Closet Cosplay: Happy Hobbit Day!

My dear Fangirls and Fanboys! Geeks and nerds!

Today we celebrate the birthday of two very important hobbits: Bilbo and Frodo Baggins!!!

It's also the 80th anniversary of the Hobbit being published!

Because of that I decided to put together a little closet cosplay of the unexpected adventurer himself: Mr. Bilbo Baggins!

I do eventually want to make this costume even better (hairy feet and all!) by dying the pants, sewing a real hobbit shirt + vest, and adding other details.

I am currently re-reading the Hobbit, which I haven't done since the movies were released. It's a lot more interesting this time around! Before I found it terribly boring for some reason. Now I love picturing Peter Jackson's versions inside the book situations. (Thorin especially.)

In order to take these photos I did, in fact, walk around our woods in my bare feet! (Occasionally with flip-flops.) I also sat on a family of pill bugs in that tree and kept shouting "SMILE" at my phone. (Plus many, many obscenities!) I'm sure the neighbors think I'm crazy, but the citizens of Hobbiton also thought Bilbo was crazy, and look at his story! It was an adventure in itself trying to take these pictures.



I leave you with me channeling my inner Martin Freeman:

Don't take it personally though! My DSLR was acting up, so I had to use my phone instead before I lost the light! Also flipping sneaky birds is what Mr. Freeman would want! 😉

Hope you had a happy Hobbit Day! 

Don't forget to eat your second breakfast!

Elevensies!

Luncheon!

Afternoon Tea!
Dinner!
Supper!

(And maybe a midnight snack while you're at it!)

💖💖💖Kelsey💖💖💖

Monster Storage Book of Monsters

Greetings fans! Welcome to 

the Fangirl Crafter's school of WitchCRAFT and WizarDIY!

Today's lesson:

The Monster Book Of Monsters

Written by Edwardus Lima, the book provides a lot of helpful information, but also has a nasty bite if you don't take the necessary precautions first.

It made its first appearance in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban during which Hagrid thought it would be a useful textbook for his Care of Magical Creatures class.

Its scary appearance and mean reputation for biting ankles is what makes this book a great way to store your most precious possessions. Not even a Dark Lord would dare to mess with its contents!

What you will need:

-A storage box in the shape of a book, or pieces of cardboard
-Enough craft fur to cover the box and make tentacles
-A hot glue gun and LOTS of spare hot glue sticks
-Plastic safety eyes or clear glass gems from the floral section with eyes drawn on
-Red, brown, and white polymer clay
-Chalk pastels or acrylic paint
-Brown felt and gold paint or a printable text
-A small amount of stuffing
-(Optional) a belt (for protection)


Continue reading to begin the lesson

Eat Your Heart Out

My love with Jane Austen is undying, just like zombies. That's why I think they make such a great combination. "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies" comes out in theaters today and I am so excited to see it on the big screen! Elizabeth Bennet has been a hero of mine for years, and when they turned her into a katana-wielding zombie-slayer I couldn't help but love her even more. She kicks butt!

To celebrate the movie's release, I decided to share my zombiefied porcelain figure that was inspired by the artist Jessica Harrison. Check out her amazing creations! She was also the one who tattooed the porcelain figures.

I loved the idea of zombie porcelain figures, but hadn't found the right one to gore up. Then one day when I was thrifting I found this lovely lady with her hand already amputated for about $1.50. Score! My skills are not even close to the level in my inspiration, but I am happy with the results.

I know zombies eat mostly brains and other... bits... but the position of her hand made me want to stick a heart in there. I have an awesome shirt that has a zombie eating a heat that says "Eat Your heart out" which also helped inspire my decision.

I like to think she was a woman who had just been scorned, and after she was turned into a zombie all she could think about was ripping the heart out of that man's chest (with maybe a few brains for dessert).

She's GOREgeous, don't you think?

Check out that teeny, tiny heart! (Apologies for grainy phone photo!)

I used this tutorial from PuddingFishCakes to make the heart as anatomically correct as possible:


I had to work with both acrylic and enamel paints to decorate my zombie'd figure. The acrylic was used for the clay heart because the enamel paints started to eat away at it! It was getting sticky and gross really fast, so I had to clean that up and start over. I used a blend of red, black and white enamel paints for the rest of the blood and gore. I left it alone to cure and it stays pretty well as long as nothing scrapes it off. Here are photos of the process:

Have you read PPZ? Will you go to see it in theaters? 
I'm curious to see Matt Smith as Mr. Collins! Which is as curious about Mr. Collins as I'll ever be, lol.

“It is a truth universally acknowledged that a zombie in possession of brains must be in want of more brains.” ― Seth Grahame-Smith, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

This month seems to be made of awesome... and zombies! Deadpool and The Walking Dead's return is next week too, and I'm really excited for both of them. Bloody hearts all around!