July 25

Book Review: Knitted Toy Tales

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Most geeks start off their nerd-life with books. We all remember “once upon a times” and “happily ever afters.” Knitted Toy Tales by Laura Wong captured that feeling, the one you felt when you first learned to read your fairy tales.

The patterns are well-written and super-easy to follow. It allowed for substitutions with the weight of yarn used which is always a bonus. There are many adorable projects within, including  the three little pigs! In the picture below, you see Frederick the Frog Prince (sans crown).

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Simply adorable. Thanks to my friend Nikky for knitting him up in no time at all.

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July 23

Lego wallets

Lego wallets

These sturdy lego wallets were made by Ryan Chapman and posted on his blog and the website of his design studio, Color By Numbers. They used to be sold at local boutiques. However, the supply ran out quite a while ago. Also, they were featured in the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Isn’t that awesome? I’d love to get my crafts displayed in a museum.

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July 23

How-to: Hogwarts Houses Cake

Hogwarts Cake

Darla at Bakingdom.com clearly put a fair bit of work into the delicious looking Harry Potter cake, but the result looks spectacular. It’s a cake that caters for each house of Hogwarts: Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff and Slytherin, at least in colours if not in volume! Darla has written out full instructions in the post – including recipes for the Spice Cake and Cream Cheese Frosting – should you want to give this a go. So check it out, along with some other of her great Hogwarts themed goodies here: Hogwarts, Hogwarts, Hoggy Warty Hogwarts Cake.

Now all we need is a spell for removing cakey goodness from one’s hips! Skinnyramus!

Category: Books, Craft, Geek, Movies, Tutorial | 1 Comment on How-to: Hogwarts Houses Cake
July 21

Fabric Decoupage Star Trek Shoes

Fabric Decoupaged Star Trek shoes

I recently made myself a pair of awesome Star Trek shoes by decoupaging fabric onto some canvas sneakers. I followed a tutorial that I can’t for the life of me find again, but I’ll see what I can remember. (if you happen to know where the tutorial is, please link us up in the Comments section below!)

What I thought was clever about the tutorial was that you made a pattern for the shoes using duct tape, instead of just cutting pieces of fabric willy-nilly to fit.

Materials:

  • canvas shoes
  • 1/2 yd fabric
  • duct tape
  • fabric Mod Podge
  • small soft paintbrush
  • scissors and/or X-acto knife
  1. Place a piece of duct tape along the side of the canvas shoe and trim the excess off with sharp pointy scissors or an X-acto knife until you have a master pattern piece. Repeat for other side of the shoe.
  2. Remove the duct tape from the shoe. Place on fabric and cut around the pattern piece.
  3. Brush on fabric Mod Podge to shoe and carefully apply fabric to shoe. Smooth out any wrinkles.
  4. Allow to dry 30 minutes to overnight (follow instructions on bottle)
  5. Apply a coat of Mod Podge over the fabric to seal. Let dry.

I got the fabric at Jo-Ann’s – they have several patterns of both Star Trek and Star Wars fabrics.

Category: Craft, Geek, Girly, Movies, Sci-Fi, Tutorial, TV | 1 Comment on Fabric Decoupage Star Trek Shoes
July 20

A Stylish Jacket Made From Comic-Con Bags

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It’s that time of year again….COMIC-CON!!!!

Amy Ratcliffe at Fashionably Geek, posted, “One of many of my favorite parts about San Diego Comic-Con is seeing what talented cosplayers and creative folk do with the gigantic swag bags that come out each year. I’ve seen them turned into dresses, pants, capes, and now a jacket! I love the styling on this swag bag jacket, and I particularly appreciate the fact that the wearer decided to pair it with a bow tie and a sonic screwdriver.”

Category: Comics, Craft, Geek | 3 Comments on A Stylish Jacket Made From Comic-Con Bags
July 20

There’s a Dalek in my front yard!!!

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Dulcet is a member of the Craftster community and recently posted about a surprise that her husband made for her: a Dalek for their front yard.

“Every time he rides his bike to work, he brings home metal stuff from the side of the road. We’ve been talking about him making something from them for quite a while. A few months ago, he got a crash course on welding from our neighbor who just happens to have a mig welder…The only things he purchased were the half-spheres, which are pipe caps. The eye-stalk in mounted in part of a truck hitch, and swivels up and down. The arm without the laser is made from a jack, and telescopes out. The head is a propane tank sliced up, with pieces of our broken garage-door-opener spring on top. The whole thing is four and a half feet tall.”

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