Character Cupcakes

So Krissy and I realized that our regular confectionary decorating skills just weren't enough to entertain friends at parties. So we sought to combine our love of minimalist art with pop culture caricatures. You can really tell something about your friends based on which cupcake they ate first. For the record Krissy had Axford and I had Jabba arm. Anyways, bon appetite!

Duct Tape Gift Bags

Geek Girls Do: Duct Tape Gift Bags

Supplies:
Duct tape - various colors
Paper
Ruler
Scissors
Optional Quilting board and quilting knife

1. Purchase a gift. We can't really help you with that one. Or rather we could help you but not everyone would want the newest edition of the Chicago Manual of Style or Prismacolor pencils so it's best to consult your actual friends. Keep in mind the size of the item when deciding to make a duct tape gift bag. Gift cards and other small items are simple but a six-foot tall giraffe statue might take a while to find enough duct tape.

2. Cut out pieces of paper into rectangles big enough for your present. Using an 8X11 sheet of paper for your main panels makes for less measurements and can hold dvd's, books, or other medium sized items. You will also need to cut out two smaller sides and a base. The height for all four sides should match and you need two sets of pairs with the same width. The base will measure the width of one pair by the width of the other. For example: 2 8x11, 2 2x11 and 1 8x2.

3. Cut strips of your base color. They should be as long as the height of the bag. Place them on the sheets of paper vertically and continue with more strips until the entire surface is covered back and front. The strips may overlap somewhat.

4. Cut skinny strips, about 1/4 the width of a regular piece, and use them to tape the sides together. Match the height edges of your front pieces to your side pieces and bind the edges on both the front and back sides to create corners.

5. Once you've completed step four you should have two L shapes. Tape these together to create a box shape in the same way as step four.

6. Place your base in one of the two openings of your box shape and tape in the same way as the sides in step four.

7. Create a stencil of the design you want by tracing the shapes. Opening an image on your computer and tracing over it onto paper creates a quick stencil. Cut out the traced design and place it over a strip of cut out duct tape. Outline the stencil on the duct tape and then using either a scissors or other type of cutting tool carefully cut out your shape. Then place it on the front of the bag or wherever else you may want it.

Geek Girls Do: Spontaneous Cosplay

Geek Girls Do: Comic Book Decoupage

Decoupage Instructions

Supplies:

Comic books

Mod Podge or other glue

Foam brush
Surface to Cover - Decorative boxes, picture frames, canvases, etc.
Scissors
Popsicle stick
Tissue - at least one for soaking up tears of sadness at destroying comics and another for glue removal
Newspaper

1. Read your precious comic books one last time. Wave goodbye to them as you prepare to bid them farewell. Celebrate as you remember you have a spare copy hiding away in a drawer somewhere.

2. Cut out the images, characters and logos you find appealing and would want to incorporate. Remember sound effects work also. After all who doesn't want to see a giant Bwaaaam! coming out of their art?

3. Lay down newspaper on your worktable to keep your room clean. This is not the most exciting of steps but it sure is more fun than cleaning glue out of your parent's carpet.

4. Using your brush spread a light layer of your glue onto whatever surface you've chosen to decorate. Place the comics you've cut out on top of the glue and smooth down using the Popsicle stick to prevent air bubbles. A tissue may also be used to soak up excess glue.

5. Let the project dry. You'll know it's done when you can touch it without thinking it feels gross.

6. Repeat step four and five until you've added enough layers to cover the entire surface. Remember, if you don't like the look of one of the comics you glued down or you suddenly realize your Robin to Batman ratio is 3:1 you can easily fix these problems by adding additional layers of glue and comics to your project.

7. When the project looks like how you want it, add one more layer of glue to add an extra shine and to secure the top layer.

8. Now enjoy the fruit of your efforts and your new way to share your geeky obsessions with the world!

Welcome to Our Great Adventure

Sarah and Krissy

Coming here very soon will be a new series of videos teaching you, our guests, how to share your shameless love of pop culture with the world through the ever popular and thankfully cheap past time of crafting. We do not promise to be the best with our skills; however, one of us is studying interior design so we like to believe that will make all the difference. Unfortunately, the other is an English major whose crafting claim to fame was getting first place in the 4-H county fair with a tie-die t-shirt in second grade. The judges were impressed by the white patterns and had never before seen a technicolor shirt featuring such a unique design. Of course, those spots were unplanned and simply had been missed accidentally with the spray bottle. Well, whatever they didn't know then won't hurt them now.

In the upcoming weeks we will feature instructions for making some of our favorite video game, comic, and sci-fi/fantasy inspired craft and cooking projects. You can expect lots of mod podge and a fair amount of flour to fly. Hopefully, not in the same project but we can't make any guarantees. Up first will be the fine art of decoupaging with comic books. Look back soon for more details. And if you have a suggestion for future projects let us know in the comments. We'd be happy to embarrass ourselves trying to recreate your ideas for posterity.