I Sense a Disturbance in the Force...

Last weekend, I took the wife shopping to some of her favorite out-of-town stores. We spent 2 days perusing the shops, which meant that I spent 2 days surfing the net on my iPhone. As I surfed, I came across numerous do it yourself projects that I thought I might like to try. One of those was sewing together little felt creatures. It looked easy enough, so I figured that I would try it, and make 3 little monsters, each modeled after one of my 3 kids. Today the wife taught me to use her sewing machine, and I made the creatures. Here they are:




First for my oldest son:


To fit his morbid sense of humor, and love of scaring people, I made him The Black Phantom, a specter from another dimension that scares people when they least expect it.

Then for my middle boy:




He is my sensitive one. He loves everyone and has those half moon shaped eyes when he smiles. He is also the most insane of my 3 kids, so I made him Huggy-Boom. A monster from the other dimension who uses his 4 arms to hug as many people as he can, before he explodes.

Finally, for my little Monkey:




I made a little monkey! This monkey shares my son's underbite, and love of climbing, bananas, and stomping around seeking entertainment. His name is Moonkey. He came to our dimension seeking some hydrocortisone for his exceedingly itchy bum:

The Elder Wand (Yet Another Man Cave Decoration Project)

If you've been following this blog, then you know that I love me my Man Cave. You have seen that I like to decorate it with themed decorations from some of my favorite things, like retro video games, favorite childhood cartoons and shows, and what not. When my wife told me that I could have complete authority over how the room was decorated, I already had a list of things in mind that I would like to see incorporated into the room. The list went something like this:

Old school games, probably Tetris shelves (this was the only thing that I knew I would build from the get-go).

Something Star Wars.

Something Harry Potter.

Well, then I decided that I wanted to make most of the stuff, because let's face it, you just can't find video game themed furniture at the furniture store, and if I make it, I could guarantee that it would be unique. So I set about designing the room, and building or acquiring the decor. Inspiration, however, did not come in the order of my original list. As the inspiration came, I built/printed/decorated and ended up with the following:

Tetris Bookshelves

Greatest American Hero Clock

Pac Man Sconces and Fevorite Cartoon Pictures

The Wood Sword from The Legend of Zelda

As you can see from the list above, the only thing that made it into the Man Cave from my original list so far were the Tetris shelves. Other than the GAH clock, cartoon pictures, and a few other things strewn about the Tetris shelves, the room is mainly old-school-game oriented. That is totally cool with me, but I still wanted something Harry Potter and Star Wars in there. Originally the spot where the Wood Sword is mounted was meant for a stuffed Tauntaun head from Star Wars, but that was unoriginal and too complicated to make, so I'm still contemplating Star Wars. Harry Potter, though, I got that done today.

For my "something Harry Potter" I've thought about several things from a talking Sorting Hat to the Sword of Godric Griffindor, but I'm out of room for big displays now. Finally I decided on one of the Deathly Hallows mentioned in the final book, so I had a few choices. Once I decided that the Elder Wand was what I wanted, then I just had to either spend a ridiculous amount of money on an official replica from the Noble Collection, or make one of my own design. Neither seemed too appealing at first, the replica would be expensive and not unique, whereas a homemade wand might require the use of a lathe and hours of work for something tiny, so I put that on the back burner, until I found some online instructions on how to make a nice, sturdy wand out of paper, hot glue, and paint. That inspired me, now I have my own version of the Elder Wand sitting in its rightful place atop the Tetris Bookshelves. Here's the photo barrage:

I took a piece of card stock and a hot glue gun, then rolled the card stock up diagonally, slightly tighter at one end to create a taper. I used double-sided tape and Elmer's glue to hold the paper together. Once that dried, I cut the ends straight, stuffed it with tissue, and used the hot glue to plug both ends and create a design around the wand:

Once the hot glue dries, it just needs paint. I decided that I wanted the Elder Wand to look like it was made from ivory as opposed to wood, so I chose an almond color for the base coat. After the base coat dried, I then "distressed" the wand by watering down some black paint, painting the wand black, then quickly wiping most of the black off. Finally I used silver paint to highlight the graphic around the wand. Here's what that looked like done:

Finally I just needed a stand. I didn't feel like constructing one out of wood though, so I thought that I'd just make a quick one out of a piece of paper.

Here's the finished wand on the shelves:

Now, how to fit Star Wars in this room...?