Making Ezra Bridger Gloves

Mr E asked that Ezra Bridger from Star Wars Rebels Season 1 be his first cosplay that he makes himself.  As we are novices to sewing and prop making we decided that we should start with the easiest part of the costume first.

Before starting we did some research online including reading  blog, joining the Replica Prop Forum and asking a member of the 501st for hints; he told us to add CRL to our search when searching for info on any Star Wars cosplay, I am so grateful for that hint but the reason I am grateful will be revealed in a later post as it isn't about the gloves.

As this is E's first time making a costume we wanted to keep it simple but also have it be a journey in learning skills he will need to make other costumes, so we chose the gloves as a starting point as he could make them very simply with some Green Fingerless Gloves from Best & Less and add a triangle of Light Green Felt glued to the back of them with Helmar Fabric Glue.


I used some scrap packaging inside the gloves in case the glue went through the fabric, though the glue did not go through which was good, I would still take this precaution if doing it again.

To get a approximate idea of the approximate size the triangle of felt needed to be.
I cut a triangle to this size and then trimmed down as needed.






E applied the Helmar Fabric Glue to the underside of each triangle.
A 2 handed job due to his hand issues but a good way to help build his hand strength.  I love it when a craft supply is useful for his Occupational Therapy.

He set the gloves aside to let the glue dry.

And here are the finished gloves.
He is so happy with how they turned out.

This was a great way to get him crafting for his costume without feeling overwhelmed.

Next project is Ezra's jacket.

Rethinking toy purchases and toy purging.

Apparently I missed hitting publish on this post I typed up 6 months ago, hubby is currently on long service leave so we are hoping to finish this big project that caused this rethink on purging toys and craft supplies soon.

We are in the midst of completely reorgnising majority of our home, I rethought how we use our home last year, we only sleep in bedrooms and the rooms used as a office/craft room and a therapy/playroom were the 2 hottest in the house during the day in Summer and Coolest in Winter during the day (post coming when we finish) so we now have the boys sharing a different room as they only sleep in there and the room they were in is now despite being a bedroom our new office/craft/therapy/play room as during the day it is the coolest in Summer and warmest in Winter.

I do like the rule "Anything not used in 6 months purge." however since we started our journey with Occupational Therapy for myself and the kids I have realised the important value of many toys and craft in building fine motor and gross motor skills and changed the way I purchase toys and the way I purge.
So when purchasing I think about if this toy can improve fine or gross motor skills, when purging any toy if it can improve fine and gross motor skills even if it has not been used in 6 months I will not get rid of it.

The kids get very bored with their therapy and getting things needed is expensive so I am always thinking about what I have already including craft supplies and toys as to whether they will suit the outcome the exercise is geared towards for example Scrapbooking Punches are now part of the therapy budget as the motion using certain brands is a motion the OT wants them doing to build wrist strength as a example.

We do not refer to it as therapy but play or craft time or just let's have fun.

In addition to Occupational Therapy Art Therapy is also very important when you are in pain and Distraction Therapy so here is a list of some of the toys I won't purge, of course there are many toys that need to be in our Therapy Room that we don't have just yet or that I have neglected on this list.


Lego - the collection is huge, the boys get Lego from friends and family for Christmas and Birthdays, they inherited their Dad and Uncle's collection but Lego is great for fine motor skills, distraction, of course is great for creating and building.
Play Doh, Air Dry Clay, Plasticine - the OT gave them specific exercises with Play Doh and I try to get them to create a creature or something with it to make it fun.
Board Games - particularly those that require dexterity like Kerplunk, Operation, Wiggle Giggle, Pick Up Sticks, etc.  And kids can create new games with the supplies by making games up.  We have other Board Games also so that we can mix it up to keep it fun.
Marbles - flicking marbles can be good for exercising certain muscles in the fingers.
Toy cars and Hot Wheel Tracks - putting the tracks together involves dexterity so helps with fine motor skills.
Dress Ups - great for imagination and distraction, of course at 9 and 10.5 they are getting a bit old for the dress ups they have so Cosplay is on the horizon.


Transformers - transforming them from robot to car, truck, plane is good for dexterity.
Rainbow Loom - the recommendations for us are create something small every 3 days or so, so a charm or part of a bigger item, over doing it can aggravate things but the movement is very helpful for building certain muscles in the hands.  Our collection has grown quiet quickly.  Assisting with their first 3D item allowed my dislocated carpel knuckles to go back in, so it is on my must do list also.
Model Kits - again the dexterity involved is useful for improving fine motor skills and can be a pleasant distraction as they put it together and paint it.
Fun card games like Munchkin can be great for distraction when you are in pain as they are always funny.
Water Guns, Nerf Guns, Squirt Bottles - great for fine motor skills and lots of fun but of course safety guidelines are important.
Dominos - great fun to play the game and build with.
Silly Putty - squeezing it is great for building hand strength.  That reminds me I need to buy some more.  Stress balls will also work.
Action figures/Dolls - great for distraction via using their imagination to tell a story or something with the figures.

Keeping a child engaged when they can't attend school

This is my experience with my 10yr, I went through a similar situation when my nearly 20yr was 16 and did things very differently, for her we switched to home schooling through Brisbane School Of Distance Education but my son did not want to leave school and his knee will heal so I felt it was important to keep him in his school and keep him engaged and as up to date with school work as possible.
I signed him up with Startlight Foundation's Livewire program so he can talk to other kids, got work from his teacher, and moved my study supplies out from the office to one end of the dining table so I can study while he is doing schoolwork, and a few craft supplies at the other end though I did very little crafting while keeping him engaged.
This may not work for everyone but I thought it may help someone when their child is stuck home due to injury or illness.
Here are pics of the set up of our dining table while this has been going on.  He has been off school for 7 weeks now.

How everything is stacked so the table can still be used by Mr 10, Mr 8 and one other when eating.
It is a mess but it is what we have needed for these 7 weeks, usually all of this has a home somewhere else.
The rainbow loom supplies are for hand therapy.
In the future I will use Magazine holders along the back of the table for everything.

How I lay out what Mr 10 is doing, ready for him (his hand splint is covering his name).
I only have 3 chairs at the table despite it being a 6 seater, one each end and one along the side he sits, the empty space where he sits is to accommodate his wheelchair he is temporarily using.

The stack of Mr 10's school work including sketching supplies for art time, 2 math books, grammar and a folder full of print outs his teacher emails me for him to do.
He has also done some card making during art time.

His schedule, I took what information I had about how things run at school and created this. 
I have also put each item into the calendar app on the Ipad so a alarm goes off to alert him and others who may be in the room when I am not when it is time to move onto the next activity. 
During free time he is allowed to do anything he would do at school during free time that he is currently able to do.  This is about him feeling he is still having a fairly normal day, as normal as it can be given the circumstances.

He is very excited to go back to school.
I would love to hear from teachers for any ideas on ways I can keep him engaged.
Also other parents who have had a child unable to attend school for a long time but could utilise distance education.

The need of a hand splint in addition to a pencil grip.

A few months back in one of the support groups I am in a Mum was trying to figure out how to help her child's pencil hold and many were telling her to just go buy any old pencil grip from the stationary store.  Her child had the exact same hold as Mr E so I shared these photos with her and our journey with trying to assist Mr E's and Mr C's hand issues that they have due to their EDS.
I thought I would share some of this with you in case a child or person in your life is having issues with their pen/pencil hold and may or may not have hand pain.
 Disclaimer:  I am just a Mum of kids with EDS, I also have EDS and Dyspraxia and my 17yr tests positive to Dyspraxia, I and my 19yr have Fibromyalgia and Orthostatic Intolerance.  Posts about our experiences, I am not a medical professional, I can only speak of our experiences and what has/has not worked for us.

This is Mr E's pencil hold without any assistance, those bendy EDS make pencil control difficult but it also means he and his brother have a lot of hand and wrist pain from writing and drawing, their writing speed is not where it should be for their age and they are not able to write at the neatness level expected at their age.
We do lots of Occupational Therapy focusing on Fine Motor Skills at home.











Both boys have had many different pencil grips over the years and none fully corrected the issues they had.
This is Mr E's current pencil grip, it is hard to see due to the umbrella part of the grip but his finger tips are still bent backwards.
The need for a custom hand splint for each boy was apparent from early on but finding a Hand Specialist was a challenge.  The first one we saw misdiagnosed a issue with my daughter's hand and said some things that showed me he had limited EDS knowledge.  Then I found the wonderful Olga (she is a Upper Limb Specialist) and she made a custom splint for each boy and had Coralee bring her cello in and play for her so she could make a splint that would correct the issues she was having without impeding her playing.



 
Here is Mr E just using his splint without his grip.  As you can see he still bends his index finger in a funny way but the thumb is improved, this is important as both boys have had their thumbs get looser in the 12 months before getting their splints so they need the thumb support.
 



Here is Mr E wearing his splint and using his grip.
It is hard to see but no joints are bending in the wrong direction.  YAY.
It can take lots of trials to find the right grip, but even the best grip for the person may not be enough if they need a splint.





Here is Mr E and Mr C's splints.
Thought they both have issues with their hands, most especially the thumb joints the issues are different and require a different splint.
The plastic that Mr C's is made of is heat sensitive so it can't be left in the sun or the car, the same applies the the hard part of Mr E's.
They have held up really well to the battering they get from a 8 and 10yr boy at school.



So my advice is if a child or person has issues with their pen/pencil hold seek advice from Hand Specialist/Upper Limb Specialist.

My first Art Journal Page

I know that the next subject I will do in my Diploma involves keeping a Journal which is something I have always struggled with.
Even journalling in my scrapping is something I struggle with.
It was ingrained in as a teen and young adult to not record my hope and dreams, my feelings, events, etc as some may read it and there could be consequences.
I feel it is important I overcome this as reading through old journals are great when you are older, or for your kids when you are old, ill or gone.  Downer but true.
I feel journalling is as important as photos if not more but I just can't do it.
Last year I started looking at Art Journalling but didn't venture into it.
This year I have jumped in I have joined Documented Life Project 2015 that is through Art Of The 5th and Journal Journey 2015 Driver Reviver.
I have used the prompts/challenges/techniques from both to create my first page.


One of the prompts from Documented Life was book paper, at first I couldn't find the old damaged book I had set aside in my craft area (things have been moved around a lot over Christmas), so I thought thank goodness I haven't recycled the boys old school books yet.
I sorted them into various piles of usefulness and decided the boys should join me on this journey.

So I decided to upcycle books that either had not been used or only had a couple of pages used (they stick a lot of things in their books at school so ones with lots of things already stuck in wouldn't work).
I glued the books together and my next step is to glue 2 pages at a time together to give them a thicker surface, then they can gesso and start creating.
I have used a mix of Year, 1, Year 2 and Year 3/4 books, the lines aren't important as they will be covered. 
I wont be creating a cover until later in the year as I want to be sure they won't need a fourth book added.
I keep books from the year before for them to use up any left over pages for their Occupational Therapy.  C's 3/4 books from the last 2 years will be used by Enow as C is going to need Year 5.  E used C's old Year 2 books last year.  No idea why Year 1 were still in their collection.



The first technique for Journal Journey Driver Reviver involved Crayon Resist and the prompt was White with 2.
Here are the tags created used this, I wasn't happy with the one on the left so used the same stamps again but then loved my first one.






Following the book paper prompt I used part of E's homework from one week last year, some paper from a Year 1 book, paper from a damaged book, part of the Australian School Holidays section of a 2015 diary, part of a personal information page from filofax inserts, the word List from my November To Do List and Music score paper from my daughter's book she composes in (I couldn't bring myself to tear anything out she had written on).











I added a larger version of the Journal Journey Driver Reviver prompt to my Documented Life prompt, using the same colours as my tags as I intended to use a tag on this page.
I had difficulty inking directly onto the page.















I added my tag, some coordinating washi and my Goals (the other prompt from Documented Life) and was calling this finished.

















But I felt it needed bling so I added some bling to it.


















This was so much fun and very therapeutic.
I used to think I wasn't creative or artistic until I found scrapping but even then with the use of tools discovering I was creative I didn't think I could call myself artistic since I can't draw (due to my hand issues) but through this I am starting to realise it doesn't matter that I can barely draw a stick figure we all have a artist inside us we just have to find a way to let that artist out.
If you have never tried this, give it a go, just play and create and enjoy yourself.

Rainbow Looming with my boys

The boys Occupational Therapist recommended they do Rainbow Looming at our last session so at first I just got them a starter set and 2 extra packs.
Their hands have gotten weaker over the last year so OT is being upped.
Mr 8 needed a fair bit of help mastering the basics with how weak his hands are but we had fun making bracelets.
As with all their OT things having to do it makes it then become boring or a chore (just like Play Doh, Kerplunk, pick up sticks, and the list goes on), so they lost interest.
I utilised Youtube to show them all the cool stuff they can make.  Including Minecraft stuff, Marvel Superheros, Dr Who, etc.

I used every pink in the starter set making a Minecraft Pig to show them they could do it and this got them excited.  Follow the link to the tutorial I followed.

The following day I went to my local stockist where I got the starter set and 2 extra packs (which at this time only the kids had used the extra sets not myself silly me), the staff had told me the loom band packs were Rainbow Loom brand that was re-branded for their chain.  I had a list of 7 colours needed to make all the Minecraft stuff they wanted to, this didn't include colours for Marvel or Dr Who.  They had a special, Buy 10 packs and get a starter set for 1cent so I grabbed 3 more in addition to the 7. 
Here is a list of what I bought: Navy, Sky Blue, 2 Black, 2 Dark green, Red, Pink, Cream & Brown.
I sorted out the mixed pack that came with both starter sets and put red with the red from the extra packs I bought, black with the black from the extra packs I bought, etc.
I then set to work making a pig with the pink and that is when I discovered the lie of the stockist.  These bands were very inferior (they charge above RRP for genuine for knock offs).  They snap really easily (which is dangerous) and have a different feel to them.
I have sent a complaint to the Stockist head office and to Rainbow Loom.
I was able to separate off the knock off pink from the genuine as there is a slight colour variation but I can't sort the black and red as they are identical and well I bought 2 extra packs of each so there are a lot of bands to sort through.

 

 It is great having 2 looms, I set my laptop up on the dining table and Mr 8 and I had a loom each, we did each step together to make a pig each that way when he had difficulty I knew exactly where he was up to and how it should look so I could fix it for him, there were a few steps he needed me to do as they were too difficult for him but he did 90% of his pig himself and he is very proud of his pig.  He used the knock off bands in this project as it was while making this that we discovered they were knock offs and I sorted the genuine from knock off pink.

Here is the Video of My Budget Loom Band Storage.
I have since added a monster loom and I have sorted the mixed pack from it into individual colours so now there are snack bags on top of the knock off bands with the genuine in for the boys to use and I will use up the knock offs making things so there is no risk of one snapping and hitting a child in the face (wearing glasses while I work with them).

How my storage looks now when I take off the lid.
The insert from the Monster Loom packaging has the Monster loom, hook, a project Mr 9.5 is working on is currently still hooked into the blue part in the section with the plastic cover.  This section also has the re-purposed ziplock bag of used bands for practicing.

 Second layer.
This photo shows more clearly the genuine bands stored on top of the knock offs in the opposite direction.
Rainbow Loom insert holds a Rainbow Loom, tool and all the c and s clips that came with the kits and extra bands.

 Final layer.
Knock off bands (and the red and black that I can't sort the genuine from the knock off), Rainbow loom, tool and in the compartment with the plastic cover all the spare hooks that came with the extra bands.

The genuine bands from sorted by colour, not many red and black due to the mix up but all the other colours are from the 3 kits.









Super cute Minecraft Creeper Pencil Hugger I made to get the boys even more excited, click on the link to see the tutorial I followed.
















They have a long list of things they want me to help them make and I have fallen in love with How To Loom Your Dragon
I am a little worried I may wind up lacking time to do other things I need to due to all this looming.