Hand-screenprinted Space Invaders T-shirt

Space Invaders t-shirt This is one geek craft that I actually made myself. I used a $40 screenprinting set I bought at Michael’s to do it. It has 3 invaders on the front right and a single invader on the back in the top middle next to the neck line. I did only one pass with white ink on a black tee and it looks kind of greyish – just like the original B&W Space Invaders arcade game.

I ended up doing about 10 shirts in various ink/shirt color combinations but none looked as good as the black and white. For the invaders, I simply used MAME and took a screenshot of Space Invaders and I enlarged it on-screen to the right size then I printed it out onto transparency paper and used that to make the screen.

It was my first attempt at screenprinting and it really did turn out great. It’s one of my favorites tees – all the better cause I made it myself.

Han Solo in Carbonite Desk

Han Solo in carbonite desk

Good lord! What geek wouldn’t give their left arm for a desk like this! Designer Tom Spina has created this incredible desk with Han Solo in Carbonite in it! Tom says:

A custom designed desk that fits a Star Wars-style theme. Beyond furniture… it’s not just a desk, it’s art! Metal and fiberglass construction with a heavy glass top create an elegant and extremely unique piece of furniture!

Me behind desk: I suggest you rethink that plan, underling. Look at my desk to see what happened to the last person that defied me. BWAHAHAHA!

Woodpixels

Wood Pixels This is an interesting idea – it’s called Woodpixel. It’s a commercial product that lets you create your own pixel art. It comes with 100 wooden blocks with a different wood tone on each side and it comes with a holder to hold the 100 blocks in place. This would be a great way to make some classic/retro video game art. Their site shows a Space Invader, Mario, and a (poorly done) Pac-man Ghost. They are taking pre-orders now – no word on price. I bet it’s expensive though.

1up Mushroom Lamp

1up Mushroom Lamp Ok, this isn’t exactly a craft… this is a 1Up Mushroom Lamp sold by the folks at Guruguru. Pretty cool looking and affordable too at only $8.50. They don’t say how big it is though, which is aggravating. I bet it would be easy to make if someone put their mind to it – any video game crafters up for it?
UPDATE: It’s gone from their site now.

Rubik’s Companion Cube

Rubik’s Companion CubeStephen loves his Companion Cube and it loves him. He wrote a very good tutorial on how to convert a Rubik’s Cube into a Companion Cube (from Valve’s Portal). He suggests buying a brand new Rubik’s Cube, but if I were doing this craft, I would try to get a cheap used one at a yard sale or thrift store or something instead of paying $10 for a new one – but I’m a cheapskate.