A team effort

Alrighty everyone! I've been tantalizing you with a hint of a new dude, and after much procrastinating he is finally done! I present to you:
A Team Fortress 2 Engineer! Okay, for those of you who don't have the Orange Box, I'll just fill you in. The engineer is this little dude here, who apparently does something very important with this little dispenser thingy. Alright, I admit it, I've never played TF2, mainly because I don't want to pay for a gold account on Xbox Live, and also because I'm scared of Xbox Live users. I do have the Orange Box though, so I'm half way there. Anyway--oh yeah, the dude.See, his little goggles come off too! And his little hat, of course. And he can hold his little wrench. I have to say, I'm most impressed with him, I think he turned out just perfect. Here's a closeup of the dispenser.

I think it's so cool! It's actually pretty big too, there's a lot of sculpey on that thing.

Anyway, if you want to see more pictures check out my flicker, as always. I'm not sure if we are really planning on anything big for our next project (DANGIT I still want to do Leonidas though), but I am working on a personal project that I'll probably post here later. Anyway, stay tuned!

I'm not dead, I swear!

Hello everyone! I just wanted to update you--I'm not dead. Just lazy. Or maybe I should say I'm just uninspired. I'm just not as excited about our little dudes as I used to be, and my sculpey-maker boyfriend is even less so, which has been leading to some very unproductive weeks. So we have both decided that it was time to close our etsy shop. Now, this doesn't mean that we will stop making them altogether--we're just unable to create the volume that is needed to run a store.

Anyway, I'm hoping that this means that I can concentrate on making patterns for more characters (the Lord of the Rings and Star Wars patterns are still, and will continue to be, available), so if anyone has any suggestions, or really wants to know how we do something, please feel free to leave a comment and I'll see if I can't work something out.

So since we haven't been working on our dudes, wanna see what we have been working on? It's a little different and not our usual geeky fare, but I thought I'd see what everyone thinks about it.

Presenting: A portrait of Fernando de la Ronda, the Prince of Isla de los Estados. His marriage to Elizabeth of the Byrd family was arranged by Elizabeth's brother, King Arthur IV. The King arranged this marriage to establish a fishing treaty between the King penguins and the Macaroni penguins. Elizabeth detested this match, and historians believe that her dislike stemmed from multiple reasons, one being that the match was forced on her while she was in love with another penguin of her own species, while other historians argue that she could not respect or love a husband who was a good foot shorter than her. Fernando was oblivious to her dislike, however, and they had three children: Eduardo, Isabella and Fermina. Curiously, Isabella was born without the yellow feathers that Macaroni penguins are known for and that adorned the heads of her brother and sister, however, this was attributed to the fact that King and Macaroni penguin breeding genetics were not fully understood and not to any rumors that were circulating at the time about Elizabeth. Fernando lived a wholly oblivious and happy life with his family in his home town of Isla de los Estados.


Do you guys like? I think the portrait is just adorable. I made up a whole family tree for the rulers of Byrd, it's just a blast writing these little histories for everyone. Anyway, let me know what you guys think! And stay tuned, more stuff on the way!

Ohmygoshitssocoolicantstandit

Like the title says--oh my gosh it's so cool I can't stand it.

Click here! And now!

Don't worry everybody, it's totally safe for work and totally Star Wars related. Here's a preview.

But you totally have to click the above Flickr link to see everything. It is enormously detailed and crazy, with all sorts of really cool stuff hidden away in various corners. There's even a track running through the whole thing, although I don't know if stuff can actually move on it. I don't know if this guy is a professional or if he just does this in his free time, but it's completely amazing.

I just had to share this! I hope you guys like. Stay tuned!

There are some crazy stitches up in here

Hey everybody! I know everybody is probably wondering when our next new dude will be up, and all I can say is: soon. We've been kind of burned out on them, so it's been hard to get motivated to make any new characters. But there is a new dude coming soon, so please don't give up on us yet!

Anyway, for the time being, I came across these awesome cross stitch samplers from around the net. If I ever had the patience for doing cross stitch (hello, my many half-finished cross stitch projects) I would totally take these on. If you guys are inspired to do your own, there is this really cool site that turns pictures into cross stitch patterns for you! So now there's no excuse for not immortalizing your favorite picture of a cat with a lemon on its head (one of my many half-finished projects) with cross stitch. Enjoy!
Um, how awesome is this? Not only is it Firefly related, it's also Oregon Trail related. Seemingly random, and yet they work out so well together. This was made by craftster user SkyyAngel and she has graciously posted her instructions here, if anyone wants to make their own. And why wouldn't you? It's awesome.
And of course a Star Wars related sampler. Need I explain why I love this one? I think my favorite part is the two blasters at the bottom with the heart in the middle. You can find more details here.
Aww, best friends forever. You know, except for the burning part. You were rather quick to kill the companion cube, as GLaDOS does not hesitate to remind you. I like the little hearts all over. This one also has a pattern and is available at the creator's website here.

Anyway, I just thought these were all so cute and I had to share! Hopefully I'll get out of my slump soon and start working on characters a little more. Stay tuned!

Um, yes please?

Are you tired of your boring room? Are you bored with being all "adult" and respectable? Well then here is the next piece of furniture you need to buy for your bedroom:
I know it's not the best picture, but seriously. That. Is. Awesome. I must have it. I love the little blurry star lines, I love the little pillow with the "galaxy far far away" thingy, and I love the Millennium Falcon in the middle. Please. I wish there was a better pic of the Falcon, but the concept is what matters here.
Here's a pic of the supposed room a bedspread like this would go in. I would just like to say that I have way more awesome posters than that kid. (Should I be ashamed of that?) Pottery Barn is selling this comforter set, you can check it out here if you would like. You can also get the sheets:
which are pretty cool too. See here for more details. I am totally in love with the classic old school design. Jeez, I don't even know if they come in adult bed sizes. Oh well, they are still rockin. Anyway, more stuff coming soon, stay tuned!

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!