DIY D&D Mimic Chest Craft

 I have been doing a lot of D&D and Renaissance Festival adjacent crafting lately and this Mimic Chest is one of my favorites yet.  

Supplies:

-Pre-made balsa wood chest from a craft/hobby store

-Balsa wood strips (to put teeth into)

-Toothpicks or similar 

-hot glue (lots)

-acrylic paint (I use cheap craft paint)

-Parchment paper

-semi-gloss polyurethane

Construction:

Part 1: Teeth

Step 1) First I cut the balsa strips to make the 'gums' of the mimic where the teeth would go.  I set the bottom row of teeth back to give room for the top row when the box closes. 

Step 2) I cut the tooth picks into small pieces and put 6 in each balsa strip to form the base of the teeth.

Step 3) I added hot glue over the tooth picks to form the teeth.  I had to hold these a long time to allow the glue to drip and solidify in the right way.

Step 4) I painted the teeth outside the box to make sure I could let the paint dry in an appropriately way to keep the tooth shape.

Part 2: Tongue and Mouth

Step 5) I put parchment paper on top of some pieces of balsa wood to make a curved surface, then put hot glue down to form the tongue.  The curve of the parchment paper allowed the tongue to have a curved shape which worked really well.  I used a scissors to trim the edges of the tongue once it dried.

Step 6) I used hot glue to put the gums with teeth and tongue into the mouth, then used more hot glue to cover up the edges and cracks of the chest, which also gave it more organic tissue looking bits.  I double checked repeatedly to make sure the chest could fully close once I put the teeth in.

Part 3: Painting.

Outside of the chest: Solid Black first, then a heavy dry brush of dark brown, then a lighter dry brush of light brown to give it an aged appearance.

Inside/Gums: Solid White first, then a dark pink. Next I did a dark red wet coat to seep into the cracks and shadows.  Finally once that dried I did a lighter pink dry brush.

Tongue: Very dark red/brown with a lighter red dry brush

Teeth: Dark brown at the very base, then a yellow brown, then white.  

Part 4 Sealing:

Once the paint was dry I used a spray semi-gloss polyurethane to seal it.  All done!

DIY Wizard Wands with Gems

 

I recently made a lot of wizard wands for a birthday party and was pretty happy with how they turned out.  I used the same basic plan as my previous wand: https://chuck-does-art.blogspot.com/2018/10/diy-wizard-wands.html but this time added the extra flare of a rhinestone at the tip and coated the 'vines' with gold to make them extra sparkly.  

Materials:

-12 inch wooden dowels, 3/8 inch diameter

-Rhinestones (slightly smaller than 3/8 inch across)

-Lock-Tite adhesive

-Hot glue gun and lots of hot glue

-Acrylic paint: Black, Dark Chocolate (or other dark brown), Honey Brown (or other light brown), Gold

-Warm semi-gloss polyurethane 

Step one: I used the lock-tite adhesive to glue the rhinestones to the end of the dowels. 

Step two: I add hot glue: There are a couple different 'parts' that I add to the wand

1) Two full circles near the middle of the dowel to be the handle where you hold it with your fingers

2) A large blot of glue on the butt of the dowel (opposite the rhinestone) to help balance it, with a spiral of glue leading from there to the finger handle.  The farther the finger handle is from the center, the more glue you will need to balance it.

3) A thin circle of glue over the edge of the rhinestone with a little spiral off of it to make sure the rhinestone can't pop off. 

4) Test the weight by holding the wand at the finger handle; if it leans to one side or the other add more hot glue to the other side until it balances.

Step three: Paint

1) Paint the entire thing black

2) Heavy dry brush dark chocolate (dark brown)

3) Light dry brush honey brown (light brown)

4) Paint gold over all the hot glue areas; do this lightly so that some of the dark color below shows thru, which will give it an aged appearance. 

Step Four: Once the paint fully dries, spray with polyurethane to seal the paint.  If you don't use the polyurethane the paint comes off the hot glue very easily. I used a semi-gloss and liked the final effect.  Make sure to do this outside!

Happy Spell Casting!

DIY Hogsmeade Christmas Village: Dog Walkers Conversion

This year it's been a little harder to go to second hand stores for old Christmas Village supplies to repurpose, but I did get a pair of Lemax Christmas figures to paint.  Like my previous figures, I painted them in colors to correspond to one of the Hogwarts Houses, in this case Gryffindor and Slytherin.  

Previous Hogsmeade Christmas Village Posts:

Hogwarts House Carol Singers

Hogsmeade Owls

Hogsmeade Buildings

Madam Puddifoot's and Skaters

The painting system I use is simple; first I paint the figures white, then I block colors for each section.  For Slytherin I used greens, black, and silver primarily.  For the Gryffindor I used reds, browns, and gold mostly.  The red jacket is a different color (Santa Red) than the red sweater (Burgundy).  Next I do dark washes with either black (for greens/grays/silver or dark brown) or dark brown (for reds and lighter browns) paint diluted with water.  Finally I do highlights by dry-brushing light colors onto the trim/edges.  So for example the yellow dog is a honey brown base, a dark brown wash, then a honey brown-mixed-with-white drybrush to highlight the fur.  

The fine details came last; the eyes, nose, and collar are all just solid colors.  It's hard to paint the fine details, but for example for the eyes it was easy to just dap the area brown and then re-paint whatever spilled onto the fur.  For the eyes I did small white dots, then very very small brown or blue dots.  Having a very fine tip brush is key! I painted the bases white last, since I knew I would be spilling paint on them constantly during the process.      

The Official Gingerbread House of 2020 (Dumpster Fire)

Well it has been...a year.  So to commemorate we made a gingerbread house that fit the mood.  All credit to Amy for the idea and baking and decorating and putting up with me through all of 2020.    Can't wait to actually set it on fire.  

**Scroll to bottom to see it ceremonially burned on New Year's Eve!**

This is a rough diagram of how I made the gingerbread pieces.  The front (h) and back (H) of the dumpster are different heights, which means the lid of the dumpster has to be as long as the angled top of the sides (A).  If you want to keep it simple, make the front and back of the dumpster the same height.  We made the lid 1/2 the width of the dumpster (1/2 W), which meant the flames had to be a little less than 1/2 the width of the dumpster to make sure they would fit in once the lid was on.  I made some of the flames taller than the back (H) and some were between the front and back heights (H > flame > h) Not included in my cardboard cut outs are the little right-angle triangles that I made to go behind the flames in front of the dumpster so they wouldn't fall over. 

We cut the pieces out in a very hard gingerbread (find a recipe made for construction, not cookies), and made a couple extra pieces in case some broke.  Once baked, we piped royal icing around the edges, then flooded the surfaces, and added gold sprinkles for the dumpster sides.  The '2020' is made of hand-carved gingerbread pieces that we coated in white icing and placed onto the front of the dumpster after flooding it but before the icing hardened.  You could also just flood the front, let it harden, then pipe '2020' onto it.  

We previously had a disaster trying to make a gingerbread house stand up using royal icing as mortar, so this time we used caramel.  It was Super adhesive, though also Super Hot and Super Will Burn Your Skin so be careful! I used the little right angle pieces to act as braces behind the flames that are in front of the dumpster, but they might be able to stand up on their own without that.  The whole thing is adhered to a piece of cardboard, which we left undecorated for full Dumpster feel.  

Then, on New Year's Eve, we said goodbye to this dumpster fire of a year.  If you've ever wondered 'could a gingerbread house burn down a real house?' The answer is yes, absolutely.  These burn Very Well.  

 

della Robbia Christmas Wreath DIY

I was inspired by an episode of Holiday Home Makeover to try to make a Lucca della Robbia-inspired Christmas wreath.  It was a pretty simple task overall and I'm quite pleased with the result!  You could also call it a citrus wreath.  

Supplies:

18 inch fake pine wreath

Mini fake oranges

Mini fake lemons

Fake Cranberry sprigs and leaves

Gold glitter spray paint (I used Rustoleum Imagine Gold)

Hot glue gun

Process:

First I made the layout.  I trimmed the cranberry sprigs to separate the leaves and the berries.  I made two groups of lemons and two groups of oranges, then added cranberries in between.  Finally I added a lot of leaves all over.  

Happy with my layout, I took a photo and then took the whole thing apart so I could spray the leaves and fruit with the glitter gold.   I did a mild spray: I wanted a good shimmer on everything but didn't want to turn it all solid gold.  

Once the paint had dried, I put everything back on the wreath in place, then went through piece by piece and attached them with a hot glue gun.  Notably I did this inside a large cardboard box to try to keep the glitter under control.  And that's it! Lucca della Robbia inspired Christmas Wreath.

DIY Captain America Shield using Round Saucer Sled

For Halloween this year the family is going as some of the Avengers, so I chose Captain America.  The sled I used to make this shield was already used once as the shield for my Spartan Hoplite Costume so I needed to repaint it and make new handles.  The construction part of this was pretty simple and straightforward, but the painting was a bit of a nightmare; I hope you will learn from my mistakes!  I used only materials I already had at home other than the paint, so feel free to get creative with what you have available!

This isn't a movie-perfect recreation but it is a pretty easy process and makes a great halloween costume! You'll notice particularly the shield isn't actually even a perfect circle due to the hand holds in the sled, and the straps are functional (so you can hold the shield with one arm or behind your back) but do not resemble the movie straps.  Also it's plastic instead of vibranium so not useful in combat.   

Materials: 

-Round plastic 'saucer' style kids sled (28 inches across)

-8 D Ring style picture hanging hooks with screws and bolts (small!) to tie the straps

-Fake leather costume material (for hand straps) and leather string (for shoulder straps) 

-Metallic spray paint - silver, red, blue

-Plastic Primer **I Didn't Use This But I Should Have!! Please Learn From My Mistakes!**

-Spray sealant (I used Krylon Triple Thick Clear Glaze but that's just what I happened to have at home)

Supplies:

-Power drill

-cloth measuring tape (for measuring the curved surface of the shield and to use as a compass to draw circles)

-painters tape

Step one:

The first step was to drill the holes for the handles and a small hole in the very center of the shield for measuring and drawing circles.  Use a bit that corresponds to the screws you will use for the D ring hooks. 

There are 2 holes for each of the hand straps and 2 holes for each of the shoulder straps, so a total of 8 holes to drill for these, plus the 9th hole right in the center to help draw circles.  

I drilled my hand holes about 5.5 inches apart per strap, and the straps are about 10 inches from each other, roughly centered on the shield (note that the holes from the previous life of the shield (the larger ones in the photo) were offset from center, but for this build I made the straps centered).

The shoulder strap holes are about 15 inches apart per strap, and the straps are about 14 inches apart.  

Step 2:

Next I made sure that the screws for my D rings actually would fit, and secured them in place, bolt facing into the shield.

Step 3:

**STOP: This next step is a mistake! I should have sanded and used a PLASTIC PRIMER first, but this was a sled that had already been painted once so I was painting over old spray paint and foolishly thought the base layer of paint was well adhered to the plastic sled (see later steps for why this was so very incorrect)**

Next I spray painted the shield metallic silver on the front and back

Step 4:

Once the shield was silver (and the paint dry) I used the cloth measuring tape (with a nail in the end) to make the circles around the shield with a pencil.  The sled is about 28 inches wide (14 inch radius) so it divided nicely into a center circle of 5 inch radius, and then three outer circles each 3 inches wider (8, 11, 14 inch radii).  Or if you prefer, the center circle has a 10 inch diameter, the second circle has a 16 inch diameter, third is 22 inches, then the 28 inches of the shield itself).

Step 5:

Next I used painters tape to tape in the center circle and the middle of the three outer circles so I could paint the red layer. To get a roughly 'circular' pattern with linear tape you need to use lots and lots of little pieces.  Unfortunately since I didn't use a plastic primer this all went very badly about two steps from now.

Step 6: I painted the outside metallic red

Step 7: I removed the painter's tape and...

Oh nooooooooo! Since there was no plastic primer the paint was not well adhered to the sled, and the silver paint AND the underlying bronze paint from the previous project all came off.  Disaster! But the red paint looked great!

I tried a second round of very limited taping to see if I could get better results, but still had to do a LOT of hand touch-ups to get the colors back, and because it was done by hand the colors do not have the full metallic finish that you get when you actually spray the paint.  So PLEASE learn from my mistake and use a plastic primer to begin with and save yourself the headache!

Step...8? 

Finally having a good-enough red and silver base I attached the D rings to the screws and bolted them in place

Step 9:

Now it was time to paint the blue center of the shield.  I drew a star by hand by dividing the circumference of the shield into five roughly equal parts and connecting the dots.

Step 10:

Since taping was such a disaster I hand painted the blue onto the shield.  This does not look ANYWHERE as good as it would had I been able to tape off the star and actually spray the paint, so don't forget your plastic primer!

Step 11:

Now that I was happy with the paint I sprayed the shield with the clear sealant to (hopefully) keep it from flaking off (though, again, a plastic primer would also have been an important aspect in keeping the paint adhered to the plastic).  

Step 12: I cut the fake leather strips for the hand straps and the leather cord for the shoulder straps.  I had to play around with the lengths a bit to find what worked best.

And there you have it! Obviously this is not the world's most accurate recreation of the Captain America Shield but I'm very excited to use it for Halloween! And if there's an early blizzard I'm all set!