Skels – Geek Crafts

Sulley from Monsters Inc. Costume

You probably don’t have time to construct something like this before Halloween on Thursday, but this Sulley from Monsters Inc. costume is really well done, so had to be shared.

Posted on Instructables by user wmorey37, Sulley was put together using chicken wire, paper, glue, felt, fur, tube, old shoes, paint, duct tape, bouncy balls, bubble wrap and a hula hoop. Impressed? Head over to Instructables.com to check out how it was done.

Acknowledging that it is already one day to Halloween, however, if you are still looking for costume ideas that you have some chance of pulling off before the big night, perhaps you should check out these 15 Last-Minute, Inexpensive, Geeky Halloween Costume Ideas.

“Search me, we’re just the knockers!”

I loved Jim Henson’s movie, Labyrinth, as a kid. Well, mostly. I do remember being rather scared of the Fireys, and the creepy bit in the rubbish heap. And I’m almost certain I had nightmares about the Bog of Eternal Stench.

Now, of course, the scariest thing about Labyrinth is David Bowie’s leggings, and I actually have very fond memories of the movie, which this wonderful hand-made replica door knocker helped bring flooding back this week.

Made by Craftster forum user, chughes225, this knocker is made from a wooden block, foil, polymer clay, and is masterfully painted and glazed. Check out the Knocker from Labyrinth post on Craftster here.

I can’t wait to see the full set. These two characters were so funny in the movie, and I can even hear them bickering in my head now as I type…

“Mumble mumble mumble… you’re a wonderful conversational companion.” “You can talk – all you do is moan!” “No good. Can’t hear you…”

Cross-stitching smileys; inspiring minds

About one million years ago I cross-stitched a whole bunch of forum smileys/emoticons and attached them to note cards for a massive Internet forum-based snail mail exchange. At the time I was pretty sure that what I was doing was ridiculous, but I was having fun, and these were only people on the Internet anyway, so who cared, right?!

Today I received the nicest letter from one of the recipients that I’ve actually kept in touch with after all these years. In it, he explained that crafting had never occurred to him before he received my card, but that he loved it so much he tried out cross-stitch for himself (he actually sent me his first attempt – a Half-Life lambda icon), and that led to him trying out other crafts and projects from knitting, to papercraft, to electronics, and beyond!

So really what I wanted to share with you today was the thought that even though I was sure my little cross-stitch pixel-art cards were daft, they actually inspired someone out there to explore their own creativity, and that is AWESOME.

So keep crafting, folks – inspire away! And you know, looking back I reckon those emoticon cards were actually a pretty cool idea. If I do say so myself :)

Crafting in SPACE!

Karen Nyberg works for NASA as a flight engineer, and is currently floating around the International Space Station, orbiting the Earth every 91-and-a-bit minutes at an altitude of around 380 km. She became the 50th woman to ever go into space in 2008 when she was mission specialist on board Space Shuttle Discovery.

But you know what makes Karen so awesome? She is a crafter. And last week Karen crafted a toy dinosaur in SPACE! It doesn’t get much more geek-crafty than that.

Karen says, “I made this dinosaur for my son last Sunday, September 22. It is made out of velcro-like fabric that lines the Russian food containers found here on the International Space Station. It is lightly stuffed with scraps from a used t-shirt.” So not only is this a fun craft, but it’s also some pretty good upcycling too!

Make sure you check out Karen’s Pinterest page, where there are some awesome photos from and on board the ISS. You can also follow her on Twitter as @AstroKarenN.

Super Simple Star Wars Tees

These home-made t-shirts at ilovetocreateblog look pretty great, and don’t appear to be too difficult to make.

I especially like the negative Yoda tee on the right, which looks like he might be standing in front of the lights of a spaceship. As usual, these methods could be applied to so many great and iconic geeky franchises. Just pick your favourite character/spaceship/vehicle/insignia and go nuts! Make sure you check out ilovetocreateblog to see how these tees were made.

Fibre Optic Star Map

I seem to keep posting rather high-tech geek crafts lately, but there are just so many good ideas out there that need to be shared. So today I bring you a hand-made Fibre Optic Star Map, created by Imgur user, krid7.

Bringing this wonderful Milky Way panorama to life is a beautiful idea, and I’m really impressed at how well krid7 was able to pull this off. All those fibres would have driven me bonkers! Krid7 has documented the process on Imgur to be sure to click here to see how the Fibre Optic Star Map was created. And the best part is, real star maps were used, meaning that thing is not only beautiful, but it’s also scientific, yo.

Have an Astro-geek craft of your own? I would love to see it – post in the comments!