It's April 24th and we are on our way to Calgary! Expo starts tomorrow and I'm so beyond excited! Looking forward to sharing the experience with all of you!
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I can't even begin to describe how freaking excited I am for Calgary Expo this year!!! It's been eight years since I went to my last Calgary Expo and all I remember was how amazing it was compared to the other conventions I have been to. I'm used to going to Fan Expo Vancouver which is held in the Vancouver Convention Centre. It usually takes up a couple ballroom's which is pretty average for a convention. But Calgary...Calgary takes over multiple buildings on the Calgary Stampede grounds! It's four days long, and is officially opened by the Parade of Wonders or POW! The parade goes down the main street in down town Calgary and has all the different celebrities, and almost every cosplayer attending! It's quite the spectacle (or so I've been told). This will be my first time seeing the parade, and first time attending all 4 days. In case you are wondering, no, I will not be participating in the parade because this time I would like to experience it as a whole event. This year they have a lot more cosplay events and panels which is super exiting to me! Lots of panels to go to, international cosplayer's are attending, and there are two different cosplay contests. There is a walk on contest for anyone to enter, and then there is the Masters of Cosplay International. This is the big leagues now! Cosplayers from all over Canada, North America and beyond will participate in this contest. The winners will then partake in the Masters of Cosplay at Fan Expo Canada to claim the title for best cosplayer! There is also a big cash prize, which is just a nice little add on. I haven't decided yet if I want to partake in the walk on contest, but will update on that closer. This is also the first time I am going to be cosplaying as multiple characters at one con! So much to pack! I'm sure this will lead to a blog later about travelling with cosplays :D I'll be posting closer to expo which characters I am taking and which days I plan to wear them :) There are going to be lots of great panels on how to get into cosplay, how to up your cosplay game, make up techniques, cosplay photography know how and cosplay around the world. The expo has also set up a Cosplay red carpet which is a great place to strut your stuff, or take pictures of your favourite characters. Also, did I mention the celeb cosplayers? It will be great to see Stoosh Cosplay and Evilyn13 again in Calgary, they were at the Vancouver Expo as well and Stoosh was a judge in the cosplay contest. I'm also super excited to see Leon Chiro who is flying in all the way from Rome! I am also super excited for some of the guests they have. Peter Cullen and Frank Welker from the original Transformers animated series are going to be there, which is super rare to have them both at the same convention. My husband is a HUGE transformers fan, so we will definitely be going to get autographs and see their panel. Two of my personal favourite voice actors will be there, Maurice LeMarche and Rob Paulsen, better known as Pinky and The Brain! I've met them both before at Fan Expo Vancouver, but this gives me one more chance to go and say Hi! So many exciting things to come in the next week! I'll be sure to post to my twitter/instagram regularly so stay tuned for that! Only 8 more sleeps until EXPO!! Really excited that I got to make this little guy! My friend is dressing up as Gary from Final Space and insisted that he needed to have his sidekick with him for Calgary Expo!
This was my second time making a plush toy, and my first time making a sewing pattern for a plushie. Also my first time working with minke fabric and embroidery. A lot of firsts. I looked up a bunch of tutorials and reference to try to get this guy as close as I could. I'm pretty happy how he turned out, given my lack of experience. And most importantly is my friend is super happy with him :) This week I've put together a list of some of the different crafting materials you might find and use for your costume! Most of these can be found at your local crafting and fabric stores, others you can find on cosplaysupplies.com
Worbla By no means am I the expert on worbla, I'm learning slowly myself on this topic! There are a few different types of worbla you can get and each of them have their merits and demerits. Worbla is a thermoplastic which means you can mold it with heat. It's great for suits of armor, weapons and accessories! It makes your cosplay much more durable and even more realistic! You can find a full list and everything you could want to know about worbla at worbla.com. Worbla isn't the only kind of thermoplastic out there, but probably the most well known and readily available. Some other thermoplastics you might find are Thibra, Wonderflex, Fosshape, Varaform, Styrene and Sintra. Craft Foam Craft foam is super easy to use, cheap and accessible, plus comes in all different thicknesses. If you are making your first ever armor or accessory for your costume, this is definitely a good place to start. Craft foam is super easy to use, to cut out and forms well with or without heat (just make sure you don't use too much heat and melt it!) EVA Foam EVA stands for Ethylene-Vinyl Acetate. This is a type of cell foam. It is super durable, easy to heat mold and sculpt and also pretty easy to find. Most people would recognize EVA foam as those foam mats on the floor of a kids play room. You can find sheets in packs of 4 from Canadian Tire, Walmart and other department stores. You can also order it in rolls and sheets from online. This is another great material for making the base of an armor set or a weapon. It also plays really nice with Worbla and other thermoplastics. It's easy to sand and paint, and is comfortable to wear. Foam Clay This is a new and exiting crafting material. I have a jar at home that I can't wait to start using! This starts out like a putty that you can mold and shape and adhere to itself. It's great for making intricate details on armor, belt buckles, accessories and weapons. Once you let it air dry it hardens to a high density foam which is easy to sand and paint. This product is harder to find for now since it is new to the crafting and cosplay market but you can find it here on arda wigs Fabrics I could honestly do an entire blog post just about the different types of fabric, so we're going to do the condensed version here! When you go out shopping for your cosplay project, make sure you are using the right type of fabric. What I mean is, if you need something stretchy, don't use a cotton or a stiff fabric, go look for a nylon or a spandex. If you are making a dress definitely go for the more shiny and slippery fabrics (if you're needing to be elegant or regal) like Satin, Shantung or Taffeta. Cottons and broadcloth are also a great option for most articles of clothing because they are stiffer, easy to sew and cut and easy to clean. Thread If you're going to be sewing, you are going to need that perfect matching thread to go with your fabrics. There are many different kinds of threads just as there are fabrics, but threads are a little easier to pick out. Generally I say stick with an all purpose polyester thread. These are readily available in a multitude of colours, relatively cheap at $2 a spool (cheaper if you can find a sale) and for many projects, you probably won't need more than the smallest spool of 110yds. I would recommend going with a brand you trust as well since not all threads are created equal. Whenever I do my sewing I stick with Gütermann thread. They've been around forever and you know that once you thread your machine, the thread isn't going to snap every five minutes. Coats is another good company to look for. Your thread will also differ if you are using a serger VS a sewing machine, but again, try to stick with your all purpose thread rather than 100% silk or rayon etc. Glues Depend on what you are making there will be different glues that will work. If you are working with EVA or craft foam, I would recommend using contact cement or E6000 glue, even spray adhesive will work great with these foams. If you are using fabric, you can use the E6000 or specialty fabric glues. Just keep in mind how much weight that glue is going to need to hold. I find some fabric glues don't work that great with multiple layers or heavier fabrics such as leather, they tend to peel apart quite easily. If you are going to be glue fabric together, I would recommend using products like Steam-A-Seam or HeatnBond which are iron on adhesives. Hot glue would be my last glue of choice. It is readily available, but it can melt your foam, ruin your fabric and also lose it's adhesion over time. When you are using materials such as hard round plastics, silk flowers, or rough textures, this is where I would trust your hot glue to work the best! Think outside the box... When you are working on your next costume, also try to think of all the things you could use to make your costume that much more realistic or special, think of things you may not have used before. When I made my Skull Kid cosplay I wanted the leaves on his hat and gloves to look a particular way. I couldn't find any silk plants that would really work so I thought..."Corn husks". Instead of shucking hundreds of ears of corn, I did some digging on the internet and found you could buy bags of Tamale wrappers (dried out corn husks) which would work perfectly! I also found rafia which is a wrapping material used by florists that I used on my belts. So what kind of materials could you use to make your character come to life? I hope this guide helps you get started on your next costume! After doing a few cosplay's the old fashion way, scribbling down notes and saving pictures to my computer desktop, I decided I needed a better tool to keep me organized. I found CosPlanner on the Google Play store and downloaded it to try it out, and naturally when I switched to iPhone, it was the first app I downloaded and installed. This is personally my go to way of organizing now, and I try to keep it up to date as much as possible. I'll list the features, pros and cons and tell you a bit about my overall experience with the app.
There are so many things I enjoy about Cosplanner and not a lot I don't. I love how it keeps all of my in progress work in one neat organized space, so I can see how far I am on each task, write myself notes, tick off items to shop for as I go. Features: - Plan current and future cosplay projects - Keep track of all the things you need to make or buy - Add in photos for reference - Store information on the conventions you will attend - Keep track of your dates - Keep information about the cost - Share cosplay projects between online and mobile platforms - Expandable features through in-app purchase Pros: - Super easy to organize your costumes in progress. - Creates "to do" and "to make" lists - Upload reference and in progress photos - Keep track of the expos and conventions you go to - Lots of sorting options for your projects in progress - Adds new features to completed cosplays Cons: - Start date needs to be the day you create the project file - Allows you to add planned cosplays to your list, but you can only add reference photos. Would be good to have a notes function - Import/export cosplays doesn't work very smoothly between web platform and mobile platform - Unexpected costs that are not listed under "store" - Limited number of items to add before you need to purchase My experience: Overall, I really enjoy using this app, I don't have a lot of bad things to say. It's easy to use, keep things tally'd for you and keeps everything in one place, all neat and organized. The issues I have had is that you need to purchase more "line items" the bigger the project you have. For example I can add 15 items to my "to buy" list and then I need to buy more list spaces. It's not a huge problem as it's a one time purchase for the whole app, it's just slightly annoying. You have to do the same if you are using the web version. Purchases don't stick around cross platform. Personally I would love it to be a purchase per account rather than per application, but they have to make their money somehow! Everything else is fabulous :) Keeps me organized, keeps me on track and makes you feel good seeing your progress bar climb! User friendly: Yes Cost: Fair Functionality: Good Cross Platform: Could be better Aesthetic: Easy to use and understand Overall I would recommend this app to anyone starting a cosplay or other crafting projects for that matter! It keeps everything in a neat and organized place for you to come back to anytime you need! |
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