Waka Waka Waka Waka (Day 165)

After a trip to JoAnn's today, I finally got around to putting Pac-man into his final(ish) stages, or at least catching him up to Clyde. (Some of the pictures are funky colors or odd angles. Sorry D=)

Initially, I was shopping for iron-on letters, because to write both "CLYDE" and "PACMAN" I need two C's. However, I did not want to pay $9.99 for an entire package of letters, just to use one C. While looking at the letters in the store though, I realized that a C is just an O with a chunk cut out. I wish I had thought of that sooner. I still ended up walking out with a roll of fleece (requested by my mom), a bra extender (because I can't find the one my mom bought me, I think she stole it), two tubes of fabric paint (one blue, one white), and of course candy.

When I got home, I had my boyfriend try on the Pac-man shirt so that I could place the fruits, after which I began ironing on the letters to the back. For some reason, they did not want to stay on though. I ended up messing up a couple of them, but overall, it's not too bad..

While waiting for the letters to cool, I finished putting cardboard pieces together for the head and began covering it with fleece. I ran into a little snag though. Turns out yellow fleece is see-through. Who knew? The cardboard on the side I was covering was predominantly white, but had a navy blue oval and lettering on it. Luckily, I was able to cover both seamlessly with a sheet of printer paper cut to fit and hot glued in. Unfortunately, I'm not so lucky with the other side. In the process of making the head, I turned the cardboard into a grid with a black pen, and then drew where I wanted to cut with colored Crayola markers, both of which show through the fabric. Thanks to my mom's suggestion, though, I will be painting over it with white paint. It'll take a few layers though, because the marker bleeds through.

After messing with the lettering some more, I decided I was just making things worse and gave up. It's not like they're going to fall off, I just wish that the corners wouldn't peel so much. I tested out the fabric paint I bough on a piece of scrap fabric, and I rather like how it turned out. The white puffs up with steam, but I have to wait until it dries to test it. My boyfriend and I thought it would would look cool and give it a more intense 3D effect. I like the colors I ended up with too, I was worried that covering an entire pair of pants with an intricate design might be too distracting, but I think the colors are just dark enough to give a subtle effect, without blending into the black.

READ MORE - Waka Waka Waka Waka (Day 165)

Yay Mario! (Day 149)

I didn't work on cosplay today, but I was reminded why I cosplayed Mario. I played Super Mario World Wii with a member of my cosplay group. That game makes me love Mario Brothers all over again. It reminds me so much of the original games, which were my favorite, of course. Sure, it's a little different, but it's a challenging side-scroller with the same basic rules, and that's all that matters. ♥

That reminds me though! My group may have actually decided on a name! Well, we're choosing a=between a couple. Either "Cardboard Cutout Cosplay" or simply "Cardboard Cosplay", I came up with both (no one else bothers to think of things). I really want to use the word "cardboard" though. I feel like it metaphorically embodies everything that is cosplay. Using random materials in ways they were probably never meant to be used. Taking seemingly "garbage" and turning into something completely unrecognizable. I love the feeling of saying "Oh, yeah, I made this out of a toilet paper roll" and getting the response of "Whaaat?" or "Wow!" But "Toilet Paper Cosplay" just doesn't sound as good xD Theo nly reason I'm shying away from "Cardboard Cutout Cosplay" is that I don't want it to give the impression that "cutout" refers to what cosplays we choose or how we make them. We are not cookie-cutter replicates of other cosplay groups, we are our own group, we choose our own cosplays and our own ways of making them.

Anyway, yes, so far, two out of three of the other group members like it, the third hasn't heard it yet, as far as I know, so at this point, I'm thinking we are "Cardboard Cosplay", even though I'd rather it be three words -.- Ugh. I don't know xD This is exactly why we don't have a name yet.

READ MORE - Yay Mario! (Day 149)

Cardboard! (Day 148)

Mommy brought me cardboard =] That's all.

READ MORE - Cardboard! (Day 148)

I Loves Mah Clyde (Days 145, 146, & 147)

Things were slow after I got the fabric, I didn't really work on anything, but I finally worked on things today!

I essentially finished Clyde. I covered all of the outside with fleece, made and glued on the eyes, covered the facial opening with mesh, and added extra fabric as padding behind where my head goes. The padding helps keep the box upright when I wear it too.

I'm already very happy with the outcome. I love working with both cardboard and fabric, the result is always brilliant, in my opinion. My mom would be so disappointed, she's a paint purist.

I wish I could work on Pac-Man, but I need more cardboard. Mom said she'd bring it, but she keeps forgetting. So the next thing will probably be the clothes. The decision has been made to wear short sleeves, so I'll be buying those whenever I get the time and money.

READ MORE - I Loves Mah Clyde (Days 145, 146, & 147)

Ghosts have Skeletons? (Day 143)

I made the "skeleton" for my Clyde costume out of cardboard. I already love it. It's all pixel-y and old-school. Not to mention UNCOMFORTABLE! But I'll fix that later.

It's already turning out better than I had hoped though, and even though it's uncomfortable right now, it's easier to wear than I had originally thought too. It's bigger than I would have liked, but since my boyfriend and I decided to go with the pixel look, we decided 1 pixel = 1 inch, and each character is 14x14 pixels. Eh, it could be a lot worse.

I ran out of cardboard though, so I won't be able to work on Pac-Man until I get more. My mom says she has some at her work (she's an art teacher), but she doesn't go back to work until Tuesday.

I'm hoping to go to JoAnn's tomorrow to get the fleece I need. I need at least a yard of orange and yellow, and maybe a quarter yard of white. Then as little as I can get of a bunch of other colors.

I'm also hoping to get some white iron-on letters, but that's a sort of secret ;)

READ MORE - Ghosts have Skeletons? (Day 143)

Day 136

So being sick is no fun. Yeah. That's about it. I really wanted to get started on my and my boyfriend's Pac-Man costumes, but then I realized that in order to get the proportions right, we'll have to make them, or at least take the measurements, at the same time. So maybe some time this week.

These costumes could take anywhere from a week two three months, depending on how much money we have available and what style we're doing all of this in. The super easy way out would be cardboard, paint, and black clothes. Which, believe me, is tempting beyond belief. The harder but still ridiculously easy way is covering the cardboard with fleece, and then having black clothes. We really, really want to go with fleece. Just because we can, and it should looked cleaner and smoother than paint over cardboard. The hardest would be fleece over cardboard with black clothes that have the Pac-Man game grid on them. You know, the blue walls that you have to maneuver around in the game. I'm still working on ways to do that to shirts and pants and stuff, but I think that that detail would really help put our costumes over-the-top and make them stand out.

An option that we're not really considering is full-body cardboard suits, mainly because that is a lot of cardboard and a lot of work. Not to mention, it wont' be comfortable or practical at all, and I doubt we'd even be able to transport them to conventions.

READ MORE - Day 136