Mr. Rogers cross stitch pattern

So I was thinking about Mister Rogers lessons of kindness and encouragement to be yourself, and decided this would make a good cross stitch design. I did the design, made my computer stitched version (I haven't stitched it yet in real life) and posted that version to my Facebook page. A lot of people liked it.

Here's the pattern for that- it stitches up to 9 inches wide and 7 inches tall on 14 count, takes only 4 colors of thread, and can be framed in a standard 8x10 frame. Click for a larger version, print on landscape mode.

My son saw me working on it, and suggested I do a Steve Rogers (Captain America) version, TG saw it, and gave it her approval. I didn't change the text, but added a bit of stars and stripes and a captain insignia. 

Here's the digitally stitched version of that one. 

The Turnip Girl's newest costume

So The Amazing Turnip Girl has been working for weeks on a new costume. Now, if you've been following The Adventures of a Turnip Girl , you know that all her costumes are what's called "closet cosplay". It's an inexpensive form of cosplay that uses things that are easily available in creative ways. She's not casting rubber, or spending hours drafting patterns to sew. She starts with an idea, and heads to thrift stores and garage sales to pick up the pieces she needs. It takes a fair amount of creativity, and involves sees possibilities in the shapes of things. For this particular costume, the only brand new items in it are the buttons, spray paint, glue and a zipper.

The shirt is a lightweight sweater, that was modified heavily. she removed one arm to make room for the armor, and created tac style pockets for it and added a full length zipper. All hand stitched in. The knee pads were a huge find. She got those at a local garage sale- 50 cents for the full set of pads. The others are set aside for other costumes. The armor on her arm is made using paper mache, so is the knife and gun.

The glove was a good find too. She found that actually alone in my things and asked if I was going to do anything with it. Um.. not so much. A pair of gloves, I might crochet an edging for, but a lone glove? She happily took it.

All those straps? She bought a lot of belts. One was the wrong color, but a quick coat of paint fixed that! She used fabric to make a harness back piece for some of the belts. The holster and sheath are hand stitched from black vinyl.

She's getting really good at paper mache isn't she? 

The mask is paper mache glued to fabric. The star was stenciled on, using Frog Tape to get a really clean edge.

So in the process of working on this costume, we found out that part of Barnes and Noble's Pop Culture Nights was a Marvel night! She was excited, no waiting to wear her costume, she even had to hurry to finish it! There were a LOT of Captain Americas, it was hero night at B&N.

The Winter Soldier won, and people stopped and complimented her costume.

Book Review- The Official DC Super Hero Cookbook

BAM! POW! CRASH!

Matthew Mead is a designer, crafter and theme cookbook writer with a great eye. You expect a book from him to be attractive with good photos and ideas, and this is a great example.

Done being all grown up now. It's DC SUPER HEROES! It's old school. None of this New 52 stuff, none of the angst of the 90s, it's Dick Grayson's Robin in green shorts with elf boots, it's the heroes you remember from Super Friends on Saturday mornings if your my age. It's retro and it's awesome.  Of course, I'm biased. I grew up on DC comics.

So what does my daughter say about the look? She's Batman the Animated Series, she's Nightwing and all about the modern comics.  She likes it, she grabbed this as soon as it arrived and gave it her seal of approval.

See? Right there. Her seal of approval.

So it looks great. The bright colors and layout are fantastic and I'm totally digging the retro thing. The whole book is in full color with tons of super hero goodness. So now about the recipes.

I have a fairly good collection of children's cookbooks, and what I look for is easy to prepare food, healthy choices, good safety tips, foods that will appeal to kids, and something that will teach them how to follow recipes and learn new skills. 

This is well done in that respect too, the recipes are rated by difficulty level, and that's explained in the introduction. So a from scratch pudding is rated 3 stars because it involves more skill. The pudding is Plastic Man's Pudding and one of my daughter's favorite recipes in the book because it's white chocolate and vanilla decorated to suit Plastic Man. The Kapow Punch is 1 star because it's very simple to make, but the glasses are cleverly masked to look like the Boy Wonder and the Caped Crusader. 

Healthy entrees include things like Seven Seas Saute which is a mix that grown ups will enjoy too, and features a nice amount of vegetables. The bright Plastic Man fettuccine has peppers for color and a fun, play with your food texture.

There are a lot of recipes for drinks and desserts, but also enough meal recipes to balance it out.

Where this book absolutely shines is in the decorating ideas. In the back of the book are card stock figures and stencils to use to decorate the food, and a lot of recipes that use food- like the Superman burger on the cover, or things like duct tape to create a super hero theme.

The heroes include all the classics, Wonder Woman, Batman, Superman, Green Lantern, The Martian Manhunter, Aquaman and the Flash and some that you need to be more serious fan to know like Plasticman, Atom and Firestorm.

Do I recommend this? Absolutely. It's one of the best themed cookbooks I've ever seen, even when I put aside my total comic book love and consider the recipes. 

Full disclosure- I got a copy of this cookbook to review at no cost. This review reflects my honest opinion of the book.

Fuller disclosure- My family is full of comic book fans with a strong preference for DC. We can spend hours talking your ear off about the personalities of the different Robins, or why Aquaman is actually awesome, and you never want to get us started on Batman because we can talk about him forever. I have Wonder Woman sneakers and my husband has a huge collection of super hero comic shirts. 

Want this book right now? You can get it from Amazon using my affiliate link and help support this site.

U.S.A. U.K.

How to make a comic book cover clock

As I've mentioned before, my family is happily geeky and comic book love falls in that geekdom. So we have boxes and boxes of comics and some of them are in less than pristine condition. Never, ever cut up a comic unless you know that it's not a collectors item, preferably only comics in "loved"condition. The comic above isn't valuable and I have duplicate copies of it.

You will need:

• comic book with an intact cover
• thermal laminating machine 
• 3 or 5 mil letter sized pouch (I used 3 mil- glossy)
• small sharp scissors
• paper trimmer or large scissors
• pen- ball point worked on my laminating pouches
• Clock movement kit- I used #10043 from Klockit, the shaft is short, and perfect for thinner faces.
• hands for the clock- you can pick free hands from Klockit when you order the movement, a second hand costs a little extra
• battery for the clock

About thermal laminating machines- I have a couple of them, the one I used is a very fast Black and Decker model that is a little on the pricey side. A much less expensive option that does take a little while to warm up is the Scotch thermal laminating machine. I have one, and used it for years, and can recommend them for hobby use. Links to both at the bottom of this entry!

So to start, open your comic to the middle and unpin the staples to remove the cover intact. It's easier to trim it straight if you can cut right along the fold or in the case of my comic, it had a line down the middle. 

Cut the cover in half, then find the middle. You'll bring the top and bottom edges together, and make a small crease approximately in the middle of the fold.

Repeat lengthwise, then you'll have a small folded + in the middle of the cover.

Now the thing about lamination is there has to be an outside edge of the lamination for it to be sealed. So to create that edge for the hole for the clock shaft to go through, I used the brass washer from my clock kit and traced around the outside of that. Place it directly over the + and trace with a pen.

Then cut out the hole using the small sharp scissors, cut just slightly outside your traced line.

Now you put the page in your laminating pouch, and run it through your laminating machine. 

Now you need to cut your hole for the clock movement shaft. This time I used the larger of the 2 hex nuts that were in the kit and traced the inside.

Use the small sharp scissors again to cut out the hole. Then check it on the clock movement, if you need to make the hole a little bigger trim just a shaving around the edge until it fits.

Now it's all set to go, pull out the clock movement and trim the edges around the cover remembering to leave at least a 1/8th to a 1/4 inch of clear lamination all around the edges. Then install your clock movement following the instructions that came with it.

Now you have you own comic book clock! The same technique will work with all sorts of paper projects, the key is having a fairly stiff lamination. When you hang it, it will stick out from the wall the same distance as the clock movements thickness.

About The Warlord- The Warlord was written and illustrated by Mike Grell, and it was one of my favorite comic books when I was a kid. My mom didn't like me reading comics so a lot of the time my Uncle Lamar would sneak them to me. He was fond of all sorts of titles, but mostly not the superhero books. The Warlord was a favorite of his. I'll probably make another one of these with a Green Lantern cover for my husband. 

Comic Book Themed Printable Gift Box

Free Comic Book Day is this Saturday! What that means is that comic book stores around the US will be giving away comic books that the major comic companies print especially for the occasion. These have included in the past a great mix of kids comics like Archie and Sonic the Hedgehog, unusual comics like Mouse Guard, and of course lots of superheroes like Green Lantern. Our local comic book shop has a limit of 5 comics each, but you can go to both locations. Free Comic Day has also included HeroClix figures and other little things too.
I'm very close to 700 likes on my Facebook page! Yay!
So my daughter suggested that I make a comic book themed printable box for all of you.
Click on the image for the larger version. Print/cut/score/fold/glue.

In more personal news-

Also on Saturday, here in Anchorage, one of my family's favorite authors is coming up for a book signing.  TG made herself a fantastic Anubis mask for the costume contest out of duct tape.

Duct Tape Comic Book Cuff Bracelet

Also from my old blog.

Super easy to make.

Measure your wrist, add 1.5 inches for the overlap where the Velcro dots are, then add two inches, cut a piece of duct tape that long. Fold over one inch on both ends. Cut a picture from a comic book or magazine or print out something nifty to fit, and put it on the sticky side between the folded over ends.
Put clear packing tape or clear duct tape over that.

Use two sets of Velco sticky dots, and the rough side to the soft side so you have them in matched pairs. Peel of the backing from the rough side and position them on the upside (graphic side) of your bracelet, then pull the backing off the soft side, and wrap the bracelet around to place them on the other side. (perfectly placed to match up now!)

Duct tape is generally about 2 inches wide, and I recommend 3M Scotch tape whenever the colors work because it's a thinner tape than the other major brands so it makes a fabric that molds a lot better. It seems like it's more expensive, but if you work it out at price per foot, it's usually about the same or with coupons or BOGO deals, a lot less expensive.

The first Saturday in May is Free Comic Book Day. Look for participating locations in your area. In Anchorage, that's Bosco's, and they will also have a concert that evening with Marian Call. 

Mod Podge Comic Book Bracelets

I love Mod Podge® in a big, crafty fangirl kind of way. So when Plaid sent me one of their starter packs with 5 2 ounce bottles- just YAY!

ModPodge also works on metal! You can get a variety of cuff blanks here. The size above is 1.5 inches wide by 6 inches long, and that's the size template I made.

You will need:

• comic book*
• bracelet blank
• ModPodge- I used Sparkle because I'm a magpie.
• Foam brush
• Paper plate
• scissors
• printable cutting templates
• rubbing alcohol

*Comic books- Please don't use older comics without checking them in Overstreet Comic Book Price Guide first.  My local comic book shop has a box of 25¢ comics which aren't valuable, plus I have a collection of damaged comics. There are also frequently "introductory" comics that are released for 25¢-1.00 each.

Wash your hands and use rubbing alcohol to remove any oils from your fingerprints on the bracelet blank. It's a good habit to be in whenever you are using adhesives with metal. Set the bracelet blank aside.

You'll need two pieces from your comic book, one for the outside, one for the inside. The outside piece is cut a bit larger than the bracelet blank. Print this template. (click the image for the larger version, print at 8x10 inches or to fit page) on card stock, cut it in half on the dotted line. For the top half, pierce the center of the rectangle with your scissors and cut it out to leave a window. For the bottom half, cut the outline of the large rectangle. The top part is your window for picking the page you want to use for the outside of the bracelet and the template for cutting the inside. The bottom is the pattern for cutting the outside bracelet piece.

Use the window piece to frame pages of the comic book until you find the image you want. You can angle it anyway you want. When you decide which image you want to cut out, lay the pattern from the bottom over the image, trace it, then cut it out. Cut the corner notches off and fringe the top and bottom 1/4 inch deep and approximately 1/4 inch apart.

Put a small puddle of Mod Podge on the plate to work with, always use just a bit at a time adding more as you need it.

Use the foam brush to spread Mod Podge on your bracelet blank, then starting from the center of you image, apply the image to the outside of the bracelet. Then apply Mod Podge to the inner edges of the bracelet blank. Fold in the sides first to the inside, then fold down the fringes. The reason you fringe it is because the inner diameter is a bit smaller than the outer diameter, the cuts will help it lie smoothly. Let it dry for 20 minutes, then coat the image with Mod Podge.
After the outside has dried for 20 minutes, apply another coat of ModPodge.

Let that dry, then use the window again to find the inside image. This time, you'll trace the window on the page, and cut it out. Apply Mod Podge inside the bracelet, then put the image in, starting from the middle and smoothing out. Allow to dry for 20 minutes, then coat with Mod Podge.

After the inside has dried for 20 minutes, apply another coat of Mod Podge.

For more durability you can spray on a coat of acrylic clear sealer after it's cured.

I also used the Mod Podge to apply tiny aluminum stars on the outside. They were cut using a star punch from an aluminum can. I added 3 coats of Mod Podge over them  to make sure they were well adhered.

A note: A least one a month, someone tells me about recipes for homemade Mod Podge. I've never tried it, and the reason is because I KNOW Mod Podge works. There are pieces my mom made 35 years ago that are still in great shape, and things I did 20 years ago that still look good. No peeling, no yellowing, and they wipe clean with a swipe of a damp rag.

Free comic book day and other stuff

I told K that we are all plague-y because we had plans to meet tonight until I got sick too.
I do plan to go out though. It's the first Saturday in May which means Free Comic Book Day! Yay!!!
If it works like last year did at our local comic book shop, everyone gets 3 comics each but you *can* go to both Bosco's and wind up with 6 comics each. Which we do. Which really shows the world just how comic geeky my family is. The Free Comic Book Day website has a participating store locator that works with zip codes.
Last night I worked on a small electronic project. I'm working out a simple method using copper wires to make tiny led lamps to fit in decorated jars that can be turned on and off through a simple mechanism. This is complicated by the fact I know nothing about electronics. But leds and 3v batteries are simple enough. I don't need to mess with resistors.
Nearly done with The Turnips scarf. Made a necklace for William I'll get a picture of soonish.


Some of my most recent reviews on Amazon:
Fairy Parties by Colleen Mullaney
Curious Folks Ask: 162 Real Answers on Amazing Inventions, Fascinating Products, and Medical Mysteries by Sherry Seethaler
Totally Twisted: Innovative Wirework & Art Glass Jewelry by Kerry Bogert


If you find them helpful, please do vote so. I finally made it into the top 1000 reviews on Amazon. It's been a mini goal of mine for a while. 

Currently... (heart bead pattern)

I posted a review of Jean Campbell's Steampunk Style Jewelry here. Just before Valentine's Day while I was working on bead patterns for the holiday, I graphed this heart with gears that I didn't wind up using. Hopefully you can!


For recent finished objects, I made a pair of earrings and a Legion flight ring.

I'm going to work on a non-trademarked ring in the same style as the Legion flight ring to post on BellaOnline. Something fun and springlike.

Recently posted reviews on Amazon:
Craft and Cookbooks-
Steampunk Style Jewelry by Jean Campbell
Chocolate Cakes- 50 Great Cakes for Every Occasion by Elinor Klivans
The Little House Cookbook- Frontier Foods from Laura Ingall Wilder's Classic Stories by Barbara M. Walker
My 1 inch circle punch, it's made by Uchida and this is the punch I used for the bottle cap necklace project.

Music-
Jamie Anderson's Three Bridges- a folk album Mike got me last year. It's one of my favorites
Boca 2008: Best of College a Cappella- a great collection of pop songs done a cappella
Jill Tracy's The Bittersweet Constrain another favorite album.

Favorite Things- 2009

Favorite Books-
Palimpsest by Catherynne Valente. This gorgeous story about people finding a place they belong was hands down my favorite fiction out of the 400 or so books I've read in the last year. It stands out strongly. I really envy anyone who hasn't read it because they will get the chance to read it for the first time and I never will again.

Santa Olivia by Jacqueline Carey. A definite change from the Kushiel books, this book is about a young girl who is the child of a genetically altered soldier, she was born utterly without fear in a "safe zone" town between the US and Mexico. It's got a somewhat comic book feel to it and is very well written. As much as I like the new Naamah series, this was my favorite book by her this year.

The Illustrated Hassle-Free Make Your Own Clothes Book, don't be fooled by the clean cut girl on the cover. This is a re-release of an old hippie how to make your own clothes book. It's non-technical very easy to make simple clothing and just a lot of fun.

Cookin' With Coolio, a book I'm actually surprised made the list, but it's laugh out loud funny with some great easy recipes including some good vegetarian ones. I'm thinking of buying a copy of this for my sister.

Favorite new albums-
Marian Call's Got to Fly- Marian Call is a local singer I really love in a big nearly fangirl way. Our whole family enjoys going to her live shows. Last year for Christmas Mike got me a copy of Vanilla and I was hooked. Got to Fly is her Browncoat inspired album. I'll Still Be A Geek After Nobody Thinks It's Chic could be a geek anthem and it's lovely to listen to, It Was Good For You Too is her Saffron song and my best friend's favorite song on the album. Mike's favorite song is It's Good To Have Jayne On Your Side. Vera Flew the Coop is an imagined back story for the woman the gun is named for. I love the whole album.
Street Sweeper Social Club Boots Riley from political hip hop group The Coup (also very worth checking out) and Tom Morello from Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave released this album earlier this year. It's "music for the revolution". Tom wrote the music, Boots wrote the lyrics. Very political, very anti-establishment sung by Boots to Tom's driving hard rocking music. I love this album.  Two of the songs were previously released in the NIN/JA tour download if you got that when they went on tour.
Who Killed Amanda Palmer? alternate release. I don't know if this still available or not, but the original album is for sure. Hey, it's Amanda F****** Palmer working with Ben Folds. Favorite songs off the album- Ampersand and Blake Says, but the whole album is wonderful. If the alternate release is still available, there was a song on that was co-written with her boyfriend. I love his songs. I have the LaM songs he wrote and they are constantly on my playlists. Hopefully he'll write more songs with Amanda.
S.J. Tucker's Quartered- Songs of Palimpsest, the album stands alone I think, but if you've read the book.. favorite songs- The Girl With the Lion's Tail, We Are Shangri-La and November.

E's favorite new artists- Auriplane. She puts everything up for free, and E loves her music. E's favorite is Dancing Mad, and Marian Call.
William's favorites for the year are Voltaire, Street Sweeper Social Club and Tom Smith. Tom Smith's albums are on sale until the 3rd. Tom Smith is a filker who sings about all sorts of geekdoms William is a fan of.

Tom Smith, S.J. Tucker, Amanda Palmer and Auriplane links are to their sites. All other links are Amazon.com.

Ideas, links and thoughts

I finally made up an Amazon.com Listmania list of some of my favorite cooking and craft related free books for the Kindle, they are all in public domain and all available on Project Gutenbergas well. Here's my list.

I was reading KissThisGuy.com this weekend, actually I was singing it to my family, looking up favorite songs. I realized, that would make the BEST party game. Go there, find songs, and make little slips of paper with the misheard lyric, the actual lyric, song and artist. Fold slips in half and put them into a bowl and let your guests take turns taking out slips and singing the misheard lyric. Prizes for the people who guess the most right songs and artists, and for the people who perform the best so the songs are recognized.
*singing to Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody* Scare a Moose, Scare a Moose, Will you do the fan tango?
Dr. Kiki used to do a podcast called Food Science that was one of our favorites. We would hook up the iPod to the tv and watch it together. The episode with nitrogen frozen ice cream was one of E's favorites. We've made ice cream using the two canister method before, and I actually do have an ice cream maker. But I think next time we are going to try this dry ice method. It looks like a lot of fun. Dry ice can also be used to carbonate soft drinks using this method. We usually use yeast. It does create a slight alcohol  content in the beverage, but not enough to worry about.

Also Spoonflower is selling people's designs if they wish now, which means I can make some of my patterns there available for sale if there is any interest. You can see the designs here. I have them in vector format so I can resize and recolor fairly easily. What do you think?

Green Lantern

My husband is a Marvel, I'm a DC.
Well, at least that used to be the case, but in the last couple of years, that's changed. Since I came out of the comic book geek closet and starting buying all my old titles again, he started reading a lot more DC than he ever had before. Marvel zombies didn't interest him, but DC's Blackest Night story line has him hooked in a big happy "he has a cricket bat" kind of way. (well.. a paper cricket bat his daughter made him for his b-day this year. It will work for paper zombies)
He has a GL teeshirt he wears frequently and always gets compliments on, and I made myself a GL ring a while back. This year, for Christmas, I plan to knit him a GL motif scarf. I had thought about doing all the Lantern Corps like One Geek to Stitch Them All did, but in the end, well.. I'm not that good at knitting. Really truly. But I did graph out a couple GL logos to try out in a 2 color scarf for my first double knitting project. If it turns out I can't double knit it because I'm really really not good at knitting, I'll do it just as a textured scarf with alternating garter and stockinette stitch.
So now I just need to pick which one to use. I'm going to knit them both up as washcloths first to see what I think. I should also try graphing repeat motif to use in a hat I think.