Spring is finally approaching! It’s time to get out spades from the shed and focus on a gardening craft.
Besides strawberries and rhubarb, I have never managed to get anything past the state of seed, but for those who can’t keep their cauliflowers from their broccoli, I present you these Dinosaur Plant Markers. Katie posted a tutorial for this simple, yet elegant project at Punk Projects. So, head over there and get your hands dirty!
Hey there, geek-crafters. My name is Skels and I’m thrilled to introduce myself as another new writer.
I’m British, but currently living in Sydney, Australia. What makes me geeky? It could be my love of SciFi TV and movies, or my crafty habits as a self-proclaimed “tinkerer”. Or perhaps it’s the months and months of my life that I have invested in various MMOs over the years (sup, EU Argent Dawn WoW?!), or it could be that I’m currently studying for a degree in Natural Sciences in my spare time, you know, just for fun.
My all time favourite TV show is Red Dwarf, favourite game is Simon the Sorcerer, favourite movie is Twister and favourite colour is yellow. I like beading, drawing, photography, piano playing, baking, and jewelry making. I’m also a keen amateur astronomer; my most beloved posession is my 6″ Meade telescope.
I’ve been a fan of Geek Crafts for a while now, ever since discovering how to make pixel art keyrings and things out of teeny tiny seed beads. The great thing about pixel art is that it is so easy to reproduce with loads of different crafts – quilts, cross-stitch, bead weaving, pearler beads, even Lego. And who doesn’t love a little 8-bit nostalgia?!
If you want to find out more about bead weaving there are some really clear tutorials over at BeadItBabe.com. I used the square stitch for my designs, working with 3 mm seed beads and black waxed beading thread. And if you want some geeky designs to follow or inspire you feel free to check out my selection of keyrings and earrings: Click here to see the 8-bit beading set on Flickr.
Until next Tues, stay nerdy! And if you like, follow @Skels on Twitter. Cheers!
You know those glowing potions you pick up in many fantasy video games (hopefully right before a boss fight)? This is a quick project that makes a glowing, USB-powered potion that looks great at your cubicle/desk/office and shows off your geekiness. Unfortunately, no matter what I tried, I could not take a picture that does this justice. It looks amazing in person though, trust me – it’s very blue and bright.
Backstory: when I first got my blue Scion xA, one of the first things I did was swapped out all the dash lights for blue LEDs and installed blue LEDs under the cupholders so it would make any translucent beverage container glow bright blue. When I saw these mana potions at ThinkGeek, I immediately thought those would look cool if they similarly glowed blue. So, this is how I did it…
Hey all, I will be your regular Friday morning blogger so I thought I would throw a bit of introduction at you first. I am a long time crafter, currently focused on knitting, spinning, and bead working to name a few things that I get my own crafty hands busy with. So I’m sure geeky knits will be prominent.
I tend to roam the internet as One Geek to Craft Them All, so that should point out at least one geeky place that is precious to me. I’m a fan of comics, fantasy, mythology, magic, cosplay, and plenty of others. To be more specific things that own a place in my heart, include but are not limited to, Lord of the Rings, Doctor Who, Marvel Comics, DC Comics, Harry Dresden, Game of Thrones, Star Trek, Supernatural, Harry Potter; you know the basics. The list goes ever on.
In my day to day life I put my Master’s in Industrial/Organizational Psychology to use as Research Associate at a management consultant firm. I can feel your eyes glazing over from here so I’m gonna stop there. It’s for the best really. My closest friends only vaguely understand what I do. I like statistics, I play with them for a living, is close enough, really.
I’ll see everyone bright an early on Friday and until then I leave you with a handmade Tardis dress I have been trying to talk myself out of buying by Lex from Smarmy Clothes.
She also has a great blog with sewing tutorials here.
Marsha can usually be found, roaming twitter as @1geek2craftall or blogging at One Geek To Craft Them All. She thinks cheaters never prosper, unless it’s the Kobayashi Maru. Then cheat like there’s no other way to win.
New Admin’s Log, February 27th. Caitie Davis presiding :)
Hello, all! My name is Caitie, and I’ll be comin’ atcha every Monday afternoon here on Geek Crafts! Huzzah! I can’t wait to toss a bunch of nerdy embroidery, needle felt, perler bead, cross stitch, and baked good crafts your way. Tutorials, etsy round-ups, DIY stuff. The stuff of geek craft life! I can’t wait, I really can’t.
Here’s a little bit about me…
I’m a huge card game/tabletop nerd. HUGE! I play Magic: The Gathering every Friday night at Friday Night Magic (FNM), I love Munchkin, Carcassone, Settlers of Catan, and the traditional board games (Apples to Apples, Trivial Pursuit, etc.). I also love Dungeons & Dragons- I’m always a healer!
I love video games. I have Portal tattoos behind my ears, and I absolutely adore everything that Valve has every put out. Half-Life 2 is probably my favorite game of all-time, though child me would probably be upset knowing I didn’t say “Ocarina of Time” for that one. Yikes! I love RPGs and all that jazz. First person shooters aren’t my favorite but, if I had to choose one, I would pick Battlefield. Halo vs Call of Duty? P’shaw. Not for me!
I am a writer- I’ve been in art school since 6th grade for creative writing. Right now I’m pursuing an English degree, and eventually I’ll get my CW degree. Yippee! I cannot wait to starve for the rest of my life. I mean that. Anyway, I mostly write poetry & super short stories- but, I am actually working on a book right now. It’s tiring stuff!
I love to read. Sci-fi, Fantasy, and the Classics (Steinbeck, Hemingway, Faulkner, Kerouac…) are the things I live for. Right now, I’m reading through Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series. It is pretty fantastic thus far! I am always reminding myself to “focus on the void”… :) And, of course, I am a huge Harry Potter nerd. I think that if you aren’t one, I will have a hard time relating to you. Haha! Just kidding. Or am I?
As for the age old question- Star Trek vs. Star Wars? I answer like Zoidberg… why not both?? I love Star Trek, and I love Star Wars. Sorry, I won’t pick! I love them both far too much. I am currently working my way through Sherlock, and then I will take on… Dr. Who. Yeah, that’s right, I haven’t seen Dr. Who. I know. I’m sorry. But I PROMISE, I’m working on it! I work at a movie store, so I have access to basically every DVD known to man. I will get there soon. I love horror, indie, sci-fi, musicals, and black comedies as far as movies go.
I live with my boyfriend Tyler and my orange flat-faced Persian cat, Taft. We all love basically anything British so we watch a lot of Peep Show, Jeeves & Wooster, That Mitchell and Webb Look, A Bit of Fry & Laurie, Top Gear, QI, etc. My boyfriend loves Stephen Fry more than he loves me sometimes, and I have come to accept that. When we aren’t being anti-social, we go out and drink craft beer, listen to records, and argue sociology with unsuspecting strangers. Poor blokes.
I have probably gone on too long, now. I hope you all will tune in on Monday. In the meantime you can catch me on instagram at @notcaitiedavis. I’ll list my blog and Etsy shop a little later, they are down for the moment. I’ll leave you with an awesome embroidery hoop done by Etsy user StitchCulture! It’s down below there. She is one of my favorites on Etsy for embroidered goodness. Go look around her shop and enjoy.
Catch ya on Monday! And if your name is Carl… stay in the house. Or the jail. Just… stay put.
-Caitie!
Just in time for Doctor Who’s 50th anniversary, the Weeping Angels have been crocheted, have been turned into Christmas tree toppers and even turned into costumes. But now, Lanikins has taken the Weeping Angel from creator Steven Moffat to the next level….and it’s strangely cuddly.
Lanikins is a dollmaker by trade and owns the Etsy shop of the same name, as well as being a regular poster to Craftster. Typically, her posts on Craftster show off the pop culture poppets she’s made. Of her Weeping Angel, Lanikins said,
“”Blink’ is my favorite episode [of Doctor Who], so I decided that I needed to make a Weeping Angel poppet. I thought, “Hey Lani, this should be a piece of cake!!!…I mean, it is just one color, right?!?!” Oh, I was SO WRONG!!!! I sat there, staring at the basic body pieces, and my mind started racing…how was I going to get those hands to stay on her face? How was I going to pull of the wings? And what about the hair? I looked at her, and my thought was that when you look at a statue, their hair isn’t made from a different material, so for me, it had to be fabric. I made several little worms, and after attaching them, I needle-sculpted it to make it look like hair…and stone. After a lot of zoning out, some SERIOUSLY sore hands, and countless hours into this, here she is!!!”
For anyone interested in making their own Doctor Who character poppet, Good Cookie Creations has a free pattern available to use as your poppet base.