Sunday, August 31, 2014

Chain stakes and jewelry

These were a pretty important project, if a little simplified.  I finally got a chance to test out these bamboo yard stakes I had ordered.  I sharpened the bottom a little, bent a green paper clip, then duct taped it to the top.  The weight of the chains appeared to be able to held up securely by the pole once it was secured in the ground, but it might have to be just a trial and error.  I think I only need about...12-15 stakes to cover the yard, and the bundle came in a 25 pack, which is great because if some little twerpy kid decides to break some, I'll have backups.  Hopefully these will work--they're the cheapest option I found.  
I also finished a few more pieces of jewelry--just some house colored beads that I was inspired by. 



Fat Lady Backdrop Structure

Original sketch
I set up the laundry roller that will hold the Fat Lady backdrop (aka, the main prop to my costume).  I had grabbed some pvc pipe and joints to modify the roller (which only goes to a height of ~5') to get it higher so that it took up the whole doorway.  I mainly just wanted to check that it would hold the weight of the canvas without me having to figure out counterweights or anything more elaborate.  And voila, the basic structure of how it'll look.  Still have to finish the canvas, and the door will be wrapped in some of the stone scene setter, but I think it's going to look pretty awesome.


Magnets

Tried a few magnets for prizes last night.  Had gotten some 1.18 inch glass domes, cut out some small pictures, and mod podged them onto the backs of the dome.  Some of the mod podge got on the front, so I'll need a bit more practice.  So as a last step I'll glue on some magnets I picked up.




**UPDATE**
Finally got the magnets glued on, as well as doing another batch of magnets, for a total of 20.  Not sure if I'll put these into batches of 3-4, or just keep them individual.



ALL the magnets!

Fiiiiiiiive...er....siiiiiiix GOLDEN riiiiiings!

Got the quidditch "hoops" painted gold.  I just did the rims--I maaay go back and do the backs, but for now I wanted to emphasize the hoopiness of them.

There really is a sixth hoop...probably on the floor somewhere.

Velvety Drapes

A side project that I couldn't resist, especially as Joann's labor day sale was going on.  Got 2 yards of red crushed velvet and made a couple of panels.  That, along with a cheap pole, and I had a nice doorway decoration:)




Tuesday, August 26, 2014

Wee Owls

Just a random side project--found a pattern for some wee little owl plushes--couldn't resist.  They maaay end up as prizes...or just as something to put in the owlery.  Not sure yet.





A wee parliament of owls
**UPDATE**
MORE OWLS!!!!!!  CAN'T....STOP...MAKING....CUTENESS OVERLOAD....

.....can't....stop....please...send....help.......................
Seriously, they're like gremlins

Monday, August 25, 2014

Potion bottle

Worked on a potion bottle for one of the actual ingredients.  Took the label off of a lemonade cask.  Colored the top black, then took some twine and hot glued it all around the edges.  I cut out a pattern of vines from some sticker paper and taped it to the bottle.  Next was to put some food coloring into some mod podge and paint it on over the design.  

 Now, originally I had intended to take off the stickers, but I think I like just leaving it on there--having the darker colored vines means it stands out more.  Anyway, just waited for it to dry.  Still have to put a potion label on there, but it definitely looks more potion-y now:)


Finished bottle: 


Ravenclaw Robe

Had a sewing day with Sarah to do the Ravenclaw robe I needed for comic con.  The right side of the fabric was a suuuper shiny black, so we used the wrong side instead.  We used a modified pattern from a Renaissance tunic,  with great success.

**UPDATE**
FINALLY got my tshirt for comic con--now have my ENTIRE costume!  Yay!!!  



Friday, August 22, 2014

Ollivander's Wands

Finished up the sign for Ollivander's wand shop.  I had found a plaque of wood sign at the thriftstore already outfitted with a hanger in the back.  The only trouble was that it was a dark maroon, and it had writing already painted on.  So first up was a coat of black spray paint to cover everything.  It also had 2 metal stars on either side which I just left--stars are wizardy, right?

So after that dried, I printed out the sign for Ollivanders (after a little modification to make it easier to trace).  I taped it onto some tracing paper I already had from pumpkin carving, then just traced over with a pen.  As a last step, I took a silver sharpie and traced/filled in the design.  I had been debating over whether to use paint for this, but once everything was traced out, I realized some of the letters were going to very difficult with a paint brush, no matter how small.  So I opted for the pen.  Very pleased with how it turned out.



All traced out

Traced over with silver sharpie

Sign put up next to the wand display

Wednesday, August 20, 2014

Gryffindor Common Room (Part 1)

I started to put up some of the Gryffindor common room--I was starting to lose track of everything that had been piling up all over the place.  So part of it went up, or was organized into sections.

Prize table


Trick-or-Treater's wands.  Not sure if this is the final container for them, but they look nice in the basket for now.

S.P.E.W. Recruitment Table

Ollivander's Wands.  Still need the sign, and a drape to cover the home depot-ness of the boxes.

Probably not the final placement of all these, but at least they're up and out of the way here.  

Some of the paper stuff that will eventually be outside on the porch.

Sunday, August 17, 2014

Random projects

There will eventually be 4 boxes total
Random updates.  Finished painting ALL the wands (woot!) as well as putting together all the wand boxes with crushed velevet beds for them (gotta love Joann's sales).  So I spent an hour last night putting shelves into the boxes that will house the wands.  My first plan was to do something more elaborate, but that shortly gave way to laziness, and it ended up just being a basic bit of duct tape and cardboard shelves.  Cause really, they don't need anything else.  I just wanted to be able to get at any wand box without all the others falling down on them.  So those are done.  The next project with those is to get the fancy (completed) wands INTO the boxes (and semi match them by color to the various woods).  That might get done tonight.

I also spent some time cutting and gluing together some very simple pennant flags to use for sports banners for the quidditch field.  I went with a really simple design that I can easily make more of, and each sheet of paper yielded 4 of them, so they'll stretch a bit.  I'm just trying to get all of the tedious stuff that takes a while to cut/glue/craft done so that I'm not doing it all in October.

My very technical sketch
A Home Depot trip was also made to get the styrofoam for the gravestones (yay!) and some pvc and fittings to extend the laundry roller rack so that it will hold the fat lady canvas.  As it stands, the rack is maaaaaybe 5.5 feet tall, and I need it to be at least another foot taller, if not a bit more.  Easiest way to do this will be to extend the already existing pole with more pvc pipe and some T and corner fittings.





**UPDATE**
Got all the wands IN the boxes--woot!  Also took some pictures of all the elaborate party wands before they all went in the boxes.


"Ash" wood
"Cedar" wood

"Rosewood"

"Hawthorn" wood