Let’s Super Mario!

E3 happened this week, so I bet you know what I’m going to talk about… Yoshi’s Woolly World!!!!

Well… yes and no. I’m going to mention my thoughts, and then get into what I really wanted to talk about.

 

I just sat watching all the yarny goodness. Then it cut to the rows upon rows of Yoshi plushies. I think, “oh man I could totally do that. I could make them all. I can make EVERYTHING. I CAN BE AWESOME!!!”

Life goal: Emi Watanabe.

I don’t consider myself a programmer, and my art skills could never compare to the artists in our class. But I can utilize my skills in a way that not everyone can. I was the only person in our class who could make plushies. It’s basically 3D modelling, but using craft supplies instead of a $3,000 modelling software.

Now let’s talk about this week’s real post: a throwback to the Super Mario themed plushies I’ve made. Or rather, the #LetsSuperMario contest they’re running over at Nintendo. It’s been 30 years since the first Super Mario Bros came out, and what better way to celebrate than by making a video in honour of the series? It’s for a good cause, too! Proceeds go to Operation Smile, a charity that offers free corrective surgery for children born with cleft lip. I won’t have time to make a video, but hopefully by spreading the word, someone reading this will be inspired to do so.

Anyway, let’s take a look at the plushies, shall we? All patterns are from WolfDreamer. Click on the picture for the specific pattern link.

Here’s one of my first successful plushies made from a pattern: the classic red mushroom. Man, is it derpy. Back then, I liked my work to be nice and smooth. That’s why I left everything on the wrong side. Problem is, when you leave the wrong side facing out, it distorts the shape and looks derpy. Past Pika, that right-side texture isn’t all that bad. You might even forget it’s there!

Iz mashram.

I improved a bit by the time I made the green mushroom. The spots sewed on correctly, too! But again, wrong side out because “SHMOOTH SHAILING LOLOL!” I like the colour of the blue mushroom.

Iz moar mashrams.

These mushrooms are a fun project for beginners. Once you master those, you can make mini mushroom earrings.

Fire Flower! I always forget about this guy. It’s become such a permanent fixture on the lamp, I often forget it’s there. Yet the lamp looks weird without the flowers. Huh. I put a pipe cleaner inside the stem hoping it would hold its bend like the other flower, but that didn’t work out as well as I’d hoped. Oh well, it’s still cute.

We can’t have helpful powerups without enemies to avoid and/or defeat! I tried to squish the Goomba into a shape closer to the game. Maybe I should’ve actually jumped on him. I’m impressed with myself: I could amp up the lighting and contrast, put in my name and blog, and add the views side by side, yet I couldn’t ‘shop the stray thread in between his eyes. From here on, I preferred to glue felt, instead of sew.

I also made Toad and Toadette. They were Christmas presents for my then-sweetheart and his sister. Word is that Berry (his sister) was raving about Toadette. Sadly, I didn’t get a very good picture of Toad and Toadette before sending them off. You can look at WolfDreamer’s pattern for pictures; the finished plushies looked the same, except Toadette had both eyes open, and they didn’t have mouths. As a way of avoiding copyright infringement, I tend to not draw mouths on my plushies unless it’s an important part of the character’s design. I might try making and selling my own versions of these two.

And last but not least, Bob-omb. I made this one in a rush the night before some cute kiddos came to visit. One of them stuffed the mushrooms and Bob-omb in his shirt, and I said, “but now they’ll blow up!” He panicked and dropped them all. XP

And that’s it for now. Tune in next week when (hopefully) you can see the cutest, probably most difficult plushie I’ve made!

Once again, here are the main links:

Let’s Super Mario!

–> For more information about the beneficiary, visit Operation Smile’s official website.

Wolfdreamer Off The Hook

What was your favourite part of E3? Comment below!

Yoshi! Wa wa wa wa wa wa~

Candy Kit Review – Ice Cream

When I got the free birthday gift from Sephora, the cashier wrapped it up in this cute little bag. And I realized the bag was the perfect size to hold…

 

Kracie Poppin’ Cookin’ Ice Cream Parlor

Brand: Kracie

Price: $5.00 at T&T Food Market

Click for RRCherryPie’s Tutorial

Now that summer is in full swing, let’s have some ice cream! In this kit, you get 2 ice cream flavour packets: 1 strawberry and 1 vanilla. You also get two ice cream cones, a waffle bowl, two unflavoured wafers, sprinkles, a piping bag, and a…..

SHOOOOOON!

The box has special perforations, so you can make holders for your ice cream creations. But until you punch the holes, the box can be…

…a hat.

So let’s begin, shall we?

This is probably the most resourceful kit we’ve tried to date. Not only does the box make a cute stand, but the plastic wrapping comes with cut-out pieces you can use to decorate your cones. Now you can pretend you have a real ice cream shop!

Making the ice cream was easy…

…putting the cream into the piping bag was not. From video demonstrations, I expected a small partition inside the bag, to keep the colours separate until it was time to pipe. We ended up winging the placement, squishing the cream into place. It was very messy. This is the best we could manage. Luckily, it didn’t look too bad once piped out.

We made two little ice cream cones. They look cute as is.

The box showed some other options, including an ice cream sandwich. These required us to break the wafers on their corrugated lines. (One side had diagonal lines, the other had checkered lines) Shoony was a bit better at this than me.

 

She made an ice cream sandwich…

and I made an ice cream boat.

As we were rearranging, we realized that water had fallen into one of the divets, making the bottom of a cone all soggy. Eww…

But that didn’t stop us from assembling this lovely display.

Finished!

 

Overall Verdict

Difficulty: 8/10

Although this kit wasn’t as intensive as the cake kit, our general incompetence made it difficult to keep the creams separate. Not recommended if you’re anal about keeping colours separate. And watch out for accidental water drippage, or you’re gonna have a bad time with soggy cones.

Taste: 8/10

Very tasty! The vanilla bits too! The cones taste and feel like real cones, but the wafers were a bit stale.

Overall verdict: 8/10 would recommend, as long as you’re not derp.

Ice cream kit is very cute and fun to decorate. But again, you often end up following the box for “creative” designs. This kit came with cute heart-shaped sprinkles, and it’s a lot of fun if you like decorating cakes with frosting.

Have you tried this kit? What did you think? What other kits would you recommend? Comment below!

Pika, so happy~

Olaf (Frozen) – Amigurumi #23

O hai, look what I finally finished!

It’s June 2015, and for those of us who don’t have kids, I think it’s safe to say that Frozen is old news. I would say more, but I already got in trouble for not liking it as much as I’m apparently supposed to. Was it a good movie? Absolutely. But was it the Holy Grail of Disney movies that the internet made it out to be? No way. It could’ve been, if not for the obvious pandering to the obvious critics. *ahem* Anyway, I’ll have to save this rant for another post. Let’s just get to the part I really liked.

“Hello, I’m Olaf, and I like warm hugs.”

Hello, I’m Pika in a Bag, and I also like warm hugs.

I was requested to make this for a family friend’s granddaughter. I also made two monkeys for her a few years ago. She bought the yarn, and I used the yarn to make the monkeys: one boy, and one girl. I got to keep the remaining yarn as payment. 🙂 Too bad I didn’t take pictures of them.

Anyway, Olaf was an ordeal! The body was easy enough, but oh lawd that head. I think this is why I grew to like anime style: their “kawaii” mascots are often drawn with simpler shapes, whereas Western cartoon mascots are drawn with abstract shapes. Simple and clean, or crazy and unique? The choice is yours. Honestly, I like both. I just prefer to make kawaii amis.

Best of all, this Olaf can go outside in the sun without his personal snow cloud.

“Winter’s a good time to stay in and cuddle. But put me in summer and I’ll be a… happy snowman!”

Olaf’s song may not have been as catchy, but it’s also very cute and light-hearted.

I like both times of the year. Winter is a chance to stay indoors and make new outfits, and summer is a chance to go outside and show off the outfits!

Not much else to say about Olaf, except that he is quite happy chilling on the chair. This is how he used to look, before realizing you couldn’t see his teeth.

He also likes to be warm and toasty by the fire. Indeed, some people are worth melting for.

 

 

 

 

 

Another short blog… I’ve been reconsidering a lot of things in life. I want to drop out, but at the same time I don’t want to leave things unfinished, especially with so little left to do. It feels like everyone around me is only capable of saying, “do what you want,” in a condescending manner. “If you want to drop out, do it,” often sounds like, “fine, drop out. But then I’ll never let you forget what a failure you are.” Everyone else who’s dropped out had a plan; I don’t.

Do you like warm hugs? What other Disney mascots would you like to see next? Comment below!

Pika, so happy~