Leelee Scaldaferri, one of the talented artists behind Extra Credits, once drew an adorable little octopus into her webcomic, NameGame. The adorably oozing creature was named Podipus, and though he sometimes just sits around looking cute, he’s also been known to show superhero aspirations and political savvy.
http://tallystreasury.com/2013/05/bonus-post-podipus-plushies-and-how-to-get-one/
I had a wonderful childhood, full of many great adventures and privileges. Yet in one way I found I was deprived: I missed out on most of the world of 80s and 90s TV programming. We didn’t have cable, and my parents weren’t down with a lot of TV watching (this was before my mom discovered her love of Survivor, something I still really haven’t come to terms with about her), so while my brother and I watched many National Geographic and history videos rented from the library, we lacked our friends’ comprehensive knowledge of things like Transformers, Captain Planet, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Dawson’s Creek and, yes, Star Trek.
I’ve been catching up on many of these shows in my adult life, and just now my fiancé and I are about to finish Next Gen and are starting into DS9. (Sisko’s not bald yet, so it hasn’t gotten really good, but it’s moving in that direction.) We watched some of TOS a few years ago, but the first season was as much as I could get through. I understand that it was pretty revolutionary at the time, but it didn’t seem to me to have aged all that well. I mostly just wanted to smack Kirk upside the head.
http://tallystreasury.com/2013/05/star-trek-combadge-earrings/
On last week’s Strip Search (a reality TV series about webcomics), the elimination comic challenge required the artists to make use of the themes “mystery” and “naughty.” I decided to try the challenge at home with jointed paper dolls.
Long before I ever had sex myself, I saw it in movies and read about it in books. In those imaginary settings, everything is always perfect. Nobody ever farts, no one bangs a shin on the side of the bed, and all the clothes seem to just magically slide off the perfectly sculpted bodies.
The comic below imagines what might happen if two characters from such an outrageous imaginary world suddenly had to contend with sex in the real world…
http://tallystreasury.com/2013/05/comics-jointed-paper-dolls-and-movie-mockery/
A little while ago I was asked to make a Fblthp plush, and I happily agreed. Thankfully, the request came via email, so neither of us had to worry about saying the name out loud, though I did experience difficulty while actually making the plushie and trying to answer my fiancé’s question of “So, what were you working on today?”
Happily, after a lot of tongue-twisting and inadvertent spitting, I did work out how to pronounce the name out loud.
As you can see in some of the pictures below, Fblthp turned out just about life size, if you go by the fact that he appears to come about calf-high on the humans around him on the card Totally Lost. He’s soft and cuddly but no matter how many times you hug him, he just can’t lose that worried look like someone’s about to kick him. Or like he has no idea where he is and who you are.
Looking worried together:
And speaking of MtG, here’s a fun bonus thing: I got to be part of the most recent episode of Friday Nights, the MtG webseries by LoadingReadyRun and Wizards of the Coast! Check it out Check it out here.
http://tallystreasury.com/2013/05/fblthp-plush/
I have a special bonus post for you today – a picture post detailing the process of making a lampshade out of a bunch of paper circles!
The reason: For almost two years now, our living room lamp has been hanging bare, like a warehouse light, in desperate need of a lampshade. I’ve been meaning for ages to make it one. I also wanted to get this done before the end of April, to participate in this paper upcycling challenge over on jakeandmaya.com. So this is juuust in time!
http://tallystreasury.com/2013/04/lampshade-from-paper-circles-and-an-upcycled-atlas/
I used to draw a lot. Like, a lot a lot. I filled several note books in high school, and just about every night when my homework was done you could find me either reading a book or drawing a picture.
Now I don’t draw much, except to doodle craft ideas and draft patterns. Instead, I mostly sew. A lot. But lately I’ve started fiddling around in a place where drawing and sewing meet, doing all kinds of felt appliqué that is, essentially, drawing pictures with felt and thread instead of paper and pen.
It’s an easy enough process, the main trick is just getting practiced enough with the sewing machine that you can neatly stitch small, precise details. The procedure, though, is the exact same one used in my sad panda mask tutorial. You start by drawing your image on paper:
http://tallystreasury.com/2013/04/felt-applique-projects-drawing-with-felt/
You know that saying about April showers? Well it’s very accurate in my part of the world, at least insofar as there are a lot of April showers. They do bring May flowers too, but that’s a little beside the point since in Victoria we’ve had flowers popping up since sometime in February.
So I’ve had rain on the brain (quite literally, on days when I have to leave the house), and I’ve also been doing a bit of paper crafting lately, and last week I decided to play around a bit with putting the two together. I ended up with a rather darling little paper raincloud mobile, and several ideas for other projects involving shaped strips of paper. I used the raincloud mobile as a new door decoration, since I like changing those up every so often. I’ve also noticed that I can’t put anything on our door that’s too awesomely geeky or trendy or anything, or it apparently gets stolen. Like the Piranha Plant welcome sign I made for our door. Still annoyed about that.
If anyone does steal my raincloud though (and why, really, would you want to steal a raincloud?), it won’t be hard to replace – this is an inexpensive, simple and pretty quick little project. A fun little craft distraction for a rainy April day!
You can also do lots of other things stemming from this idea. For example, make some elegant paper jewelry!
http://tallystreasury.com/2013/04/paper-rain-cloud-mobile/