Alice Cosplay

Like stated in the last post, we needed a kid friendly, recognizable character. Once Jenna got Alice in her mind she started sketching out what she would want it to be. 

Cute huh?  So the challenge is on. We found a great fabric in the clearance section. I bought far more than needed. Just to keep things out of order, we then found a really good pattern.

Time to start sewing. 

I knew she wanted the skirt to be Pouffy so we made a full tulle under layer. 

Time for accessories. Of course the wig and hat.

A purse for her phone with a few details. 

If you look close there is a Cheshire Cat ring being held in her purse clasp and a cute Alice pocket watch.  

And now, the completed look as worn to SL ComiCon FanX.

How cute is this girl??

Alice Hat

As Cosplay volunteers there is a need for family friendly, recognizable characters. My daughter loves anime and usually cosplays from there but she also comes to events with me and decided she wanted to be Alice in Wonderland. She drew out her own dress design and included a hat. this is how we put her hat together. 

Using basic craft foam you can see I cut angles into a straight rectangle to create a proper shape.

It cannot be a straight line rectangle. so cutting and tucking the lines allowed me to have an arched template to recut the actual upright portion of the hat.  

a CD ended up being the proper diameter for the brim. 

Then cut a smaller circle for the top.  Not sure what I used as a template.

I wanted to make sure it was the topsy turvy shape we wanted so I did a simple tape job and cut down anything that didn't feel right. 

Then it was time to glue. I'm becoming a big fan of E6000

Once the glue was applied I re-taped to hold everything in place while the adhesive set.

Looking about right. I got to this point on my photos and realized I didn't take any shots of applying the fabric. We just used the same fabric as her dress. Cut it a bit larger than the foam pieces and lightly painted Aleene's Flexible, Stretchable Fabric Glue. I applied the top and brim fabric first with cut notches wrapped over the edge. Added a bottom piece as a solid finish. Then, using the same arched template I cut a piece to put a solid, clean finish to the upright. then after all of this I wasn't happy with it. I recut all the pieces, wrapped them all in the fabric THEN glued it all together. it ended up with a MUCH cleaner look.   

I then turned it over to the daughter to put it all together. We had to have a pink feather representing Flamingo Croquet. I got a hold of an old clock face. It had some spacer posts on the back so we added a layer of foam to expand the attachable surface. 

a striped fabric band and a few gears and she was happy with the outcome.

Cute Huh.  It really is simple. I honestly made it up as I went along knowing the hoped for outcome. The nice thing about craft foam is that it's cheap. So play with it, make mistakes, then be proud of yourself for playing and creating.

The dress will be my next post. 

Great Cosplay

Today I am showing some of my favorite cosplay from the past 2 years. I don't take many photos and they are all from my phone. But I wanted to share the standouts that have caught my eye. THIS is what I love at fan conventions. The creativity and cleverness of what these builders pull together is AMAZING and so much of it HANDMADE?! 

This was at the very first ComiCon. I have no idea if this is a character or what materials she used. It is just an amazing build. She had barely entered the Salt Palace and was surrounded for photos. It was so cool. There had to be wheels under the tail end to help it glide along. 

This falls into the clever. 

I saw these two cuties walking with their dad and had to ask for a photo. So Stinking adorable. We saw them later at KidCon dancing. Darth had requested a Michael Jackson song and was busting a move. 

This Snow White was GORGEOUS! The fabrics were beautiful she did an amazing job making this.  

Love the sass going on here. 

One of my first shots from the most recent FanX. How awesome is the Sponge-Bob Captain?

Thor here is a favorite with the ladies. There was an entire 100+ comment, Facebook thread pretty much dedicated to him. He is the nicest guy as well. I first "met" him helping kids shoot arrows at Fantasy Con and asked him (awkwardly/creepily) if he cosplayed Thor, because he totally should. I was relieved when he said Thor would be there the next day. 

He came over twice to do Superhero Training at KidCon/FanX. He did the full rotation with the kids then stayed for each kid to get a photo with him. I smiled seeing a cute little girl just watching him in awe. (some of our kidCon volunteers looked at him with the same look;-)   

These are friends of my daughters. They are always lovely, but I liked their Steampunk Ariel and Ursula. 

This is my awesome sister. She was trying to think of a Halloween costume and decided to go with one of her childhood favorites. I love how she pulled this together in a matter of hours. One creative idea is that she found the socks, realized they were perfect and bought 2 pairs making one into the sleeves. 

Very nice man who was a nearly perfect Spock. We recently learned of Leonard Nimoy's death. This is a nice reminder of all the Nimoy greatness

This couple has been doing the Galaxy Quest Aliens for a few cons and are always appreciated. They do all the weird noised and motions and even the -lead with the knee-caps- walk. This is the first time I was able to get a photo.

This little guy is awesome. His Dad built this costume. It has even received a twitter thumbs up from James Gunn the director of Guardians of the Galaxy. He loves the costume so much he'll wear it on random days to grocery shop. But if you think this is cute it gets better

When you see the cutie inside.

This is a halloween costume I had to share. Anna here... is my nephew Parker. He and his buddies were trying to decide what to dress up as. His mom teased them about being Elsa and Anna. they figured it was a great idea and went with it. 

They are in sunday flats and I LOVE his sassy pose. 

I was able to help at Boo at the Zoo when this awesome Frozen family came in. How CUTE are they?

Lloyd Christmas and Harry Dunne from Dumb & Dumber. These two guys walked in sword fighting with their canes and whacking each others legs. It was perfect but I'm sure Mom was rethinking it before the day was through. 

Cary Elwes came to Comicon 2014. This group came as Men in Tights. I noticed their great poses through out the day. People getting into their characters and playing along makes it even better. 

I saw this family and Had to get a shot. How cute is Russell. I Love UP!

Back to the clever. I saw this lady with a milk crate with handle bars attached to her. I watched her for a minute before I realized what she was doing. I asked for a photo and she pulled out the moon. Too funny

The Knights who say Ni. Always love a good Holy Grail reference. 

This cute Toy Story group also came to Kid Con to do photos with the kids. This photo also features my friend Lisa and her daughter Hannah

Sometimes I think "I have worked really hard on this one. Maybe we should enter it into a cosplay contest." Then I see things like THIS.  

How amazing is this Dark Angel? This is all hand made! Just incredible. She is the dark and her friend Is the Light. 

How gorgeous are they?  

Surprising no one, They won the Fantasy Con Costume contest. 

See... Amazing! I love making costumes and trying new things but I will never be at THIS level. I will always be amazed and fascinated by the cosplayers. I love to just find a seat and watch them walk in. So if you are ever in downtown Salt Lake the weekend of a fan convention pay attention, you may see works of art walking right by you. 

Sea Shells from the Sea Shore.

It doesn't matter how old I am. If I'm at the beach and there are sea shells. I will be picking some up. 

I love them. 

But what do you do with them once you have them? I didn't really want a jar or a picture frame, and that was about all I could think of. Until I realized they WERE my souvenir. So instead of framing something else,I decided to frame them. This one is from a 2012 trip and a beautiful day at Laguna Beach. The Sea Stars were purchased. The rest were found. 

I recently returned from a wonderful California trip with my Mom and my Sister. We started at Santa Monica Pier and made it all the way down to Laguna with most of our time spent at Newport. My sister and I walked the beach in search of treasures. I couldn't believe it when I found a fully intact Sand Dollar. It was the first time I have ever found one. I was excited to show my sister and we decided we would look until we found one for her. My Mom finally found it for her. I'm sure it is strange, but it felt like a reassuring gift to us.  

When we got home I started the search for the right frame. I had one I was working on but decided an 8x10 opening was too small. Our Shopko is closing so I decided to see what they had on clearance. I found this lovely piece of wall art. 

I looked past the chicken and knew I could do something with it. I brought it home and taped up all the framing then sprayed the chicken away with primer. 

Bye Bye Chicken

I added my favorite gold paint -Krylon Caramel Latte. 

It is a lovely, soft gold. I use this paint a lot. 

Now for the frame. I liked its rough, barn wood look, but the color wasn't beachie enough. 

A bit of deglosser to take the seal off of the wood. 

Water down some turquoise paint to brush onto the frame,

leave it to soak in for just a minute, then wipe off the excess 

Not sure you can tell with my lighting, but the left side has some blue, most of the right hasn't been painted yet. 

 Time to figure the lay out and glue it down. 

I love how it ended up. I need to find someone with great handwriting. I would like to add the year and location to the frame. -But in a good way. Which rules out me EVER taking sharpie to it.-  

So whatd'ya think?  Not bad for Chicken art