Shrinky dink puppy dog necklaces

Hello! I'm a bit unsure of showing you this project as they are gifts for some friends who may or may not be reading this ... well, if you receive one of these in the near future, just pretend to be surprised, ok? ~___^ I know cats are all the rage these days, and while I do have a soft spot for the neighbour's kitty who sometimes visits me, I must admit that I am a dog person at heart. So when I found a whole heap of puppy vectors, I knew I had to make something! I decided on necklaces because I really don't wear them a whole lot, but I am seriously tempted to make mine into a brooch. Which would kinda defeat the whole purpose of making necklaces ... Hmmmm, anyway.

To make your own puppy necklace, you'll need;
- shrinky dinks
- scissors and a scalpel
- a pencil
- silhouettes of puppies (I scaled mine to be the width of an A4 piece of paper and could fit two dogs on each sheet)
- an oven
- E6000 glue 
- jewellery findings, chain, and pliers

The first thing I did was print out my silhouettes and use my pencil to trace the shapes onto the shrinky dink sheet. I used white shrinky dinks, but they are not totally opaque so it's really simple to trace out the outlines of the dogs.

Then I started cutting out the general shape using my scissors. Keep in mind that shrink dinks can split pretty easily; I find that for corners, cutting from either direction into the corner is much neater than trying to cut in one direction all the way around.

 

I used my scalpel to cut out little details on the dogs, like the ears and a curly tail that would otherwise just look like a strange growth.

 

Once they are all cut out, erase any left over pencil marks and then pop them in the oven. I put my shrinky dinks onto a sheet of baking paper and baked them at the lowest setting.

 

And this is how they came out; it appears they've contracted boneitis. Oh dear! So, I repeated all the steps above, except this time I baked them on a tray, on a sheet of baking paper, with another sheet of baking paper on top, and another tray on top of that. Those puppies weren't going anywhere!

And they turned out perfectly, hurray! ^___^ Except that I was distracted while cutting out the second Husky puppy and forgot to use my scalpel to include his tail details. Opps. I think I'll need to keep him for myself and make another for my friend. I'll still love you, Husky-with-strange-growth-on-your-back! To give you an idea of size, the Husky is about 8cm wide and 7.5cm tall.

I also made a Beagle who is just a little shorter at 7cm tall ...

 

 ... and a Dachshund, who is longer (8.5cm) but also shorter at 4cm tall ...

... and a Labrador who is the longest at 9cm, and is also 7cm tall ^___^  I glued bails onto the backs of the dogs with the E6000 and then it was a simple matter of threading through some chain and adding the clasp.

 

I really like how crisp the plain white shrinky dinks look, but I think these would also look great as metallics. Golden retriever, anyone? ~___^

- Lisa xx

 

Lumpy Space Princess Cosplay

Hello! Today I can finally show you my finished LSP cosplay! Yay! I had so much fun wearing this costume, and a couple of people asked for photos and hugs which feels like the best kind of validation ~___^

Here's the whole costume - as one guy at the con described it "whoa, that's a lot of purple!". Yes, good sir, it is! ^___^ I spent a lot of time looking for the perfect purple dress to wear, but in the end decided that it would be easier to just make one. I apparently forget how difficult dress-making fairly regularly! ~___^ I'm lucky enough to have Rebecca as a friend as she not only made the pattern for the bodice, let me borrow her sewing machine, and held my hand through making this dress, but also sewed in the center back zip for me (I am awful at zips!). She is an absolute champion and I have my fingers crossed that she will blog about her amazing Marcelline costume soon (hint hint, nudge nudge ~___^). You've already seen my shoes, my belt was from my Hipster Wonder Woman costume, and my tights were purchased from a department store.

      

I ordered my wig from an ebay store, and I am so so happy with it. It's really beautiful and soft, and is really comfortable to wear! I'm quite tempted to buy a few other colours, I'm sure they'd come in handy ~___^

The star is a hairclip made from felt and glittery mod podge, with a clip glued to the back. The mod podge is great because it also makes the felt a bit stiffer, which means it doesn't feel like it's flopping all over your head ~___^

My necklace is made from shrinky-dinks and nail polish. I was inspired by Tatty Devine necklaces when I was planning this one; I'm happy with how this turned out, but I'm still considering buying a 'real' one ...

I originally coloured in my shrinky dinks with Sharpies, but I wasn't really happy with the intensity of the colours. However, going over them with glittery nail polish made them look brighter, shinier, and most importantly, sparkly! ~___^

I think that having a bag is a highly important part of cosplay, and I was a little worried that people wouldn't know who I was meant to be (although this didn't actually turn out to be an issue!) so I decided to make myself an LSP handbag. 

I used the same pattern that I used to make my LSP plushie, but I printed it out on A3 paper instead of A4 to make it a more generous bag size. I found the most amazing purple glittery vinyl at Spotlight and just knew this had to be the fabric I used - it's just so pretty! ^___^
 

Since my sewing machine is still broken, I hand stitched the bag together and used a lot of hot glue for most everything else ~___^ LSP's face is made from leather scraps glued onto the vinyl; I painted some black leather with gold paint and glitter mod podge (I'm getting a lot of use out of that tub!) for her star and her face is the same black leather unpainted.

Her arms are hot glued together as well, mostly because I'm a bit lazy and a little bit because I thought having no stitches would look nicer. 

The chain straps are connected to the bag via some very large metal rings and these little loops of vinyl that are sewed in between the two layers of the bag. I used a metre of chain for the strap and it's a great length.

The zip is also hot glued in and is mostly hidden by the flaps on the back of the bag. I used a vintage zip that I had in my stash which means that it sticks a little sometimes, but it was also free so I don't mind too much ~___^

 

Of course the best thing about cons is the merch, right? ~___^ I really love to pick up handmade things so Artist's Alley is my favourite area ^___^ I got this amazing watercolour illustration of Wonder Woman and also some button badges of Adventure Time characters and Catbug by Nic Lawson. ^___^ I also brought some wonderful hair bows and some more button badges, but unfortunately I didn't think to write down the store names so I don't actually remember who made them! >___<

I also got this Jubly-Umph tin necklace of an anatomical heart; I could have honestly brought so many of their pieces! 

 

And I lined up for a stupid amount of time so that I could meet John Barrowman - yay! It wasn't so bad because I made friends with some lovely people in the line around me, and he was very nice when I finally did get to the front of the line ^___^

I wish I could have met Ming-Na Wen as well, and there were a couple of panels that I wanted to go to that I couldn't; next year I'm definitely going for both days! ^___^

- Lisa xx