MegaCon Tampa Bay 2016 :: River Song Cosplay

So this past weekend I had the extreme pleasure to attend my first Con; MegaCon Tampa Bay! And what a FANTASTIC experience it was! I am not sure what I expected out of the convention scene, considering I had never been to one before, but I was completely blown away. The atmosphere was amazing...everyone I ran into and spoke to was so friendly and I honestly felt like I had known these people my whole life. I met so many AWESOME people; cosplayers, vendors, and regular convention goers.... AND DID I MENTION DAVID TENNANT AND BILLIE PIPER??

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!! The fact that I didn't pee my pants and/or pass out is a straight up miracle. I walked in and David said, 'Well look at you, you're a perfect River!'

*cue fangirl screaming*

AND ROSEEE!! Billie Piper was another person I never thought I would ever get to meet but I did!!

*cue more fangirl screaming*

After the photo ops, Billie Piper had a panel by herself, and at the end of the day Billie and David did a panel together which was so fantastic seeing them on the same stage together.

At Billie's panel...

...and the David/Billie Panel...AREN'T THEY PERFECT!?

Apart from the panels, I had a fantastic time wandering around the vendor and artist area, which was mind blowing! There were an INSANE number of booths chock full of ridiculously talented merchants and artists. I wanted to buy ALL THE THINGS! I had so much fun meeting and posing with other cosplayers and discussing the nitty gritty details of costuming and the like. So many people stopped and asked to take pictures with me (which, I was honestly surprised and quite flattered over, because there were some incredible cosplayers there) and the number one question I got asked was whether my hair was real or not, which almost made me cry because I spent FOREVER trying to get my wig just right (you can find the tutorial post on styling my River wig here!)

This was the first picture I took of the day (hence the not super great pose, lol), and this chick was AWESOME as Ten!

Ran into myself (haaaaaaa) and loved this girl...I wish I had gotten her name! I freaked out over her phone because I thought it was just a prop but then realized she had made a phone case to look like River's communicator and I was fangirling so hard over it! Genius!

Also met Harrison of Lonely God Cosplay! Fantastic Ten!

Will Friedle and Mitch Pileggi were there signing autographs, too!!

There was this flippin' awesome TARDIS transformer...



An AWESOME Cassandra by Old Fat Cosplay!



And the other amazing Cassandra!



Did I mention that there were ALL THE PEOPLE there?? It was packed! This was just the line to get into the line for one of the panels.



CON SWAG! And Chili's, cause I was HONGRY.

I'm going to be posting how I made the different components of this cosplay in the nest week or so, so keep an eye out!

-River Song Wig Tutorial-
-All Saints Anina Belt Re-Creation-
-River's Gun Belt & Holster-



***ALSO! I've had a few people tag me on Instagram in a few Con pictures (like this one from gbalda)...I would LOVE to see your pictures! Link me! :D

Ice Cream Themed Birthday Party :: Two Year Old Girl

I love planning birthday parties. I love the theme choosing and the decoration crafting and the food making and the invitation designing...all of it. I JUST LOVE IT.

So when my daughter's second birthday was approaching I lost my mind a wee bit and went all out on the Ice Cream Shop theme! I chose this for two reasons; 

(1) I had scored a HUGE amount of ice cream party decor on Michael's clearance a few weeks earlier...cupcake liners, cupcake picks, napkins, adorable wooden spoons, paper lanterns, etc. I got a humongo bag full for less than $10 and figured I probably needed to put it to good use! 

(2) I saw this cake by Sweet Little Morsels on Pinterest and decided I NEEDED TO MAKE IT.

As with all my projects and endeavors, I start out with the most difficult part of the thing and if I accomplish that first, its usually smooth sailing from there. I knew I wanted to practice the cake before the big day, so I eugoogled some tutorials (this one is super!) and muddled my way through. (And I'm sorry in advance, for I failed to take any pictures of this part...IM THE WORST, I KNOW...so just bear with me.)
For the ice cream cone topper,  I packed some Rice Krispy Treat into my ice cream scoop, and turned it out onto some wax paper.
Then I melted some pink Candy Melts and completely covered the Rice Krispy 'ball'.
While that was drying, I cut a wooden skewer in half and poked it into the RK at the angle I wanted the cone to sit at. This is to give the cone a little more stability.
After that, I dipped a sugar cone into the Candy Melts, coating the edge nice and thickly, and stuck it onto the RK, over the skewer, and held it firmly together until the candy melt set up a little bit.
I then popped it into the refrigerator to firm up completely.

For the actual cake, I just used a box mix I had on hand, and used the AWESOME paper towel method for smoothing out buttercream frosting. It makes your icing SUPAH SMOOTH without having to use fondant. After that, I put the cake in the refrigerator as well to chill a bit before putting on the topper.

After everything was nice and chilly and the cone topper was plopped on the top, I made a white chocolate ganache that I colored the same pink as the Candy Melts I had used to form my 'melted ice cream scoop'  I tried the get the pinks as similar as I could. I then covered the ice cream and the top of the cake with the ganache, and VERY CAREFULLY added the drips to the edges. To finish, I topped it off with sprinkles! SPRINKLLESS!!!!!!



I was pretty happy with how it turned out, but I knew I wanted the actual cake to be taller and skinnier, and the drips a little more 'drippy'. So I used a smaller diameter cake pan, made three layers, and thinned out my ganache.



In hindsight, I probably should have added some skewers to the cake to stop it from being kinda lean-y, but it stayed up alright for the most part so I was pleased.

I also made some cupcakes with the leftover batter and icing, and proceeded to decorate ALL THE THINGS in the house.



I snapped this with my potato cell phone camera the night before (it was like 3 am when I finished because I'm OCD about decorations)

Also, as a forewarning, all of these pictures are going to have super wonky exposure because I thought it would be a good idea to put the party table in front of our french doors that receive ALL THE DIRECT SUNLIGHT in the afternoon. So...just...I'm sorry about that. I DON'T ALWAYS PLAN WELL OKAY.









SPRINKLESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!



All in all, I was really pleased with how the cake turned out, and my daughter LOVED it! I got the chipboard glitter '2' either from Target or Michaels...I can't remember which...and the cake stand I found at the thrift store and spray painted a white/gold ombre.







The straws were from Target and the jewel-tone punch cups I found at Hobby Lobby on sale for $0.40 apiece!! YAS BUY ALL THE CUPS YASSS!



The spoons were part of my Michael's clearance haul, and the paper cups were found in the Target dollar bins. OH TARGET DOLLAR BINS HOW I LOVE THEE.

I also made some giant ice cream cones out of tissue paper and spray painted party hats! Super easy!





The door hanger I made out of some leftover deco mesh I had and a piece of scrapbook paper for the cone.



And a few pictures of the birthday girl...I found her dress at Target on a clearance rack and LOVED it so much! It was actually a shirt for an older girl but I took up the straps and the bottom hem and made it a dress! The headband I found at Dollar Tree and I made a little clay ice cream cone to go on top. BECAUSE THEMES.







Daddy helping blow the candles out!





We love ice cream...



Y'all. I have the best mom in the whole world. She drove 10 hours to be at my child's birthday party <3





All in all, it was a wonderful, fantastic day! I'm so grateful to have such lovely people to share it with!

Lady Thor Helmet :: Cosplay

When Jason Aaron dropped the new Thor comic about a year ago, featuring a mysterious woman wielding Mjolnir and the name of the Norse God of Thunder, I was PUMPED. While Loki has had his (and her) share of genderbending comic appearances, it was exciting to me that Thor was going to get a makeover and new perspective.



After I read the first comic I was hooked...Lady Thor (I wont spoil her identity for you...but you should totes go read it!) is BA as all get out and I loved her costume so much I knew I wanted to cosplay it. I also liked that it was one of the more 'masculine' female costumes (which sounds backwards, I know) but in the world of tiny spandex body suits and stiletto boots, its nice to have a change of pace from your stereotypical BOOBS IN YO FACE getup.

  Whenever I look into a prospective cosplay, I start with the most difficult part of the costume, so I don't spend a huge chunk of time on other parts of it only to get to the end and not be able to do the more difficult pieces. With this costume, it was definitely the helmet.

       

I had never made any sort of helmet or armor, so I kinda went in blind on this one. I finally decided I would try paper mache, and try and get it smooth as possible.

The first step was to get the basic helmet shape to have a support base for the paper mache. I tried making a cardboard frame, which failed magnificently. SO magnificently, in fact, that I almost gave up on the whole thing right there.

Later whilst doing some laundry, I noticed that the top half of my bleach jug had the general shape of helmet crown, and I had an epiphany.



THANKS, LAUNDRY!

So I went to the local Dollar Tree (seriously like my favorite store ever...I can spend ALL THE DOLLAH DOLLAH BILLS at Dollar Tree) and bought THREE more jugs of bleach with the same shape plastic bottle. I also swung by JoAnns (ALSO MY FAVORITE STORE) and picked up a paper masquerade mask that resembled the face portion of the helmet.

When I got home, I emptied the bleach (SAFELY) out of the jugs, rinsed them well, and let them dry. I then chopped them up along the lines in the highly detailed diagram below.

(You see these mad photoshop skillz? If you would like to contact me for business inquires; please use the tab above)



After I cut up the jugs, I glued them together to form the conical shape of the helmet, and glued the mask on the front. I also added a piece of plastic to the back to extend it down and cover more of my head, and some little pieces to the top to make the point. I covered the seams with the only tape I had on hand (lol so FESTIVE) to try and 'smooth' our the joining edges.



I cut a length of 18 gauge wire the circumference of my head and hot glued it inside to help stabilize the thin plastic. I also attached two strips of craft foam crossways to help the helmet fit my head a bit better.

After I had the general shape like I wanted, I covered the entire thing about seven thousand layers of paper mache.  I used news paper and 1 part water to 1 part flour.



After it was completely dry it looked like this!



Then, I painstakingly covered the whole thing with Bondo. When working with bondo, apply in small sections, and get it AS SMOOTH AS HUMANLY POSSIBLE THE FIRST TIME AROUND JUST TRUST JORDAN ON THIS. I actually found that the best way to apply it is with a playing card. They're cheap, stiff enough to apply it but flexible enough to go over curves.




After you get your bondo on, gently sand down the rough edges and high points.with a sanding block. For my first sanding (BRACE YOURSELF FOR ALL THE SANDING) I used a 220 grit. ALSO...please wear a respirator...I don't want any of you guys getting black lung or something equally nasty.



After sanding the first layer, you're going to want to go back over it with spot putty to fill in the two million tiny crevices in the first layer of bondo. I let that dry completely, and then added another layer, just to be safe. Then I wet sanded the entire thing with 800 grit sand paper, then 1000 grit.  This was my first time wet sanding and it was super cathartic how smooth it gets the piece!





Two coats of grey primer later, I was getting so excited about how it was looking!
For the 'ear wing' thingies, I cut out the shapes with craft foam and cardboard...I used giant googly eyes for the rounded part...who knew googly eyes were so versatile? I attached them with my trusty E6000 and let them dry completely before giving the whole helmet a few coats of metallic silver spray paint.







I knew I didn't want to risk destroying the entire helmet by trying to etch the W shaped design on it, so I cut it out of craft foam, painted it gold, and glued it to the front. The 'rivet' is another googly eye that I spray painted silver and glued on.

To 'weather' the metal a bit, I rubbed watered down black acrylic paint over the entire surface, let it dry JUST A BIT and then wiped it off with a paper towel. Finally, I went over the helmet with a thousand and one coats of spray acrylic sealer...annnnnnnddd we're done!






Stay tuned for the rest of my posts on this cosplay!