Get rich quick!

Need a little extra cash this weekend? I've got just the project for you--it will literally make money materialize in front of your face! You don't even have to go looking through grass or anything! Okay, it's not OUR money, you know, REAL money, necessarily, but rupee money, so if you're planning a trip to Hyrule it will come in handy at least. For those looking to stay home (Hyrule always seems to be in some sort of peril anyway), it will make a great cat toy. Look!
They're just made out of two pieces of felt and then embroidered shut with (mostly) matching embroidery floss. As you can see, they still get the basic idea across even if you are a terrible embroiderer and can't draw a straight line to save your life. I stuffed some catnip in them too, and the cats have been going crazy over them. Wanna see? Hm, what's that? You don't want to see pics of my kitties? Too bad, here they are anyway.

Reach, Dorian, reach! It's worth 20 rupees!
Bah bah! Yuki just found a blue rupee!
Dorian's rolling in dough.

Was this whole post just a giant excuse to show pictures of my kitties? Perhaps. But it really is funny to see them running around with rupees in their mouth, and there aren't enough geeky pet toys out there. Or any, really.

Anyway, it's just a fun weekend craft that takes less than 20 minutes, so make some up and watch your kitties go crazy! Stay tuned for more craziness--I promise, no more kitty pictures.

The shirt off my back--redux

Hey guys! Remember this post, where I posted some of my favorite shirts? Well we finally got around to actually making some of them. We used the freezer paper technique (found here, if anyone is interested) and it was super easy and everything actually came together pretty fast.

If you guys are interested in making your own shirts, you can follow the above tutorial and use these stencils, which have all of the bridges and everything already cut out--all you have to do is print and cut out the black parts. Click here for the Blue Sun stencil, and click here for the Planet Express stencil.

Now, if anyone out there is looking for some free EPS vector versions, check it out! Click here for the Blue Sun vector art, click here for the Planet Express logo vector, or click here for the Hylian crest vector art. My boyfriend assure me these are very cool, so I hope you guys like them.

And moving right ahead! Here are the finished products:

Alright, first off, here's the Blue Sun shirt. I wanted it to look all splotchy and weathered (although it's not really as noticeable as in this pic, for some reason the light made it look kind of funny here).

And the Planet Express logo! This one was a little more difficult, because of all the letters, but I liked the way it turned out. We were split on whether or not to make the stencil in different colors, but we ended up just doing one (in blue, my favorite color, of course) and I like the way it turned out. The paint also has a little sparkle in it too, which is awesome. We also left the stencil lines in the letters to give it a more hand-printed stencily look. That's right--stencily.

And finally, the Zelda shirt. My boyfriend made this one for himself, and he made it all stony looking and old. Here's a (slightly) better pic:

He used a couple of different colors all mixed together to give it a stony effect, and it turned out looking really neat. This one's a little sparkly too, but not too noticeable.

Anyway, I just thought I'd share with you guys, and encourage everyone else to try it too. They were so easy and fun to make! And you can do almost any picture you want--I'm thinking of a couple more, maybe a Portal shirt (one of these icons probably) or an Arrested Development shirt--either a Family Band Solution shirt, a Gobias Indsutries shirt (as in "go buy us" a cup of coffee) or a Motherboy shirt. I wouldn't use these exact images, but they are all really cute ideas.

Let me know what you guys think, and spread the geek love through fabulous clothing (while still wearing jeans and a tshirt!) Stay tuned everyone!

Crazy Cute Cozy

This is so cool--a toilet paper cozy. I bet you guys never realized that you needed a toilet paper needed a cozy, huh? Well, after you see this you'll change your mind. This was made by craftster user jancola for the Craftster "Cozies WITH Irony" challenge. There are actually some really cool entries there, I like the ice cube cozies myself, it's just too hilarious. Anyway, take a look!
It looks like a little statue, doesn't it? It would be pretty cool to have just on it's own. But it gets cooler.
The little piranha plant is removable! So you can just have the plain pipe by itself if you want. Here are the logistics of how it fits over the toilet paper:
So this thing is cute, it has removable parts, and it's functional--it can't get any better than that. I love it. Stay tuned for more cool stuff everyone!

Etsy Finds

Hey all! I was trolling around etsy today and I found some neat stuff I thought I'd share with everyone.
First off, a little Pika statue! It's a little polymer clay statue that looks like the trophies in Smash Brothers. Cute little sleepy pikachu. Pika was one of my better characters in the Smash Brothers games, Zelda being my other good character. Gosh, I haven't played that in a while! Me thinks it might be time to get smashed soon.


Okay, everything else is Portal stuff. I know, I know, so overdone, but these are actually kind of cool. This vinyl Portal sticker can be put up on any clean surface. How cool would it be to put this up on a window somewhere?

From the same seller as above, a cake logo, also a vinyl sticker. The cake is the only one they offer, but wouldn't it be cool if they had the rest of the tiles available too? Like, you could put them in your hallway, right outside a door. It would be hilarious.
And lastly, here is a cake charm--well, actually a bunch of little cake charms. I thought it was kind of neat, because you only really see companion cubes, and I thought this little cake was still cute but different from the rest of the stuff that has come out.

Anyway, let me know what you guys think! Also, if you come across anything cute like this, feel free to send it my way--I'm always on the look out for cute video game crafts. Coming up this weekend--geeky t shirts made with freezer paper! They're very sharp looking. Stay tuned!

Excuses, excuses

Hey everyone! Sorry there hasn't been a post in a while. Wanna know why? This is what we had to do this weekend (well, we actually still have to do more, this is what actually got done).
So once everyone is assembled (that's 6 Links we have to finish!) hopefully we can get started on some new characters--I soooo want to make Leonidas, so hopefully we'll get working on him soon.

In other news, the boyfriend (the ever talented sculpey maker) entered the Craftster 350 contest, which is helping to spread the world about global warming. Since he is a t-shirt designer he entered the t-shirt contest, and here is his design:
Isn't it pretty? If you like it, go vote for it! You don't need to register to vote, so if you like it help spread the love! Stay tuned, more updates coming soon.

Free Lightsaber Pattern!

So, one day while I was supposed to be working, I thought to myself, "you know, there just aren't enough crocheted weapons out there". And so I bring to you, my crochet lightsaber!


You can see my lightsaber here, being modeled by my lovely ewok. Artoo looks like he is ready to come whoop some butt, though. He does look rather menacing.


I didn't really like the lightsaber when I first finished it, because the edges weren't hard enough and I thought it sort of looked like an out of control beer bottle cozy. But I really like it now, I can appreciate for it's toy-like appearance and it's kitschiness.

Depending on your gauge, this guy should turn out pretty close to life size. They're not going to win any awards for authenticity, but they are pretty fun to hold and throw around. They would make a great baby toy, if they were made out of acrylic yarn.

Just to warn you, this is a really informal pattern. I don't have row numbers or anything, so just use your best judgment.

(Half-Assed) Lightsaber Pattern

Start with gray yarn, chain 2
6 st in 2^nd chain from hook
(sc in next st, 2 sc in next st) until you have anywhere from 35-36 sts
11 rows even

Change to black yarn
6 rows even

Change to gray yarn
11 rows even

Change to black yarn
(sc in next 3 sts, sc2tog) for one row
Dc in the front st only for 6 rows
Next row even
(sc in next 3 sts, sc2tog) until you only have about 13-15 sts left

Change to gold yarn
5 rows even
(sc in next st, 2 sc in next st) for two rows
3 rows even
(sc in next st, sc2tog) for one row

Change to gray yarn
(sc in next st, 2 sc in next st) for two rows
3 rows even
(I didn't close my lightsaber up, I just stuffed it and left the end open. Not the best solution, I know, but I don't know how I want to close it up, so sorry! If I figure something out, I'll edit this)

Small Buttons (make 4)
10 sc, 1 ch, turn
9dc, 1 ch, turn
9 dc, 1 ch, turn
9 sc
leave long tail, attach to the lightsaber

Large Button
10 sc, 1 ch, turn
9dc, 1 ch, turn
9 dc, 1 ch, turn
9 sc
sc around the edge of the rectangle twice, with a (2sc in 1 st) in each of the four corners
leave long tail, attach to the lightsaber

Ah! Wicket! Don't kill Artoo! Jeez, these things are dangerous.

Anyway, I hope you guys like it! If a lot of people really like it, I will write up another pattern for Vader's lightsaber. Stay tuned!

Cool Custom Clone Wars Jedi Clones

Hey guys! To celebrate the new Clone Wars movie that is coming out today, I thought I'd show you our newest creation: Ahsoka Tano!
Awww, isn't she cute? Her little head thingy was really hard to make; luckily I didn't have to make it, my boyfriend did. He's getting pretty handy with the sewing machine. This was the first time we've painted on crochet, and I think the effect turned out really nicely.
WAH! Clones! How cool would an army of cloned jedi be? We actually made three of these little guys, and they all turned out really cute. I like their little lightsabers. Their costumes were actually pretty easy, the hardest part was getting their heads to look right.
I even made a lightsaber out of sculpey this time! Alright, so it didn't turn out well enough to be one of these final three, but I was still pretty proud of myself. Those things are dang tiny, and I don't have nearly enough patience to work on them.

Anyway, hope you guys enjoy! I'm excited about the movie, but I don't know if I want to see Tropic Thunder even more. I doubt I'll be brave enough to venture out to the movie theaters twice, so I'll have to choose which one I want to see more. Anyway, have a great weekend, and stay tuned!

My Little Pony

Aw, remember My Little Pony? I used to have a ton of them when I was a kid. Okay, I still have them, they're sitting in my parent's garage right now--I just can't bring myself to throw them away. For anyone else who has this problem and wants a creative solution, here are a couple of cool modded little ponies I scrounged up on the interwebs.

Kind of random, but I knew instantly who is was supposed to be. This is an Admiral Thrawn modded my little pony, by craftster user ravenau1. The red eyes are creepily evil.

Warf pony! He's pretty cute, in a really creepy kind of way. This is from flickr user kipperfrog, you guys should totally check out the rest of the flickr set, there's a Ferangi and a Spiderman and a Borg and some other neat characters. The Terminator one is pretty scary looking.

This Davy Jones pony is pretty awesome looking. It's from a DeviantArt user, you can see the rest of her stuff here. It's worth a look, she has some really cool stuff, including some (sort of creepy) anime characters like Ed and Al Elric, and Sephiroth and Squall. I like the Davy Jones one though, and of course the Master Chief and a really cool Joker.

Anyway, hope you guys enjoyed these! I think they're really fun to look at, even though I don't know if I could ever do that to mine. New character Friday (Clone Wars Day!) so keep an eye out! Stay tuned.

AT-AT: The Ghetto Files

Ever wonder what would happen to an out of commission AT-AT when left in a bad part of town? Unlikely scenario, I know (those punks on Hoth blew everything up, there wasn't much to deface) but bear with me. Check out this super cool modded Hasbro toy.
Isn't that so cool? All of the graffiti is in Aurabesh (the large graffiti on the side spells out "REBEL") and I love the little rebel tags everywhere. I wish there were more pictures of the other sides, but I think you can get the general idea. Stick it to the empire, guys!

This item sold at Christie's for $1250. Let me tell you, if I had that kind of money I would have snatched this up in a second, I think it's so cool. I have a thing for AT-ATs though, I just love them. Just wanted to share with everyone!