EPBOT

Monday, April 4, 2016

I just found another amazingly clever craft shared to the Epbot FB page. Check it out:

Christy N. writes,

"We are planning a surprise Disney trip for our kids, and I wanted my daughter to be able to dress up but not swelter in the warm Florida afternoons. So I made her princess aprons - cooler than a dress, and easy to remove if she gets hot or doesn't want to spill a snack on it."

Seriously, how smart is this? By using tulle for the skirts, Christy made these feather-light and completely breathable, perfect for little ones to wear over shorts or everyday vacation clothes.

Christy added lots of great detail, too. Check out the rhinestones on her Cinderella bodice:

Even the tulle is sparkly!

Christy gathered the tulle at the bottom of the Ariel one to mimic tail fins:

Plus a few more sparkles on the top:

The Anna one is my favorite:

SO PRETTY.

Rapunzel's and Belle's:

And finally, I love the little sleeve caps Christy's Snow White apron!

I hope you guys found these as inspirational as I did! Heck, I almost want to get out the sewing machine - and you guys KNOW how bad I am with sewing. o.O

Thanks for sharing, Christy!

And for the rest of you, please keep showing off your projects and costumes on the Epbot FB page! Even though I can't feature them all, it's fun for me to see what you guys are working on.

****

Now, let's announce some Art Winners!

The winner of Twilek Kitten is Rosebud

The winner of DC Derby Babes is Miranda G

And my wildcard winner is Jamie Thornton!

Congrats, you three, and please e-mail me your mailing addresses!

Friday, April 1, 2016

Here's a quick craft that took forever because I am both indecisive and a raging perfectionist. (WHO'S WITH ME??)

(I'll give you a moment to decide.)

I nearly scrapped this whole post, in fact, but I still like the concept, so maybe it will inspire some of you to take a whack at it:

Retro raygun goodness!

The idea hit me way back when I found the materials for my $2 steampunk ray gun. I noticed some shiny plastic wineglasses at the same dollar store, which looked kind of like this:

With the glass bases stacked like that, I immediately saw the business end of a retro raygun. Aw yeah.

So I bought a pack of 4 for a dollar, then found an old foam Easter egg from my craft stash:

This egg is a bit larger than your typical plastic 2-piece eggs, and I think I originally found it at JoAnn's... or maybe Wal-Mart?

Quick sketch of my design idea:

By tracing the egg I was able to get those curves almost exactly right for the top fin and handle.

Next I cut out the handle sketch, which John used as a template to cut out a scrap of hard pink insulation foam:

(I eventually reversed the egg, which I think looks better.)

This pink insulation isn't very smooth, but the texture striations look a lot like wood grain, which is a happy thing for a handle! Or you can Spackle and sand it smoother. (See the rounded edges?)

John took it upon himself to do all the painting, and became mildly obsessed with smoothing out that foam handle texture. So even though my end result is smooth, your's doesn't have to be.