Monday, August 24, 2015

Trekkin' and Scarin' all over the Galaxy


Phew! It's been a busy month. We're finally getting a chance to come up for air to blog about our experiences at Star Trek Las Vegas and ScareLA. This year, Connor and I each had to fly solo in our craft workshops because both events were scheduled for the same weekend! Total bummer. Luckily, we both had some fantastic volunteers helping us, so we could complete our missions. Both events were a smashing success, so we thought we would share some photos and post the Star Trek Las Vegas keychain instructions.


We plan to be back at both events next year and our activities will be bigger and better than ever with plenty of supplies to go around! This was our second year at Scare LA, which is a Halloween-themed convention held at the Pasadena Convention Center. This was our 4th year crafting at Star Trek Las Vegas, which is held annually at the Rio All-Suites Hotel and Casino.

Connor loading in the craft supplies at ScareLA.

Perler Bead Star Trek Keychain Instructions

  1. Choose a Spock or Delta Shield Kit. 
  2. Using the plastic pegboard (please share with a partner as there are a limited supply), place the appropriate colored beads on the pegs using your plastic tweezers as needed. 
  3. Follow the pattern below for placement of beads on the pegs. 
  4. Carry your pegboard carefully over to the ironing station. Place the strip of ironing paper (parchment paper) on top of your design. Allow our volunteers to assist with the ironing for your safety. Iron on top of the paper in a circular motion for 10-20 seconds until the beads start to melt/fuse together and your design can be picked up. 
  5. Once one side is fused together, carefully flip it over after it has cooled and iron on top of the parchment paper to fuse the backside.
  6. TIP! Do not put the iron on such a high setting that the beads melt too much. You still need a hole at the top to attach your keychain. If you overdue the heat, don't worry you can poke a hole through with a pin or small knife. (kids, let your parent do this for you!).
  7. Go over again as needed if design feels fragile. Always wait until the beads have cooled off before handling! 
  8. Using the jewelry pliers, open the ring on the end of the keychain and attach it to the top of your design. (Our volunteers will help you.)
  9. Push to seal the ends of the ring back up as closely as you can. You can try to hide the split ends of the jump ring inside a Perler bead hole. Just turn it until the ends are hidden so the piece looks finished and professional. 
  10. Great job, cadets! Attach your Perler bead keychain to your keys or use as a decorative element for your convention lanyard. 
Templates: 


                    
**If you scale the images to size you can lay the clear pegboard on top of the printout as an easy guide for you to follow. Otherwise, just count how many squares are colored in. Each square represents one bead. 

Star Trek Las Vegas & Scare LA Gallery

We brought the crayons for the kids, but the adults got in on the action!
Since we didn't have enough pegboards for everyone all at once, we brought retro
coloring book sheets to keep people occupied while they waited. It was a big hit!
Spenser and her colored-in Kirk.
               
A nearly finished delta shield and an in-progress Spock.

Closeup of some serious crafting. 
Even captains craft. 
A happy participant showing off her Spock.
Big thanks to Jarrah Hodge (left) and Amy Imhoff
for volunteering to help Mary with the crafts.
Jarrah, Mary and Amy again. 
Mary with Laura. 
Nick, a regular at our workshops. 
Scare Fair Passports for the scavenger hunt.
Connor looking cute & freaked out in her Ghostbusters cosplay. 

Connor cut out stickers to give away to kids at ScareLA.


For the full gallery from Star Trek Las Vegas, click on this link. All photos by Nick Duguid. We can't thank him enough. Not only did he help with set up and photos, he carried boxes back up to Mary's room. Star Trek fans are the best! Another big thanks to Creation Entertainment, CBS, Jarrah Hodge and Amy Imhoff. See you next year at the 50th!






Wednesday, August 5, 2015

Episode 9: Star Trek Tote Bags with Brittnee Braun of Skirty Birt

Hello everyone!
Our latest episode features a lovely guest crafter who makes custom skirts on Etsy. We don't want to divulge all her design secrets, so we decided to make Star Trek tote bags with the remnants of fabric from her skirts. This simple and easy design is perfect for a green approach to grocery shopping. And why not look stylish while doing it?

Give a warm welcome to our latest recruit, Brittnee Braun. Brittnee is a cosplayer, seamstress and crafter that I met at San Diego Comic Con a few years back. She started selling custom geek threads on Etsy back in 2014, so I decided to have her on the show. She's made a couple of skirts for me and I can't wait to sport them at this year's Star Trek Las Vegas.

I hope you enjoy the latest episode. See you all in Sin City this week for Creation Entertainment's Star Trek Las Vegas show.


Friday, March 6, 2015

Chris Gore Teaches Us About Comedic Cosplay and Upcycles Old T-Shirts

We've known Chris Gore for a few years now and we've admired that he's a man who knows his way around a glue gun. You may know Chris from his popular segment, DVDuesday on Attack of The Show on G4 or from the magazine Film Threat. These days, he's crashing people's podcasts from Delta Vega to Las Vegas on a show called PodCrash. He even crashed my DVD review show, DVD Geeks, twice!

Everytime I've been to Chris' place, I've noticed that he takes the labels off of products and replaces them with cool Batman labels. He also has an interesting way of converting plastic spray bottles into Star Wars and Batman icons. Chris has an Etsy account, he openly crafts and makes a lot of his cosplay pieces by hand, so Chris seemed like the perfect recruit to come aboard on an away mission with us.

Chris attends a ton of conventions and always has something creative on. In our 8th episode, he teaches us how to preserve the design of an old worn-out t-shirt by transforming in into a completely new outfit. At Glue Guns and Phasers we love a good upcycling project, so we beamed down to his "Bat-tio" for this fun tutorial and to hear about his work. 




Star Trek Tote Bags Coming Soon!

Hey folks!
We just wrapped an episode with the talented and lovely Brittnee Braun of Brittnee Braun Designs. I met her at Comic Con a few years back and was happy to hear she launched a new DIY business. She makes awesome geek-centric mini skirts for kids and adults of all ages and sizes. She even made my skirt that I'm wearing in the episode, which is pictured botton left. We don't want to share all her trade secrets, so in the episode Brittnee teaches our audience how to use scraps of fabric left from the skirts to make fun Trek tote bags. I find this to be an extremely practical craft as we have the plastic bag ban in the city of Los Angeles. I'm always looking for fun and festive bags to express my personality. Be on the lookout for this video in the coming weeks. You can check out some of Brittnee's work here and she'll be at Wondercon in April at the Annaheim Convention Center.

https://www.facebook.com/BrittneeBraunDesigns

LLAP…

Mary