November 15

Geek Girl Brunch + Comic Book Ornaments

Geek Girl Brunch

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!

We had our first brunch in July – an informal meetup at the Cheesecake Factory, followed by Star Wars Day at Barnes & Noble. In September we gathered at the Renaissance Festival and strolled the grounds together. Other chapters have enjoyed a wide variety of themes, from a Zombie Crawl to a Xena-themed yoga session to a Pixel Perfect ode to video games.

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.

Comic Book Ornaments by Angie Pedersen

Basic instructions:

  1. Select ornaments in shapes that will showcase an identifiable amount of comic art, in shapes that should be easy to cut out.
  2. 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.
  3. Place the ornament on top of the comic page and trace around it. Cut out with scissors.
  4. 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).
  5. Brush a coat of Mod Podge over the surface of the comic image to seal.
  6. 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!

Links of Interest:

Category: Comics, Geek, Girly, Tutorial | Comments Off on Geek Girl Brunch + Comic Book Ornaments
September 19

The Cutest Little Slayer Ever

Look, I’ll be honest with you. I’m not at all into amigurumi. More power to you if you are, but they are not my thing. But I stumbled across this little Amigurumi Buffy and was enchanted. I mean, seriously, look at how cute she is! I just love the little smirk and the little crocheted stake. Such an adorable little slayer.

Category: Craft, Geek, Horror & Gore, TV | Comments Off on The Cutest Little Slayer Ever
April 1

Back in my day, vampires were awesome..

I’m here to shake my fist at ya’ll and tell you to get off my lawn as I reminisce about how amazing Buffy the Vampire Slayer was. WeeLittleStitches offers a variety of fantastic cross-stitch patterns that traverse all genres of geek. In fact, it was hard for me to select which one to feature in this post (I was really close to Golden Girls because dang, that was a good show) but it is really, really hard to beat Buffy (yes, including 6th season…I don’t get the hate!). Important note- Dawn has been left out. Heh!

January 11

Desserts, Moustaches, Geekery

The tagline for Betty Turbo’s Etsy shop is: dessert, moustaches & muscles. Naturally, I approve. And that sort of sums up the content of her shop—her prints feature things like cupcakes and Parks & Rec’s furry-lipped Ron Swanson, and a variety of wrestlers. What this description omits, however, is the geekitude. (See, we got to the relevant part eventually.) Because, in addition to the aforementioned desserts, moustaches, and muscles, the shop contains awesomely geeky prints of Dr. Horrible quotes. And a Rupert Giles birthday card. And a Star Trek/Twin Peaks crossover. And the majorly spoiler-y Dammit Joss Whedon print, a visual compendium of major characters who died in Buffy, Angel, Firefly, and Dr. Horrible. (Don’t click if you don’t already know!)

Oh, and just because some of us (I’m not saying who) love him so very much, here’s a bonus card featuring everyone’s favorite undead Brit, Spike. I feel like this print would make a good inspirational message to tack up next to your mirror. Yes, Spike, go ahead and call me gorgeous every time I look in the mirror. I could deal with that…. Sorry, fantasy has taken over again.

May 2

World of Geekcraft

Today is an exciting day at Geek Crafts! Our own Susan Beal, who blogs here every Wednesday, has a new book being released this week. The fittingly titled  World of Geekcraft is making its debut appearances for the Official Blog Tour both here at Geek Crafts and over at  Craft!

World of Geekcraft by Susan Beal

In addition to doing an incredible job with coordinating and designing this amazing book, Susan also was able to contribute several of her own projects. Of her contributions, my favorite is the Star Wars Terrariums. I believe when Susan told me she was making these I replied with a hearty, “Hell, yeah, I can’t wait to see those!” Here they are for you to see:

World of Geekcraft - Star Wars Terrariums by Susan Beal

Our Renee contributed an awesome essay called The Resurgence of Atari and Nintendo.

World of Geekcraft - The Resurgence of Atari and Nintendo by Renee Pickup

Here’s an excerpt:

A big part of the renewed popularity of Atari and NES games lies within the breakthrough idea that it’s actually cool to be geeky. The word “geek” has transitioned from describing someone wearing a pocket protector to someone who is hip, in the know, and totally capable of keeping up with technology. With new video game consoles, cell phones, and computers coming out faster than most people can keep up with, being a geek has its advantages. As loads of average Joes jump on the geek-chic bandwagon, it seems the hardcore geeks feel the need to separate themselves; perhaps wearing an old Atari logo is a way of saying, “Yeah, I was here first.”

And I was lucky enough to contribute a fuse bead portrait of Buffy the Vampire Slayer! Doing these portraits is a long process and I like to do them row by row. Here you can witness Buffy gradually showing her face:

World of Geek Craft - Buffy the Vampire Slayer by Shayne Rioux

Over 10,000 beads later, I had a complete portrait:

World of Geekcraft - Buffy the Vampire Slayer by Shayne Rioux

I know 10,000 beads seems like a lot of work – and it is! – but it’s totally worth it to see the finished product.

Krys and I headed out today and spotted World of Geekcraft in its natural habitat, Barnes & Noble:

World of Geekcraft in the Wild

If your local bookstore doesn’t have World of Geekcraft yet, you can buy it online at:

After poring through the whole book, I’ve decided my absolute favorite project is Garth Johnson’s Planet Commemorative Plates. I’m totally going to make these for my husband’s computer lab.

World of Geekcraft - Planet Commemorative Plates by Garth Johnson

Continue following The Blog Book as it makes tracks to the following websites:

Also visit the official site for the book – worldofgeekcraft.com.

And last but not least, we have a copy of World of Geekcraft to give away to one lucky reader!

Leave a comment telling us your favorite geeky thing by midnight, Friday, May 6th, and we’ll pick a winner at random.

January 7

Angel Investigations Necklace

Angel Investigations Necklace

Is it a lobster?

Of course not! It’s the logo for Angel Investigations, the vampire-led detective agency from the Buffy the Vampire Slayer spin-off, Angel.

Though the program’s been off the air for some years, you can still show your love for the L.A. crew who “helped the hopeless” with this striking copper necklace by Etsy seller Hollywood Jane