**Edit: Thanks to the random number generator, commenter number 4, Anna, has won! We’ll be in touch by e-mail! Thanks so much everyone and a super thank you to Tara of the Geeky Hostess!**
For years cupcakes have been a huge trend. Unfortunately, traditional cupcakes are pretty lacking in the geeky department. Thankfully creator of GeekyHostess.com, Tara, has changed all that with her array of geeky sprinkles. Now you can combine the cuteness of cupcakes with a fandom sprinkling of your choice. She offers four varieties to choose from: police box, gears, lightning bolts, and meeple. I was offered my choice of shape, so naturally I went with police box.
yes, I even found bow-tie wrappers!
Yesterday my business, Nerds & Needles, was at Toronto Fan Days and I brought in these for treats to hand out to my neighbours and friends. They were a huge hit, everyone thought they were super clever, and I didn’t have to slave over them to make them awesome.
Want to impress your friends and family this holiday season with some geeky cupcakes? Tara has you covered! You can enter from now until Sunday, December 13 at 5pm ET, to win your own jar in whatever shape you’d like!
To enter, all you have to do is follow The Geeky Hostess on either her Facebook or her Twitter page, then come back here and reply to this post with your e-mail address and let me know which shape you’d like! Be sure to include your e-mail in comments, that is how the one lucky random winner will be contacted.
Don’t want to wait to get your hands on some of these? Tara has provided you guys with the special code GEEKCRAFTS for 20% off over at her Etsy shop. Her shipping to me here in the Great White North was super speedy, so you’ll have yours before you know it!
I don’t think I’ve yet shared the awesomeness that is Geek Girl Brunch. I discovered it via the Female Geek Bloggers G+ Community, and was immediately intrigued. Ladies getting together to share brunch, drinks, and geek-talk? Sign me up!
The group started in New York City, with its own meetups. They had so much fun together that they decided to roll out chapters, not only across the U.S but worldwide! Sensing I had found my geek tribe, I signed up to be notified about news of the Kansas City chapter. I got an email a few months later notifying me that chapters were forming, and would I like to be an officer to help launch the KC chapter? Because I love my hometown and want to nurture its geek culture, I said yes!
Next week is KC’s third event, with a “Let’s Get Crafty” theme. My co-leader, another brunchette, and I are each leading a geek-craft. My craft is comic book ornaments, as seen in the examples below. I figured it was an easy introduction to decoupage, but infinitely customizable to whatever comic brunchettes might favor, along with whatever ornament base they might choose.
Basic instructions:
Select ornaments in shapes that will showcase an identifiable amount of comic art, in shapes that should be easy to cut out.
Page through your comics for images that will fit your ornament. TIP: If the image you want is too big, you can scan it and resize to fit your ornament. That’s what I did for the Dr. Horrible cube above.
Place the ornament on top of the comic page and trace around it. Cut out with scissors.
Brush Mod Podge (I used matte, but glossy would also work) on the ornament and position the comic cut out on top. Smooth out any wrinkles (a brayer helps here).
Brush a coat of Mod Podge over the surface of the comic image to seal.
Optional: embellish the edges of the ornament with decorative washi tape (see Buffy example above) or acrylic paint (see TARDIS example above). For the Dr. Horrible cube, I colored the top of it with a bronze metallic Sharpie (top not shown).
I hope you will check out Geek Girl Brunch and join in on the fun! If you’re in the KC area, stop by and say hi!
A Monster to Love is this great online shop where, for every cute little monster doll you buy, Sam, Ben, and their dad Ray, donate a monster doll to a kid in need. They partner up with children’s hospitals and even the World Relief Refugee program out of Atlanta.
I ran across their awesome work about a year ago on Craftsy, including a pattern to make your own monsters to donate to local kids in need, or send off to Ray and his boys in Colorado so they can donate the cuddly little monsters to kids in need.
I try to organize a Monster Making Party at least once or twice a year–they’re fun, and pretty easy to do. Here’s how:
1. I buy a couple yards of fun colored fleece fabric when it’s on sale (usually in the summer). You can get quite a lot of monsters out of a yard of fleece, or even half a yard. Just be sure to shop when it’s on sale! Along with fabric, I’ll pick up a box of stuffing when it’s on sale too (or with a coupon). One box can last a long while and stuff a lot of monsters (probably around 30). I’ll also purchase Safety Eyes for the dolls, which can be attached before sewing, and don’t require any sewing knowledge to install. I purchased my Safety Eyes here, but there are tons of vendors and craft stores out there that sell them. The 18mm sized ones are what I used, and I liked to mix and match colors too. 15 pairs of eyes cost about $15. You can also use buttons for the eyes, but make sure they are SEWN on really well. If the eyes are not sewn on securely, Ray and his boys can’t use them. Do not glue on eyes. Ray and his boys can’t use the monster dolls if the eyes have only been glued on (hello choking hazards!).
All in all, I spent about $40 on supplies for making the monsters, but I did it over the course of a couple of months.
Angie brought her own sewing machine and helped build a couple monsters. That’s my mom in the background stitching away madly.
2. I set up a FB event and ask folks to bring their own sewing machines if they’ve got them, but I also tell folks that there’s plenty of other ways to help too: attaching eyes, stuffing, cuddle testing, and hand stitching are great ways to get even the most novice of crafters involved in a Monster Making Party. Along with the fabric, stuffing, and safety eyes, I also bring along thread, scissors, and hand sewing needles for people to use. If you’re worried about materials cost, you can always ask people to pitch in a couple bucks to help out.
3. I cut out at least some monsters before the party so there are dolls ready to be sewn. I also set up stations for people to work at installing eyes, stuffing the monsters, and hand sewing the monsters closed after stuffing, and even cutting out more monsters if necessary.
Here, my friend Chrystal is stuffing a monster.
Eunice is hand sewing the monster closed.
4. We have music playing, and I ask folks to help out with some food (like chips and dip, cupcakes, and frosty beverages). And I invite folks to come when they can and stay as long as they’d like to. It’s a fun way to spend an afternoon or evening.
5. I’ve found three hours to be a great length of time for a Monster Making Party. You can get a lot done, have time to chat, and still steal a cupcake too. Once the party’s over, you’ll want to box up your magnificent creations and mail them off to A Monster to Love! Their address is on the last page of the PDF.
All our Monsters boxed up and ready to go!
If you have your own Monster Making Party, be sure to take pictures and share!!!
More Links of Interest
A Monster to Love: check out this great online shop and see where they’ll be selling their cute little monster dolls next!
Check out the story about A Monster to Love on Craftsy
This mind blowing cake version of Saul from A&E’s “Better Call Saul” was recently featured on Imgur.
Owner of Sideserf Cake Studio, Natalie Sideserf of Austin, TX, gained global attention with her hyper-realistic sculpted cakes. Several of them have earned millions of views and acclaim from national and global news outlets. A sculpted cake she made resembling Willie Nelson reached the number one submission on the front page of Reddit.
You might be able to make the argument these cakes have Rice Krispie Treats inside them, with fondant on the outside, but if you check out her site and look for the Willie Nelson cake, then you’ll see his head is missing a piece and there’s cake inside that singer’s noggin.
Got a party occasion coming up, and looking for a geeky party favor or decorations? Lisa Kay Tate of Minion Feeding 101, and contributor to Geek Mom, has ya covered!
She offers a geek-tastic round-up of five ways you can put your crafting superpowers to use, spanning a variety of fandoms. Using plain cupcake or bonbon boxes you can find in the baking section of most major craft stores, she gave them each a makeover to depict the Tesseract Infinity Stone, Shakri cubes (which she calls Countdown Cubes) from Doctor Who, Minecraft Creepers, Rubik’s Cubes, and Portal Companion Cubes. Her post includes printables downloads and links to templates, so be sure to check it out!
How have you used your crafting superpowers to create geeky party favors or decorations? Please share with a comment below!
Today I bring you the plushie version – as in, sitting atop a cute Jayne Cobb chibi plush, as created by Cristina, aka ViciousPretty.
Cristina shared her creation over on DeviantArt, where she also has an extensive gallery of other adorable plushie creations, such as Gandalf, Namor, and a number of Mass Effect characters.
Cristina’s Jayne plushie is so cute and cunning, I just want to take him right to my bunk and cuddle. What character have you created in plush form, or have plans to attempt?
Also, be sure to wish Adam a happy birthday on Friday via Twitter!
