Covered in Glitter and Screaming

Gifts: blanket, spoons, and socks Wrapping materials: styrofoam balls, craft wire, cardboard (for butterfly wings), and cotton balls (for stuffing spider feet)

Gifts: Diaper Genie and headband/bootie set (white flower is attached to headband, booties stuffed inside) Wrapping: construction paper, lace paper, paper plates, plastic tray, fake flowers Gift: deoderant discs Wrapping: cell phone decoration stickers, plastic tray, cling wrap, ribbon

I have a friend that had never had a Halloween costume before. (Gasp!) I decided this needed to be rectified immediately. He said that if he did have a costume, he would want it to be Scorpion from Mortal Kombat: Armageddon. Reference photo from  here . Materials Aside from the shoes and black clothes, this is made almost exclusively of felt, foam, and glue sticks. Exceptions to that are four straps for the shin guards, one nylon belt with attached clip, some duct tape, an old thin shirt cut up to line the mask and bracers, and a smattering of velcro. The base yellow paint I had on hand from painting Hawkman , and the other colors are acrylics or water-based paints from the hundred yen store. Construction The vest is made entirely of felt. The pattern itself is pretty basic, just wide strips that drape over the shoulders. What is harder to show is that there is one layer directly over the shoulders and a higher layer that flares up a bit, with wire sewn into the...

For Dragon*Con 2013, I made a Girl Stinky costume from one of the later Sam and Max games. Clothes and Shoes The shirt is a regular plum-colored tee shirt. The pants were hard to find, but I settled on some violet pants from TJ Maxx that felt more like leggings and hemmed them up to be capri length. I couldn't find dark purple pumps that fit, so I painted a pair with Mod Podge and a mixture of acrylic paint and textile medium (half and half, to make it flexible). It probably took five coats to hide most of the brush strokes, and the final step was two coats of a spray enamel because the paint was a little sticky even when dry. Crown and Bracelets I started with a metal tiara, taped paper to it, and traced the shape. Then I held the reference image in front of me and drew the design on as best I could. I did half the swirls, traced them on the opposite side, and freehanded the horse in the middle. Same basic idea with the bracelets. I didn't ...

A friend hosted a 1920s-themed murder mystery party, so I figured a 20s dress would be a good warmup sewing project, since I never really learned how to use a sewing machine. Knee-length, tube-like dresses snazzed up with beads (or in my case, ribbon because I can't be arsed to actually do all that beading).  This was my primary inspiration: I know I can't duplicate it, but it's SO PRETTY. Photo from here . I  liked that it has limited fringe, was all a single color, and has geometric patterns in angles that are flattering to my body type. So I did my best to sketch out a simple sheath dress and geometric pattern. And made a paper pattern following the basics of this tutorial , guessing on the straps and V-neck parts. The first two attempts were made from an old bed sheet and some ¥100-store fabric, and gave me a chance to iron out some weirdness in the pattern. The first one fit around the hips like old-timey jodhpurs (4" too wide, and with a rather sudde...