Warp Pipe Scarf

My husband, the driving force behind many of my crafting adventures wanted a present for a friend who not so subtly dropped hints about loving the Mario crafts and an upcoming birthday. Inspired by enemyairship's Piranha Plant Scarf we decided that a warp pipe scarf would be perfect. I figured that a warp pipe scarf might be versatile enough to wear out (without drawing too much attention to its Mario-ness) while still being worthy of the geek-craft label. The lovely recipient even agreed to model.

30 Bags in 30 Days - Day Twenty

Well, I am two-thirds done and to celebrate this momentous occasion, I think I have created my favorite bag so far. I knew that I would end up with at least one Mario-themed bag since the whole geek crafting thing is just so much fun and colorful. I created a simpler messenger bag pattern than the one I used for Bag Three and so instead of fiddling all day with zippers and such, I spent my time appliqueing the flap. I give you the Fire Flower Messenger Bag...

WELCOME TO WARP ZONE Level: Married

This past weekend, a friend of ours got married. Not only did we leave the beautiful, cool Pacific Northwest and endure a week of horribly humid East Coast weather for our friends, we also painted this awesome Mario wedding painting as a gift (I thought I was done with the Mario crafting, but it was for a wedding). In addition to the couple's love of all things Mario (you can tell why we get along), our friend is also obsessed with Curious George. As you can see the foolish monkey is stealing Mario's hat in the painting (Curious George has likely never come across such a skillful item grabber).  As usual, my husband designed and started the painting, but then grew bored and was suddenly too "busy" to finish it by wedding time. Therefore all the tedious bits were left for me to paint (collaboration through necessity).

Also, thanks to everyone for voting for the Mario Shelf in the Happy Seamstress contest, the shelf is a finalist!

Question Block Blankie

Way back in October, I started and finished crocheting this blanket for some friends who are bringing a new little person into the world.  Although I had every intention of sending it out once it was completed, it has been languishing away on top of my dryer for five months.  In a typical fashion, I could never get it together to iron out the edge curls and give it a quick wash.  Needless to say, my friends have had their baby and now that I am sending out the blankie (hopefully before the kid outgrows little blankets), posting about it seems safe.  I figure that even if my friends used to check the blog, taking care of a newborn probably doesn't leave much time for surfing.  Congrats to Jason and Kassie (on being the recipients of one of my hand made creations of course).

Miles checked out the blanket and I guess approved of it since she spent some time rolling around and sleeping on it.

Spiderman!!!

My nephew is totally obsessed with Spiderman!  For awhile, he carried around a headless Spidey doll and would stick out his hand in the web shooting pose and go "pshooo, pshooo."  Last year I made him and my husband (who is also obsessed with Spiderman) matching beanies.  This last weekend, they went to the Emerald City Comicon and got their pictures taken with Stan Lee.  Stan Lee awesomely put his arm around my nephew and struck a classic pose.

Nintendo Controller Scarf

My husband doesn't wear scarves, which is unfortunate for him because I make so many lovely ones... For his birthday, I decided to disregard his disapproval for scarves and make one he wouldn't be able to resist. For two weeks I hid my secret scarf project from him. I only worked on it when he wasn't home and made him call me on the phone before walking through the door so I could put it away. Even though he never wore a scarf before, the "Nintendo Controller Scarf" has become a daily item of clothing for him.



I originally made more red and black pieces to sew on the scarf to approximate the buttons of a Nintendo Controller, but eventually, I decided I liked the unobtrusiveness of the scarf without all the extra bits. From a distance, you cannot really tell it is a controller which, according to the wearer of said scarf, creates a better "wow" factor when people eventually realize that you have been wearing a controller this whole time.

Fire Flower Mini Quilt

I thought I was done making Mario themed crafts, but the mini-quilts just seem to keep coming... and I am so glad, cuz this one is my favorite so far. Someone, (crosswordnerd), had hoped to get me as her partner for a scarf swap so she could make a Mario-themed scarf, but no such luck. Anyway, she contacted me and asked to do a private Mario swap. She made me an awesome Yoshi scarf and matching fingerless mitts, and I of course made her a mini-quilt. As husband joked, a fire flower is perfect for a trivet, because you put hot stuff on it (a joke that was slightly funny the first time, not so funny the second time and kind of annoying the third time).


I have a back-log of video game related crafts to post soon, and I keep thinking that this one will be the last, but, no promises, working in 8-bit is just too much fun. Until later...

Mario window (UPDATE)

UPDATE: I finally got a halfway decent picture of the Mario Window at night. It's not great and it still doesn't show how awesome the whole thing looks with the flashing lights behind it, but behold...

PROBLEM: I just really don't want to make anymore Mario themed creations. I am burnt out on 8-bit art. Unfortunately, Hubby keeps wanting me to make more.
SOLUTION: Hubby should make his own damn Mario stuff!!!
PROBLEM: He refuses to learn to crochet or sew and is generally too lazy to paint or sculpt.
SOLUTION: Perler beads!



PROBLEM: The Mario Perler bead creations are getting out of control.
SOLUTION: Make a faux stained glass window out of plexi-glass, some weird lightweight space modeling clay, a few screws, christmas lights, and lots of clear tape. (After numerous ideas, a few attempts with other materials, this was the best solution).


Here we are carefully squishing the space clay into the perler beads.

And here is the finished piece in the front window of our house. At night it lights up which is really awesome, but of course since its so awesome all lit up, those pictures turned out horribly.

Pumpkins for a video game obsessed household.

This was the first Halloween where we lived in a place that had a chance for trick-or-treaters so we obviously needed pumpkins. For weeks we had been contemplating what to carve our pumpkins as and we had settled on a Pac-Man theme. When I went to purchase squash and pumpkins, I ran across this awesome, scary, ready for Halloween Turban squash. This squash needed no carving, it already looked like the birth of an alien. Out went the plans for Pac-Man, I just picked up an array of pumpkins and squashes and figured we would see it all when the squash was sitting at home.

Even though the turban squash could have just sat out on the porch without any changes, it needed to be painted for the theme. First it was painted white, making it look like a gigantic garlic.Then it was painted to resemble a one-up mushroom. It reminds me of an aqua teen hunger force interpretation of a one up mushroom.



Of course, all of the pieces for the Pac-Man theme pumpkins were easily converted into a chain chomp.

And finally, the cutest pumpkin, the Bob-omb pumpkin, complete with eye cut-outs used as feet and a tinfoil covered tube as a fuse (the tinfoil had holes in it and when it was dark, the candle light shown through like sparks).

Here is the whole porch scene (including a very curious cat). Unfortunately it was hard to get good pictures at night when everything was lit up. Lots of kids really like the black pumpkins, "mommy, i never seen black pumpkins," "those are cool" unfortunately, it was only a few grown ups who recognized the scene.

Mario Mini Quilt

I had so much fun with the goomba mini quilt that I decided to make a Mario one. The finished piece is about 10" square. This was much more complicated because unlike the goomba, mario is not symmetrical and as you can see below, there are more tiny pieces to deal with. I also did not do as good of a job of counting and cutting and I had to cut new pieces and alter some of the strips while I was making it. Oh well, I think it was definitely worth the effort.

Oh no! Mario fought a paper shredder and lost, wah-wah.

Goomba Mini Quilt/Trivet

I have been having a lot of fun making mini-quilts lately. If I ever keep one, I will use it as a trivet to put hot stuff on. For a geek craft swap that I am hosting, I thought an 8 bit mini-quilt would be awesome. I went with a goomba because I had this fun goomba orange spiral print that seemed perfect.


Here is what a bunch of goomba pieces look like...

This is what a goomba would look like if a bob-omb exploded it to bits.

This is a freakishly tall goomba.

And finally, here is the finished goomba mini-quilt hanging on the finger hook. I am really happy with how it turned out and kind of sad to send it away although I think my swap partner will be pleased.

Mario Mushroom Crochet Pattern

Mario Mushroom Pattern

By Yoshi Kumara

Here is the pattern for these cute little mario mushrooms. If you copy the pattern, please attribute it to me, thanks.

Materials

Worsted weight yarn in white and red or green.

Small amount of black yarn for eyes.

G hook

White Felt

Needle and white thread

Mushroom Cap

R1: Ch 2, 6 sc in second ch from hook.

R2: 2 sc in each sc around (12 sts).

R3: *Sc 1, 2 sc in next sc* repeat 6 times (18 sts).

R4: *Sc 2, 2 sc in next sc* repeat 6 times (24 sts).

R5-7: Sc 24

Attach 5 felt circles (I sew mine on, but they could be glued on).

R8: In back loops only, *Sc 2, dec 1* repeat 6 times (18 sts).

R9: *Sc 1, dec 1* repeat 6 times (12 sts)

circle to 2sc, 2sc in same sc 24

Mushroom Stem

R1: Ch 2, 6 sc in second ch from hook.

R2: 2 sc in each sc around (12 sts).

R3-6: Sc 12.

Stitch in eyes, I do this by using black yarn and making one vertical stitch.

Stuff and sew together.

1-1 through 1-4

At the beginning of the summer when my husband and I moved into our new house, I was out one day looking for new shelves at garage sales. I found a cute little bookshelf/dictionary stand that I thought would be perfect with a new coat of paint. I brought it home, cleaned it up and began painting the shelves blue and yellow and the legs that attach each shelf together bright green. When my husband came home and saw the bright green legs he commented on how they looked like warp pipes from Mario and then he commandeered my project. After giving him an ultimatum (the half finished shelves in the shed had to be finished by the end of August or I would paint them plain again), he finished hand-painting them this weekend. Now we have the best shelves ever. But I don't know if they can be used as shelves . . . So far only the two little crocheted mushrooms have been put there (I will put up a pattern for these mushrooms soon).


Details of the shelves...The warp zone is my favorite...
But they are all pretty awesome......