Magic the Gathering Craft: Crochet Blocks and Dice Bag

Magic The Gathering Mountain Mana Crochet Potholder by Ann Pierson D'Angelo

My daughter is big into playing Magic: The Gathering, so I was pleased to find a series of posts by Ann at WonderStrange where she translated the mana symbols into crochet charts. On her blog, she posted charts for Mountain/Red, Swamp/Black, Island/Blue, Plains/White, and Forest/Green.

What’s cool is that since she provided the charts, you can adapt the project to whatever suits you – you could make individual potholders, placemats, or coasters, or link blocks together to make a scarf. Ann also provided a tutorial for stitching two together to make a cool Magic: the Gathering dice bag.

What’s another way you could adapt the charts?

Links of Interest:

Modifying a Monster High Doll

I’ve always thought those Monster High dolls were pretty unique, but then I saw what FreakieGeekie, a crafster from Louisiana, did with a Deuce Gorgon doll on Craftster!

darryl from monster high

She removed Deuce’s “snake-hawk” and molded hair, his face-up, and the tattooing on his left arm. Daryl’s new face was painted using watercolors then sealed.

Daryl’s hair is made from a long pile faux fur, his shirt is a poly-cotton remnant, and his jeans are a denim remnant. His vest started its life as a doll’s leather jacket and the wings on the back are made of iron on fabric and were hand-drawn then outlined in Sharpie. His clothes are all hand-sewn and the worn look on his jeans was achieved by rubbing them down with coarse sandpaper. His crossbow is made of a wooden dowel, plastic canvas covered with yarn, hemp cord, a piece of bamboo skewer, and a bit of cardboard; the wooden and cardboard bits are painted with black acrylic paint. His bolts are made from slivers of plastic canvas and little bits of felt.

His motorcycle was a gift from Freakie’s sister. It’s from the Bratz Boyz “Motorcycle Style” Cade doll. Freakie repainted it so that it would look like Daryl’s motorcycle. The crossbow is just propped on the motorcycle.

Star Trek Craft: Bajoran Earring

Bajoran earring by Patrick Hassel-Zein
Image courtesy Patrick Hassel-Zein

Being a fan of all things Star Trek, I was pleased to find this write-up on designing a Bajoran earring by Patrick Hassel-Zein.

If you’re familiar with Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, you would have seen Major Kira almost always sporting a Bajoran earring on her right ear. Ensign Ro Laren also wore one on Star Trek: The Next Generation.

On his webpage, Patrick provides a little historic look into the Bajoran earring, and then offers some suggestions for designing your own.

Links of Interest:

Iron Man Suit Made of Cardboard

Tony Stark doesn’t realize what he started when he created his first suit in those caves, because now anyone can make their own suits.

iron man

Taiwanese student and Cardboard Artist Kai-Xiang Xhong made a full-size, wearable Iron Man suit entirely out of cardboard for The Stan Winston School of Character Arts. His keeping the cardboard color and texture was deliberate, because that’s his style. It took Kai a year of working on the Iron Man suit in his spare time to complete it. Check out the SWSCA blog to see more of Kai’s creations.

Doctor Who Lawn Gnome

Have you ever wondered what David Tennant might look like as a yard gnome? Yeah, I know, that might be the weirdest question you hear all day, but bear with me.

gnome.

Redforkhippie of Tulsa, OK posted this modified yard gnome into everyone’s favorite Time Lord, over at Craftster. She said her gnome started his little concrete life as a biker, complete with chaps, engineer boots, and a skull brooch/bolo tie/whatever.

She’s planning another modified gnome for Matt Smith, and it includes using a hacksaw to turn his gnome hat into a fez.