costume Archives - Handmade with Ashley

DIY Baby Groot Costume Tutorial

Ashley — Tue, 30 Oct 2018 02:31:08 +0000

A step by step tutorial on how to make a Baby Groot Halloween costume for a baby girl. This is a really easy homemade costume that you can knock out in one evening.

DIY Baby Groot Halloween Costume

Hello everyone, today I’m sharing how to make a Baby Groot costume for a baby girl! This minimalist costume is adorable and super easy to make. Continue reading for details on how I put it together.

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(For sneak peeks on upcoming projects follow me on Facebook and Instagram!)

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. That means if you purchase an item via one of these links, I’ll receive a small commission at no added cost to you. This helps keep the content on the site free and I appreciate the support! :o)

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I finished 1 of 3 costumes: a minimalist Baby Groot costume. I made the headband and tutu, bought a brown onesie and used my Silhouette to cut out the iron on letters. . #babygroot #iamgroot #guardiansofthegalaxy #grootcostume #diyhalloweencostume #diy #maker #makersgonnamake #tulle #tute #crochet #crochetheadband #silhouette #silhouetteportrait #irononvinyl

A post shared by Ashley Grenon | Geeky Maker (@handmadewithashley) on Oct 27, 2018 at 3:31pm PDT

Tools and Supplies

The following items are some of the tools and supplies I gathered to create the Baby Groot costume.

Tools

Supplies

How to make a Baby Groot Costume

My Baby Groot costume consists of 3 parts:

A headband
A tutu
A onesie with the text “I am Groot”

The headband and tutu require a little bit of crocheting. To customize the onesie, you’ll want a die cutting machine such as a Silhouette or Circut.

How to make the headband

To create the headband:

Chain to a length that matches the circumference of the baby’s head
Skip 2 chains, DC in each chain
Repeat for 5 more rows
Stitch the rectangle together to form a circle.

To create the bow on the headband, repeat the previous steps but reduce the length of the chain by an inch or so. Repeat step 3 for 6 more rows instead of 5. Leave an extra long tail.

Attach the bow to the band with the extra long tail.

How to make the Tutu

Cutting pieces of green and brown tulle for Baby Groot’s tutu

To create the tutu:

Chain to a length that matches the circumference of the baby’s waist
Skip 2 chains, DC in each chain
Repeat for 2 more rows
Stitch the rectangle together to form a circle
Cut strips of tulle
Attach the tulle to the waist band alternating between the green and brown tulle

How to customize the onesie

To customize the brown onesie with the text “I am Groot,” I used my Silhouette to cut out the phrase on Glitter Iron-on vinyl.

CLICK HERE to download my Silhouette cut file.

“I am Groot” Iron-on vinyl transfer for Baby Groot onesie

If you create your own cut file, be sure to mirror the text before cutting it out. Alternatively if you do not own a Silhouette or other die cutting machine you could cut out the text with an Xacto knife.

DIY Baby Groot Halloween Costume

If you make a Baby Groot costume, leave a comment below or tag me on Instagram @handmadewithashley or Twitter @handmadewithash. I’d love to see your pictures!

DIY Baby Groot Halloween Costume

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DIY Minecraft Axe Tutorial

Ashley — Fri, 14 Oct 2016 04:05:51 +0000

DIY Minecraft Axe Tutorial

I love depleting my scrap lumber pile and my little sister enjoys Minecraft. Merge the two and we have a wooden Minecraft axe! Use this as a costume prop or adorn a wall with it. Follow along for steps on how to make your own Minecraft axe.

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links.

Tools and Supplies

The following items are some of the tools and supplies I gathered to make the axe. The project cost me $0 in supplies, but painting each pixel is a very tedious and time consuming process.

Jigsaw
Orbital sander
Scrap wood
Graph paper
Primer
Pencil
Straight edge
Painter’s tape
Paint brush
Acrylic paint
- 4 shades of gray
- 4 shades of brown
- white
Mod Podge (for sealing the paint)

How to make a wooden Minecraft Axe

Step 1: Create a pattern on graph paper

Minecraft iron axe screenshot

Use an image of the axe as a reference and draw the outline of the axe onto graph paper. For my axe, I used a scale of 1″ per a pixel.

Creating a pattern on graph paper

Step 2: Trace the pattern to the wood

Trace the outline of the axe onto a piece of wood.

Tracing pattern onto scrap piece of lumber

Step 3: Cut out the axe shape with a jigsaw

Cut out the pattern with a jigsaw.

Turning some scrap lumber into a costume prop. #minecraft #jigsaw #woodcraft #scrapwood #bosch #sawdust #costume #diy #woodworking #woodworker #makersgonnamake #axe #pixel #pine #wood

A photo posted by Ashley Grenon (@handmadewithashley) on Sep 25, 2016 at 3:59pm PDT

Step 4: Sand and prep the surface for painting

Cycle through different grits (60, 80, 100, 150, 220) of sandpaper and prime the surface of the axe.

Axe ready for painting

Step 5: Draw guide lines on the axe

Draw guide lines on the axe. Once this is complete you will have a grid.

A grid on the axe

Step 6: Paint each pixel

The bulk of the time spent on the project is on painting. Paint one color at a time. I used painter’s tape to stay within the lines.

Painting pixels

Some progress. There are few more pixels to paint. I need to go back and touch up a few spots, and then flip it over and repeat. #minecraft #costume #costumeprop #prop #wood #scrapwood #plaidcrafts #acrylicpaint #pixel #geek #geekcraft #diy #diycostume #axe #pixelaxe #iron #videogames #gamer #ironaxe #woodworker #pixelart #pixelcraft #minecraftcostume #paint #painting #thisistedious #watchingpaintdry

A photo posted by Ashley Grenon (@handmadewithashley) on Oct 6, 2016 at 6:39am PDT

Step 7: Seal and enjoy!

Seal the project with Mod Podge or your favorite sealer.

DIY Minecraft Axe

If you enjoyed this tutorial, be sure to check out my tutorials on how to make a Minecraft sword and torch.

Ashley Makes: DIY Minecraft Sword

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DIY Minecraft Axe

The post DIY Minecraft Axe Tutorial appeared first on Handmade with Ashley.

DIY Star Lord Costume Tutorial

Ashley — Tue, 16 Feb 2016 01:50:53 +0000

Star Lord and Gamora costumes | Photo by Cosplay in America

My friends and I attended Gen Con several months ago, and for the first time ever we cosplayed! Gen Con is a huge 4 day tabletop gaming convention located in Indianapolis, Indiana. On Friday of the convention we dressed up as members of Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy. It was a fun experience and I want to share with you the details behind creating the costumes. Previously, I described the steps I took to create Rocket Raccoon’s costume. Today, let’s talk about details behind Star Lord’s costume!

(For sneak peeks on upcoming projects follow me on Facebook and Instagram!)

“We’re the Guardians of the Galaxy…” | Photo by Cosplay in America

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links.

Star Lord’s Clothing

For Star Lord’s clothing, I purchased the following items:

My husband carried a khaki messenger bag he owned that was similiar in appearance to Star Lord’s bag.

Star Lord’s Leather Jacket

Red Galaxy Leather Jacket | Source

I was really happy to find a leather jacket very similar in appearance to the leather jacket Star Lord wore in the movie. I purchased the jacket off Amazon. It runs large. I ordered the small size and my husband was swimming in it. He’s about 150 lbs and 5’8″. Fortunately, returns were really easy, and I ordered a x-small . I think if an xx-small existed, that would have been the perfect fit.

Star Lord’s Quad Blasters

Marvel Guardians of the Galaxy Star Lord Quad Blaster | Source

For Star Lord’s Quad Blasters, I had most of my work cut out for me. Nerf released a Quad Blaster gun. I purchased two blasters from Amazon. I was not crazy for the bright orange color, so gave the blasters a much needed makeover.

UPDATE: I noticed the Nerf Quad Blaster gun is no longer available on Amazon (for a reasonable price anyway). Here’s a decent alternative: Star Lord Elemental Blaster.

Before & After Star Lord’s Quad Blaster Makeover

Here’s how I did it:

Step 1: Disassemble the nerf gun.

You’ll need a jewelers precision screwdrive set to disassemble the nerf gun

Grab a jewelers precision screwdriver set and remove the screws holding the orange pieces in place. I recommend taking pictures as you disassemble the gun. This will help you once it is time to reassemble the gun.

Quad Blaster Nerf Gun disassembled

Step 2: Spray paint the individual pieces.

Spray paint the main body of the gun with black spray paint. Spray paint the orange pieces with a silver or gray spray paint.

Spray painting the nerf gun pieces silver

Step 3: Reassemble the nerf gun

Reattach the pieces of the nerf gun. This step can be a little tricky. I recommend that you take pictures while disassembling the gun to use as a reference for putting it all back together.

Make the nerf gun whole again

Step 4: Paint in the extra details

For the final step, I grabbed some acrylic craft paints and painted in a few details. I also applied a black wash to give the blaster a more grungy, worn look.

Painting in a few details

I also rubbed in a bit of silver leaf Rub’n Buff.

DIY Star Lord Costume

Star Lord’s costume was pretty easy to put together. If I had the time, I would have loved to make his mask.

Star Lord costume

Star Lord and Gamora costumes | Photo by Cosplay in America

The post DIY Star Lord Costume Tutorial appeared first on Handmade with Ashley.

DIY Rocket Raccoon Costume Tutorial Part 2 – Rocket’s Armor

Ashley — Thu, 08 Oct 2015 02:41:01 +0000

DIY Rocket Raccoon Costume Part 2 – Rocket’s Armor

My friends and I attended Gen Con a few months ago, and for the first time ever we cosplayed! Gen Con is a tabletop gaming convention located in Indianapolis, Indiana. During the convention we dressed up as members of Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy. It was a fun experience and in the following posts I want to share the details behind creating each costume.

This post is part 2 of 3 on Rocket Raccoon’s costume. In today’s post, I describe the steps I took to create Rocket’s armor!

Rocket Raccoon costume

This post contains some affiliate links.

Tools and Supplies

The following items are some of the tools and supplies I gathered to create Rocket Raccoon’s armor:

Tools

Scroll saw with foot switch (or a sharp box cutter or a hot knife)
Heat gun
Hot glue gun
Dremel with sanding bits

Supplies

Building Rocket Raccoon’s Armor

I stared at a lot of pictures of Rocket Raccoon to get a good feel for the basic shapes of the armor. I wanted to keep the costume’s armor simple.

Step 1: Draw a template of the armor.

I sketched a drawing of the basic shapes of Rocket’s armor onto a piece of banner paper. The shapes included:

A long oval for the shoulder pad
A piece acting as the base of the back armor
A piece representing the raised portion of the back armor

Armor templates

The shoulder pads includes a raised portion as well. For this, I reduced the size of the original shoulder pad template.

Step 2: Cut out the armor

I used my scroll saw, equipped with Flying Dutchman Polar blades, to cut out the pieces of the armor from EVA foam floor mats. I used a sharp pair of scissors to cut out the raised portions of the armor’s shoulder pads out of craft foam.

Foam pieces cut

I also cut a 4 inch hole from the center of the piece representing the raised portion of the back armor.

Hole cut in back armor

Step 3: Glue the armor pieces together

I used a hot glue gun to attach the back pieces together and the shoulder pieces together.

Foam glued together

Step 4: Heat the foam to shape the armor

Next, I heated up the shoulder pads foam and bent it into a form that would rest comfortably on a person’s shoulders.

Shaping shoulder pad

Step 5: Add tacks to the corners

For added character and to imitate the screws on Rocket’s armor, super glue tacks to each corner of the back armor.

Super glue tacks in the back armor

Step 7: Seal the foam

Next, seal the foam with several layers of Mod Podge. This will prevent the foam from soaking up all the paint.

Step 8: Prime the foam

I used a can of white spray primer I had on hand to prime the armor.

Armor pieces primed white

Step 9: Paint the armor

I used a 1:1 orange and brown mix of paint for the base coat of the armor. I followed up with a black wash. The armor paint job is the same I used when I created Rocket’s gun.

Applying a base coat

Step 10: Seal the armor

It was too humid outside to use a spray, so I applied a few layers of Mod Podge to seal the armor.

Sealing the armor

Step 11: Paint the styrofoam half sphere

To imitate the glowing blue orb on Rocket’s back, I first painted the styrofoam half sphere with a base coat of blue. Once the base coat dried, I painted an ombre effect on the orb where the top was a really light blue and then transitioned to a dark blue on the edge.

Painting Rocket’s orb

Step 12: Seal the orb

I really wanted to give the orb a bright glowing effect without using real lights. To achieve this, I applied a nice thick layer of Triple Thick Gloss Glaze.

Applying Triple Thick gloss glaze

Glue the orb to the armor with a hot glue gun once the straps have been attached.

Step 13: Add the armor straps

I used nylon webbing to attach the shoulder pads to the armor. I used plastic buckles and triglide slides to make it easy to wear and remove the armor.

I used hot glue to attach the webbing to the foam.

Gluing on the nylon webbing

Adjusting plastic buckles

The Finished Costume

Finished Rocket Raccoon costume

Rocket and Star Lord

We’re the Guardians of the Galaxy…

The post DIY Rocket Raccoon Costume Tutorial Part 2 – Rocket’s Armor appeared first on Handmade with Ashley.

DIY Rocket Raccoon Costume Tutorial Part 1 – Rocket Raccoon’s Rocket

Ashley — Wed, 19 Aug 2015 02:11:15 +0000

Ashley Makes: Rocket Raccoon’s Rocket

My friends and I attended Gen Con a few weeks ago, and for the first time ever we cosplayed! Gen Con is a tabletop gaming convention located in Indianapolis, Indiana. During the convention we dressed up as members of Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy. It was a fun experience and in the following posts I want to share the details behind creating each costume.

First up, I’ll talk about how I made Rocket Raccoon’s rocket. (This post is part one of three on Rocket Raccoon’s costume.)

This post contains some affiliate links.

Rocket Raccoon, Star Lord and Gamora

Tools and Supplies

The following items are some of the tools and supplies I gathered to create Rocket Raccoon’s rocket:

Tools

Scroll saw with foot switch (or a sharp box cutter or a hot knife)
Heat gun
Hot glue gun
Dremel with sanding bits

Supplies

Building Rocket Raccoon’s Rocket

I found a really wonderful video tutorial by Commander Holly. In the video she describes her process for building a replica of Rocket Raccoon’s rocket. I followed her process for creating my version of the rocket, and I highly recommend you watch her video below:

I built my rocket the weekend before the convention, therefore it is a simplier version of Commander Holly’s replica. I left off details such as the rocket’s scope, and I skipped a few steps like coating the rocket with Plasti Dip. The final dimension for the rocket is 4 feet long and 5 inches wide.

Step 1: Draw a template of the rocket.

I sketched a drawing of Rocket Raccoon’s rocket onto a 4 foot long piece of banner paper.

Rocket Raccoon’s Rocket sketch

The rocket sketch cut out

Step 2: Trace rocket template onto EVA foam

I traced the outline of the rocket onto two connected sheets of EVA foam floor mats.

EVA foam floor mats and craft foam

Rocket template traced onto 1/2 EVA foam floor mats

I traced the other details onto the scrap portions of the EVA foam floor mats and a few sheets of the craft foam.

Rocket template details traced

A lesson learned:

If you are working with floor mats that have one smooth side and one textured side, make sure you flip the template or trace it onto the opposite side of the foam mat before tracing the second half of the gun.

Step 3: Cut out the rocket’s shape

I used my scroll saw, equipped with Flying Dutchman Polar blades, to cut out the pieces of the rocket traced onto EVA foam floor mats. I used a sharp pair of scissors to cut out the portions of the rocket traced onto craft foam.

Cutting out the rocket’s shape with a scroll saw

The rocket’s sides

The rocket’s details

Step 4: Cut out 3 inch wide strips of 1/2 inch EVA foam

With a sharp box cutter and a straight edge, I cut out strips of the EVA foam floor mats. I cut each strip 4 inches wide, however if I did it all over again, I would have cut the strips 3 inches wide. You’ll need to cut enough strips to cover the perimeter of the rocket.

Drawing cut lines

Cutting along lines with a straight edge and box cutter

EVA foam strips

Step 5: Glue the strips to the perimeter of the rocket’s sides

Next up, I attached the foam strips to each side of the rocket with hot glue. Make sure you are attaching the strips to the textured side of the foam. For the really tight curves, I cut the stripes into smaller pieces. For the slight bends of the rocket, I heated up the foam strips with a heat gun to shape the foam to follow along the path of the rocket outline.

Attaching the foam strips

Attaching more foam strips

First side complete

Both sides glued to the strips (You can see I was a little sloppy)

Step 6: Build up the rocket’s layers and fill in gaps

The rocket really starts to take shape when the details are layered on. I attached the raised portions of the rocket with the hot glue gun. I also cut a few strips of craft foam and attached it to the mouth of the rocket dividing that section into 4 smaller squares.

The edges on my rocket were a little sloppy. To clean it up a bit, I applied wood filler to cover gaps and to smooth the edges.

Strips of craft foam

Gluing strips to the mouth of the rocket

Glued on the rocket details and covered the edges with wood filler

Pleased with day one progress

Step 7: Sand and seal the rocket

Once the wood filler dried, I used my Dremel, equipped with a sanding drum, to smooth the edges. I then applied 3 coats of Mod Podge to seal the foam. The foam will soak up paint like a sponge. It is a tedious step, but necessary.

Using a Dremel for sanding

Ready for paint!

Applying the Rocket’s Finish

Step 1: Prime the rocket

I spray painted the rocket with 2 coats of gray primer.

Spray painted with gray primer

Step 2: Paint a base coat

Once the primer dried, I painted the raised portions of the rocket with 1:1 ratio of orange and brown paint.

Rocket painted with 1:1 orange/brown mixture

Step 3: Give the rocket some character

At this point, the rocket looked rather bland. To add some character, I gave the rocket the apperance of looking dirty. With dark brown paint, I traced the edges of the raised portion of the rocket. I returned with a wet brush and blended the brown towards the center. I did this one portion at a time.

Blending brown paint

I repeated the same process on the gray parts of the rocket. This time, I worked from the edge of the raised portion out. I traced the edges with a charcoal paint, returned with a wet brush and blended it towards the edge of the rocket.

More color blending

The rocket with a grungy appearance

The mouth of the gun was painted with a blue/white blend to give the appearance the rocket was active.

Mouth of the rocket painted blue

Step 4: Apply the final seal

The final step is sealing the gun. Unfortunately, I made the mistake of using a spray sealer in humid weather. Instead of giving the the rocket a nice matte finish, the spray frosted the surface of the gun. The good news is noticed this before I completely ruined the finish and the frosted spots added some nice character. I applied a couple coats of matte Mod Podge to protect the finish.

Ready for spray sealer (little did I know…)

The Finished Rocket

I am pretty happy with how the rocket turned out. I do regret waiting ’til the last minute to get started on the project. I would have liked to add the scope and spent more time on the paint job.

Stay tuned for parts 2 and 3 as well as tutorials for Gamora’s and Star Lord’s costumes.

We’re the Guardians of the Galaxy…

Posing with the rocket

The post DIY Rocket Raccoon Costume Tutorial Part 1 – Rocket Raccoon’s Rocket appeared first on Handmade with Ashley.