our daughter.  We wanted something simple to survive a bit of toddler abuse so it is very simple in design.

My husband made the frame out of 6mm MDF hot glued together.  I made the roof out of a rectangle of the same MDF, the slates were cut from cereal boxes, then glued, spraypainted black, and drybrushed gray.  The Bedroom carpet is store bought from a local dolls house shop as is the laminate flooring in the bathroom.  The living room flooring is made from lacqured MDF, scored to look like laminate flooring which my husband made along with the bathroom which the flooring is made of  white plasticard, scored with a craft-knife. then alternate squares removed spraypainted with gloss black enamel.  The rooms are all painted with B&Q tester pots along with the outside of the house which is canyfloss pink.

Bathroom with Early Learning Centre furniture.

Kitchen with Early Learning Centre furniture, the clock is from a local dolls house shop.

Bedroom with Early Learning Centre furniture.

Living Room with Early Learning Centre furniture, the dolls are from a local dolls house shop.  Sadly you can’t see the other items in this room in this picture but there is also a wide screen on a unit TV a plan, coffee table with flower in pot and some kind of triffing like plant also in the corner.

It’s nice to see the dolls looking happy in there new home and our daughter lovers her dolls house.

Since there is a toddler in the hose and my dining room has cream chairs I decided that I needed to get covers for them.  I looked around and couldn’t find anything I liked that had colours to complement the room or would fit with the carver chairs so I invested in sone heavy curtain fabric and made seat covers.

These were simple to do and fit neatly over the seat.  Due to the type of fabric they hold on well and I didn’t need cord to hold them on unlike the carvers.

Since our daughter mostly sits in the carvers I decided to secure these with gold cord to make sure nothing could lurk beneath.

The cord ties around the backrest and around the arms at the base of the seat so little fingers can’t get them off.

We have a chair in the corner of the room so I decided to make an envelope cushion cover and added three decorative buttons to it to complete the room.  Thankfully I had enough left over fabric to do this and it balances out the room having the matching cushion.

Halloween 2009 my daughter was 16 months and her playgroup was having a Halloween party so I decided instead of going for a store bought costume I would make one for her.  I asked my husband for a suggestion and he came up with flying monkey from wizard of OZ.   A little after making the suggestion he told me he was joking but by that point I already had an idea and a plan and made my way to my local fabric shop and got what I needed.  She won first prize for the costume which was great was totally blown away, and spent the following few weeks having mum’s come up to me and ask where I got bought it from.

The real flying monkey costume picture that I based my costume on

And next up is my variation of the costume

OK so my flying monkey is not all that scary but I’m still pretty happy with how it came out.

How I made it

At the time I made most of the costume I was a bit under the weather with the flu and was unable to borrow my mum’s sewing machine as mine was broken so all the work was done by hand but if I had to do it again I would certainly use a sewing machine as my fingers have never been the same again after all the pin pricks!

Firstly I started with the hat.

The base of the hat was a small flower pot with the bottom trimmed off.  The hat was then covered in blue fabric and folded on top, a circle of card the same size at the top was also covered in the blue fabric and glued in place.  The details were made from ribbon and glued on to the hat.  The completed hat was then ready to be stitched onto the monkey hood.

The monkey hood was based on a template for a coat hood and had extra fabric left at the bottom so could be tucked into the main body suit.  The hood was made as two pieces and stitched together and elastic stitched for a strap to hold it in place when my daughter was wearing it.  The ears were made of some scrap fabric rolled in to balls and pinched with stitches to make it look ear like these were then stitched on to the hood, I offset them to the rear slightly as to allow for both ears to be visible and not hidden by the hat.  The hat was stitched to the front right of the hood but slightly back as to allow the fur to come over the bottom of the hat and hide the stitching holding it in place.

The tail as you can see is a wire that was wrapped with a strip of the fur fabric, it was secured to the end with thread.  The end had to be quite well covered with the fur as I didn’t want to risk her impaling other children so a blob or bluetack was put on the end also.  The tail proved to be quite heavy as the metal bar when attached to the body suit pulled down making her bottom look strange and walking was not easy.  To fix this the tail was mounted onto card on the inside on the body suit, in the next picture if you look closely you will see a flattened area to the bottom of the zip and that is where the card is.  The card was glued on to the body suit and the tail was attached by gaffa tape and string to secure it in place.  The tape held the tail but once she was moving around the tail worked it’s way loose a little and moved so the tail had to be attached by thread from the main bend in the tail to top of the body suit to help support the weight.  After adding the thread to hold up the tail worked fine but if I ever do a tail again I will be looking for something lighter as the metal bar was just too heavy.

The monkey suit was based on a romper suit and that was used as a template.  I was unsure the best way to get the suit on and off so I opted for a zip as it would be hidden by the wings and waistcoat.  As explained earlier the flattened area for the tail mounting can be seen to the bottom of the zip but this was mostly caused by wear and is not overly noticeable when wearing the costume.

Here is the front of the suit.  Around the neck was a rolled up strip of the furry fabric to act as a collar, the same was also done to the wrists as I wanted to leave her hands free so her could still play and didn’t have to have it attached to her hands in any way.  Fabric was left extra to the legs to allow the suit to have shoe covers.

This is the feet.  At the front of the body suit I made a curved bottom flap at the bottom of the leg and at the rear it had a shorter flat bottomed flap.  The curved front then had elastic added attaching it to the rear flat bottomed flap and another piece of elastic was attached in the opposite direction going from one side of the front flap to the other.

Attaching the elastic allowed me to be able to have a shoe on and be covered with the fur.  It worked quite well and since she was able to wear shoes it made this costume suitable for wearing outside and didn’t compromise her mobility.

My husband’s contribution to the costume was that he was going to make the wings.  For the wings he got card, cut it out and spray painted it black.  I added a fluffy black feather trim to them and they were ready to be attached to the waistcoat.  The waistcoat was made from the same fabric as the hat.  I didn’t work from a pattern for this as I thought how hard can a waistcoat be… big mistake but I got there in the end.  The red and white was added to the front and red around the arms to give a bit of detail to the waistcoat.  Ideally I would of liked to have added the same white trim to the arms like the front but at this point I was running out of time so decided to leave them red. The waistcoat had to be slightly longer in length than the centre of the wings and large enough to fit over the fur suit so it came out looking a little strange in size but once on with the wings attached it worked fine as the fur bulked it up underneath.

I decided that instead of having the wings and waistcoat as two separate items I was going to join them together to do this I cut the back of the waistcoat so I had a flap that I could place over the wings so it would look like the winds were coming out of the waistcoat.  I glued the top and bottom of the fabric to the wings and stitched the bottom of the waistcoat back together.  The waistcoat however was not strong enough to support the wings and pulled it back so I had to add straps to hold it all together.

I decided to use two strips of the fur material to make the straps as the waistcoat sat open and I didn’t want strapping or elastic to be visible and using the fur would allow it to blend in.  Two strap were attached to the inside of the wings with gaffa tape and took the weight of the wings quite nicely.

And there you have it one complete flying monkey!  Fly my pretty!

This is my first thing I made in years and it quite simply is a monster puppet that I made for my daughter.

This was made long before I decided to make a site of things I have made so I will do my best to explain how I made it but sadly there is no work in progress pictures.

Firstly I made the mouth.  I is made from felt glued onto card.  I made a circle that overlapped the card so there would be no edges.  Next I cut the card in half and glued it to the felt with a slight gap between to allow the mouth to open and close.  Next I sewed on the teeth and tongue.

Next it was time to attach it to the fabric I got from Remnant kings.  Firstly I rolled up some the the fur to make a lip and sewed it onto the top of the mouth I had already made.  I did not cut the material at this time as I planned to make the seams to the sides rather than on top.  I pulled the material up to where I wished the monsters head to reach and pulled it back down on it’s self.  I then stitched it together from the middle of the mouth up to almost the top.  It looked like a furry envelope at this point.  Next I attached the antenna.  This was made from a thick pipe-cleaner with a pompom sewen on to the end.  These were stitched and glued inside pointing down along the seam.  The edge of the head was then stitched up so no gap would be visable at the pipe-cleaner.

Next I attached the eyes and stuffed the top of the head with stuffing.  The stuffing has to be fairly firm to stop the head flopping over so make sure it is well packed. I then stitched in a piece of fur from the inside of the lip to the back of the head to hold the stuffing in place.

Next I took more of the fur and attached it at the bottom of the mouth.  I decided I wanted my monster to have a bit of a chin as without it made the face looks a strange shape so when stitching it the the remaining dangling fabric at the back I left to loose so I could have a chin and once past the point I pulled it a little tighter to make the neck.

This was a nice quick project and only took me an afternoon and it looks great and a fun toy.