Horns, cheap and simple

For Dystopia Rising, sometimes a list of requested donations goes out. On that list this time was a request for horn that were light and big. You can defintely buy these, but sometimes the directors put things on the list for people to make.


One of the marshals who runs the costume area made a comment I couldn't ignore even though I'm trying not to take on crazy amounts of work right now. :P

Anyway, I sat down and fiddled around a bit. I wanted to make these as simply and cheaply as possible. D.R. already costs a ton to play.

What you'll need:
Toilet rolls tubes or any type or rolled tubes
Tape
Scissors
Modge Podge
Paper Towels


I started but cutting down the rolls into strips or roll. Once I had enough I began building the horns. This is a lot like putting togeather a puzzel but you sometimes have to modify the pieces so they'll fit inside each tube. Use the tape to connect your card board strips into smaller circles as you make the point. Just keep fitting them into eachother at an angle and curling the horn till you get a shape you like. Something like this first picture.

Once you're happy with the shape you can move onto the covering phase. You can't just jump right to painting as the card board will have huge gaps. By covering it with something like paper towel it'll fill in those gaps fairly well and give you a nice texture on the horns. I layed down a layer of modgepodge first. Then applied the torn up paper towels to the wet spot and covered that with more Modge Podge. I didn't repeat the whole layering here, but I'd recommend doing that just to make the horns stronger. Ttap the wet paper towel down into the rings a bit to accentuate the horn spirals a bit as you go. You'll have to let this dry over night before moving on to painting. Don't worry about the messy base yet. We'll get to that later. here they are with the modge podge all done.

Here's a pic of them after they've dried and had their first layer of paint. It's at this point you can get a bit fancy with the painting. Drybrushing, inking, etc. I just did a layer of brown for now. The right pic is them dry. YOu can see a bit of texturing and color splotching already. 

This last part, connecting them to something, is always the hardest. I generally just use elastic. Just make sure you use a color that would disappear into your hair. This part is easy. Make a hole then add elastic. If you don't want them to move around much add knots on each side of the horn. Make sure you have them where you want them on your head.

Other ideas are to attach them to head bands. Or to use screws into wigs. etc.

As always have fun. if you have questions feel free to ask.

Dystopian Guns

Nerf Mods.

Everyone does them after some point of playing with those addicting little guns; either because a gun breaks down, or out of curiosity, or because a friend did it before and showed it off.

This week I'm only focusing on the painting of one, but you can go inside a nerf gun and mod the bejeebus out of their guts to make them fly faster, longer, hit harder, etc.

Painting a nerf gun is....well fairly simple.

Figure out a color theme. Do a base coat of black or white, or whatever you want your base color to be. Most of these are black. I have a plan for a white based one and a blue based one but that's i nthe future.

After that all it takes is fuguring out what colors will go where. I use P3 acrylic paints for painting small figures, but any acrylic works.

This key is a precise hand, and working slowly. Otherwise you get sloppy spots.

You will need:
A nerf gun. Find one from goodwill. Thats where I got most of my bases.
Paints-Acrylic, and a base coat. I just used the cheapest spray paint i could find.
Paint brushes, etc

This was one of two I painted up for Dystopia Rising. (I kinda wish I had kept it. I really liked the design. Now I'm keeping an eye out for another of this type)

This was the second long rifle I painted. It comes in 4 parts. This is the middle secontion with the clip in.

The long rifle is all togethere here. I Think I was still adding touches here and there as I put it together to get the colors to flow better.

This was a bow I did a long time ago. One of the crappy rebel bows. I used a different type of paint, on that cracks and has texture because I wanted it to look old a rusty.

This one is to show that you need to make sure you get your base coat in all the nooks and crannies. I missed the bullet slots a bit and the orange showed through.

The roses and both of these were done by a friend who is an amazing artist.

Another smaller bow that never really got used unfortunately. The little sigils said somethign but I don't recall now. lol.

And finally the rifle I did for my husband. he played a strain called a Murican. As the name suggests they tend to be very...patriotic, annoying, lod, etc. Typical American really. They paint their stuff with the old red, white, and blue so his gun is a little...flamboyant

Overall, these can be very fun if you're just painting. Working on the inner guts can be very aggrivating if you're new to it. I lost a few guns when I firsted started. 

Also to note!! All Nerf Guns Must have an Orange Tip as per the laws so that cops don't mistake them for real guns.

Feel free to always ask questions, comments, etc. I'm always up for a chat.

And never forget. If you don't try you won't find out if you can do something cool. Errors will happen. Don't fear them, just learn from them.

Winter is Coming Glass Pendants

In this post I'm trying something new. I keep seeing those focal pieces with the picture behind the glass bubbles. I have a big batch of them so I plan to make a few Game of Thrones House pendants.

What you'll need:

Round glass focal
Your design to be placed on the back
Cork for magnets
Moleskin for necklaces
Bails
E6000 glue
Modge Podge
necklace or cord for necklace


The first thing you need to do is print out your images. I used some Game of Thrones pictures. You need to size them to the focal you are using. The easiest way to do this is to place the focal over the image and trace around the focal as closely as you can. Once you cut out your circle glue it to the back somehow. Depending on your printer the image shouldn't smudge when you put Modge Podge over it.

To start with you want to use your glass cabochon to make a circle on your paper. Once you get that circle cut out (and may scavenge the rest of the image for more cabochons like i had to) you'll have to put Modge Podge on the back. I used a paint brush. Place the cabochon to you paper and use more Modge Podge on it to glue it in place. If you're getting a milkiness in your image place the whole thing paper down before repainting it and press, that'll push all the bubbles out and give you a clearer image. 

The back will look something like this once its glued down and re-glued. It'll feel a bit plastic-like on the back, don't worry about it. If you have edges that didn't stay flat clip them with tiny scissors and do another gluing.

This is how they should turn out if you did everything right. How the image sits is up to you. It's all a matter of preference.

This is what you'll get if you scavenged the rest of the images. I made ones with the house sayings and ones with the house names. I have plans for another post on how to clear up the blank space, but really you can do anything there.

Other examples of images that came be used. I had some glass cabochon's left so I filled them. Then I discovered some of my metal backs left with their glass so I made a whole set of Sailor Scouts! I think I like the glass ones better because the glass magnifies the picture.

The last thing you'll need to do to these before finishing the backs is to attach bails so you can hang them on necklaces if you'd like. Bails are little metal pieces with a loop that you can use to make these into necklaces. They look like this. And a good, non-asian market, seller with a good price can be found here: https://www.etsy.com/transaction/208041901

You'll want to glue these on with E6000. In some cases it might have been best to glue them on first, but I'll have to experiment with that to say one way or the other. Give them a day to fully dry.

This is what mine looks like once I glued the bail on.

After you're happy with you pieces and your bails are glued on tight you can cover the backs with moleskin so nothing rubs on your skin. I've seen other do this with cork or regular cloth, but over all moleskin fabric or even scraps pieces of mirco suede is nicer on your skin.

This follows the same process of construction as the circles. Trace your glass cabochon, cut, and glue the piece on. Don't do a second outer layer of glue though. That'll take away the nice feeling of the fabric.

These glass cabochons can be anything from necklaces to magnets to whatever you want. You could even decorate an entire table with them, resin it over, and have something fun to look at. It's all up to you.

Feel free to ask questions, leave comments, etc. I"m always up for a chat!

Treasure Boxes

This weeks little craft is Treasure Boxes. I made a few of these for my brides maids a while back and decided I wanted to make a few more.

What this will require is:
Paints. I use the cheap Acrylic paints you can find at any craft store
Wooden boxes. I got mine from Craft Wearhouse.
You designs for the tops can be anything you want.
Spray on sealer of some sort.

The batch of blue ones will have people names in gallifrayan written on the tops. I use a program I downloaded from the internet for this.

You need to paint the boxes blue first.

Then when I get a name I put it into the program, print out the image. Use carbon paper to sketch the image onto the top of the box and trace that sketch with a sharpie. Once the sharpie dries I'll seal it.

The other colored ones I have will have the sailor moon emblems drawn onto them. These ones will have pictures.

These are what the little boxes look like before paint.

After paint, which you may need to do a few coats of, they look like this.

Now for the harder part, or the detail work. If you want an image on the top you'll need to find a way to get it on there unless you can draw. I can't. It's as simple as that, so I use things that help me get good images on the tops, like carbon paper. For those who don't know, carbon paper is black paper with one side coated in a fine dust. When you trace the other side this dust gets transferred to the surface of the item you are tracing too. Just put and image over the top and trace.  

Option 2 is to carefully paint on the design. If you have a steady hand and can draw you're good to go.

Option 3. Wood Burning, but that takes a lot of tools and patience.

Option 4. Modge Podge. Everyone loves Modge Podge. In a sense its a quick cheat for projects, but don't use it on anything that's going to get rough treatment.

This is after the modge podging. I'm thinking at some point I'll design better toppers, but for now they'll work.

Beyond this point it's up to you if you want to seal this with something else like resin, or a clear spray, or whatever you choose to use. I"m thinking I might do some more with these with glitter or whatnot and then either resin the tops or spray seal them.

Here I went ahead and added some glitter.

Really you can add anything just make sure you do another layer of sealer. I've sealed the tops of these but still plan to do another layer all over later.

Feel free to ask questions, leave comments, etc. I"m always up for a chat!

Cabochon Focals

I'm starting this blog in the hopes that i can keep up with my crafts. Like many, but not all, crafters I have a habit of starting a project only to have the next project grab my interest before i finish the first. I'm hoping to curtail this habit this year. Call it my New Year's Resolution. :)

Beyond that this is just a fun little blog to showcase my crafts. If I do tutorials cool, if not boo. Either way hopefully I'll have something to show for this by the end of the year. My second goal is to post once a week, hopefully on fridays.

Wish me luck!

For starters I'll post my current short project, cabachon pendants.

These are fairly easy. You don't need the tools I use. Something that fits nicely inside your backing would work just fine for cutting too, or use the glass cabachon. Either way works.

It's a fairly simple process. use a cutter to cut out a part of the paper you like, fit it into the silver back to make sure its snug. Then pull it out and glue it down. I use whatever glue is available. In this case modge podge cuz it dries clear and is rather secure. After that rub some glue on the glass piece and fit into the silver back.

What you get is pieces like these. 

The variety is endless. I'll be experimenting later on with just using resin or modge podge inside, to put in different things like beads or little bits of glitter or even words and phrases. The options are as endless as your imagination.

Feel free to ask questions, leave comments, etc. I"m always up for a chat!