Halloween Costume Time!!!! Part 4 - The finishing touches

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAND WE MADE IT!!!!

This was a really long process of research on all sorts of cool Cosplay sites and 3D printing sites, but we are finished and all is AWESOME!

The (almost) finished helmets.  I still have to add the face shield and "skuff up" Boba Fett's helmet.

I used some clear face shields we had on hand, may go get some window tint for Halloween, but it will be dark, so I think the clear works for 10 yr old boys!

 

Jet pack and both helmets done!!!!

 

And, the Big show, at the 2021 Texas Renaissance Festival - 1001 Dreams Weekend

 

And, Jake and Liam meeting a fellow Mandalorian! 

When we took this picture we said "say this is the way" instead of "cheese" and he said it back and it sounded just like Mando!!!  Was so cool!!!  

So, that is IT!  I hope you enjoyed this journey just as much as I did!  I will now resume normal life and crafting and scrapbooking.  OH WAIT!  I have one more costume to make (Fennec) and I'll post when that's done too!

Halloween Costume Time!!!! Part 3 - 3D Printing

Last year, 2020, we purchased a 3D printer, with the initial use would be to print masks and face shield parts to donate for the medical community.  We had always wanted one, but never really knew much about them.  But, lots of people who had one were also printing stuff to help out, so we went ahead and got one.  We printed out masks and face shield parts for a few weeks, and were glad we could help out in some small way.

We then played around with our printer, enjoying the fun stuff we could do, printing things to help Dean, things to play with, and all that.  Then, after about 8 months, it clogged.  The feeder tube stopped feeding the filament, and it no longer worked.  We knew we needed to take apart the thing to see if we could fix it, but we "never got around to it".  Fast-forward to September 2021, we asked a friend who we know has a printer to print some Mando weapons for us since ours was broken.  He is a nice guy and of course offered to do that, and offered some suggestions to fix the old printer we have.  Well, we decided to give up on that and bought a NEW PRUSA 3D printer, and the quality of this thing is awesome!  We told our friend we got a new one and could print the guns, so we were off! 

  

This is Mando's "Amban phase-pulse blaster" (I had to look that up).  Dean found the pattern online for free so we went to town!

 

Here are the mando guns in progress!

Funny story. Liam (Jake's friend) asked if he was going to have "the back pack" for Boba Fett, and I said yes, if I have time, and had fully planned on making the thing out of cardboard and pipes.  HOWEVER, Dean found that pattern too!!!

 

This thing is huge, and really really cool!!!!

This is us priming the 3D prints after gluing them together.  Let me tell you, i'm not sure how people keep their 3D prints together, but we had the hardest time!  Superglue works, but one tap and it breaks, especially the blaster!  We will need to work on a solution for that in the future.

AND, after experimenting with paints, air brushing (I'll go into that once I get to the helmets again) and acrylic paint, here is the finished blaster!

Will post jet pack picture once I show you the helmet process first!

 

Halloween Costume Time!!!! Part 2 - Beskar Armor

To continue the EPIC costumes that are the Maldalorian...

Here we have the Armor for Mando primed and painted.  I used Plaid FX Flexible Acrylic Paint on this one.  It really turned out awesome!

Armor Pattern - this pattern is for Boba Fett, but I managed to change it up to look something like Mando's armor.  I used the pattern called "Complete Boba Fett Templates (WizardOfFlight Boba style Mandalorian plates – Downloadable)", should be the first one.

Here is Boba Fett's and Mando's "shirts".  I bought t-shirts from Hobby Lobby (since they are like under $3) and cut them to make something that a 10yr old boy would easily put on or take off!

 

This shoulder armor are my favorite pieces!  The Mandalorian logo is cut from vinyl on my cricut, the Mudhorn is from our new Prusa 3D printer.

All of the armor is attached using E6000 glue.  It does seep thru so be sure to glue it on paper or another surface you don't mind getting sticky.  Also once it's cured (48hrs) it's near impossible to remove!

In the Garage waiting for the glue to dry and cure.

All armor is cut from Black Foam Roll, primed and painted with Acrylic paints.  Fett's logos are all vinyl cut from my cricut.

Be back soon with the helmets and the weapons!

Halloween Costume Time!!!! Part 1 - Helmets

So, I pretend I'm a great customer maker. Like a cosplay level costume maker. I know I'm not.  HOWEVER I feel I'm close and getting better every year!

This year I talked my guys (my son Jake and his friend Liam) into being The Mandalorian (Din Djarin) and Boba Fett. I of course will be Cara Dune. And Liam's sister Missy into being Fennec Shand! It works because Missy's dad loves that character. Long story short, I told them I would make the costumes. This is a HUGE effort, but completely Awesome!

We started off by researching helmet patterns and how to do this thing. We found some excellent resources and got started!

This is Boba Fetts helmet in pieces. 

This is EVA 10mm compact craft foam. 

EVA foam Cutting tutorial - this lady is soooooo funny and super talented, so is her husband!  Enjoy!

Free Mandalorian Helmet Pattern and tutorial.

This took a lot of work to cut! Follow that tutorial if you don't have a bandsaw, and you can do it.  Be patient, have fun!

So, after going to the hardware store for supplies, and lots of dremmel to smooth the edges, I put the helmet together

half way there

Right side done!

ALL together now!!

The best part of this is I get to do it all over again with Mando's helmet!!

So after sanding with a Dremel and adding the extra parts and stuff, we have this

AND after sealing and priming...

And repeating the whole thing, we get Mandos helmet

I actually totally forgot to seal this before priming and you can see the caulk filler difference. So I sealed it it as is and primed it again. MUCH BETTER.

So, next step is painting. We just bought an air brush. Let's hope I can figure that out!!

Wine, Halloween, and other fun cards

Making cards is fun.  They are fun to send, and sending smiles is always a good idea.  I make a lot of cards just for fun to send to the Roadie RAK group on FB, and its a blast!

 I love making cards, especially with wine!  So why not make some cards ABOUT wine!

Ink Road Stamps - Inked Girls Robin

Paper from stash

Copic Markers

Distress ink and a small jar for the rings

At some point in my paper crafting career, I would go to Hobby Lobby and look thru the "dollar bin" and sometimes you would see nice things like clear stamps!  Thats where these came from.  I didn't use them much until now that I stamp and make cards often now, but they are so fun!

Copic Colors and Distress Oxide inks

Blending brushes

Lawn Fawn Peekaboo Backdrop Dies

Black cardstock and Bristol paper for ink blending

Again with the cheep Halloween stamps from Hobby Lobby 

Trick or Treat die cut using Cricut and System Fonts

Distress Inks

Sizzix Sequins and Beads Lovestruck

Its just a bunch of Hocus Pocus!

I have the "Full Moon" stamp set from Ink Road Stamps and had a bit of fun!  I love all the quotes from this particular movie, so it is now one of my favorites!

Ink Road Stamps - Full Moon

Neenah Solar White 110lb cardstock

Distress inks

A really cool Sizzix Embossing Folder

Gold Embossing Powder

VersaMark Watermark Stamp Pad

Orange Stickles
Black Cardstock

Kraft Cardstock

Gold Glitter paper - Marth Stewart
Ribbon from Michael's

I used the technique of putting ink on my embossing folder and run through my die cutting machine like normal on the background.  I did not like the way I inked it up originally, looked horrible.  But, then I inked up my stencil with black Distress Ink over the already inked panel and it came out like this!  How cool is that!

I added a fussy cut image from the stamp set inside.  FUN!

Here is another card, using the same Embossing folder but on some really OLD color core cardstock I've had in my stash for years.  Its where you have a black on top of a color cardstock.  when you emboss it, you can use a fingernail file to rub off the black to reveal the color underneath to make a really pretty background.

Ink Road Stamps - Full Moon

Core'dinations color core cardstock

Marth Stewart glitter and plaid paper

various stickles and a few sequins 

Black cardstock

White Embossing Powder

VersaMark Watermark Stamp Pad

Here is what the background looks like without anything on it.  Really fun technique.

Let's hope we have a great 2021 Halloween!!  I hope to make more soon!

Happy Halloween 2014

Well, this holiday was fun.  Getting Free candy (after buying more candy than we gave out) door to door is really great fun!  Jake is finally at the age where he knows what the holidays mean and what to expect, so he was really excited to be Captain America!  And, he brags to everybody he sees about it too!

Dean is doing well, we are going week to week at this point as we don't get results or any discussions with doctors but once a week anyway.  He has a follow up I believe this Friday.  I sure hope we have good news for the weekend.  We are praying he is home before Thanksgiving!

I just want to add that this was my first Halloween in many, many years that I didn't have a black cat.  Since we lost Pixel in May, I knew this holiday would make me a little sad.  He was my very special Halloween cat and as Jake puts it, he lives in my heart!

Jake got to wear his costume to school ALL DAY so he had fun and pretty much ate candy from the time he got up in the morning to the time he went to bed that night!

 

Captain America!!!  YEAH!  He gets the BAD GUYS and Has a SHIELD!

At school, one of his friends was dress quite like he was!

How cute are these two?!?

Let the fun night BEGIN!!!

Our neighbors across the street had Thriller playing.  Jake walked up to their house like a Robot Zombie, it was AWESOME!

First House!

Over Achievers! 

Under Achievers!  

This was actually quite common this Halloween.  We would go up to a highly decorated house and find a big bucket of candy waiting.  I'm assuming it was that the family was out Trick or Treating as well.  I hope it wasn't laziness. :)

So we went down our street, up and down another, and then tried one more street.  Half way through the 3rd street, Jake decided, he was finished.  So we headed home.  He did say OH, mommy, One More a few times.  And we would go to that house too.  His bucket was pretty full anyway.

FULL TO THE RIM BUCKET OF CANDY!!!

WOO HOO!!!

We were also able to enjoy a friend of mine's son's wedding reception this weekend.  It was a formal Indian Wedding Reception and a ROCKIN PARTY!  Wow! That was a lot of fun!

A friend of mine got him this traditional Indian suit to wear for some pictures over a year ago. He finally got to wear it out!

The food was delicious, but OMG SPICY!

Jake dancing his way into everybody's hearts! :)

I hope all of you had a very safe and FUN Halloween!