One Armed Bandit...For Now!

Sorry for the hiatus! I have been busy this past week!  I'll get right down to business! ha ha

I am 98% done my second piece to one of my costumes for Fan Expo!  I say 98% because I have to resew the one arm piece because I sewed it too big, then I have to sew the elastic piece on and glue the gear on. So I guess that would make it more like 95%, but I'm not very good at percentages.  Math is not my friend..but I digress...

I made arm sleeves.  (What else could I call them? they're not gauntlets, and they're not wristbands...anyway).  To do my arm bands, I first took a silver gear:

I used silver because I'm almost out of my gold and brassy coloured gears and figured there was something else I could use those for.  I painted the gears with a gold/brass paint mixture.

I was going to use a bit of chain that I painted up, but it wasn't going to work the way I wanted it to, so I nixed the chain from my final design.

This is what I was going to use, but when I put it around my wrist/hand the way I wanted it to go, it was too big.

 After I painted the gears and let them dry, I moved on to cutting pieces out of an old costume that I found at the free market (you can read about one of my excursions to the free market here).

Once the two pieces were cut, I pinned the fabric around my arm so that I could fit it snug around my arm.  I then sewed the ends together (removing the safety pins as I went of course).

I then tried the arm band on to make sure it fit.  It was the perfect size! 

The second to last step I did was to attach the elastic piece that goes around my finger (to keep the arm band on and immoveable).  I used the elastic pieces from another set of costume arm sleeves/bands that I wasn't going to use again and just sewed them on.

The last step was to glue on the gear so I just used some Crayola 3D glue that dried clear.  Once it was dry, I tried it on again just to make sure that everything was good.

Here is the final piece! I'm incredibly pleased with how it turned out!

I can't wait to get the other one fixed up so that I can have awesome arm bands/sleeves and then I can move on to other parts of my costume..like the corset!

Being crafty is awesome! And keeps me busy, what do you do to keep busy? Is it simply reading books? Is it playing video games? Sports? I'd love to hear what keeps you busy, who knows? I might find something new to try out!

People are ---->insert word here<-----

Today I think I will say people are interesting.  For now...

I say that people are interesting because I like knowing what goes on in people's lives (yes, I'm a bit nosy, but not horribly so) and how they react to different things.  Sometimes it's nice to know that you're not alone when it comes to an event in your life that is bad and changes it drastically.   It's nice to know that somebody else has come out of their bad experience because of the power of positivity.  It in turn can give you the positivity to look on the bright side of things and know that life is going to get better.

I watch vlogs on YouTube and the people I watch have all had bad things happen to them which they have shared with their viewers.  They have all come out of it with a positive attitude because of the love and support that their viewers and family have provided.

For instance, Cory Williams (smpfilms) went through a divorce .  Charles Trippy (CTFxC/InternetKilledTV) had a brain tumour and surgery to get rid of it last year and then this year, a couple of weeks ago, had two more seizures. Shay Carl (SHAYTARDS) and his family have gone through a couple big moves and the loss of their dog Malachi.  Their viewers, myself included give positive thoughts and comments, which helps them to cope with things.  It shows them that there are still good people out there. 

Wow, when did this blog become about positivity? ha ha! Seriously though, we all need some positivity in our lives, especially with the way the world is now. 

These vloggers have inspired me to try to be more positive (still working REALLY hard on it!) and to try new things (like this blog).

This may seem like a really random blog, but I just thought I'd share my nosiness (ha ha!) and my thoughts on positivity and how it can help change your life.

This blog has been brought to you by the words positive and positivity! (ha ha! Sesame Street anyone?)

I'm working on changing my life through the power of positive thinking.  Have positive thoughts made you change your life?

Colourful Improvement! :)

Remember this and how I said I was going to revamp it?:

If not, you can read about it here!  Well, I painted it! I know, not very crafty, but I like it!

First, I took out the drawers so that I could paint the outside of the unit (makes sense right?! ;) ).

 

I used paint that I had left over from various crafts.  For this project I used both acrylic and 3D paints, although  I prefer acrylic paints and use them more.  The acrylic paint worked a lot better than the 3D paint, but the 3D paint gave a nice shine as you'll see.

I used an Antique White acrylic paint to cover the outside.  It took about 3 coats.

I left most of the inside green because I wasn't sure if the drawers would fit back in there and move smoothly with paint covering the tracks.

Next I moved on to the drawers.  I decided to paint each quadrant 2 different colours.  The bottom two colours would be the same and the top two in the quadrant would be the same.

Such pretty colours :)

The yellow, light blue (looks kind of grey in this picture) and the dark blue were all the 3D paint.  The yellow and the light blue had 5 coats of paint on them and the dark blue had 3 coats.  The green, gold and bronze were all acrylic paints, which went on smoother and took only 3 coats.  The 3D paints were pretty tacky, so I would suggest waiting a little bit longer before putting your pieces together (for whatever craft you're using them for).

Are you ready for it? The final piece de resistance!:

I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out! Now I just have to figure out what fun things I'm going to put in the drawers!

What have you worked on recently that you're proud of? Training for a run? A craft? A school project?

Hmmmm

*in a singing voice* Bloggity blog blog blog blog, blog blog blog blog, oh when I get to blogging we all shall have a laugh!

ahem anyway, enough of that.  Let's get down to business, today I've been having a hard time coming up with something to write for the blog, along with being mildly busy.  Writer's block can happen, especially when you don't lead a very exciting life!

Oh! I know what I could talk about!  Fan Expo, a big convention in the big TO is happening in....128 days! I'm super excited!  It's a place to get your nerd on for sure! There's celebs from movies, TV shows, anime, comic books, games and this year they've added sports to the mix.  There is also an insane amount of vendors from which you can buy all sorts of things from the above categories.  Tons of awesome cos play (which Joe and I participate in) handmade by the people that wear the costumes.  It's a fantastic time and something I look forward to every year, and have since 2011 when Joe and I went to this convention for the every first time.  By the end of it though, we're so tired we're kind of glad to go home.  We end up with lots of cool stuff though, like autographed pictures and different stuff.  Last year I bought a Freddy Krueger pillow! The claws look like they're coming out of the pillow and ripping it:

See? Isn't it freaking cool?!

This is my favourite thing from last year!  The year before was actually getting to meet Robert Englund, my most favourite actor (he played Freddy Krueger!).  Not much can beat that!

Anyway....(I say that a lot, don't I? :S)

What do you look forward to?  The change of the seasons? Summer break/vacation?  A fun place (like a convention or Disney World)?

P.S. I know I'm a bit late posting this one lol

Today I went with some friends to a free market (yay free stuff!) that is organized and run by the local university.  I have gone there a couple of times but this was my biggest haul ever haha! Here's what I got:

There is a blender (perfect for smoothies!), a small storage unit, that was possibly used for tackle or nuts and bolts, a small brass planter, a native print container, a car organizer with a light, a big spool of thread (which I'm not sure what to use for yet), a candlestick holder with a snuffer, a double-sided Star Wars puzzle, a green citronella pail (minus the citronella candle now), and last but not least, a plastic fork/knife/spoon set that I'm going to keep in my lunch bag to use at work.

There are a couple of things I don't have in the picture and almost forgot about because I've already put them away.  They are: a pair of brown suspenders, which I thought would look great for a steampunk costume and a large piece of blue felt, which I thought would work great for doing my craft projects on.

Since I was looking for a better container for our toothbrushes and toothpaste and really liked the native print container, I decided to use that for the toothpaste and toothbrushes:

Isn't it cute? and yes, that is a little toilet soap dispenser 

I might jazz it up a bit still, since it looks kind of sloppy with how the brushes and toothpaste are lying.

The brass planter I decided would be the perfect vessel to hold the pens and pencils that I have lying around in my office.  So that's exactly what I used it for :) :

Perfect!

As for this little gem:

Sorry for the flash, I suck at using my camera and can never decide what setting looks best

I think I'm going to paint it, make it my own (and also to disguise the discolouration of the shelves).  I'm probably going to paint the outside of it (although I LOVE green) and the front of the drawers.  I haven't decided what colours yet, or if I'm going to do each section of 2 drawers one colour or two.  I'm sure I'll figure it out, but stay tuned! This is my new project :)

Have any of you snagged sweet stuff that you're thinking of transforming? Any spring projects on the go?

New here, but not to blogging

*in a Dr. Nick voice from the Simpsons* Hi Everybody!

My name is Crystal and I'm new to Blogger.  I have blogged a bit before,  but didn't have anything very interesting to write so my account went defunct.  This time is different! I'm planning on posting 3 blogs a week (ambitious I know!), on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.  This blog is meant to show what kind of crafts I've done but it is also a place for me to write down my thoughts and such. 

The title of my blog comes from the fact that I'm quite crafty (whether I'm good at what I'm doing or not is a different story! ha ha), I LOVE steampunk (and went to a con last year dressed in steampunk gear (ie my profile pic) and I'm a bit of a nerd (hence going to a con every year since 2011).

A little bit about myself: I've been married to my husband, Joe, for almost 5 years.

Here's a pic of us :)

I've done 7 years of post secondary school (I could almost be a doctor!), not all consecutively, there were a couple years that I took off, and I have 2 cats that are my fur babies.

Aren't they adorable?

Gabby is the white/brown/black one in the back, Trixie is the Tortie in front.

Anyway, that's enough about me for now! What about you guys? Tell me a bit about yourselves! Do you have a blog? I'd love to follow it!