Don't Blink!

Every year at university, the fundraising team hosts a Sleaze Ball, which is just as the name suggests; a sleazy night of dress-ups and drinks. This year the theme was 'Horror - Things That Make Me Scream'. So in true crafty/nerdy fashion I came as...

A Weeping Angel!

Making my Weeping Angel costume wasn't all that difficult. Here's how to do it!

1. Find a grey/silver dress
My grey/silver dress was a hand-me-down from my fashion savvy friend, Julianne. Now, this dress has a whole story of its own. It didn't start its life belonging to Jules. No-one really knows who owned it, actually. All we know is that Julianne was going crazy one year trying to find a dress for the races, and after finally giving up and deciding to wear something she already owned, this dress appeared outside her apartment in a dry-cleaning wrap. She left it there for a day or so, and when nobody claimed it, took pity on it and wore it to the races. When I moved to Ballarat, she passed the legacy on to me :) It seemed only fitting to bring it out for Sleazeball!

2. Sleaze up your grey/silver dress
This option is only applicable if your weeping angel costume is supposed to be sleazy. I do not recommend a sleaze-up for a regular costume party/convention. Unless you take your parties with Mean Girls rules applied. In which case, sleaze away! To sleaze up my costume I took a few steps. I didn't want to sleaze up too much (as it happens, I think I was the most-clothed person at the ball! Ooh la la!) so I settled with lowering the neckline a little and synching the dress in places to hoik up the hemline and give it a bit of a different shape. Made it scrunchy-like!

After sleazing up my dress, I realized I needed some appropriate underwear to go with it. I didn't however own a grey/silver bra and in true shoestring fashion, decided to alter what I already had. I got my bikini top and tacked some silver material and lace onto the top of it. Only that tiny bit at the top showed when my dancing skillz threw my dress around a little, so I was all set and no-one would be any the wiser! Sneaky...

3. Find some grey stockings
Do this as early as you can! It's actually a lot more difficult to find grey stockings than you might think! I bought two pairs - one for my arms and one for my legs. You can always get just the one, or even neither, and paint yourself instead. Being winter, and not wanting to spread my paint all over my friends with every touch, I used the stockings option. I cut a whole in the crotch of the arms-stockings, and five holes in each foot for my fingers. It didn't look as shmick as the paint would have, but I was warm (and showing even less skin! Ha ha!)

4. Make some wingalings
Again - pretty easy! I found some cardboard and cut it out into a nice wing shape. I made them smaller than the regular weeping angel. I figured dancing and body length wings didn't really go together all that nicely. I cut my wingalings and then went crazy with the grey paint. I outlined the edges and made some patterns. The back side of the wings is the same colour as the outline of the inside. And the wingy/feathery cut-away at the bottom goes up in the middle. I bought some maribou to go around the outside, but it didn't look very nice so I didn't attach it (and now I have grey fluffy stuff in my craft collection - win!) I made wee holes in the shoulders and tied some silver twine through them to put around my shoulders. Note: this was not super effective. I lost my wingalings some time during the evening.

5. Find some silver shoes
I didn't have any silver shoes to wear (nor them money to buy some), so I went crazy with a can of spray paint and painted some heels silver. (I was very tempted to buy a pair of silver sequiny kids hightops that I found in Target for $10, but I figured that hightops didn't quite go with the sleazy theme I was after. I was however impressed that I fit into a child's pair of shoes...)


6. Paint your face and do your hair!
Excellent fun, this! Luckily, my house mate had some silver face paint lying around (I know! What are the odds?) So the face was greyed up without any expense. It wasn't too tricky either, which was lovely. I bought some silver hair spray and curled my hair with my hot-rollers, using the colour-spray as hair spray. Super effective. I pinned it back into some kind of curly bun thing and voila - hair complete!


...and that's how I made my Weeping Angel costume...

Don't Blink!

 The evening was a great success, everyone had a whole heap of fun and those that understood were tres impressed with my costume. I was pretty impressed myself - a pretty good costume for a severe shoe-string budget!

Me, with threeof the four horsemen of the apocalypse (the third one is hiding...it's like Where's Wally for the End of Time) and Jack the Ripper. As you can see, the paint started to come off a little...that's ok...it was dark...

Old Mate Coke Label

My friend Emma recently got diagnosed with the old Glandular Fever chestnut, so to make her feel jut a wee bit better I made a bit of a tongue-in-cheek present.

See, Emma has this charming habit of referring to her bits and pieces as 'Old Mate'. So I thought, why not? Everyone wants to share a coke with Old Mate!

Hardly the most elegant craft creation in existence, but it made her giggle, which is all that's important!

<3 Emma <3

Rachel's Steam Punk Birdies

Not too long ago, my crafty friend Rachel turned 21. Not really knowing what to give to the girl who could turn a table cloth into a couture gown with more magic than Mary Poppins, I crafted her gift, knowing that even if it didn't turn out all that well, that she'd at least appreciate the effort.

Rachel's 21st was steampunk themed (which I might very well post about as well, if I can find some photos of the evening) so I decided to make some Steam Punk Birdies for her house.

Rachel's Steam Punk Birdies

HOW TO MAKE BIRDIES FOR YOUR PERFECT FRIEND
**now with helpful step-by-step photos :-) 

Things You'll Need

 

1. Material in all sorts of colours and patterns
2. Stuffing
3. Potpourri (optional)
4. Bits and bobs (buttons, ribbons, household items, etc)
5. Sewing machine
6. Glue gun
7. Scissors
8. Your think-outside-the-box hat

How It's Done  

1. Find everything in your craft room that's brown/green/vintage coloured. Set it all out and feel pleased with yourself that you own so much prettiness!

2. Cut some birdy shaped bits of material, two mirrored pieces for each bird you make. Make them fat or you will end up with emaciated birdies. Icky!

3. Cut some wingalings for your birdies, four pieces for each bird. Match them together with some birdy bodies. Get creative! Put spots with flowers, checks with stripes, shiny with furry (actually, I'm not sure about a furry bird, but if that's what floats your boat, GO FOR IT!)

4. Sew your birdy body together, wrong sides up. Leave a little gap on the birdy's shoulder, the same size as the flat edge of your wingalings. You will sew it up later.

5. Sew your wingaling pieces together, wrong sides up. (Don't sew all four together goosies, make sure you have two wingalings!) Leave a gap on the not-pointy end.

6. Stuff your birdy's body and wingalings so that you have a nice, pudgy friend! Or if you're feeling aromatically-inclined, you can add some smellies. Remember My Potpourri Adipose? Cross your crafty missions and cut up some potpourri to add to the stuffing!

Cutting up potpourri feels like cutting up other plant-life. Yeah, craft just got hard-core!

7. Pin your newly-fat wingalings to your newly fat bird. Pin so that the wings sit inside that gap you left in your birdy's shoulder. Don't forget to fold the shoulder bits under so that you don't have a raw edge. Sew the little guy up! (if you don't have thread the same colour, never fear! Neither did I! Crafty solution incoming!)

 

8. Gather all your vintagey bits and bobs. Look for things that can make eyes, monocles, ties, cravats, clocks etc. Use your imagination! I for one, took apart my broken DVD player! Find the bits you want to use and experiment with your glue gun! (or your supreme hand-sewing skillz)

See the flowery ribbon thing on Birdy's shoulder? Hides that little stitching line quite nicely! ;)

 9. Line up all your Birdies and applaud yourself on your creativity!

I only have photos of two of my birdies apparently, but that's ok. Black and White Birdy has feathers for wingalings instead of material, a button for an eye and a piece of ribbon and a zipper for a tie. Brown and Flowery Birdy has some kind of booble for an monocle eye glass and a little chain attached to the eye and his shoulder. Another of my birdies had a button pocket-watch, one had an earring for a monocle and screws for eyes. You can use anything at all!!!

So that's how to make birdies :-) I believe these little guys now live in Rachel's living room. Happy Birthday Rachel!

Potpourri Adipose

Have you ever dived into your undies draw only to be disappointed by the lack of old Granny smell?

...no?

Well, nevertheless, here's the cure! It's simple, it's squishy and it's super cute! It's..

A Potpourri Adipose!

(yes I know...it doesn't look exactly like an Adipose...but still...it's kinda cute...)

What I Used
1. Some white material
2. Two little black buttons
3. Black wool
4. Some ribbon
5. Potpourri (rose scented, of course!)
6. Scissors
7. Thread
8. Needle
9. Sewing machine
10. Stuffing

How YOU can make a wonky, smelly Adipose too
1. Cut two matching wonky rectangles out of your white material
2. Cut four arm pieces and four leg pieces (two for each arm and leg)
3. Hand sew the buttons to one white rectangle to make eyes
4. Hand sew the wool to the same piece of material to make a cute little mouth
5. Sew the little arms and little legs together, so that they have a back and front piece. Only sew the toes/fingers but, so that there's a nice arm/leg hole
6. Turn the little arms and legs inside out (well, the right side out) and stuff with the stuffing (don't stuff them too full, you need some seam room where the little arm holes are)
7. Take your two rectangles and put them together, wrong side up. Stick the little arms in between the rectangles, making sure the little arm seams are visible out the sides of the rectangles. Pin it all together (my Adipose is waving - that's because I fixed the angle of his arm while I pinned him. You can do this too!)
8. Sew the Adipose up, leaving his bottom free
9. Turn the Adipose right side out and stuff him with Potpourri! (If your undies aren't in need of a smelly fix, you can stuff him with more stuffing and make a wee plushie)
10. Fold the seam of your Adipose's bottom in and pin his little feet into the middle of the folded seams
11. Sew his bottom up (try and keep the seam as close to the edge as you can, otherwise it will look messy!)
12. Thread your ribbon through a needle (a big needle) and thread it through the top of the Adipose and tie it in a bow (your Adipose can now hang from a doorknob or Christmas Tree!)

and...

Hooray! A smelly Adipose friend!!!

Send your Adipose to friends in the mail! Surprise them at university with a wonky plushie friend! Get caught in a sewing machine power trip and make thousands of little fat babies!!!

Jane's TARDIS cushion

Want something fun and super duper easy to make? MAKE A CUSHION! (please assume the use of capslock represents me screaming and dancing with craft-gasm joy)

Cushions are nice and easy because they use a lot of squares, a bit of imagination and not a whole lot else! You can do whatever you want, really. :-)

Today's cushion...

(unsurprisingly enough...)

A TARDIS CUSHION

I made this cushion for my friend Jane for her birthday. Here's how I did it...

TARDIS CUSHION 101

What You Need

1. A square of material

2. A slightly bigger square of material

3. Two even bigger squares of material 

4. Two rectangles of blue material (differently sized. One for the body of the TARDIS and one for the top)

5. Two small rectangles of material, the same colour as the smallest square (for the windows of the TARDIS)

6. A button

7. Thread (matching your TARDIS blue, your smallest square and your middle-sized square)

8. A sharpie (or not)

9. Stuffing (the fluffy kind, not the turkey kind...)

How To Do It

1. Select four squares of material, one small, one medium, two large (it might be nice for the two large ones to be the same pattern...or not...whatever you like)

2. Prepare the two rectangles of blue material (one for the TARDIS body and one for the top bit)

3. Prepare two little pieces of material, the same colour as your smallest square, to use for windows. Draw the window lines with your sharpie (or stitch them with black thread)

4. Sew your TARDIS rectangles to your smallest square piece with

Note: Don't forget to fold the seams down first!

5. Sew your windows on (I sewed them only in the middle, so that they can move a little bit. Don't know I feel about that, in retrospect...)

6. Sew a centre seam down the middle of the TARDIS (for the door)

7. Sew a button to the TARDIS for a door handle (or something a little softer if you actually want to use your cushion for comfort)

8. Sew the smallest square on to the middle-sized square (in the middle...it makes a nice frame)
9. Sew the middle-sized square on to one of the large squares in the same fashion
10. Sew the two large squares together, wrong side up (Leave a little bit unstitched for stuffing)
11. Turn the material right side up and stuff the stuffing in
12. Sew that little unstitched bit up (try and make it as invisible as possible)

Voila!!! A TARDIS cushion! Ready to be stuffed in an envelope and sent across the pond to friends with love!

The Santa Your Santa Could Be Like

How to pretend you are giving a great present, when in fact, you only have an I.O.U...

We narrated it as he held it...the chocolates and the IOU were there too :-)

Bet you wish your sister made cool Christmas presents like me!!!

Ginger Tardis

Christmas-Related Craft! 

About five days before Christmas, my good ginger friend Cal came to visit me in the sunshine from the great south. Unfortunately for him (and eventually, for the whole state) it rained the whole time he was here (and then it rained some more, and then some more, until we were all delightfully underwater....but that's a different story)

Like two little kids stuck inside on a Sunday afternoon, we decided to fill our rainy day with cooking! Better than that, Christmas cooking! Even more betterer than that, Doctor Who Christmas Cooking!

We donned our Masterchef badges (nice colouring in skills, no?) and our Santa hats and got to work!

Cal and Badams, in our Christmassy Masterchef glory

 Sadly, I don't have the recipe handy, or I would give you a run-down of the whole thing. It's a brilliant recipe, and fairly gluten-free flour friendly, if you know how to work it. (I totally know how to work it!) A little bit of extra egg is the key, although, with this recipe, it also meant a whole lot more golden syrup too.

After making the dough, we rolled it out and cut it into rectangles to make our TARDIS. Then we chose some characters we wanted to include and cut them out too. (it wasn't as difficult as you might imagine...the dough was nice and firm, so we could pretty much cut exactly what we wanted. Not that we knew if it would work at the time. running by the skin of our noses, or some saying that actually makes sense...)

A floury dress is the step to success!

We baked the pretties and then set ourselves to painting and assembling them

 To paint the gingerbread, we used a mixture of icing, food dye, food paint and food crayons. (Food crayons are these nifty little things that you shave colour off and put into icing or whatever. Neat stuff)

Rose (Idiot's Lantern style) The Doctor, Cassandra, The Face of Boe and a Dalek)

 

Next came the far more difficult task of assembling the TARDIS. We used the same colour icing as on the TARDIS walls and green icing Apple Grass on which to stick everything.

Note: When using icing for sticky purposes, try to make it as thick and firm as possibly. Think mortar!

We stuck all the bits together (as always, with an ample amount of swearing) to create out very own ginger-TARDIS

TARDIS SUCCESS!!!

...and The Doctor finally got to be a ginger...

Laura's Journal of Impossible Things

Here's a giftie that I made for my BFF Laura, when I moved back to Ballarat after the summer holidays

The Journal of Impossible Things

I was super proud of this mission because it involved a whole lot of different things and turned out quite nicely if I do say so myself! And, apart from the binding, it didn't cost me a cent!

Totally hand-drew that front cover. Pretty impressed with myself...

 I started with my Doctor Who stories (what? I don't write fanfiction! What are you talking about?!), and printed and bound them on A5 paper. I then found an old piece of heavy-duty cardbaord (if I remember correctly, it was an advent calendar), painted it blue and embossed it with the backside of a pen.

Voila! River Song's diary!

Next, I glued the spine of the bound book to the spine of the advent-calendar cover. I found some pretty paper and lined the inside of the cover, to cover up the edges of the bound book. I put some ribbon as well, for prettiness more than practicality, really, but it turned out quite well.

 

Laura, flicking through the pages of the 'definitely not fanfic' stories.

 Then I decided, what with all that non-fanfic to read, Laura might need a bookmark. So, to confuse the timelines even further (it being the journal of impossible things from season three, looking like River Song's diary from season five) I made a Bad Wolf bookmark that attaches to the spine of the book. (Come on, it's me. Rose Tyler's got to be represented somewhere!)

 Once I had finished the journal, however, I couldn't stop! I was in a craft frenzy! So I made Laura a card to go along with her present. Made out of some corrugated cardboard, coloured paper, sequins, buttons, wool and a tassel, this card took about twenty minutes to assemble. Just the way I like it. Quick, spirited and to the point!

The Doctor and Rose, from Idiot's Lantern

So there you go. That was my present to my BFF! Made with a whole lot of glue and love and words (that didn't come in the form of fanfic...promise...)

Highly satisfying to make. Perhaps I shall make another...differently themed next time...

I love you Laura!!!

My Croquembouche Attempt

Let's face it, I'm not even sure that's how you spell Croquembouche...

Last year, for the finale of Masterchef Australia, my housemate Aimee and I decided to celebrate by having a Masterchef challenge of our own. Aimee's task was to make Arancini (risotto balls with yummy gooey cheese in the middle) and I was to make...(Buhm buhm buuuuuhm!) a Croquembouche.

Not only a Croquembouche, but a gluten-free one.
...good luck...

My Croquembouche 

I used a pretty stock-standard recipe for Profiteroles, substituting the flour for GF flour. Now, when I say 'stock-standard', I am lying just a little. Apparently Profiteroles aren't the easiest of things to make. It had three saucepans on the little difficulty guide thingy. Three! Out of three! But, armed with my excellent housemate and my subpar cooking skills, I started.

 The Choux pastry, profiteroles, just out of the oven. For future reference, gluten free flour doesn't rise nearly as nicely as normal flour. Most of my profiteroles turned into half-shells, ninja turtles style. Luckily, we remembered that several contestants met a similar predicament in Masterchef '09. So I did what they did. I stuck the two half-shells together to make a complete sphere (well, sphere-like ball) and slopped the custard inside.

The custard, by the way, is made out of a lot of egg yolk, so, ever the recycler, Aimee decided to use the whites for some tasty meringue, Masterchef style.

 

I went back to the Profiteroles and covered them with tasty, tasty chocolate, some dark, some white. 

 

And then, it was time to assemble. I really had no idea what to use as the base, but eventually got a piece of cardboard and rolled it into a cone shape. I didn't have anything to stick the profiteroles to the cone either, so I used sewing needles.

Note: This is a trap! While eating one of the tasty morsels, I skewered myself in the mouth with a sewing needle. Ouch-sticks!

 

 After about an hour of swears and laughter, I finished assembling the aesthetically delightful Croquembouche. Some level of success!!!

Aimee's Arancini...nom nom nom

 So, with our other housemate Sarah, and our guest judge Jane, Aimee and I plated up out Arancini and Croquembouche for the tasting.

 

An excellent night was had by all. The Arancini was tasty, the Croquembouche was rich and yummy, if a little ugly. We watched Callum and Adam battle for the title and were elated when Adam won (well, I was...Aimee was rooting for Callum) 

My Croquembouche

Aimee and Arancini

Guest Judge, Jane McKinnon

Love that Masterchef song...with the captioning...

 (Sarah's picture could not be located...but she was there too...

 Little did we know that while we were watching them, they were watching us! The final two saw the pictures of our adventures on facebook, and a few days later, we received this in the mail.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how you know your cooking failure has been a success!

Stay tuned for Mastercehf Final 2011...the tradition lives on...

My TARDIS Laptop Case

Sometime during the end of first semester last year, my old, withered laptop, Spudly, decided to have a heart attack. His death was slow and agonizing, but eventually, he closed his browser for the last time and died. (along with all my old assignments from my creative writing course *tear*)

I mourned his loss for a sold two days before setting out for a new laptop. And I found him. (Laptops...they seem to be all male for me.) My very own TARDIS. Blue, fun-sized, and definitely much, much bigger on the inside! I ordered him from the Dell shop and he arrived at my house, all covered in super-fun bubble wrap and cardboard. (For future reference, keep the cardboard. You never know when it might come in handy)

My new TARDIS didn't, however, come with a case. So...I made him one.

My TARDIS TARDIS case 

(The second "TARDIS" refers to the laptop...the first is the design...TARDIS TARDIS...)

Things You Will Need 
...to make this yourself...

1. Some blue material (twice the area of your TARDIS, and then some more for the fun-flap)
2. Some different material for lining (I think I used the same material...I'd go and find out but...)
3. Some pretty material for edging the fun-flap
4. Some white material for the windows and sign
5. Some different-different material for the back, if you want a "Bad Wolf" sign on yours like I did
6. White and blue thread
7. Scissors
8. Sharpie/Embroidery skills (I lacked the second, so used the first)
9. Sewing machine
10. Squishy padding (I chose foam)
11. Velcro

Instructions
(If I remember them correctly, and let's face it, I probably don't...)

1. Cut your blue material into 3 pieces. One for the front, one for the back, and one for the fun-flap (You could probably keep it to two if you figure out what shape a piece that involves both back and fun-flap should look like)
2. Cut your squishy padding and lining material in a similar fashion (you don't need squishy padding for the fun-flap, only blue material and lining)
3. Cut out your windows and your sign out of your white material
4. Cut your "Bad Wolf" sign, if you're using one (mine was from a piece of material given to me as a gift from my little toddler-students from way back. Cuteness in the TARDIS!)
5. Cut your pretty material for the edging of your fun flap (if I recall, mine was just a rectangle, big enough to go from one end to the other)
6. Draw/sew your door handle/dividing-door-bit on your 'front' piece of blue material
7. Pin your front and back material pieces to each of their corresponding lining and squishy padding pieces (make sure squishy is in the middle)
8. Sew the bits you just pinned
9. Pin you fun-flap pieces together, wrong side up, with the pretty material folded in half in the middle of the other two pieces)
10. Sew the bits you just pinned
11. Pin and sew one side of your velcro to your fun-flap, lining side up (go around about the middle)
12. Write both your "Bad Wolf" message and your "Police Box" message on their respective pieces of material with your Sharpie (or embroider them if you have the skillz)
13. Draw or sew your window bars on your windows (Make sure you complete these steps before you sew them onto the rest of the TARDIS, otherwise you will get wonky, squishy-padding writing)
NOTE: Don't forget to fold your edges over so you don't get bare seems (or bear seems, ROAR!)
14. Pin and sew the windows, the "Police Box" sign and the "Bad Wolf" sign (they make a nice embossed effect with the squishy-padding)
15. Pin all three pieces (front, back and fun-flap), now adorned with signs, windows and velcro, together, wrong side up
16. Sew what you have just pinned, leaving a little gap at the top of your 'front/back' join
17. Fold over that gap on the 'front' side to get rid of that super-nasty bare seam and sew the pooper down! (this is a good reason why you should have blue thread...although, your fun-flap will cover it anyway, so don't be toooo worried if you only have white)
18. Mark the spot where your fun-flap velcro meets your front side
19. Pin and sew the second piece of velcro to the front side
20. Have a cup of tea and congratulate yourself!

Voila! Instant TARDIS!

Mine went completely by trial and error, involved quite a bit of swearing but was worth the trouble! It was my first adventure on my new sewing machine, and without a pattern or a clue, I think it turned out quite nicely!

Welcome

Greetings one, greetings all, greetings two, greetings three, and greetings to me! 

Welcome to Craft and Other Drugs, my home for any creation possible/appropriate to post on the internet. Here you will find clothes, craft, failures and successes, cupcakes, gluten-free recipes, comics and the odd set of instructions if I actually remember to take photos as I go! Expect to see a lot of Doctor Who!

...and as many Alice in Wonderland quotes as I can possibly slip in...