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.