Shopping for our Steampunk Costumes.

I hope you have enjoyed my Steampunk posts.  I wanted to share with you the op-shop buys we made for our costumes.

When the boys friend asked them to join him in participating in the first Steamfesta we jumped at the chance as Steampunk is something we have always wanted to give Steampunk a go.

Our 2 families went on a initial op-shop tour together to find items that would suit a Steampunk Costume for each family member wanting to participate.  On that tour we found a couple of items but we still had a lot we needed so I spent my op-shopping over the next few weeks looking for items and over the course of a month I found E a vest, a lovely blue shirt for C and for myself a skirt, blouse, tank top to go under my blouse and a lovely black shawl.

For shoes C was ok as he had a pair that would suit but E and myself needed some suitable shoes so we went to Rivers during a big sale and scored boots that would suit our costumes for $17, that were comfortable and supportive. 
E's serve a double purpose as they are perfect for the Ezra Bridger cosplay he is working on, it is always great when a item can serve multiple costumes as well as every day wear.

Other purchases were supplies to decorate my Hat, safety googles to turn into Steampunk Goggles, cogs and gears on ebay as I didn't have enough, various trims for decorating the various projects we would be creating including my Handbag, supplies to try making Spats and last minute I would buy some Sunglasses to alter.

The boys also altered Nerf guns we had in our Nerf stash to enhance their costumes.

I love this gorgeous photo Paul Aurisch Photography took of the boys and I.
I just wish I wasn't slumping but pain levels were high which makes my propreconception much worse.









Here I am with my friend Ruth (I am the one wearing the shawl), isn't her costume amazing?

I am really happy with how the boys and my costumes turned out and my budget is happy too.
 
If you want to get into costuming but worry about the cost just remember Cosplay and Steampunk don't have to be expensive and depending on the requirements of a particular costume you may even be able to select some pieces that you can wear as everyday clothing.
So go check out those op-shops for items to start a costume with.  It's a lot of fun and is a great family hobby.

Steampunk Goggles and Sunglasses - Helmar Creative Team

Today I am sharing with you the Steampunk Googles and Sunglasses the boys and I made for Steamfesta.
As the boys and I were working on our projects at the same time I don't have photos of everything but I wanted to share with you how we made some big goggles with safety glasses from Bunnings and Pringles Cans and then some photos and details about E's toilet roll goggles and my quickly made Sunglasses.
We focused on the boys Goggles first as they were both volunteering at a promotional event and needed at least a pair of Goggles each so we searched Google Images for ideas, watched and read some tutorials and then just played with our collections of bits and pieces and Helmar Glues until we had projects we were happy with.  My Sunglasses would wind up being a last minute thing 2 days before the event as C was having a creative block with his Goggles so we decided I would take over finishing them and he would do Sunglasses but the Goggles didn't suit my costume so once finished and he loved the Goggles we switched.  This has been a creative journey and I wanted to explain how we would up where we did.
First we grabbed together our supplies.  We weren't sure what we would use but having it all out ready was important.
Helmar 450 Quick Dry Adhesive
Helmar Premium Craft Glue
Helmar Gemstone Glue
Helmar Fabric Glue
Paint
Gesso
Watch parts
Cogs and Gears
Pringles cans
Safety Glasses
Toilet Roll
Cutting Mat
Craft Knife
Picture Frame Hanging bits
Brads
Trim
Yogurt Pouch lids
Medication bottles
Physiotherapy/Yoga tubing.

For the Safety Goggles/Pringles Can Steampunk Goggles we cut down the Pringles cans and used the tops.
C adhered them to the Safety Goggles with Helmar 450 Quick Dry Adhesive.

Once the glue was dry C gave the Safety Goggles and Pringles cans a coat of gesso followed by Black paint and then he added metallic paints over these, at first just using a brush and then rubbing with his fingers as this got better results.
And this is when C got stuck, he wanted his Goggles to have certain aspects that created a creative block for him so they sat waiting to be finished for a few weeks until 3 days before the event I asked if I could take over finishing them and instead he Steampunk some metal framed Sunglasses by adding watch parts to them.
Photos are limited of this next stage as I needed both hands and couldn't use my camera while doing them, but I will talk you through how I did it.
I started by adding some grey trim like the brown trim I used on my Steampunk Handbag that I had rubbed gold paint on, adhereing it around the Goggles where the Pringles Cans meet the Safety Goggles to hide the seam I used Helmar 450 Quick Dry Adhesive to adhere this to my Goggles.
I then added cogs and gears in the bridge of the nose section using Helmar 450 Quick Dry Adhesive to add some cogs and gears to this area, starting with a wood veneer one I had painted to bring it up to the level of the trim.

Next I painted some Physio/Yoga tubing with some black paint and then with gold paint and figured out how I could attach it to my Goggles but poking one end into the bridge of the nose section so it was adhered both down to the Goggles and the gear and trim with Helmar 450 Quick Dry Adhesive.  I then worked out a pathway for this smallish piece and adhered that down with Helmar 450 Quick Dry Adhesive adding a Yogurt Pouch Lid I had painted with black paint and then rubbed gold and silver paint to on top of the tubing with a lot of Helmar 450 Quick Dry Adhesive.

I then added another tiny bit of the Physio/Yoga tubing as the Yogurt Pouch Lid needed something else under the other side and adhere it down where it looked like it should go.
I then hid imperfections with Cogs and Gears.
To finish off I painted my dry glue first in black and then adding metallic pain to make what what visible look like welds.

 While I was working on decorating the Goggles C worked on the Sunglasses.  They turned out so cute.
He used Helmar 450 Quick Dry Adhesive to adhere the watch parts to the bridge of the nose as he forgot the Helmar Gemstone Glue was on the table next to him.







And our third pair of Goggles are E's toilet paper roll Goggles which he made while C was making the base of his Safety Goggles/Pringles Can Steampunk Goggles.  I have only one photo from the creation process but I will talk you through it.
E cut the toilet rolls into the needed shape with the help of a adult and cut some strips to add rims around the Goggles and a piece for the bridge of the nose.
He adhered the rims and nose piece to his Goggles with Helmar Premium Craft Glue.
He painted his Goggles first with a base of black and then bronze, brass and silver.
He then added some picture hanging bits to the sides of his Goggles with brads and threaded some of the brown trim I used on my handbag through the picture hanging bits.  Adhering the Trim back on itself with Helmar Fabric Glue.

He then adhered various watch parts to his Goggles with Helmar 450 Quick Dry Adhesive.
They turned out so cute and look perfect on his hat.

FraserPop 2.0 - What we loved.

As FraserPop 3.0 is just days away.  We are getting really excited and I realised I haven't finished my FraserPop 2.0 blog posts so I wanted to share some of our experiences of this awesome event last year.  

We loved FraserPop 2017 and were so excited to hear the staff say it was such a huge success they  would be making it a annual event, so as soon as the dates were announced for 2018 I put it in my diary.
FraserPop 2017 was our first con and definitely something we hope to attend every year.
2018 didn't disappoint, it was bigger and better, the students and staff did a fantastic job.  If you haven't been I highly recommend attending in 2019 which is going to be much, much bigger from the posts so far.

At FraserPop 2.0 one of the new things was The Store Of Requirement setting up in the room they used for the Doctor Who display in 2017.  This room is perfect for getting that Hogwarts feeling in a small space.  The boys enjoyed some Butter Beer and E bought himself some Gryffindor robes and a tie.
You can see my layout about the Butter Beer here.

It was really hard to get a good photo to show just how perfect this space is for this set up.  Hopefully I can get one this year.

Day 1 of FraserPop 2.0 E wore his Sans cosplay that he wore to Supanova 2017, he added pink slippers to it to finish the look.  And C wore his 11th Doctor cosplay.

Day 2 the boys wore their 10th and 11th Doctor cosplays.
As C was growing his hair to donate it was at a length that was impossible to style how it was needed but he made do. His donation happened at the end February and he is feeling much lighter now, and looking forward to being able to style his hair at FraserPop 3.0.

When having some food we wound up sitting next to a family whose son was cosplaying The Empty Child so we got a pic of the 3 boys together.

At FraserPop 2.0 they created a prop room which had all the Doctor Who stuff they kids had created including some wonderful new items like K-9 and Darleks as well as props from a wide variety of Pop Culture like Stranger Things, Goonies, Indiana Jones, Game of Throwns, etc.

They created a transportation display which included the TARDIS the students built in 2017, a SHIELD vehicle, Delorian, Herbie Beetle, etc. 

This year there will be a Batmobile. 

Brick Events set up a fantastic Lego Display and came back later in the year to do a full event at Maryborough State High School.

There were so many fantastic vendors this year, they had to have stalls outside the Gym as well as inside.  It was fantastic.  Make sure you check out the vendors this year as there are so many talented local artists who do stalls at this event.

Other things we enjoyed included The Sons of Obiwan Saber Academy, 501st Redback Garrison, Laser Tag, VR, watching the Cosplay competition.  We missed out on tickets to the Mad Hatter's Tea Party that inspired my costume, I am hoping to get tickets this year to take my Granddaughter to it as my daughter and Granddaughter are visiting for FraserPop 3.

So do yourself a favour and check out FraserPop 3 this weekend, you will have a lot of fun.

I will post about my Cheshire Cat Cosplay I wore to FraserPop 2.0 soon, so watch this space.

Steampunk Handbag - Helmar Creative Team

Steampunk has been something the family and I wanted to give a go for a while and for many years I have been saying to my steampunk enthusiast friends that Maryborough Qld is a perfect location for a Steampunk event so when Steamfesta was announced naturally my family and I wanted to participate.


This is the first of several posts I will be sharing over the next couple of months detailing the items we made for our Steampunk costumes.  
I didn't get photos of everything as the boys and I were working on our projects at the same time, during any free time we had in the weeks leading up to the event.
Some photos taken on the day may reveal upcoming post content. 

I wanted to start by sharing my Steampunk Handbag with you.  I knew I was going to need a bag with me on the day and I had this lovely leather bag that had lots of awesome space inside that I had found in a op-shop last year which had broken strap attachments and I thought it would be a perfect way to fix it by turning it into a Steampunk Handbag as I could use my embellishments to hide the damage and repairs.


My first step was to cover the back of the magnet closure and the logo with cogs.  I felt this was the easiest way to start and to start getting the feeling that this would work.
I used Helmar 450 Quick Dry Adhesive to adhere my metal cogs and gears to my bag and to each other.

Now it was time to work out what to do about the broken top strap.
I decided to use a scrap of trim and some cogs and gears to reattach the strap and hide/blend it all in with cogs and gears.
I rubbed some gold paint with my finger over some brown trim to add some detail to it and then used Helmar 450 Quick Dry Adhesive to adhere my to attach the trim and my cogs & gears.

And now for the side.
The way the strap attachment had come completely off there was no way I could fix it in the timeframe and skill level I had so I chose to hide it.
I used Helmar 450 Quick Dry Adhesive to adhere some more of that brown trim and then some skinny gold trim over the entire section that the remaining piece was attached to.    Now there is no sign of how broken it was.

I looped some chain through the remaining side strap thing so that it looked like it had a purpose and call my project done.
I love how it turned out but when I have time I will add some other bits to it as I have had some more ideas since finishing the project but not had the time to implement them.  For now I have a functional bag that I can use at Steampunk events or even as a everyday handbag.

Easter Stargazers - Helmar Creative Team

On Easter Weekend 2016 we decided to watch something we had missed when it was live (I love that catch up TV means we can watch things when it suits us) so Easter Saturday we brought up the Stargazing Live event with Professor Brian Cox and so began a day filled with pausing iview so hubby and the boys could discuss some Astrophysics.  It was a interesting day, especially seeing E start to expand in his enthusiasm and knowledge for this topic and was just another step in my journey as a person with multiple Astrophysics enthusiasts in my life.


I really wanted to tell this story in my album, as I don't have photos of us on the day I thought a good way to do this would be to scrap a photo of the Hubble Space Telescope  and a photo from the Hubble Space Telescope that my husband and boys love, the Ultra Deep Field 2014.
The photos from the Hubble Space Telescope are public domain which is just so awesome as it means my boys and hubby can surround themselves in their favourite photos, for example Hubby's work diary has dividers made from some of his favourite photos.


To create my layout I grabbed out a selection of Space themed scrapping supplies in my stash and started playing.

I decided I wanted to matt my photo on some of this shimmery navy paper I have in my stash and that I should have a border of it around my layout too.  I thought the border would be perfect for my journaling but I wanted to be sure it would fit before I started so I grabbed my gold gel pen and wrote my journaling around the edge of my 12 x 12 shimmery navy paper.  I cut out the middle by leaving 1 inch all the way around.



I selected a background paper from the Carta Bella Space Academy pack that I bought from Aunty Vera Scrap and Craft last year, I went with Racing Rockets as I love the Solar System map on the back.
I needed to trim it so it wouldn't cover my journalling and I started by first trimming 3/4 inch off the bottom and 3/4 inch split between the 2 sides to get a 11 1/4 inch piece.  I then checked it wouldn't cover my journalling and trimmed another sliver off the bottom and side.

After some playing I decided to make the Hubble Space Telescope itself the main feature photo of this layout.  I matted it on some of the shimmery navy paper and then I started layering.  I had a small scrap of this gorgeous paper from my Crafter's Choice Galaxy paper pad so I wanted to save what was going to be behind my photo and I cut a little window out.

I added a scrap of the star paper from my Scrapping Fun Kits April 2018 kit and another layer of the shimmery navy paper and then I decided to use my husband's favourite Hubble Space Telescope photo as layer so I trimmed out what would be behind my layers, applied some Helmar Acid Free Glue to the inner edge so I could play with my layer cluster to get it just right.
I then applied Helmar Acid Free Glue around the outside of the back of my cluster and through the middle to ensure I would get all my layers adhered down.

For my title I decided on Easter Stargazers.  I decided to use some very useful Ruby Rock-It chipboard alphas and paint them gold to pull it all together with the journalling.

I adhered my chipboard alphas down with Helmar 450 Quick Dry Adhesive.

For the Stargazers part of my title I used a sticker from the sticker sheet from Carta Bella's Space Academy pack. 
I needed to adapt the Stargazer sticker to say Stargazers so I stuck a S from some old Basic Grey alphas so some white cardstock and trimmed it.  I then stuck this and the sticker down to a scrap of that shimmery navy blue paper and roughly cut around it.

As my Easter was thick chipboard I felt Helmar Liquid Scrap Dots was my best option for adhering down Stargazers as it would mean I cn adjust the height easily to suit my chipboard alphas.  I applied several dots along my word and at the S and g I added a extra on to ensure the full length of the letter would be supported.

I love how it sits up perfectly with my chipboard alphas.













My photo cluster covered over a planet on one of the outer circles so I decided to add this cool wood veneer planet I got from Corbett Creations last year to my layout as well as the cute stars that came in a pack with it.

Now that I was happy with everything I needed to adhere it to my journalled boarder but my Helmar Liquid Scrap Dots were still drying so I ran some Helmar Acid Free Glue around the inside of the journalled paper and then put down my main paper.

Using Helmar Glue gave me the wiggle room I needed to get this perfect without having to possibly rip my page if I didn't get it perfect first time.  And best of all I know my project will last a lifetime.

Fortnite Birthday Party DIYS - Helmar Creative Team

My son really wanted a Fortnite party for his 12^th Birthday and there wasn’t much available that suited so I did a few quick DIY’s for it, I wanted to share with you how I created some of them with Helmar.

Supply DROP container

You will need
Blue storage container
Yellow Cardstock to die cut the letters
Helmar 450 Quick Dry Adhesive
Helmar Crystal Kote Matte Varnish

Cut 2 lots of the letters DROP from yellow cardstock in a sort of stencil font, I used my Silhouette Curio for this but you could do it by hand also.












 Adhere the letters to each side of the container with Helmar 450 Quick Dry Adhesive.

Once Dry give the letters a coat of Helmar Krystal Kote Matte Varnish to protect them.
On the day of the party tie a Yellow balloon to the handles for the DROP to arrive.

Chug Jugs

You will need
Cans of soft drink
Printable chug jug labels
Hemlar Premium Craft Glue

Once you have printed the labels and cut them out adhere them to your cans with Helmar Premium Craft Glue.

Med Kits

You will need
White Cardstock
Red paper, serviette or tissue paper scraps cut into inch wide strips
White paper scraps
Helmar Craft & Hobby PVA

Cut the box shape out of the white cardstock, I used my Silhouette Curio and a box template I found online and sized the file so I could get 2 to a A4 sheet.

Assemble the boxes with Helmar Craft & Hobby PVA
Adhere the red strip (I cut mine from a red serviette) around the box.
Adhere a white + (I just cut mine from scrap printer paper) to the top of the box on the red strip.
Before sealing the red strip I added a clear glitter high bounce ball and some lollies in it.

Mini brown paper pags for Fries

You will need
Brown Paper Bags
Helmar Craft & Hobby PVA
12 inch trimmer
Cut each paper bag in quarters.
Cut a half inch away from what will be the bottom for the bags from the top half.
Fold over the side and bottom and glue with Helmar Craft & Hobby PVA.

I bought some French Fries Origninal chips and put them in small ziploc bags to keep them fresh until the kids ate them, this went inside the mini brown paper bags.  And they were put on the table next to Burger Gummie lollies from Aldi and served with Pizza. 
The kids loved that they were getting Fortnite food.

I also applied Shield Potion labels I found online to water bottles.  I filled the Drop Box with the Chug Jugs, Shield Potions and $1 water guns from The Reject Shop so it served as a supply drop and prompted a water fight.

I was hoping to convert a donky pinata to a Fortnite Llama pinata by removing the rainbow tissue papers and adhering the correct colours to it with Helmar Craft & Hobby PVA but I ran out of time so I just glued a printable version of the saddle bags to my rainbow donky with Helmar Craft & Hobby PVA the kids loved it but I couldn't get a good photo as the wind kept blowing it sideways.  It took a while to break due to the wind as the kids kept missing it so we ditched the blindfold due to the wind.

This all came together quickly and they kids loved it all.   Much fun was had and lots of happy memories on the day.