Category Archives: Crafts

Nifty things that someone, myself or otherwise, has made.

Let This Awesome Kid Teach You How to Make a Sonic Screwdriver

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A while back, I posted a little write-up on how I made my sonic screwdriver prop for my 10th Doctor costume. It doesn’t light up or anything, but it looks pretty close to the real thing. I’ve been wanting to go back and make one that has all of the electrical bells and whistles, but I haven’t gotten around to it. Maybe sometime when I do make one, I’ll post a tutorial. Meanwhile, I think I’ll just let this guy teach you.

Is he not the most awesome kid ever? I have a degree in electrical engineering, so of course I’m comfortable brandishing a soldering iron at stuff, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone quite so young who could finish that entire project. He even included a wiring diagram! And he advised the use of heat-shrink! I absolutely love this tutorial, and I especially like that he encourages folks to design their own housing.

There aren’t many videos on the YouTube channel where you can watch this, and that’s a shame. I’m subscribing anyway, though, just in case he decides to make more. I’m just feeling totally inspired and pumped right now, and I want to go and make something. I may have to make a stop off at the hardware store and Radio Shack after we go grocery shopping this week. Or maybe I’ll just make a DigiKey order…

What about you? Did you enjoy this video? If you did, go give it a like on YouTube and share it with all the DIY-minded Whovians you know. Heck, share it with people who might not ordinarily do something like this: it might make them want to give it a try.

[via Offbeat Home]

Geek-ly Roundup: Awesome Posts from Other Places

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Starting this week, I’m officially changing the format of the Geek-ly Roundup to make it a place where I promote other bloggers I follow. There are some great people writing awesome stuff about games, crafts, anime, etc., and I want to share their work with all of you on a regular basis. Each week from here on, I’m planning to highlight a post or two from several different blogs that I enjoy reading. Hopefully, you’ll enjoy these pieces, as well!

I think we’ll call that a wrap for the link roundup this time. I’m planning to do this every week (though not necessarily on the same day every time), so send me links to cool stuff if you think it should be featured.

Shrink Plastic Kingdom Hearts Wayfinder!

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Update 8/31/2012: I made some more printables in different colors. Check them out here!

A few days ago, I decided to fiddle with shrink plastic again. Though I have made charms by drawing on the plastic with pens or markers, lately I’ve taken to making vector images in Inkscape, printing them onto this white shrink film, and cutting them out. It lets me make much more intricate designs, and I get to keep my Inkscape skills fresh, so it’s a double win.

This time around, instead of something Whovian, I went with a Kingdom Hearts design. I’ve been meaning to make myself a Wayfinder based on Aqua’s from Birth by Sleep for a while, so I looked up a good picture and got to work. Here’s the image my design was based on.

And here’s my actual Wayfinder.

I know the gradient is going the wrong way, but I actually like the way all of the lines point to the center, so I chose to leave it that way. I printed the Wayfinder out in individual pieces, tied the star parts together with brown embroidery floss, and glued the Keyblade Master symbol on top of everything with a few drops of super glue. It’s not the sturdiest thing in the world, but it’s only for decorative purposes, so that’s okay.

If you like my version of Aqua’s Wayfinder and would like one of your own, feel free to download the image below and print it out on some shrink plastic. Don’t forget to punch all of the holes you see in my finished product out before baking unless you want to drill them out afterward. Also, this might seem like common sense, but just in case: don’t tie your pieces together until after you’ve shrunken them.

Just print a full-page copy of the image, cut everything out, and shrink it down in a regular oven. If you’d like to see a printable in different colors, let me know in the comments and I’ll gladly make one and upload it.

As a bonus, here’s a picture of my kitty giving the Wayfinder her official seal of approval. It could also just be that she likes being a photo crasher. Either way, it’s cute. :)

 

Crafting with Doilies and Other Things

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I was a busy little crafter this weekend. My roomie left me some paper doilies when he moved out, and of course, I had to find a good use for them as soon as possible. So, I did a quick search for doily crafts and came across this tutorial on how to make a simple painted bag with just a doily and some fabric paint. Here are the results:

I actually also experimented a bit with freezer paper stencils for the second bag. I’m definitely planning to use those more often: it was super easy to just sketch out a big letter J, cut it out, iron the freezer paper onto the bag, and paint inside the stencil.

Any time I try out a new craft, I have to make something involving a TARDIS, so I decided to make a freezer paper stencil for a TARDIS bag as well. At first, the plan was to do something simple like a plain blue silhouette, but it came out a little more elaborate than that.

While I had the blue paint out, I figured I’d play around with doilies some more. I had a few pieces of canvas lying around, so I coated one in blue paint and glitter paint as a background for a doily print. After everything dried, I took the canvas outside, laid out some doilies on it, and covered them with black spray paint.

At one point this weekend, I decided to take a break from crafting to clean my room up a bit. I came a cross some random picture frames I had in my closet, and I decided I needed a couple of whiteboards. So I took some cloth scraps I had lying around and made some colorful new places to jot down notes to myself. I think I need something other than neon markers for them, though.

Now my room is cleaner and more decorative, plus I have some new bags to take to the grocery store. Have you done any nifty crafts lately? Link to them in the comments!

TARDIS of the Week #12

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This week’s TARDIS isn’t one you can buy, but if you have a cubicle, you could make one. DeviantART user deezoid turned a cubicle into a police box to bring some Whovian fun to the office.

You can check out the original page with the picture here. What do you think? Are you feeling inspired to turn your workspace into the TARDIS or some other sci-fi space ship?

Random Musings: New Art Endeavors and Fun Web Series

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As usual, I got a little busy with life-related things and managed to go a week without posting anything. In an effort to correct this, I thought I’d just do a quick post here tonight with some random musings on some fun things I’ve been doing to destress.

I have to start with some big news. I think I’ve finally found a good method of drawing people in my preferred computer art program, Inkscape. I started off trying out stick people as bases, but that didn’t really work very well.

That’s supposed to be me. I think I got the details on the TARDIS, the controller, and the chucks down, but little stick figure Jennifer is still not as awesome as she could be. She’s based on some of the drawings I’ve been putting in my one-a-day posts. Earlier this week, however, I decided I was finally going to sit down and try to make something cute.

Don’t ask me how I did it, but I think this little chibi-fied version of me actually came out rather nicely. For the moment, she has a home in my new blog header and as my new avatar in various places. I also made a template to work from so I could try my hand at making adorable versions of my favorite characters from various TV shows, comics, video games, etc. For example, I used the template as the base for the Wonder Woman graphic you’ll find below.

She’s not half bad, if I do say so myself. I’m thinking about making some jewelry out of little shrink plastic versions of characters like this. Whatcha think? Also, who should I vectorize next? (Don’t worry, various incarnations of the Doctor are on my list already.)

Apart from drawing in Inkscape, I’ve been watching a few web shows that make me smile, so I figured I’d share them with you.

  • If you haven’t heard of Felicia Day’s channel, Geek & Sundry, then you should really check it out. I love her show, The Flog, which comes out every Monday. On The Flog, Felicia shares her favorite things for the week (which are generally pretty nifty), does something awesome (like make sushi, operate heavy machinery, swing dance, etc.), and answers a fan question. I don’t watch many shows regularly at the moment, but I set aside time every Monday to watch The Flog.
  • This next one is another show on Geek & Sundry, which just started up this week. It’s called Written by a Kid, and on this one, children tell stories that animators and actors bring to life. Joss Whedon actually makes an appearance in the first episode, titled “Scary Smash.” This is the cutest, most amusing thing I’ve seen this week.
  • A few months ago, io9 started a web show called We Come from the Future. Annalee Newitz and Esther Inglis-Arkell talk science fact and fiction in this fun series, which has featured segments about The Avengers, sword fighting, making flamethrowers with oranges, and so much more.

If you like geeky stuff (I assume you do. Otherwise, why are you here?), check out any of the above web shows. If you’ve seen any good ones lately, send them my way!

Let’s see…what’s left? Apart from life stuff, I guess I’ve mostly been spending the last week lamenting the fact that I wasn’t at San Diego Comic Con again. Alas, I did not manage to get tickets back at the beginning of the year. Hopefully, I’ll be able to go next year.

Actually, I might make it up to New York Comic Con in October. I need to start working on my cosplays soon if that’s happening. I think I want to go as Korra from The Legend of Korra, Gertrude Yorkes from Runaways, or possibly both. Time to go thrifting soon!

I’ll try to put up a TARDIS of the week tomorrow. If you have any good candidates, share a link in the comments. :)

TARDIS of the Week #11

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Arg. I’m terrible at this. I do pretty well at getting daily blog posts out for a week or so, and then life says, “You mean you want to write stuff for your personal site? Hah! Nope.”

At least I found time today to dig up a new TARDIS on Etsy. This little beauty just adds to my previously expressed desire to get back into cross stitching.

This cross stitched TARDIS looks relatively simple, but it’s still pretty. It even comes framed and ready to display. You can pick it up on Etsy from a shop called WistfulBird. If you’d rather try your hand at stitching it yourself, there’s even a pattern for sale!

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