Steampunk Halloween

This Halloween, I was commissioned to make some fun Steampunk costume pieces. I know it's a little late for Halloween with Christmas on the way, but I would love to post a few ideas for those of you who are suckers for DIY stuff.

Zombie Eye patch

This was made with a few scraps of cloth, eyelets, hoops, a monster eye and an eye patch. My friend was going to be a dead zombie pirate, and this worked perfectly. 

After sizing the cloth and putting eyelets in them, the rest of it came down to expert gluing. 

I found the eye at Hobby Lobby, they came in a few colors and sizes. I can't wait to make more with them.

Steampunk Headband

Start with a simple headband and a flower. I spiced things up with a few dark feathers and clock pieces.

To top off the awesome headband I added a jeweled spider. Makes for the perfect top piece to any costume!

Steampunk Armband

This awesome piece was made for my brother who was going to be a Steampunk man for Halloween. 

I got the shell of this arm band at Dollar Tree.

I wasn't much, but I liked the detailing on it. I knew this was a great piece to start with.

I painted with metallic paint and used some foam strips to make the top look a little more steampunkish. I also worked some old wires into the hand to look like a mechanical arm, and then I topped it off with old bullets that are placed to look like some sort of shooting mechanism. 

Under the arm, I took off the plastic bands and replaced it with fake leather. I glued it to one side and attached snaps to the other, so that it could be taken off easily.

All and all this cost maybe $6 for me to make and it looked totally awesome!

What's more, the armband came in a pair, so I have another one to play with!

It's amazing what you can do with some simple Halloween pieces. You should give it a try sometime. I'd love to see what you come up with. 

Holy Cyborg Parts Batman!

Hello all! 

I know it has been some time since I last updated. Life gets busy is all I can say, and BUSY I have been!

As you well know, Halloween is right around the corner! This is one of my favorite holidays because I love to outdo my creativity from the previous year!

This year, some of my friends came to me for some Steampunkery of everyday costume items. Of course, I was up for the challenge. (I love me a good challenge)

Batman challenge!

What's better than being Batman for Halloween? Being STEAMPUNK BATMAN!

You heard me correctly. This costume will be epic!
What's even better, I took photos of the process, so you can Steampunk your batman mask as well.

First let me start by saying this mask was SO MUCH FUN to make. I love it. I almost didn't want to give it back to my friend.

Anyway, on with the tutorial...

Here are some fun things you will need:

Batman Mask

Washers, Gears

Watch Frame

Colored Cellophane Wrap (very small amount needed)

Glue (I used E600), Scissors, Paint Brushes

Craft Foam

Various Beads

Metallic Paints (I used silver, black and brown)

Junk Wiring

Jewelry Spacers (or mini washers)

STEP ONE

THE MASK

Get a mask. I got the Batman frame from Halloween City for maybe $6. 

STEP TWO

THE LAYERS

Cut some strips of craft foam and glue it to places around the mask that you want to look like metal panels.

STEP THREE

THE EYE!

The eye was a little tricky. I took apart a watch and used just the frame. I layered a washer and gear on top and glued the whole thing in place.

Then I cut out a small circle of blue Cellophane wrap and glued it inside the "eye piece", giving the effect of a colored lens.

Then I cut out some strips of foam that would essentially attach the eye to the mask. This took a little doing because I had to eyeball the gaps between the eye of the mask and the watch. I wanted to make sure everything looked like a solid piece. 

Glue those foam pieces into the eye socket and wait for it to dry. (Waiting for glue is my least favorite part)

STEP FOUR

UPGRADE THE EYE

Now that you have the base of your eye secured to the mask, it's time to put some fun additions and upgrades on it. 

I used simple wiring from the dollar store and cut it to fit in the holes of my watch face. I glued bead spacers to the end of the wires to give it a cool attached look.

Glue everything down. 

There are so many things you can do from here to make it look like a cyborg eye! 

STEP FIVE

WASHERS/BEAD SPACERS

I applied these small bead spacers (the small circles) over the foam, creating the look that the "metal panels" were anchored down in various places.

STEP SIX

PAINT PAINT PAINT

Start painting the mask to look like metal. I started with a silver base coat, making sure it wasn't too thick, in order to maintain the antiqued look.

Once you're done with the silver, dip your finger in some brown and start dabbing at different angles. The brown will look like rust. (You don't want to do it too thick. I dip my finger and wipe some off and then dab on the mask)

Once the brown is down, I went over a few key crevices that I wanted to highlight in some black paint.

STEP SEVEN
ROCK THE MASK!

The great thing about using foam for the metal look is that the mask remains very lightweight and durable!
Wear that bad boy around proudly!

All in all, this project cost me maybe $10. (Gotta love a good deal)

That's it for the tutorial. I hope you guys enjoyed that and will make some awesome cyborg looking steampunk creations! I would love to see them.

Steampunk on!

Salt City Steamfest 2015

Lots of fun to be had at SLC Steamfest this year.

For my booth, my assistant and I decided that a theme would be fun and since I already had a rockin Ursula hat, our theme was Steampunk Little Mermaid!

I was Ursula (of course) and Blake was King Tr iton.

Sounds funny to turn Disney into Steampunk, but there were actually many Disney characters at Steamfest this year, I was surprised. Here are some of the fun faces!

Snow White, King Triton, Ursula, Beast (Human), Geston, Aurora

We were off to an excellent start the first day. My booth was a salvage ship wreck (under the sea theme, get it?)

 I had a lot of fun designing this chaotic booth. There was so much to see and everyone who came absolutely loved it. The base is made of old trunks and then crates, crates and more crates stacked on top. Pretty simple. Very beautiful.

 
 Learning from my mistake last year of not having any menswear, I made an entire section for gents and costume designers alike.
Pocket watches, Tie tacks, eye patches, guns, apothecary bottles, antique keys, you name it, the men had their pick of awesome additions to their costumes.

And of course I had some awesome masks there. I believe I've blogged a few of them before, if not, here they are in all their splendor!

Beautiful old trunks and new to Matchless Designs, GRAB BAGS! They were a major hit, especially with the kiddos. Gotta love a good surprise. 

My neighbors on either side of me were absolutely awesome. I was plugged right between Damsel in this Dress and Carols Custom Costumes. 

Let me tell you, those ladies were so much fun. I think one of my favorite parts about a convention is meeting all the people who do this kind of stuff for a living. They are such an inspiration. Feel free to look them up, they are well worth it!

So the second day was a little slower, and after a few hours in, tragedy struck! 

There was another Ursula at the convention!

 

She actually turned out to be really cool. We had to get a photo together and she was very impressed with my Flotsom and Getsom Eel Double Barrel gun!

You don't mess with Sea-folk!

There was so much to see and so many people to meet that it hardly seemed like I was working. 

It's all play!

Adventurers running around like crazies, death stalking his prey, mermaids in the pool, dueling, opera, masquerade, this year had a little bit of everything!

Well, now that I'm done gushing about all my fun, here are some more fun pics!

Enjoy and hopefully you'll consider coming by next year to visit my booth!

He made this gun the day before and I swear it weighed 100 lbs! I could barely lift it! But it was fun to see even people who can't get around so well enjoying Steampunk.

So long!

Crazy About Masks!

I've been busy, busy, busy lately getting ready for 2015 SLC Steamfest!

This convention is so much fun, but mostly I enjoy seeing the various costumes and how creative people can get. 

This year, I have my arsenal of Steampunk items stocked and ready to wow!

Some of my favorite items have to be my Phantom of the Opera masks!

They would complete any costume and are easy to take off when needed.

                     

These bad boys are made of simple craft masks, foam, odds and ends and wiring! 

I love them! I almost don't want to sell them!

I was thinking about making a mask tutorial some day...Hmmm.

I'm still not done. After the Phantom masks, I wanted to try my hand at other styles of masks. 

Of course, the craft stores carry all sorts of fun stuff!

I am so proud of my Masquerade Mask. It was my first time every attempting a project such as this. (It's a good thing there's going to be a masquerade at Steamfest this year)

Last but not least, I found a cool looking mask and decided to make it a little more abstract than it already was!

SLC Steamfest Info, if you would like to go.

Come by and check out the awesome wares that are sold from vendors from all over!

Belt to Cuff

It's been a while since I've put anything fun on here, so I've got an awesome new project to show you guys. 

It all started when I was wandering around a thrift shop the other day when I saw this belt that screamed Steampunk!

I just had to have it, but I knew that I wouldn't be using it for a belt, because part of it was pretty trashed.

So after debating what to do with it, I finally decided that it would make the coolest cuff. It would even be Steampunk enough that a man could sport it. 

Basic first step, cut the belt to fit your wrist. The original belt came with chain to link the leather strips, so I figured chain would be a great addition to my belt cuff. 

I measured the straps to fit mostly on the top of my wrist and chain to go below.

I also used a leather punch to make the holes for the chain. 

Then it was just as simple as putting everything together!

Very Steampunk!

I ended up giving this as a Christmas gift to one of my guy friends, who absolutely loved it. The great thing about keeping all the belt attachments is that it is easily adjustable.

This is something that can honestly be done with any simple leather belt. 

Give it a try!

Steampunk Ha!!oween!

This year for Halloween, I decided to go with a Disney Villain for my costume.

That's right, I chose Ursula from the Little Mermaid.

With my choice made, I realized that I was definitely going to have to tweak this character to my liking; I didn't want to do the typical purple skin and crazy white hair. Also, since I was making the costume, I realized I had no idea how to make a tentacle dress. Things looked a little grim for me, but then I got inspiration from Pinterest to put the tentacles in a HAT!

If you know me, you know that I love to make mini top hats! I jumped right on that idea, and began to piece together my costume.

(Me and my coworker, Tyson...poor unfortunate soul.)

There was much touch and go and winging it. 

It's amazing what hot glue can do!

This is what I ended up with for a Sea Witch Mini Top Hat! (It was beat up a little when I took this picture. Ignore the imperfections haha)

Here's the break down to this craziness:

Tentacles were made from wire, gauze, fabric and paint!

I found a cool little skeleton at the Dollar Store as well as some shells at Hobby Lobby.

  

A little hot glue, a little elbow grease and some magic words and Viola an AWESOME HAT!

Well, my costume didn't stop at the hat (I can't do anything simple). Since I was already going down the Steampunk road, I figured I needed an equally awesome necklace.

If you've ever seen the Little Mermaid, you know that a key piece of Jewelry for Ursula is the shell necklace that she captures Ariel's voice in.

I found a glob of Sculpy and started working my magic.

         

Clay, paint, chain, shells and beads. 

This lovely piece of art came out better than I had anticipated!

It was a great costume all together and I had a blast making it. 

I won two costume contests and got stopped everywhere that I went so people could check out the hat. 

Can't wait til next year!