Comics for your Wallet

As I was thumbing through one of the many craft books I have piled in my office I saw a pattern for a wallet made out of an old comic book. I was totally surprised that I have had this book for who knows how long and had never noticed this pattern! Of course, upon seeing the pattern I knew I had to try to make the thing.

The first few times I tried to make it I was unsuccessful. I had never used iron on vinyl. I mean really, who knew there was such a thing as iron on vinyl and that it would work with paper?! So anyway, after a couple times I think it worked out just fine. Check it out:

The comic I used I found in an antique shop for a dollar. It was an old Star Trek comic. Don't worry, I didn't rip the whole thing about. I just used the center advertisement.

Just in case you were wondering, this is what iron on vinyl looks if you ever need to purchase it. Most craft stores carry things like this in the same aisle as their interfacing. Once I got the hang of it, it was pretty easy to use. Beware though, this stuff comes in two yard packages and is about $10.00.

Call of Duty: Black Ops

This last weekend some friends and I went to a Gamestop in Oakland, California to participate in the Call of Duty Black Ops tournament. This was a totally random decision on our parts especially since none of us, except for one, had ever spent more than 1 hour playing. The tournament took place at 9pm and had about 20 participants at our location. Of course, the five of us, were the oldest people in attendance including the store employees. Everyone else was under 21! Hahaha! I suppose we weren’t that surprised, but still.

Anyway, the tournament set up was like this: there were about 10 rounds of 1v1 with a time limit of 5 minutes. Whoever had the most kills in those five minutes was deemed the winner of the round and thus, moved onto round two.None of us made it past round one or even placed within round one. It was pretty funny. All of us had about 15 kills against us and Scott, “the best player” out of all of us had only five kills against the other player. After all of us epically failed the kids who were continuing onto the next round told us that they swore they were going to lose because we are older and must be more experienced gamers,etc. Ha. Not so much.

It’s okay though, it was fun, random and we didn’t have time to play through the ranks and finals anyway, except for Scott, he doesn’t have a job. Here are the prizes just in case you were curious.

Round One Tournament Winners

 1st place Mad Catz 1GB Dog Tag Flash Drive and Xbox 360 throat mic , (wow…first place gets an off brand 1 GB flash drive?! I really missed out…)

2nd place Limited Edition Black Ops Flag

3rd place Limited Edition COD: Black Ops T-Shirt Online part

Top 8 finalists from online ladder play qualify for a trip to the Finals Event (Location TBD)

Finals 1v1 – 1st place $4,000 and Championship Trophy

From Left: Scott, Dan, and Justin. Right before getting their asses handed to them

Skywalker Ranch

This week I had the pleasure of going to Skywalker Ranch -  yes, THE Skywalker Ranch, for lunch and a quick tour.Firstly, Skywalker Ranch is freakin' beautiful. I would love to work for Lucas one day and would especially love to work in an environment that looked like this:




Skywalker Ranch. View from the Main House

 How did I get to visit Skywalker Ranch, you ask? Well, there are a few things: one, I live in the San Francisco Bay Area, second, I have an instructor who has a former student working for Lucas and third, that former student was willing to show me and a few others around a little.

Skywalker Ranch is big and very strict with what visitors can and cannot see...and justifiably so. We were able to enter the Main House where we had a quick bite and a tour of the first floor. Lunch was a delicious made to order pasta and meatball dish and the tour was short and sweet.

Sadly, we were not allowed to take photos of the interior of the Main House but I can tell you that I saw some key props from the Indiana Jones and of course, Star Wars. In addition to the small display of props, we saw a stunning library complete with lit fireplace, Lucas' personal screening room and an attached solarium (like a sun room).

Although we didn't get to see much in the way of props, droids or Muppets we were all excited that were able to drive into the Ranch at all! We all had a great time and hope to visit the Ranch and our new friend again soon.

I know, I know, you want to see pictures. Here. Check this place out, these folks were allowed to take photos...or at least I assume they were allowed.

To Love Nerd is to Give Nerd: Stuff I want online.

Well folks believe it or not, the holidays are upon us and if you folks are anywhere near as cool as I hope you are - which you must be because you are bothering to read this, I think I know what you want. You can all just copy and paste this holiday wish list to hand out to your loved ones. There is no holiday gift list better than this one.


1. NCC-1701 + Pizza = NCC-1701P


   

NCC-1701P

 2.  A Tough Call

Wampa Rug (Leia costs extra)

or



Tauntaun sleeping bag



 

3. Cozy Up for the Holidays


Plush Alien Face Hugger

4.  For the best hot chocolate ever

Caffeinated Stay Puft Marshmallows. Real ones.

5. Your very own android arm. Functionality not included.

Darth Vader's arm...

Darth Vader's arm with Dustin Diamond look-a-like

If you can't tell, I am am thinkgeek.com addict. Check it out.

Hat Brainstorm

Last week I brainstormed with my mentor, Cecile, about making more nerdy hats. Lately, I have received great feedback about my current hats and see an opportunity as well as demand for some new ones. Cecile’s and my brainstorming session started with me showing her pictures of some of my favorite sci-fi and retro video game characters while she sat back and took it in. Cecile isn’t someone I would call a nerd but she does know what Star Wars is and understood the importance of certain characters thanks to her husband, a comic and sci-fi fan, and of course, myself. After reviewing countless pictures and multiple angles of each character we got to thinking about hat design and logistics.

The designing process only took about an hour or so but the sample making took much longer, but, it was totally worth it. Right now, I have a few samples that are well on their way such as a fleece Mega man hat complete with ear covers and a new and improved fleece R2D2 hat.  I will post new pics soon but for now, here are some fancy napkin drawings to wet your appetite.

Every one's favorite bounty hunter. The section in the front center will actually come down onto the face past the rest of the hat. I know. The hat is already totally awesome.

A collection of ideas. The Storm Trooper is actually hard to make a fleece hat out of because they are all about dimension and less about color. We'll see how he comes out soon.

           

APE!

Last weekend I went to the Alternative Press Expo in San Francisco. For those of you that don't know it is a small scale gathering of various comic culture vendors that is run by the same folks as the San Diego ComicCon and San Francisco's WonderCon.

Perhaps the biggest difference between the large comic culture convention and APE, besides the huge size difference, is the lack of hype..and that's a good thing. At APE there aren't many panels or any long lines to see celebrities, there is a few long rows of comic culture related artitsts, crafters, comic shop owers and alternative publishers there.

Perhaps my favorite vendor at APE was a really crafty lady that made cheeseburgers...GIGANTIC cheeseburgers like the one pictured above. The giant cheeseburger was a show stopper. You couldn't pass by it without taking a picture of it or with it. Sadly, there was a stuffed squid about the same size as the burger but I couldn't get a good picture of it...I know I will see it again at WonderCon in the Spring.

The only thing I would change about APE is the lack of costumes. Seriously. One of my favorite things about going to any comic related convention has to be the people watching. Costumes, although I am not big into Halloween, are the best things ever at at comic convention.

APE continues to grow every year. I look forward to being a part of its evolution...although I kinda hope it stays small...it has a nice charm this way.

Hats

I make hats. I enjoy hats…especially the ones that look like retro video game characters.

In a class last year I was asked to come up with an apparel or accessories product line with a theme of my choice. Most of my classmates went with a high end cocktail party dress collection or a vintage inspired jewelry collection… the list goes on. You get the idea: most people went with really conventional ideas.

Now, it seems simple enough to make up a product line right? Not so much. The catch was, not only did you need to do a market analysis to ensure your ideas had a sellable target group but you had to MAKE proto types or at least be resourceful enough to source it to someone who would make it for you for minimal cost and minimal time considering most people procrastinated/underestimated how long it would take to actually get the process completed.

With that said, I went with what I know: nerdiness.

I made a mini collection of fleece hats inspired by the ghosts from Packman and Star Wars’ very own R2-D2. The name of the brand that I ended up with was Nerdbeanie. It is totally awesome and yes, I will totally make one for you. Just ask. 

Clyde. Fleece boody with Felt details.

                                                                R2-D2 Hat. Awesome.