Author: Mixiao

Mixiao is a university student form Australia, studying to become art teacher. Mixiao has had her artworks, exhibited at various art galleries in Sydney and specializes in cosplay accessories. She likes anime, manga, j-dramas, k-dramas, k-pop, cosplaying and is not shy of wearing her creations. Changing the ordinary and making it extraordinary is the motto she lives by.

Cosplay Tips – Expanding Foam

Mixiao 1 Comment

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Photography by George Wong

Vanille Cosplay by DanniTee

This is basic a tutorial on how to use expanding foam on props for those new to prop making or those who want to try out a new medium. Expanding foam is basically foam in a can. It is sprayed out and expands like its name suggests. A can of expanding foam is a very handy material to keep around for cosplayer just as handy as the hot glue gun.

For props that are more curved like such as Vanille’s weapon from Final Fantasy XIII and Soge King’s sling shot from One Piece it is best to use expanding foam for the main part. Expanding foam can be easily cut and carved to the desired shape with a simple cutting knife.

When you decide to use expanding foam as the main medium for your prop the first thing you need to do is draw and cut out your design on to a flat light weighted material such as foam board, corflute, thick cardboard [though thick card board may be difficult to cut normally].

TIP: Draw your design slightly thinner than what is desired. The expanding foam will add to this and make it larger.560867_10151155435742405_997300465_n

 

Once your piece is cut out, lay out some newspaper and spray the expanding foam over the design. Cover as much as you can but remember the foam will expand 3 times its original size. Only work on one side at a time. Don’t forget to wear gloves. Expanding foam is difficult to remove off skin if you do not act quickly.

TIP: Keep a bottle of nail polish remover nearby just in case you get some expanding foam on your skin. Nail polish remover will help remove expanding foam if you act quickly.

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It will take a couple of hours for it to harden but it is best to leave it over night. Once it is completely dried flip it over and spray the other side.

TIP: Lightly spray water over the whole thing. This will make the expanding foam harden faster. It will also give it a smoother surface than usual.

Once both sides have hardened use a utility knife and carve the bumps away for the desired shape. See below for a before and after shot.

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TIP: If you are carving and suddenly see that inside is still gooey and honey-like stop immediately and let the foam completely dry. If you continue to pull away at the piece it will create massive holes.

You will notice that there are small holes all over the foam. If you want to cover these holes for a smooth finish, use another medium such as paper mache or paper clay and completely cover the whole piece. Both paper mache and paper clay can be smoothed out with sanding paper for an even more smooth finish. Once that is done, feel free to paint it over with acrylics, spray paint etc.

 

 

How to make Pandora Hearts – Alice’s Diamond clips

Mixiao

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I recently purchased the Alice cosplay costume from Miccostumes and to celebrate the awesomeness that is Alice, I’m going to show you how to complete the Alice look^^V

A common accessory that most people miss out when cosplaying as Alice from Pandora Hearts is her golden diamond clips. This tutorial will show you how to complete your Alice cosplay with simple and easy to make clips.

What you need:

  • Air drying Fimo or Sculpey clay. This is light and easy to use.
  • Gold spray paint
  • Rolling pin – make sure to not use the family’s kitchen one ><
  • 2 sheets of foam
  • Cutting mat
  • Utility Knife or Stanley Knife
  • 2 flat alligator clips preferably 4cm or shorter in length
  • Hot glue gun
  • Flat object – can be ruler. For this tutorial I am using a plastic pallet knife.
  • This Template that can be downloaded here

There is a video that I have made showing my process.

Steps:

  1. Wrap your rolling pin with a sheet of foam. This will make it easier for you when you roll out your clay, the clay will come off easier.
  2. Cut out the template.
  3. Grab a small strawberry size amount  of the clay and roll it into a ball.
  4. Put the other foam sheet onto of your cutting mat.
  5. Use the rolling pin and flatten out the clay onto the foam to a reasonable width. Make sure the template fits inside the flattened out clay.
  6. Use the knife and gently cut around the template. Don’t cut into the foam.
  7. Make 4 of these diamonds.
  8. Use the flat object and curve the edges of the diamond in to make them rounded and draw in the lines as seen on the template onto the diamonds.
  9. Grab the two alligator clips and two of your diamonds. Put a diamond laying on the curved side of the alligator clip. This will make it dry in the shape and will be easier for you to glue it on later. Repeat for the other clip.
  10. Once the diamonds have completely dried, spray paint them with the gold paint. Let to dry
  11. Finally use hot glue to stick the diamonds onto the clips. There will be a diamond on the front and back of the aligator clips.

And We’re Done! YATTA! our cosplay costume is now complete!

How to make Tsubasa Chronicle’s Sakura Headband

Mixiao

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I’ve always loved CLAMP’s works, especially Cardcaptor Sakura and Tsubasa reservoir chronicle so today I’ve made this tutorial will show you how to recreate Sakura’s headband as shown above^^ Check out my Deviantart page for more cosplay accessories.

What You Need:

  • A4 Pink foam sheets x3
  • Pink cotton fabric
  • Pink organza fabric – this is like a see through fabric, it’s a bit rough and keeps it’s shape rather than chiffon.
  • Yellow Beads
  • Silver/Gold flat head pin findings – these are usually used to make earrings
  • Silver/Gold crimps – they look like small beads and are made from metal.
  • Small Gold/Yellow beads
  • Hot Glue
  • 10 metres of thin red rope
  • Large Gold beads that can fit though the rope.
  • Headband
  • Stanley Knife
  • Hand sewing needle
  • Pink/white thread
  • Pliers
  • You will also need to download this template

Steps:

  1. Download the template and cut it out.  Draw this template out onto the foam sheets. You will need 18 flowers.
  2. Cut out a lot of  sakura petals from the 2 types of fabric. They don’t have to be perfect, just roughly cut them out.
  3. Grab one foam flower, place the petals onto the foam in a circular motion, swapping between cotton and organza fabric.
  4. After completing one round of petals, sew this down with the sewing needle and thread. Make sure all the petals are sewed down.
  5. Make another round of petals and sew it down again.
  6. Repeat steps 3, 4 and 5. You will need 9 flowers in total.
  7.  Get your flat head findings and thread though the small gold/yellow bead. Get a crimp, thread this through and using the pliers squish down the crimp. this will stop the bead from moving. You will need to make 54 of these.
  8. Put a little ball of hotglue onto the middle of the flower. Place 6 of your findings onto this. Make sure they are evenly spread out.
  9. Using hotglue, glue a yellow bead in the middle of the flower to cover the findings. Repeat for all 9 flowers.
  10. Grab an unused foam flower, place this on the back of a flower you just made. Don’t put it under the flower directly, make the petals for both flowers show.
  11. IMPORTANT! Hot glue the two flowers together only 2/3 way. Make sure you have 1/3 still unglued! Repeat for a total of 7 flowers. Leave the other 2 flowers aside.
  12. Grab your headband and find the middle. Get one of your flowers and fold open the unglued part. Now put a thick strip of  hot glue onto the middle of the headband and place the flower directly above it. Make sure the flower stands up straight.
  13. Glue the remaining 6 flowers onto the headband, working from the middle down.
  14. Cut your red rope into 8 lengths. 6x 1.5 metres and 2x 1 metre
  15. Grab the 1metre rope and wrap this around your 4 fingers 4 times. Pull it off and with the ends of the rope, tie 2 knots to secure the bow. Repeat for the other rope. Cut off excess.
  16. With your 6 red ropes, tie little bows along it, make sure the bows are all at the same places. IMPORTANT leave out 2 ropes. These two ropes can have the same bows along it but skip one for the top. Our flowers will go in this spot.
  17. Grab 3 of the 1.5m ropes and hot glue them together right under the flower on the head band. Make sure the ropes with the missing bows goes at the front. Do the same for the other side.
  18. Glue down the bows you just made on top of the 3 ropes.
  19. Where we left a gap for the front ropes, sandwich together the flower, rope and unused flower. Glue with hot glue.
  20. Thread though the bottom of ropes 5 of the larger gold beads and knot the end. Repeat for all 6 ropes.
  21. Optional: If you want you can curve the metal findings instead of leaving it straight. To curve it use your pliers.

 

 

How to make Emily the doll – Pandora Hearts Tutorial

Mixiao 3 Comments

No Break Xerxes cosplay is complete without his doll Emily! This tutorial will show you how to make a quick and cheap Emily doll which you can clip onto your clothes to complete the Break look.

Check out my other cosplay accessories at http://mixiao.deviantart.com/

What you need:

  • Foam Ball (my ball was 5-6cm diameter) – this will be the head of our doll.
  • Foam Bell shape – body – since Christmas  is coming up I’m sure you will be able to find a foam bell at craft stores.
  • Blue stretch fabric – has to stretch so our Emily’s Head doesn’t have creases on it.
  • Light pink fabric – not stretch, just regular cheap fabric.
  • Brown wool
  • Red ribbon
  • One sheet of Felt – any colour
  • 2 alligator clips
  • White and pink paint
  • Black fabric marker
  • Polyester stuffing
  • Hot glue
  • A thin wooden stick.

Steps:

  1. Using a pen/pencil/long pointed object, make a hole right though the foam ball. Make sure the hole goes directed though the centre of the ball and it is around 1cm in width. 
  2. Cut out a decent amount of blue stretch fabric enough to cover the whole ball and a little bit more.
  3. Wrap the fabric around the ball, tucking in the excess into the hole we just created. Make sure to not have many creases.
  4. Cut out many stands of the wool for hair, the lengths of the strands do not have to be the same. and tie all the stands together using one of the wool stands.
  5. Fold the hair together at the point where you tied a knot, put hot glue into one of the ends of the ball and place the folded part into the hole,  cut the top hair all the same length. (use a pencil to help push the hair in) should look like this:
  6. Cut out 2 pieces of 20cmx40cm from the pink fabric.  Lay both pieces on top of each other and sew the shorter sides.
  7. Fold in 1cm and iron this down to make a hem. Do this for both pieces but only for one side. The other side, fold in 2cm and iron down.
  8. Now sew the hems, for the 2cm side, leave a small gap, don’t close off the stitching.Thread ribbon through the 2cm hem. Now leave this aside.
  9. Grab your Emily head and wooden stick, put some hot glue into the other end of the head and place the wooden stick into the hole.
  10. Make a hole in your foam bell, pour hot glue into the hole and place the wooden stick with the head into the hole. Make sure the head sits nicely ontop of the bell. The stick does not have to be long as the bell, it can be shorter.
  11. Put hot glue onto the bottom of the foam bell and then place it on a sheet of felt. Cut off the excess.
  12. Cut out 4 15cmx4cm rectangles from the blue fabric. Place 2 pieces on top of each other and sew around(curve the ends for arms) and repeat for other arm. Stuff the arms with the toy stuffing and sew the ends off.
  13. Hot glue the 2 arms on the foam bell right under Emily’s head.
  14. Now for the bow. cut out a 10cmx8cm  rectangle, fold this in half (fold the 8cm side in half)and sew around, leaving a small gap, turn the rectangle inside out and iron it out. Cut out a 20cmx8cm rectangle, fold in half and sew it the same way. Cut out a small strip of the pink fabric 3cmx 4cm, hem the sides, fold this in half and sew the side opposite to the fold.[Image for steps below]
  15. Turn this inside out, and put the 2 pink strips you just sewed though it then thread though the back of the bow with some ribbon.
  16. NOW! here’s where it all comes together, Grab your bow, tied it around Emily’s neck and tie 2 knots at the back. Cut off excess ribbon. Place the pink “”skirt/dress” we made in step 8 over the ribbon knot but under the bow. Pull the dress’s ribbons together like a drawstring. Securely tie a knot, and cut off excess ribbon.
  17. Paint on 2 white circles for eyes, a pink creepy smile wait to dry and trace over the edges of these shape with your black fabric marker.
  18. Grab some of the red ribbon scraps, tie a bow on the top of Emily’s hair.
  19. Turn Emily upside down and hot glue the 2 alligator clips of opposite sides of the bell.

And we are done! There are lots of steps but it doesn’t take that long at all. I hope you enjoyed the tutorial!

How to make a Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep Wayfinder

Mixiao 15 Comments

 

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Check out my other works at my deviantart page

What you need:

  • Sculpey or any other brand of polymer clay
  • Clay tools, a range would be good. If you don’t know what i’m taking about have a look here
  • Stanley Knife or a knife you would not use for food again
  • Oven
  • Silver or grey Spray paint
  • Blue/Green/Orange/Yellow paint <- depending on which character’s wayfinder you’re making. Here I’m making Aqua’s
  • Metal wire
  • Pliers
  • This template – UPDATED

Steps

1) Print out the template provided and cut it out.

2) Get your sculpey and pull out 2 rows. Combine them together and roll out flat.

3) Place the template on the rolled sculpey and press down lightly.

4) Cut around the template with your knife.

5) Using your clay tools, indent into the sculpey the shape of the inside of the wayfinder. Don’t forget to leave a circular part at the bottom of each “shell” so the wire can go though.

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6) Poke a hole into each of the circular parts. Choose a shell to be the top one and poke a larger hole at the tip.

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7) Place the emblem on some scrap sculpey you rolled out before and cut around.

8 ) Draw on the extra lines in the emblem with a sharp pointed object and place it in the middle of your wayfinder.

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9) Put the sculpey into the oven to bake. Check the temperature and timing for your scupley, it should tell you on the packaging.

10) Take it out and let it rest and cool down for a while.

11) Grab your grey/silver spray paint and spray both sides of your wayfinder. Also make sure your sides are well covered.

12) Start painting the inside of each “shell”. I recommend starting with the tip of each shell as it is the lightest part, then paint the darkest, then blend together with a colour inbetween.

13) Cut an appropriate amount of wire and bend it the way staplers are shaped before it’s bent. Slot it through the 2 holes and bend them inwards at the back. Do this for all 5 Shells.

14) Your Wayfinder is complete.  The top hole is there for you to choose what you want to make your wayfinder into. Be it a key chain, necklace or whatever^^

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