It Must've Been Love, But It's Over Now

So, I didn't do an entry last week. I know I said I was going to do one on Monday, but to be perfectly honest, I was just too tired after MCM. I'm only just feeling like I have actual energy and it's been a week. So I guess that means MCM is officially over for me.

I had a real blast though, and I have loads to show you.

First of all, my Ariel cosplay was a hit again and Vanessa even showed up to steal my voice!

Photo courtesy of Emski (need to get her cosplay page if she has one and then I'll link it here) who made the most beautiful, not to mention lovely, Vanessa I have ever had the pleasure of meeting.

This was on the first day.

The second day was Wonder Woman and my goodness does MCM love Wonder Woman! Oh and I made a lasso of truth last minute that I was able to hook to my costume on the day and it went down fabulously. People actually went mad for it.

It's just yarn wrapped in yarn but it does the job and it looks cool. Main photo courtesy of Elmos_Empire Cosplay and secondary photos by a good con friend, Daisy.

But the third day. Oh wow. I was in my comfiest cosplay yet, which is just as well because the group had a super long, super awesome photo shoot with Joseph Leeder. I loved every minute of it.

Next year is Hipster Squirrel Girl and I am already pretty much set...

There is a draw back to comic con though. You spend a lot of money. I focussed on indulging my kawaii side so that I can feel happy with my accessories and B+, because that's still important to me. In fact, I've even started my bentos again and dressing up for girl's nights in clothes I like. Because I like them. Okay the wig definitely helps me feel more confident but if that's what I need to B+ right now, I'm just gonna go with it. We'll all take baby-steps and eventually, plodding along, we'll get to a point where we are empowered, independent women! (Throw your hands up in the air...)

I'm also experimenting with my style, and getting to grips with how I can get into lolita fashion, which I've always adored but never been able to wear due to my height. For now, it's a case of a few accessories and a bit of lace but this little outfit today has made me want to take it a step further and look at the possibility of making my own lolita dresses with matching chokers or hairbows.

I don't want to overload you guys since I've been away for a while and most of this isn't crafty, so I'll get back to making things again soon now that con is over. This will hopefully include my cosplays for October MCM, a cosplay for my boyfriend for October MCM and a lolita dress for Christmas Hyper Japan.

Oh, I'm also recording vlogs, which need editing, so they should be fun!

Until next time!

All In A Day

It's been too long!

I hate missing a blog entry but if you follow my Facebook, Twitter or Instagram, you'll know that I've been very ill for over a week and that's why my internet self disappeared off the face of the earth for a bit. My bad.

But I've been prescribed the right medication by a lovely doctor in A&E during the early hours of Saturday morning and I feel over 9,000 times better already. Seriously. Thank you lovely doctor in A&E.

Until then, all I'd really managed to do between my last entry and Saturday afternoon that was arts and crafts related, was one page of colouring in. (I felt that bad.) I did make it interesting though by nipping onto my Pinterest colour scheme board (there's some really nice ones on there) and selecting one to stick to. I chose the one below for a floral colouring page as there weren't too many different colours but it wasn't just tonal either. A nice little mix.

I love these colour schemes because for some reason I find it extremely satisfying seeing the inspiration behind choosing those co-ordinating colours and being able to witness just how well they co-ordinate. Plus, ice cream. Yum.

So I picked out my six matching coloured pencils and challenged myself to use all of those particular pencils but no others on the entire page.

Unfortunately the beige colour isn't overly visible on the page but I did use it, I swear. I just had to shade it with the brown because it was so pale.

It went quite well and the colours suited the picture nicely. I'm also really pleased with the pencils which were a Christmas present, as they shade just beautifully.

Luckily that's not all I have to post today though. Otherwise that would be a very short blog entry.

I can now show you the card and present I made for my sister's birthday earlier on this month, which I couldn't post in my last entry as she hadn't yet seen them!

The card had to be quick and simple because unfortunately I didn't have a lot of time to make it. So when I saw some Star Wars wrapping paper on my way home from a walk the day before, I grabbed it. It was used to wrap her gift and make this adorable card! I simply cut out a panel of black card and stuck it to a base before adding the cut out Yoda using 3d foam pads. A few hand drawn stars and sentiment in white ink and then some sequin stars stuck on with more foam pads, 10 minutes later you've got your super cute card. Woohoo!

The present took me longer. I bought a plain black sketchbook from Paperchase and used masking tape to cover an area to form my sister's nickname. I followed a tutorial I found on Pinterest to create the galaxy design over the top, peeled away the tape and then outlined the letters with a white gel pen just to make them really pop and was left with a really cool, personalised sketchbook for my sister, who is always drawing.

And since I am feeling over 9,000 times better today, I started work on two projects this afternoon.

The first was the second of my romantic book quotes for the bedroom in the same theme as my Harry Potter one. I even have a webcam as of today so this whole project was recorded and will have a timelapse video posted in the (hopefully) near future.

I had a lot of fun making this one. Both the quotes I've featured make me cry buckets and I'm just really glad I was actually able to write them nicely enough to feel proud displaying them on my walls.

The second project I started working on today was inspired by these fantastic felt succulent plants I came across on Facebook as I scrolled down my newsfeed. I like plants but I can't keep them alive and I find succulents particularly beautiful in a strange way, so there was no way I wasn't going to try and make these!

The box frame is a little cheapy from The Range which I took apart, removing the glass and then gluing the rest of the componants back into place so they don't shift around. To make sure the background was super sparkly, just in case any shows through once I'm done adding succulents, I filled the frame with PVA and then just poured in a whole load of gold glitter.

No crafter's stash is complete without glitter. I'm just impressed I didn't get it everywhere. It normally goes everywhere, so well done to me.

 While I wait for the glue to dry so it's safe for me to tip out the excess glitter (which is probably when it will go everywhere) I decided to start work on my first succulent.

I followed the instructions on the tutorial but I stitched a little bead into the centre and added some colour around the edges of the petals just because that seems to be my style - throw back to these little rose brooches. I just like a little extra detail and feel like beads make really pretty centre points.

I stopped after two layers of petals because I may be feeling a lot better, but I'm still not quite 100% and I don't want to overdo it. Plus silicone glue really smells so I wanted to call it a night.

That's all for now but I want to take this opportunity to say that next week's blog entry will be posted on Monday instead as I'm going to be at MCM all weekend!

Expect a loot post people!

In the meantime, feel free to check out my Pinterest, I find and save plenty of really cool projects, some of which I'll never get round to making but love the idea of, so if you're crafty like me, it might be a great spot to find some inspiration for your next make!

Until next time!

Prizes Fit For Princesses

This week was a much better week for Wonder Woman. The folks at Darkside for Free Comic Book Day loved her, so she should go down well at MCM in a couple of weeks!

So we're starting today on a happy note, and I have been very busy. I've finished off the Ariel hoop for my "I'd Rather Be A Mermaid" giveaway. The finished piece and my beautiful winner can be seen below!

I also got the Wonder Woman hoop done for my "Fight Like A Girl" giveaway, which can be viewed with my wonderful winner below!

I am definitely going to be making more projects in this style (once I've got some more embroidery hoops) because not only were they fantastic fun to make but I think they look really great.

That's not all I've been up to though... After all, I'm Always crafting. Heh. Heheh.

This post is getting pretty pic heavy so I'll try to keep the last few bits short and sweet, I just wanted the above image to be viewed at a decent size because I think it's really beautiful. I'm still making my flat seem more like home, tweeking here and there and the bedroom is the feminine space since the living room is more masculine because that's where the boy spends most of his time. So I'll be moving the two Halo canvas prints from the bedroom into the living room. Which means I'll have nothing on the walls in the bedroom apart from the shelves and memo board (that's an old one!) around my dressing table. Dun dun DUNNNN. The above was my solution, subtly geeky, romantic quotes to hang on the wall in pastel colours. The boy even got to choose the frames we'll be using. This is one of two that I have planned. The second will be "You love me, real or not real? Real." from Hunger Games because I cried literally buckets. That one will have a Mockingjay on it in place of the doe.

I also just realised that I never posted the finished Sailor Moon compact embroidery hoops or the finished badger birthday postcards on this blog! Shock horror! So here they are to finish off this week's entry with a much more confident Wondy! (Judy Hopps cosplay by Lunaris Cosplay.)

Have a great week guys, you have my sister's birthday present and some other small bits and pieces to look forward to next week that I'm unable to post yet because I want the recipients to see them first but I'm sure I'll be feeling crafty between now and next Sunday too. If you're interested in sneak peeks and more frequent updates check out my Facebook or my brand new Instagram and recently renewed Twitter pages. I'm getting super good at this whole social media thing! I'll try not to be so image heavy next week too.

Until next time!