January 7

Don’t Mess with the Dragon!

One of my favorite fantasy creatures, the dragon, gets such a bad rap. So they burn villages, eat fair maidens and have magical powers, does that them bad? For centuries, knights have attacked them with lances, magicians have cast a myriad of spells, and random people with pitchforks have attacked the dragon’s lair. I think that if I was constantly harassed by human kind, I would be cranky too.  Maybe our Society’s perspective is all wrong.  Maybe the Dragon just wants some understanding!  To quote the Most Knowledgeable Hagrid, “They’re seriously misunderstood Dragons.” We should all keep our minds open to the good that Dragons can do.

For example, how about a dragon made out of recyclable materials!

This is a sculpture was created by~toge over on DeviantArt using only plastic kitchen utensils and hot glue.  It proves that they can be just as concerned about our environment as we are.  We need more positive press about dragons so that our society no longer discriminates against these reptiles! Remember, dragons want love and respect too!

Plasticdragon by ~toge-NYC on deviantART.

January 7

Fighting the Pern Plague

Fighting the Pern Plague

That’s what I’ve been doing for the past week and, believe me, it’s no fun whatsoever. It takes a hearty dragonrider to get through this crud. So my meanderings around the internet took me to finding ways to fight the dreaded plague (known as ‘the flu’ to you non Pernians) and this caught my eye. A great way to keep warm and the chill off your neck as you recover from being out of commission, a Fiery Dragon Scarfdesigned by Brooke L. Hanna. While the pattern was created for her son, it can be done to fit anyone in the family by simply adding more length to it.

And now, I’m off to bundle up and sip a nice hot cup of Klah and perhaps a Bubbly Pie while I continue to recover from the Pern Plague. Happy New Year all!

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January 6

Friday Roundup: Crafts With a Bite

Hello, all! It’s time for the Friday Roundup!

As part of this week’s post, I have a confession to make: I really enjoy reading what I call “stupid vampire novels.” The good ones are more in the “urban fantasy” genre, but a lot of them, to be honest, are best characterized as “paranormal romance.” (Let’s step back a minute and reflect on the fact that that’s a whole genre unto itself. Right? I know.) I’ve read all but one of the Sookie Stackhouse books (and watched a season or two of True Blood), all of the Anita Blake books, all of the Kitty Norville books (yeah, she’s a werewolf, but it counts), and, yes, that other series that I’ll leave unnamed. That other series could be its own roundup, I’m sure. This isn’t that roundup, though.

As much as I’d love to share some Kitty Norville crafts, there aren’t any (or, if there are, they are well hidden from Google)! I was shocked! We’ll all have to band together, as a Geek Crafts community, and remedy that. ;)

Happily, though, there’s a wealth of Sookie and Anita Blake craftery out there, and I’m here to bring you some of my favorites from Etsy.

First up, these very fun Sookie Stackhouse book cover earrings, by maryfaithpeace. It sounds like she puts a lot of work into these—there’s even “page ridge detail”! You can mix-and-match or buy two alike! I love it!

Next, a charm bracelet, admittedly based more on True Blood than on the books, by Creative Accessories. (Who, by the way, has a coupon code up right now—and offers a plethora of geeky jewelry. Nice!)

Here’s one for any ladies wanting to do some easy cosplay: a Merlotte’s waitress t-shirt, by Scarlett Fabric (also sporting a coupon code!). A couple of red marker dots and this shirt makes an easy Halloween/convention/costume party getup!

If you’re really into the costume, you might want to add another element: scent. Mannaia Frangrances has you covered, with “Bon Temps,” which she describes as “A dark, distinctively southern scent for the vampire, fairy, or fangbanger with taste. Includes notes of magnolia, sweet iced tea, wisteria, bougainvillea, and a good dose of peach.” I’m … kind of intrigued. It sounds nice.

The next one, I admit, I hesitated before deciding to post. I’m a little tired of the “Keep Calm and Carry On” thing—it’s a fun historical reference, but, for the time being, it’s probably been played out. I think. Then again, I laughed when I saw this pendant by Red Hot Kitten, and I would totally wear something like it. So maybe there’s a bit of play left in that meme.

Now, on to Anita Blake. Perhaps because she doesn’t have a TV show or a movie, there are fewer Blake-themed crafts out there. But she has a comic (there goes that paycheck), so crafters do have some imagery to work with. Here’s a card holder (ooh, a library card!) with an image straight from the comic, by Japip:

A different print from the comic appears on these earrings, by WenSi Shop. The guns dangling from the photos of Anita make it much easier to identify her, I think. ;)

Alternately, she could look more like the Anita Blake in this print by Tara Fortin—which I love, by the way:

And, finally, to leave you with something just a bit macabre, here is a necklace by Bottled Up Creations, featuring a “hand sculpted human heart” in a bottle, with a note saying “My heart belongs to Jean Claude ♥ [signed] Anita Blake.” This one kind of creeps me out. It probably wouldn’t be everyday wear for me. But Halloween? Oh yes. I would totally rock this necklace on Halloween!

A few of our past vampire-themed craft posts:

January 5

Ducks!

I may or may not have mentioned this before, but I’m a bit of a bird-nerd. I live with two cockatiels and a parakeet, and my current favorite thing is planning how I will go about raising ducks in my yard. My city recently made it legal to raise small poultry in residential areas, my neighbor used to have chickens, and my husband bought me a book on raising ducks for Christmas—tacit approval of this duck plan!

In celebration—and because I can’t keep my mind off ducks for long—I thought I’d share something awesome I just recently found on Etsy: the duck band as wedding ring.

Here are two examples (and their respective Etsy shops, tinahdee and bddesigns):

I really like the rings that my sweetie and I ended up with, but part of me wishes we’d seen these before the wedding. Such a fun idea, right?

(If you’re not a bird-nerd and want to know why this is funny at all, the US Geological Survey has a pretty great page about bird bands that I would encourage you to check out!)

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January 5

Creeper Plushie – Flickr Thursday

Have you joined the Geek Crafts Flickr Group? No? For shame! You should go and join. Know who is in the group? Yarn.Pixie.

Check out this crocheted creeper! I love the colours and it’s expression. Don’t you wish you had a creeper to snuggle up with? I bet it would protect you pretty well at night from, well, creepers.

 

Check out Yarn.Pixie‘s Photostream

Join Geek Crafts Flickr Group

More Creepers on Geek Crafts

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January 4

Make your own robot. (or as least decorate your own)

Who doesn’t want their own personal robot? Well check out this cute little guy, Wendell.

I love that he comes as a blank slate, so you can decorate him any way you want. He’s also open source, so you can program him to do your bidding.

 

And check him out dressed as Michael Jackson doing the thriller dance.

 

Category: Computers, Craft, Gadgets, Geek, Toys | Comments Off on Make your own robot. (or as least decorate your own)