Instead of shooting where I was, you should have shot where I was going to be. Muahahahaha!

I magnified this to get the dimensions of each character so to keep my sewing as close to the real invaders as possible. Again like more of my cross stitch I used Anchor threaded cotton this time colours… White – No 1 Green – No 239 My choice of green was what I believed to be the most accurate to the screen capture.

I am hoping to find some software to make patterns so once I have that I will put up the pattern for how to make this yourself.  Until then here is the finished space invaders.

I still have a trick or two up my sleeve. Watch as I fire upwards through our own shield!

All right. It's Saturday night, I have no date, a two-liter bottle of Shasta and my all-Rush mix-tape... Let's rock

Sssssssssssss...

I looked online and saw there was several different ways that people had created creepers, some with plain green faces and black details to ones people had used multiple colours to get an effect closer to the real creepers.  I decided that was what I wanted to to.

I used Anchor Stranded Cotton on black Adia.

Threads numbers 212, 842, 239 and 268.  My choice of colours were from my own thread collection (yes I have a thread collection).

Each square I decided would be 4×4 stitches and the finished pattern would be 7x7cm so as to fit into a small frame.

Here is my finished creeper.

BOOM!

Nuka Cola Poster by MarkuzR - Deviant Art

This was a pretty simple thing to make I was on the RPF (the replica prop forum) and was looking over some pretty amazing fallout props and this one was one I saw and thought yes I want this.  Agent RayBans had already designed the labels, which if you are interested you can download them.  The bottle caps I got from Chris Furniss at weeklygeekshow.com.  I decided I wanted my bottles to have the just found in the post apocalyptic wastland that is fallout look so I didn’t want them looking clean so that’s why I chose those labels.

I used photo paper to print them out and applied them with PVA glue to Coka-Cola bottles.  The best bottles I found to use were the bottles that were printed onto the glass rather than ones with existing labels as the print out’s would have to be resized for those bottles.  Getting some glue on the glass when applying the labels helped give the bottles a dirty look once dried.  When they dried I attacked the bottle lids with sandpaper (a wire brush would also work) and then applied more PVA glue to the caps rubbing in some of the shavings that came off during sanding to make them rough.

The finished bottles turned out pretty well, and no risk of radiation poisoning from these.

Before I show the kit and my finished work here is a picture of the real Ron Swanson.

Everyone shut up and look at me!

The kit came nicely packaged and had everything I needed to make the picture, she had provided helpful tips on how to actually make it and the pattern was large and simple so that a beginer like me would have no problems attempting this.

Ron's kit

All packaged up

This took me a few days to make but I really enjoyed making it.  The frame I got from Boots, as it suited my house.  So nothing left to say now apart from here is my first finished piece of cross stitch I gave Ben for his Christmas.

Here's mine. It's a hamburger made out of meat on a bun with nothing. Add ketchup if you want I couldn't care less.

Lastly just wanted to say Ben loved it and it now is living in my diningroom, he showed it to our families who have never seen the show and didn’t have a clue who it was but he showed them Ron’s picture and agreed it was a good likeness.   Of course it’s a good likeness it’s Ron F*****g Swanson!  Watch Parks and Recreation it’s awesome!

Super Hero Roslin

This is one of my favourite pictures she has done, it was the first time she drew a body and not legs coming out of the head and she thought she looked like a super hero.  I like to think she has radioactive hair for her super power.  This took an evening to cross stitch and I think it came out really well.

Super Hero Cross stitched

I used a hot pink thread and did it by eye rather than making a pattern but I think I have captured super Roslin very well.  In the original you will notice there is some other smaller drawings to the bottom of the picture, I believe one of them is our cat and the other might be her Dad the jury is still out on that one though, but I decided not to include them as it would clutter it and I didn’t want to make it too big.

Got it all framed and it is for now living in our living room, Roslin is really happy with it and keep handing me more pictures asking if I can make this into one of my fancy pictures, so I think she approves.

Finished and Framed

Roslin Approves

I started off with a plain hair-band then used the same sequinned eleastic that I had used on the halter-neck of her mermaid top to wrap around the band.  The ends were secured with hotglue and some elastic wrapped round them.

Next I got shells I had got on a holiday and used a combination on hot glue and thick thread to first attach the two large clam shells at the rear, next I used some blutack to attach other shells in position so I could see what it looked like and so I could swap them around, when I was happy with the final layout I took a photo and then took the shells that were blutacked on off and hot glued them into place.

Next I got from a local haberdashery two meters of fake pearls, I got small beads as my plan was to cut them into strips and mount them onto the band so that when wearing pearls would be mixed into the hair.  These were also attached with hot glue to the band under the sequinned elastic I had applied earlier, some were also attached to spaces between the shells.

So here it is, sorry about lack of in progress shots but it really is a nice quick thing to make and it came together sooner than I thought but I hope you like it.

The rest of her costume can be found here

It was her love of the little mermaid film that got me thinking, I saw many costumes for children some good…

Some well… ummm… judge for yourself

So I decided to have a bash and make my own one.  Over the next few weeks I will document how I made it so you can feel free to have a bash at making your own.  My little mer-mer-maid is very excited about this new project and I just hope I can do it justice.  So keep you eyes open there will be more to come as am on a deadline to have this completed before her birthday.

I actually have completed this now, so rather than update as I was doing it like some of my other posts I’m going to try to write up how I did it.  Was pretty lazy when it came to photos as I was doing it but hopefully this will all make sense.

Fabric

I wasn’t sure what kind of fabric would work for this little project but what I ended up with I was very happy with.  I got a spandex fabric in pink and green, both with different reflective patterns.  The green was a tighter print and was used for the base of the skirt, the hot pink (chosen by Roslin) had a more broken up reflective pattern and was used for the to and trim.  Lastly I also got a simple green mesh with sequins to be used for the tail.

My only other investment for this costume was some elasticated sequins to use as a strap for the top and wadding to use as stuffing for the tail.

Overall it didn’t cost much and everything can be picked up easily so this is a great little costume cost wise as it’s only as expensive as the fabric you use and even then for a child half a meter of each was plenty for what I needed.

Top

Going to start at the top and work my way down.

I started off making two shells out the green fabric and stitched them onto the pink fabric.  I used a little of the wadding to fill them but only enough to make them curve rather than look like fake breasts.

Shells

Next was to stitch it into a tube by hemming it and then stitching together the back.

Back of top

I started off planning to make this a tube top but when I saw the roll of trim I finally used I decided to make it a halter neck.

Seaweed?

The halter strap was then attached to the inside of the top.  I actually attached it behind the shells as I wanted to make sure it had more support than just attaching it to the hem.

Completed Top (my purse is bigger than this)

Skirt

To make the tail and skirt I did this in two stages, firstly make the skirt then the fin of the tail so it could be attached to the skirt when being sewn together.

The skirt comes quite simply in two parts a tube of rolled wadding covered in fabric, and a tube of fabric to make the main body of the skirt.

The tube at the waistband was relatively simple.  I rolled up some of the wadding making it thicker in the middle narrower at the ends, I tied this with thread to hold it’s shape.  The middle I again tied with thread and pulled it tight.  I then took the pink fabric and cut it to roughly the same size and shape as the wadding.  This would then me pulled tight around it and stitched together leaving at the back a little excess fabric for attaching it to the skirt.

Wadding saussage

Next up is the skirt.  I again just hemmed and stitched it together.  Due to the fabric being expandable I wanted it to be a little on the small size when it came to width so it would stretch over her.  I decided since she is just a toddler that rather than making an enclosed shirt I would make a split in the back to allow her movement.  The other option would of been side splits and putting fins on the front and the back of the skirt but that sounded like too much work.

Back of skirt

Next up I attached the pink waistband to the skirt.

Inside waist band

I wasn’t too worried about any bunching on the waistband and most of it was just at the centre where it was pinched in the middle.

Pinched middle

May I also add that I also attached a couple of strips of green fabric to the centre of the waistband where it pinched to dangle down.  As due to Roslin’s small frame having something to break up the plain skirt was needed.

I also decided that I needed a little give in the waistband for dressing and undressing, I would make a band at the back where  the two sides of the band join and use less padding, I used a bit of the spandex from the end that didn’t have the mirrored print that was very expandable.  This allowed the band to look tight when worn but able to expand for movement and dressing.

Expandable pannel

Now that the skirt is complete, it’s time to make the fin.

Tail Fin.

This was probably the most complicated part but I think I pretty much made it overly complicated for myself.

I started off with the wadding and made a big triangle. to act as a template.  I used several layers of the wadding to give the fin thickness.

Wadding Tail

Next I scalloped the bottom of the wadding and cut my sequinned mesh to just slightly larger than the wadding to allow for folding to stitch it all together.  I also planned on giving it a pink trim at the scalloped bottom so I had to include that in the layers for stitching it together.

Fabric Sandwich

Now that it is all stitched together I decided to add a little detail to the tail fin and give it a little definition.  At the points where it scalloped I stitched in two lines at either side of the point.  The stitching ran through the entire tail and pinched into the foam giving definition.

Tail pinching

Next I wanted to attach the tail fin to the skirt.  I cut the front of the skirt into the shape of the tail (slightly smaller)  and stitched it in between the layers of the tail.

Attaching the fin

So the fin should be attached to the skirt and you should have something that looks a bit like this.

Final product

And that should be it, you should have a skirt with tail fin and a top and your mermaid costume is complete.

Mermaid Roslin Front

Mermaid Roslin Back

Posing Mermaid

Firstly the rules…

Toddler Rules

The view from her door, the boarder is Doodle Pip by MaMas & PaPa’s.  I recently changed it due to Roslin picking her Linear zoo one while in her cot, but now she is in her big girl bed it has been replaced.  The light was in the room when me moved in but she likes it so we have not changed it.  The blinds were B&Q black out blinds but I added orange ribbon just to make them a bit more interesting.

Door view

Desk and wardrobe, the desk and chair are new from Ikea, the shelf was in the room when we got the house but was taken down when it was her nursery and I have just put it back up with breakables to keep them safe.

Desk and wardrobe

Toy corner, the storage containers were a gift from my mum’s neighbour and are excellent, don’t know what we would of done with out them!

Toy corner

Bed and chest of drawers, please ignore the book sitting out, it’s her choice of book for bedtime at the moment (wendy the wide mouthed frog, I highly recommend it) the camel jigsaw was a gift from an Egypt holiday from her grandparents and the lamp is from B&Q.  Her bed is a cot bed that has now been reduced down to it’s lowest level and the sides removed.  Orange blanket is another Ikea item.

bed

Desk here is a better look at her desk, the white drawers are full of craft supplies, and the striped drawers are full of yo gabba gabba lego and random bit’s and bob’s.  The toy story bag is full of handbags, rucksaks and tote bags, I think she has more bags than me now!

desk

Toy story toys and Annie (Cousin) horse riding ribbon.  Roslin is a big toy story fan if you have not guessed, the ribbon was gift Annie didn’t want it as it was not blue but Roslin loves it.

Toy story

Roslin’s art on side of wardrobe.  Decided to hang up a few pictures here that she has made, she loves the sticky shapes and did those at home, the painting she did recently at playgroup and says it’s a picture of her dad, not sure I can see the likeness though.

Roslin's Art

Shelf above desk (will be adding photos to frames as soon as we get the right sizes sorted).  All the items on the shelf were gifts from when she was born, the small jar has a lock of her hair in it.  The sand filled bottle is a more recent gift from her grandparets holiday to egypt.  The pig is a piggy bank that had to be moved up to the shelf after she kept emptying it and I was worried she was going to break it.

shelf

Bambi from the shelf, I personally love this, it was a gift from a collegue from NaNa Pams work.

Bambi

Book collection on top of wardrobe the bundle at the front is books she is currently asking for, but we are running out of room for all her books.  The money pot was a gift from when she was born, and the fibre optic light was from her great grandparents house as she loved touching it when she was little.

Books

Height measurer this was a gift from my aunt and uncle and is now hanging up in the toy corner.

Height measurer

Toy box, this was actually used as our coffee table after our last one broke but now I have painted it added a bit of her boarder to jazz it up a little and have moved it up to her room.  It’s handy being under the window as she has already used it as a seat and to kneel on to look out of her window.  The horse was a gift for christmas she named her black beauty (we need to do some work on colours I think).

Toy box

Toys lots of toys in the fantastic storage boxes.

Toys lots of toys

Dressing up basket, this came originally with her real nappies but now that she is nappy free I decided to make good use of it and store her dressing up outfits in it.  On top is Eeyore as she loved him when she was little but she still calls him Jim and thinks he’s a hippo.

Dressing up basket

Bedside drawers, this is the only thing in the room that still needs replaced with white drawers but it has been very handy since moving her to her big bed, the peppa pig torch/nightlight is great as she is not a fan of the dark and the orange boxes are full of hair acessories, the boxes I used to use for floppy disks and have been gathering dust in a cupboard but glad to be able to get some use out of them again.  Princess Holly keeps watch over Roslin when she sleeps.

bedside drawers

Butterflies these are on the wall above Roslin’s bed, these were made by my Dad out of stainless steel and are screwed to the wall.

butterflies

Name art this was a gift from Aunt Margaret, Kirsty, Laura, Margaret and Graham when Roslin was born, it hangs above her bed and it looks great.

name art

Wall art, this I pretty much threw together made out of remaining wall paper.

wall art

Ornament was a gift from my mum when Roslin was born, it was hung in her nursey and I love it so it was left when I changed her room over.

ornament

Jewlary box, it’s not a girls room unless they have a jewlary box which plays music and has a spinning balerina inside, this was a christmas gift and she uses it to keep her precious things inside.

Jewlary box

So that’s Roslin’s room, I hope you all like what I have done with it, I’m very happy and has taken a lot to get it looking more like a bedroom and not a nursey but I think I have achieved it and the most important thing is Roslin likes it “big much” so that’s good enough for me.

I was away with my husband visiting his grandparents and we attended Kinross Sunday Market and car boot sale and we stumbled across this antique Tea Chest.  For me it was love at first sight although it was looking pretty run down and the interior had been painted baby pink so my first though was that has to go.  It cost me £15 (well I say me other half got it for me) which wasn’t to bad and I plan on giving it a bit of a makeover.

As far as I can tell the hinges are new also the locking system seems to have been replaced but the lock is functioning and the hinges are pretty sturdy so they will not be needing replaced.  My main plan is to get it all sanded down inside and out.  Depending on the condition inside when the pain has been removed I may have to repaint it (probably dark red) or if possible varnish it.  Again that depends on the condition of the wood.

As for the out side it is going to need to be sanded there is some scratches to the rear and chipped varnish so it will have to come off, sadly this means I will loose the rose on top but hopefully I will be able to replace this with a new one as I do like it having the rose on top.  But again depending how the chest looks when it’s sanded will depend on wheither this is added or not.

The key hole cover is currently heavily scrached and missing a screw so depending how it cleans up this will either be replaced or just have a new screw added.

Anyway here is a few pictures of my chest before my work starts.

Did I mention it has a secret pannel? (well not so secret now!)

And now to get out the sand paper and make a start!

After doing a bit of research into the masks I decided recreate the official mask which looks broken up rather than the pristine mask, well I never was one for making things easy for myself.  Anyway since these are only available state side I’m making my own.  This is what I am hoping to achieve.

Firstly I took a plain white mask and cut it up into the shape I roughly wanted.  It was easier to use a full mask as to get the desired jawline.  This has only been roughly cut to shape at the moment as the detail will be added by paper mache later.

The ears I had a couple of options with, but I decided that I wanted to have them quite strong so I uses some metal rods (thanks dad!) and bent them to the desired shape.  there were then held in place with a little hot glue so I don’t get impaled in the head when wearing it and gaffa tape.

Next is the fun part, PAPER MACHE!  Have not don’t this since I was a kid so it was a lot of fun building up the layers.  First layer complete, this has filled the ears and a few layers has went over the main mask.  And the old banana holder is proving handy in my prop building as am able to hang it up to maintain the shape of the mask.  The following layer will be building up the edges and nose then a white layer of paper will be applied.

While the mask is drying I started working with air drying clay to make the details on the head and around the eye, this will be added before the final white layer of paper mache to hold it in place and maintain the same texture to the mask.  Sadly though before I started this I noticed that the hook for drying had pulled on the eye, so I attempted to remove it to repair the damage and an ear fell off.  So after this was reapired (more hot glue and gaffa tape) I decided to place the mask ontop of an uncut mask with the jaw I had cut off my Splicer mask used to prop up the ears until the paper mache had set.  This now will have to be left for at least 24 – 48hrs to totally dry.  Some trimming will also need to be done once dry to the upper lip as the clay curving up has left mask exposed but once dry that should be an easy fix.

Once everything had finally dried out it was covered with plaster of paris, I learned a few things doing this, firstly… don’t use plaster outside on a breezy day it drys quick, and if applying airdrying clay for detail it is best to do this AFTER the plaster application as some detailing gets lost.  Once the mask was covered I took a fine sandpaper to the mask to take away some of the plaster and to leave patches to create a roughed up effect as unlike the one sold I wanted this to look a bit more realistic and look battered and worn rather than fake wear and tear.

Next came the final stage of painting and weathering to finish the mask off.  An off white was used as the base colour of the mask as white is a bit too, well um white and the gold detailing was painted on using some games workshop paint along with a dark wash again using ink from games workshop to get the final desired effect.