Gamora Costume, Monster Wreath, and More Cross Stitch - Nikki's Craft Corner

I know these posts fall out of the scope of what people expect from my blog. Some people think of this as a food and wine blog. I think of this as a Nikki's Life blog with an emphasis on Nikki's food and wine. However, the other things I do play into that no matter how you look at it. If I'm spending all my free time sewing, I'm not going to be cooking much - something my boyfriend definitely noticed. I think it's important to show what else I can make besides food and why I haven't been so good about posts... because it's a pretty good reason.

Gamora Costume 

So the last picture I posted of my costume was a far cry from anything complete. I had an intimidating amount of work ahead of me but luckily I had Dan to really push me to get it done - that and an October 20th deadline for a Disney contest we wanted to enter. 

I had to push the procrastination demons aside and get cracking. After a couple of days, I had a solid base of my top (above) and a week later, I had everything sewed into place. 

Before the great reveal though - I got to do one of the more fun parts and dye my hair! I've loved having a streak of pink in my hair all summer and adding pink tips to the mix for the costume was a super fun addition.

All in all - it turned out amazing!!! I still need a few tweaks to make it fit and look better but all the work paid off - Dan and I were accepted for the contest and we will be cheering on the runner of the RunDisney Avengers Half Marathon!!

Monster Wreath 

I am a huge Pinterest user. I love pinning crafts especially and I actually try to do them. I pinned this Monster wreath a couple of years ago and decided (as another mode of putting off my sewing) to finally make it!

I thought it would be fun to put a little twist on the project and make Sully from Monsters Inc. I got 3 20 yd rolls of light blue tulle and 1 of light purple for this. I also bought foam sheets in white and light brown (for the horns), and of course Styrofoam balls for the eyes and the wreath itself. 

I followed the instructions in terms of tying on my tulle but strayed after that. Sully has normal eyes so I nestled mine into the tulle instead of on top of the wreath. I ditched the bow and added the horns instead. I also was careful to make sure my purple areas looks like spots. 

The horns are just glue gunned on. I still need to figure out teeth for my little Sully wreath (hehe I rhymed!). My previous attempts weren't great but Halloween is coming up so I might just hang him up and add teeth for next year.

More Cross Stitch

I finished the kitty from my last post! Dan was really trying to enforce costume work time so I waited about a week before starting another and got a lot of serious sewing in.

However, after about a week, a new project arrived in the mail and I needed a sewing break so I was excited to start on a new cross stitch. It was a jumble of colors but I made my own little cardboard thread organizers to help me get started. 

It's funny, cross stitch seems so similar to sewing but it's so much easier and more relaxing for me. I guess because with sewing, I don't have a plan. I don't know if it will turn out how I'm thinking. I just know what I'm shooting for and hope I hit it. With cross stitch, I have direction and a picture to go off - it's so much more straightforward. 

I also ordered some supplies for future cross stitch projects. I have a big plan for all of these and I'm excited to get them all done so I can share what it is!! Each one is a different size and difficulty so it's nice to have a small one that I can work on while commuting and a more complex one to do at home.

Well, that's it for craft posts for a while! This one had me finishing a lot of projects and the only thing on my plate for the near future are finishing all my top secret cross stitches. I'll definitely post again when those are done then so - if you hate these posts, you have a while until another one and if you love them, sorry, it's going to be a bit until there's another one. 

Nikki's Craft Corner: Duct Tape Bust, Gamora Costume, Paint Nite, and Cross Stitch Kittens

Even though this blog is mostly about food and wine and adventures, I think the real root of my interests is that I like to create things. Food is an easy outlet for this as it's something so necessary and the time to create an awesome dish is much less than most art projects. However, this past weekend, I found myself with a lot of free time so I decided to catch up on lots of the projects I'm working on now. I thought maybe it would be fun to touch base every now and then and show my readers what I'm creating.

 Duct Tape Bust

One of my projects involves sewing a pretty intricate top. We'll get to that later but I was having trouble with my sewing - it's so custom that I was continually trying to measure and pin things on my own body. It was pretty cumbersome to say the least so when I asked Facebook for help with locating a sewing bust in my size, I was directed to a site on how to make one out of duct tape.

It didn't take long to find a friend eager to tape me up. Especially when I threw in some bacon and coffee. So I bought a ton of duct tape and we got started. We even decided to make a little hyperlapse out of it.

Basically, it turned out pretty well, but I do have some tips!

It's good to provide some nourishment for your helper. As fun as it is to duct tape your friend, it's still a lot of work. You can also help them peel and cut the tape, something I was pretty useless at.

Make sure you take plenty of bacon breaks. If you do it on the hottest day in your city like we did, you are going to be warm and have trouble breathing so it's nice to have some minor comforts.

Lastly, be sure to size your bust. With all the layers of tape, any awkward fidgeting, and some of the stuffing - my bust ended up being a good couple sizes bigger than me. I suggest measuring it before you stuff it so you can cut out a few inches from the get go. We didn't do this so we had to go in for some bust surgery. It definitely has helped but some of the incisions are literally bursting at the seems which means more duct tape... which inevitably leads to the bust getting too big again.

Mostly though - just enjoy your fun and random project!! I think I'll still end up buying a bust in the future when we have the space for it, but this was definitely a quick and relatively easy solution to a problem I had. Duct tape really does fix everything.

Gamora Costume

Hopefully, by the next post I make, this will be done. I was one of the masses who fell in love with Guardians of the Galaxy so Dan and I are working on Star Lord and Gamora costumes respectively. This costume has had a few roadblocks for me already. First, many of my base supplies took forever to come in. Then, I had a lot of my own procrastination. Finally, I realized I had to buckle up and get it done.. only to realize that this was going to be really hard without a bust to hold up the costume. Now that the bust is done, I was able to battle a little procrastination and start making progress.

So far, I am really just working on piecing together all the things going on with the top. It's pretty intricate but I found some cool things to help. The bottom layer is a mesh top that I cut to fit appropriately. That's covered with a vest that is also cut. Her top matches her pants so I bought two pairs and I'm working on getting that layer pinned on. There is still a lot of embellishment to go on here and I'm not really sure how it's all going to fit together but it's getting there. 

Paint Nite Day

I am such a tiny person next to my boyfriend

One thing Dan and I really love doing when timing works out is Paint Nite. Basically, it's a happy hour where they show you how to do a simple paining. Each time we go, we wander away from the original painting more and more. As you can tell from above, we each came out with very different paintings. Both were pretty far from the original also. 

My favorite thing about it though - the further we get from the original, the more the instructors tell us how awesome our paintings our. I once I had an art instructor who gave horrible grades to anyone who couldn't recreate a Van Gogh  and the bad memory has stuck with me. It's really refreshing that Paint Nite gives you instructions on a paining but is supportive of anyone doing their own thing too. That's what art is supposed to be about.

Cross Stitch

Cross stitch is probably the nerdiest of all my crafting hobbies. That says a lot when the items above have cosplay costumes, duct tape, and Pac Man ghosts. I just love it though. It's something I'll do for a while and then forget and come back to it later. This kitty, in fact, is one that I started a long time ago and found recently. I'm almost done with it now and I have some more ambitious cross stitch projects to get to next. 

I'll be throwing another one of these posts up soon. Hopefully by then I'll have Gamora done, I'll be on another cross stitch, and I'll have some Halloween decorations going on. Happy creating everyone!