Zelda Special

Right before Tayron and I left to go to the movies, the mailman came and gave us a nice big package containing this!

The Legend of Zelda: Hyrule Historia

I don't have much to say on this yet, I just finished writing the post on the movie and haven't been able to do more than skim it, but here's one of my favorite pages so far.

Oracle of Ages Nayru concept art.

My love affair with the Zelda 'verse began with the Oracle of Ages. Same goes for my love of Nintendo, it all started with that game. Up until around my 15th or 16th birthday, I only really had a pc for gaming. We did have a gameboy, but it and the games we had for it were somebody else's. (It's complicated) I never had consoles to be nostalgic over these days, since the only experience I had with them were from a game here or there at a friend's house. I wasn't that interested in any of the games or consoles back then to tell the truth, I had a state of the art pc and most of the latest and coolest games for it at the time. Then the Christmas right after my birthday, I got a Gameboy Color. No games, just the system. Using some of the money I had gotten for the holiday, I went into the local EB Games store to look at games available to play. Out of all the new games there, Oracle of Ages caught my eye, looking like the most interesting game out of a seemingly boring lineup. So I bought it and took it home. About a week later I was back to buy Seasons, since I had so much fun playing through Ages. From there I moved on to other Nintendo games, getting into Pokemon as hard as Zelda, and lesser into Mario and Kirby, but still into Nintendo games.

So I'll be spending the rest of the evening reading this book and looking into it, but As a erson who loves the art of cosplay, I have to say the detail they show in the pictures is a great for helping with creating a cosplay from the Zelda universe.

On to the fun stuff. Here we have a mini collection of Zelda themed crafts and Etsy listings for your enjoyment.

First up we have a cool chess set from tomo-chi on deviantart. 

I love Liyolabs on Etsy, she has lots of awesome jewelry like this Legend of Zelda Ring.

I like writing ideas and thoughts in little notebooks to create things with them later, this notebook inspires me to paint one of my own. Hylian Notebook from YumeStyle.

Love these Pearls of the Goddesses necklace set from LicketyCut.

Finally, bringing it all back together, we have a gorgeous Zelda Book Locket Necklace, featuring the Hyrule Historia, courtesy of junkstudio.

Wreck-It Ralph

I just got back from seeing Wreck-It Ralph today, and I have to say I'm impressed with the movie. I'd seen some spoiler-free reviews in the past few days because I couldn't quite wait until today to watch them after watching the movie, so my expectations were lower going into it. Not low, just lower than what they were before seeing the reviews. And the movie just blew me away. Stripping away the video game-ness that some people say is pandering, the heart of the movie is an amazing story about motivations, friendship, and the truth behind what it is to be a real hero. I loved this movie just for that story, and it's ability to almost make me cry. And let me tell you, with how much I've seen and read in my lifetime, it's hard to get me to cry at works of fiction. Enough about me, back to the movie. We'll start from the beginning with a few interesting advertisements and the previews.

Of course, in a movie about video games, they had to have adverts featuring video game characters.
Sonic the Hedgehog in a Progressive ad here on Youtube.
There was a shorter cut version of this ad here, for the upcoming Playstation All-Stars: Battle Royale game.

When this ad came on, I thought the previews had started since it seems like an interesting movie about 2 bloggers connecting with each other and forming a bond. Was not expecting what actually happened, and loved it!
The last advertisement-type thing as a short movie made through a Sprite contest, Sprite Films Presents: Prom Night. I can't actually find this online anywhere, when I do find it I'll post it right here.

On to the Previews!
First one up is 'Rise of the Guardians.'

Next up is 'Escape From Planet Earth.'

Here we have 'The Croods.'

Finally is 'Oz The Great and Powerful'

Since this is a Pixar film, there is a short in front of the movie, this one's called 'Paperman.' I just love these shorts, that they keep coming up with these amazing stories told with no words at all, and every one of them is different, unique and engaging. Paperman, while still being CGI, has an art style I'm finding hard to explain right now. It's like a combination of traditional animation and CGI, completely beautiful. A+
Before the movie starts, we get 8-bit Steamboat Willie, I thought that was a nice touch. Some of the side dialogue in the movie is hilarious, like here in the opening when the narration is going on, you can hear one of the kids from 1982 say "This animation's so real!" It's little touches like that side dialogue and cameos/references going on in the background that makes me want to watch this movie over and over just to catch everything. Like in the party for the game's 30th anniversary, we noticed Skrillex was the DJ, and if you blink during the scene where Ralph's escape pod is crashing through Game Central you can miss the rings flying out as he apparently squishes Sonic.
Going back to the story before I get too fangirly here, Ralph has been labelled and they've all been put into their boxes or roles to play on this video game stage. They've pushed him so far into his character archetype, they don't even care he's a person. One thing I did find kind of odd, was how accepting the people of Niceville were of him after everything he did to them, what with almost getting their game taken out. With Felix, at least there was a connection and shared feelings on being abandoned/thrown away by people you just wanted to be friends with, but nothing with the others in his game. I understand he's a hero now, in every sense of the word, and they should like him and not keep pushing people into labels other people have bestowed upon you, but it just seems they've flipped too hard from hating into loving him. Even with that minor grievance, I sill loved every bit of this movie, and everyone should see this film, whether you're into video games or not. If you're not a fan of gaming, you won't get all the references and cameos the movie has, but the story and visuals will still entertain you.


I leave you with a Perler Bead Ralph I mad while looking at one of the movie posters for this film.

If you're interested in more Wreck-It Ralph crafts, Spoonful.com has Disney's crafts and printables for it here, http://spoonful.com/disney-wreck-it-ralph

Halloween Part Three

Third Halloween post is going to be my first tutorial post. Yay! Today I'm going to show you how to make two easy Halloween crafts: a Pumpkin Pin, and a Creative Casket treat box. Mostly text based for now, pics coming tomorrow since something came up with this storm. Also be sure to read all the instructions before getting your materials ready if you want to make these, since there are optional items you may or may not want to use.

Pumpkin Pins
Materials needed :
1 bag Jumbo Walnuts
Orange and black paints
Green felt
Safety pins or pin backs
Glue
Butter knife
Cutting board
optional - polymer clay in green or brown.
optional - cardstock

Once you have all the materials you need, we'll start off with the walnuts. This is perhaps the hardest part. Placing the walnut on the cutting board and taking the butter knife, you're going to stick it in the bottom of the walnut where the two sides meet. Then, wiggling it back and forth along the join and pushing downwards, the knife will start to open the walnut. Due to the texture on the walnut though, you'll only get it to seperate perfectly with both sides being usable about half the time. If you fail at it the first time, just try again, that's why we bought a whole bag, plus walnuts are delicious.

When you finally get the walnut split in half, you're going to pick out the walnut meat inside and rub off the papery bits inside the walnut to make it as clean as you can. We don't need any of that rolling around your pin later.

Before we get to the painting, you're going to trace the walnut onto the green felt and cut it out. Put it aside for now, you'll be using it later.

Now that your walnut is all cleaned out, time to break out your paints! Starting with the orange, cover the outside of the walnut. It may take several coats before you gets the color you want. Once the orange has completely dried, you use the black to make a jack-o-lantern face on your pumpkin, or you can skip the black for a more natural fall harvest pumpkin.

Time for the stem. I like to use polymer clay to make my stem, in green to match the felt backing we'll use in a later step. You could also use brown for the harvest time pumpkin, or using a bit of the felt, roll it and cut it into a pointy fringe. The fringe lets you glue it down to both the inside and outside of the shell securely.

At this point we're going back to the felt tracing from earlier, and gluing it to the back of the shell. I like to also sandwich cardstock between the shell and felt to make it a bit more sturdy. Finally you're going to glue the pinback to the felt, or wait for the glue to dry from the previous step and use the safety pin to pin it up.



Creative Casket
Materials :
Paper Mache or wooden casket. I got mine from A.C. Moore
Chalkboard paint
Paint of your choice for the inside color
Chalk

After prepping your area like before, you're going to start with the chalkboard paint. Be sure to follow the instructions on the paint you bought, mine at least 2 coats, first one way horizontally/vertically, then a second coat the other direction with an hour dry time between coats. Also it has a 24 hour curing time before you can use chalk on it.

Once the paint has dried, but not cured, you'll be painting the inside of the coffin with your secondary paint. I used orange to make it Halloween-y, but you can use any color you want. Once you're done painting the inside, it should look like this with orange paint.


When the chalkboard paint has finally cured, it's time for the fun part. Using the chalk, draw decorative patterns or messages on it, then fill it with treats and you can give it as a gift.

Halloween Part Two

The Halloween fun continues with a roundup of awesome craft ideas found around the web and humorous last minute costumes.

CollegeHumor gets the first spot today with their hilarious ideas for last minute costumes, 2012 edition. The list has some pretty awesome ideas, from Jesus Painting to Apple Maps.

Ideas for Haunted Birdhouses, Signs and Ghostly Pumpkins are found here: http://blog.athomearkansas.com/2012/10/spooktacular-last-minute-halloween-crafts/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=spooktacular-last-minute-halloween-crafts

Craftfoxes.com has a neat list of 5 last-minute Halloween crafts here. I know I'll be making candy corn jewelry tomorrow.

Another craft I'll be making tomorrow are these adorable scrapbook paper pumpkins.

Found here - http://www.craftaholicsanonymous.net/halloween-paper-pumpkins

A Selection of 31 Awesome Halloween Crafts are saved for you here - http://crunchyfrugalista.com/2012/09/31-awesome-halloween-crafts/

Last roundup is a list of 50 Halloween Crafts, Recipes, Printables and More! by SlapDashMom.com
I just love the Hanging Vellum Halloween Lanterns, and the Terrifying Tortilla Chips.
Hope you all enjoy making some of these crafts!

Brave day out

Today I went to see Brave and have an enjoyable day out with my sister in law A and her daughter, niece E. Post about the movie and my thoughts updated tomorrow when I can use the main pc whose keyboard doesn't keep skipping letters. I wanted to get this out asap, since it's pretty awesome and a fantastic favor bag idea that isn't too expensive and crafty. I made niece E this gift since this is an awesome movie, her birthday was a few months ago, and I needed an excuse to make/give a goody bag. I love making little things like this, and if anyone needs ideas for something like this, totally contact me, I don't mind.

I made a Brave goody bag, read on to see what went into it and how to bring it together.

Brave activity book, found here at Disney's Family.com site.

Shrink charms, also found at Disney's Family.com site. All you need is an inkjet printer and special inkjet shrinky dink sheets. Do not use regular shrinky dink sheets, it will not work, I've already tested and it's a fail.

The treat bag, stickers and lip balm locket all come from Party City, but you can also find them on Amazon, and the pencil came from the dollar store. Put it all together and I believe it's a pretty good bag for any kid, young or old.