Terrarium: The Action Figure Display

After recently moving, I've found myself unpacking an excess of action figures. As any good geek can tell you, figures without boxes have a sad resale value, so I've decided to repurpose some of my old toys to spruce up the new apartment in a cheap and easy terrarium.

 Monster Island in a Box

To create your own boxes universe, you'll need some low-maintenance plants like cacti or African violets; a fishbowl, some figures, and some rocks. Most of my materials I found outside,  my plants were donated from my coworker, and my only purchase--the fishbowl--cost less than $3.00. Amazon.com also offers a terrarium starter kit for less than $10.00 found here.

Step 1: Mix your rocks and dirt and put a generous amount on the bottom of your bowl. The rocks allow water to flow more freely through the dirt and help your terrarium require less maintenance. 








Step 2: Bury the roots of your plants in the dirt. Arrange the leaves carefully. You might like to use some natural decorations such as sticks from outside to serve as "trees" in your micro-universe or some seashells. I added a bit of dry grass.





Step 3:  Arrange your figures inside. Pose-able figures are fun. I chose to use some of my mini-Godzilla collection to create a micro-Monster Island. Another popular idea is Ewok figures for Endor in a Box or Pokemon figures for a battle-arena scene. 

 

Chainmail Costumes

Renaissance Festival is still several months away, as well as Halloween, but it might be a good idea to get the jump on this craft early as it tends to take some time. Today, we'll be exploring how to make chainmail at home.

This project can range from a few week to several months depending on the goal end-product. Full chainmail suits obviously take longer than a headpiece. In addition, the chainmail "weaving" could be repurposed for use in jewelry making, which may only take a few days.

Step 1: Cut rings. If designing jewelry, precut rings can be purchased for a few dollars, but costumes require heavier rings. Metal coils can be purchased from your local hardware store and cut down the middle with bolt-cutters to create useable rings.





Step 2: Use two pliers to open a ring. Place four closed rings in the open circle and close your initial ring.







Step 3: Take your second ring and thread it through two of the four rings in step two. Add two additional rings and close your second ring. Repeat this process until you have a string the desire length. You will then begin the same process sideways. Every "center" ring should have four other rings running through it.




Step 4: Depending on the end product, you may need to make a long sheet of mail which can then be closed  by threading one ring through two rings on the left and two rings on the right.

Custom Disc Dying - Godzilla

While it still might be a little bit chilly outside, a fun craft to take up time in the winter months and prepare for spring time is custom disc dying. Disc golf fanatics often have bags full of discs which easily become worn or account for some duplicates. Custom dying is an easy way to personalize and spruce up old or newly found discs. It can often be accomplished for less than $5 using Rit dye and some contact paper.

Step 1: Clean your disc. Most discs come with a decal and model number imprinted. I selected a Discraft Buzz for my disc. While the disc was already white, I needed to remove the decal and printing on the disc with light use of a pumice stone and some peroxide-based household cleaner. Please be advised that if working with a colored disc, peroxide will warp the dye already in place and can have fading effects on discs after custom dying.





Step 2: Print your decal and trace it out on your contact paper. Cut the paper accordingly. Remember when securing the paper to the disc that any place not covered by the contact paper will be dyed. Be sure when applying the paper to smooth out any air bubbles or tape up any loose sides or edges. Depending on the model of your disc, you may want to put a bit of masking tape around the lip to ensure that dye does not leak onto the backside. I chose a Godzilla decal to celebrate the upcoming movie and the monster's 60th birthday.



Step 3: Mix the Rit dye in a pan and slowly heat it, being sure to stir. The dye will need to be completely heated before the disc can be submerged. Once the dye is ready, place the disc face down in the pan and let it float. The longer the disc is in the pan the darker the color will be, which is not always a great thing for discgolf. Remember, the most commonly lost discs are darker colors. I used the black Rit dye as my disc was originally white, so after a quick submersion I was left with a purple color.

Step 4: Run the disc under cold water until the dye ceases to bleed. At this point you are safe to remove the contact paper.

Happy throwing. 

Han Solo Frozen in Chocolonite

We've almost hit Valentine's Day and some of us are struggling to find the perfect Valentine for the geeky guy or girl in our life. I've actually managed to turn a Christmas present I received into a Valentine-making factory.

I present to you:

Han Solo: Frozen in Carbonite Chocolonite

Chocolate is a Valentine's Day hallmark, but a Hersey's bar isn't exactly very personable. You can use fun silicon ice cube trays to melt and remold chocolate into fun and customized shapes. I used my Han Solo ice cube tray purchased from Thinkgeek. Thinkgeek also offers trays shaped like the Bat Symbol, Pac Man, Companion Cubes and many more.

Step 1:  Set up a boiler to melt your chocolate. (Any chocolate can be used, but I chose Dove brand.)

Chocolate is very easy to burn and a horrible mess when you do. A simple way to avoid this is to fill a pot with water and place a bowl inside the pot. This way the chocolate is not directly heated by the stove and is less likely to burn.

Be sure to stir the chocolate constantly.


Step 2: Once your chocolate is melted, transfer it to the clean ice cube trays. You do not need to grease or add anything to the trays. Try to spread it evenly and be sure the bottom is full and without air bubbles.

  Step 3: Put your molds in the freezer and wait. I like to leave them in over night and continue to store them in the fridge to avoid any deformation or melting of the mold. 







Step 4: Carefully remove the chocolate from the mold. Depending on which mold you chose this could be tricky. Han Solo is fairly easy due to the brick-like quality of the mold and the thickness of the bars. You can wrap in wax paper with ribbon for gifting.

The Creeper Quilt - Pixel Art

Quilting is one of my favorite hobbies and it is surprisingly simple. Geeky gifting is made easy with pixel art quilting. Most retro games have a pixelated quality that is easy to transfer to a quilting pattern. I've often found that simple Perler bead patterns (as seen in the cube bank tutorial). I like to use Kandi Patterns for my pixel art, but sometimes a simple google search suffices. I'm always looking for new pattern generators or archives if anyone has suggestions!

I chose the simple Creeper from the game Minecraft (pictured above) as I was looking to finish this project quickly for a gift. The project took approximately 2 days by hand, but you could probably wrap it up in a few hours with the use of a sewing machine.

Step 1: Choose a pattern and collect your supplies. You'll need quilting needles, thread, batting and fabric enough for the front and a solid piece for the back of your quilt. It is important to know how much of each square you'll need and plan for square size before having fabric cut at the store. Keep in mind that most bolts of cloth are 36" wide. I cut my squares in 6" pieces.

Step 2: Stitch your squares together in rows. They should be stitched front to front and then turned inside out. Once a row has been completed you'll want to line the rows up and stitch them into the full front. Remember to do this front facing front of each side.

  
 
Step 3: Face your backing to the front of your quilt and the batting on the top of this. Pin the pieces in place and stitch around the outside leaving a space large enough to turn the quilt inside out upon completion. You'll want to stitch the hole closed from the outside after turning the fabric inside out.




Step 4: "Quilt" the quilt. Sew straight through the quilt from the back to the front to ensure that the pieces stay together and do not balloon outward. I stitched around the black portions of the Creeper.





 Step 5: Bundle up.