MCM Expo Spring 2011 - part 1

Sarah, Scott and I decided to go to the MCM about two weeks ago so had no time to plan costumes (I would have wimped out anyway I know!!) But we wanted to add a bit of geekyness to our attire so Sarah and I decided to design some freezer paper t-shirts.  Our first idea was 'Titwatch' t-shirts to advertise my blog, but I just knew cutting out all the letters with a craft knife would have taken ages and we were making them the night before.  So instead we went for Lego Storm Troopers from the same design I used for Graeme's painting.  To add a bit of mixture we made Scott a Lego Darth Vader which turned out amazing thanks to Rachael's painting skills, thanks for the help!!

This is my second time at the MCM Expo and one thing I have realised is that Sarah an I are not as big geeks that we sometimes think we are.  I didn't recognise half of the cosplay costumes and had to keep asking Sarah who they were; even Sarah didn't recognise some though so if you spot one I haven't labelled correctly let me know!! 

I have know idea who this first group were, but I liked them!

This wasn't a cosplay it was a model from the set of Doctor Who, it's of the Tardis and the Dalek's creator Davros.

I knew who this guy was and even managed to ask for a picture.  This is from a manga and anime series called Inuyasha.  I'm proud to say that I have watched all 182 episodes and bought loads of the manga, this may be a series I have to revisit again!!

Oh I and I know these character too, Mario and Luigi.

This group of steam punk characters we didn't recognise, but the guy on the right had the best costume.  When I first saw him I really did believe that it was two people, one carrying the other in a trash bin, but no, this is one costume, awesome!!

One thing I love about MCM is how random it can be, this was a conga line we spotted making its way around the building.  And yes that is Pedobear with the Jolly Green Giant at the front, just amazing!!

Kick Ass!!

A couple of Na'vi.

As this post is starting to get epically long, i'll carry on tomorrow, but lastly Where's Wally??

Cushion Crafting Weekend

One of the original planed crafts when I bought freezer paper to make stencils was to make cushion covers that would match the new wallpaper Gemma's living room.  We planned to have a fun filled crafting weekend and little did we know how long it would actually take to make  four fairly simple cushion covers.  Before I start I will apologise for the bad quality photos, my camera is still up the creek (and I may have forgotten to turn the ISO down so they are all stupidly bright doh!! be warned highly photo-shopped pictures ahead!!).

The photo above is the design of the wallpaper she has on one wall, so we started by tracing the green and dotted swirls onto the freezer paper.  Gemma cut out the green swirls with ease and set about using a hole punch to create the dotted design.  This took so long and also had the added difficulty of stamping two holes in the paper as I had to fold it over to make the curve.

After what seemed like hours of punching the designs were ready to paint.  We laid out the fabric and started by marking out the squares as we were only going to paint one side of the cushion.  For some reason neither of us could measure accurately (and before you ask no, neither of us had been drinking!) In the end Nathan suggested cutting out a piece of cardboard the correct side and tracing around it, this was a lot easier!!  By this time it was already late afternoon, but we battled on and started painting on the gold dots.  

To speed up the process we used a hairdryer to dry the paint quicker, although after an hour and a half of painting we were getting tired of this too.

Instead of following the wallpaper pattern we made it random and were thrilled with the results.  The gold was extra sparkly so really shows up against the brown fabric.

We took a break from crafting to let the fabric paint dry thoroughly and headed over to our friend Sarah Jane's for the Eurovision Song Contest.  As always it was a bit ridiculous, it all seems like a bit of a joke to me I can never take it seriously.  Blue, the UK entry didn't score at the bottom, but being beaten by Jedward is a bit humiliating.

We were keen to get back to painting and so when back at Gemma's we decided to start on the turquoise swirls over the top of the spots.

There was only one moment of panic when we had painted the first swirl on and thought "have we made a massive mistake?" but the final result was awesome and we went to bed very happy.

Sunday morning we cut up the squares and iron them on a very hot heat to seal the paint.

The last step was to sew the squares together.  We were going to wait until we could get hold of a sewing machine to do this but we were on such a role we decided to do it all by hand.  We added an invisible zip along one edge and then tacked and sewed the rest insuring the pillow did fit inside.  We had cut the pillows 2cm larger all the way around just in case so had plenty of fabric to play with.

After trimming off the excess and turning it inside out the result amazed us. I think you will agree that the pillows match the wall very well and definitely add a bit more colour to the room.  For a first attempt at making pillows since secondary school I think we did a fantastic job.

Buzzy Bee T-shirt

My friend Gemma and I decided to have a crafty weekend so I took my freezer paper and supplies to hers along with a Chinese and a nice bottle of white.  It took us a while to come up with an idea but we soon found a very cute picture of a cartoon bee on the internet so drew it onto the freezer paper and got down to crafting.

Because the design was in three colours we started with the lightest.  We carefully cut out the design and ironed it onto the t-shirt to paint on the first colour yellow.

It took quite a while for the paint to dry so we sped it up with a hair dryer on low heat.  Then we cut out the stripes and and face to iron over the top of the yellow paint and painted on the red cheeks and black outline.

We had to put a couple of layers of black over the yellow to cover it completely but then had to leave it for a couple of hours to dry.  The result was amazing, much better than I had expected isn't she so cute!!  

Now that I know this works with several colours I can't wait to think up some more ideas.  Thank you Gem for a wonderful evening, can't wait to have more crafty nights with you!!

A Little Unproductive

I have had a very unproductive week over the last few days but I'm raring to go for the weekend.  Firstly my lovely friend Sara from Doodle Dandy and I purchased a huge roll of freezer paper which we carefully divided in half at work today.  I wish I had taken a photograph of it all rolled out across the office floor, we did get a few weird looks.  I took a pic after to remember the momentous occasion!!

I can't wait to start making my own designs; I even know what t-shirts I want to make because I had planned it all out last year, but never got anywhere with it.  I'm keeping that a secret though, I'll let you know how I get on.

Also I am going to Make It which is a huge craft fair for the South of England at Farnborough Airport.  I've not been to a craft fair in years so I'm very excited but will have to restrain myself.  I have to think practically and not just buy for the sake of buying (although I may treat myself, just a little bit!!).

A Very Short(ish) Post

I have realised lately I have been writing really long posts so today is a short one, ish.  I just wanted to blog about a technique I found to print your very own designs on t-shirts.  For a while now I have wanted to print my own t-shirts; I had some made for me by a shop in town which were ok for a one off, but far too expensive to make lots.  I also looked into screen printing but again it is quite costly and time consuming especially if you only want to make 1 of each design.  I experimented with masking tape and paper even plastic and making my own screen from a pair of old tights and some glue, but these all failed - badly and left blotchy shapes with uneven edges.  That is until now...

This amazing scarf was made with the technique of cutting a design out of Freezer Paper.  The paper is very special as it is slightly waxed on one side, so when placed over fabric and ironed, it melts the wax and creates a perfect template to paint over.  All you need to do once the paint is dry is peel it off, Amazing!!!

I can't wait to have a go myself, find this tutorial at How About Orange and see some of the other designs below found around the blogasphere....

Leaves T-Shirt by Make It and Love It

Robot T-shirt by Delia Creates