Guessing Game: What Everyday Object Are These Made Out Of??: Steampunk'd Vampire, Werewolf and Zombie Bullets

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Want one of these bullets for your very own? :) Well, good news! I'm giving away not one...not two...but THREE of them! You could receive one just for guessing! Read on!



Awhile back, my man was making a Steampunk'd ammo belt hatband for his red leather hat, but it was looking pretty empty and sad without any bullets in it. We looked around for shells to use, but frankly, they were hard to find. And, what we found was kinda expensive, not to mention right down heavy for his hat. So, after running short on time for faire, I got to looking through my craft stash and came upon some everyday items that, when put together, made amazingly perfect bullets!

Just take a look at some necklaces I put together after I finish the simple ones for his hat:









I was pretty proud of my own cleverness on this. So I thought I'd share a quick and simple tutorial with all you empty ammo belt wearers out there. Now, at this point, you may be asking yourself, "So, where's this tutorial? I don't see a tutorial here." But, to make it fun, I have something else in mind first. Muhuwahaha!

Mich L. in L.A. has a regular "Guess the Mystery Thing" on her blog. She has such clever posts and pretty items. I thought it'd be fun to host a similar challenge and invite her to be on the other end of the challenge for a change. (I hope to stump her, as well.) ;) And, you're all invited to play, too! But, don't worry. This one is really easy. It shouldn't be tough for someone to guess it right off.

*******UPDATE 11/22/11*******
Voting has ended for this challenge.
View the reveal and winners here.
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We're going to limit guesses to the two painted bullets at the top of this post. The first one is made in two parts like those in his hat. One part is the everyday item and the other is a common craft supply. Or, try to guess specifically what the second bullet is made out of. It is made in three parts.

You could win one of the bullet pendant pictured below (with the chain attached):



Now take a guess. For more of a challenge, don't be tempted to peek at the comment section til after you guess! You just need to take a stab at what objects the two bullets in the first image on this post are made of. You've probably already figured it out. But, please be specific, because the best (most accurate) answer wins (judged by my mom, my daughter, and me). Don't fret if you have no clue what it is. I'll also pick a random winner for one, as well.

THE RULES: Just comment with your guess. That's it! Oh, but be sure your email addy is in your profile or comment where I can find it to contact you. If I can't find it, I will chose a new winner.

And, while we're on this topic of the Mystery Thing Challenges, it's taken me an embarrassing long time to share an awesome item I won from Mich L. in L.A. Check out this really cool rubber grape ring. Yep, that's what I said. Rubber grape ring. I got it by participating in Mich's challenge here.



That's all for this post! Thanks for stopping by and GOOD LUCK to those who play along!

Can't leave well enough alone...

...when it comes to crafting. Nope, just not possible.



We decided to try dying the tan felt pork pie pirate hat I posted about with black hair dye! We convinced ourselves that the tan just wasn't an appealing color on us. But, after hindsight, I think I should have just wore it with my tan/blue tabistry corset and saved myself a whole lotta trouble. :)

Below is a pic just after the dying:



Don't get me wrong, I like it now much better than it started, but some ideas just don't turnout as you hope and can cause a mass of frustration. The dying worked alright, but I don't recommend it unless you're desperate. We only had one bottle of the hair dye and ran out on the inside. You can;t really tell in the pics, but since there wasn't enough to really get it soaked through, it has a kinda old faded brownish gray look to the top of it. It shrunk quite a bit too (as you can see in the before and after) while I was trying to rinse all the excess dye out. And on top of all that, it really smells bad. :) Not sure how long that will last, but I'm sure it will fade (along with the color) in time. :) The upside for the hat, though, is that the shrinking made the felt much stiffer and sturdier, now.



I continued fussing with this hat some more. I added some lace around the edge. I sewed it to the edge with a zigzag stitch in gold metallic thread.



The rooster pin was an after thought. I'm calling it a "cock"-ade. It was a pin we found a long time ago at the same flea market the hat was from. And, the hat pin sticking out the back of the second pic is another project we are currently working on.



We got the idea to make Victorian-style hat pins out of wire hangers and bits of stuff we have lying around. It has to be the thinner flimsy hangers. You don't want to put huge holes in your hat. But, you also don't want the pin to be so thin it becomes bendy and won't stick through the hat. I grinded the tips with the dremel. I should have polished off the yellow coating on the wire, but I kinda liked the gold-tone.



For my first attempt, I used some acrylic red beveled grapes my mom bought and some cheap beads. The second attempt, I used cheap artificial flower parts and a piratey button.



Still planning to make the dice beads I mentioned in my last post. Guess I have to go find my own dice. My daughter has some, but won't let me have one. ;(

Meet the new sheriff in town

Yep, mom's working on a new steampunk costume for herself! Well, I mean she's got me working on one for her. ;)



Remember the felt hats we reworked a couple posts back? Well, we found another hat we couldn't pass up. We got the hat, a Styrofoam head and a hat box all for $5. I'm using the head to put my paper mache steampunk hat on so the brim won't get smushed and deformed. Ironically, the hat we bought is too wide for the box. Go fig. That's okay, though. I'm sure it will make a nice home for one of our many new hats.



Yay! I didn't forget the before shots! The pic above was after all the dust and everything was cleaned off. Honestly, I might not even have noticed the hat sitting in the corner of the shop covered with another pillbox style hat and a half inch layer of dust on top of it. After cleaning, the hat turned out pretty nice, but didn't do anything for either my mom or me. It just kinda hung limp and lifeless. I was planning to just trim the brim shorter and more contoured to make it a more hip twenties style hat. However, my mom loved the brown pork pie western hat we came up with last time so much, that she wanted a black one for her future gambler/sheriff outfit shes working on.



So into the sink it went to come out an extra wide brimmed pork pie like the brown one. I had to soak the hat in a mixture of one small bottle white school glue and water to stiffen it up more.



She found this sheriff badge at the flea market along with a "stinking badge" that I got to keep. (I couldn't resist. I just love movies like "Blazing Saddles".) The hat band was a belt we found at a secondhand store for 5o cents. I shortened it to fit, and we had some left over to make her an armband like the garters dealers wear to hold their sleeves up. The cards came from an old deck of cards I had that were getting marked by all the heavy use. (With no TV, cards are a popular family day activity in our house.) BTW, I used some of the lower cards of this same deck in my tablet weaving experiments a long time back.



We're currently planning some Victorian-style hat pins. Mom wants to have some with clear red dice on the tips. I think that will be a really cool idea. Now, just have to get it made. :)

Until next time!

Steampunk Cereal Box Hat

If you couldn't tell, I've been all about making hats this past month. First, I made another pirate hat with pop tabs. Then, we reworked felt hats. Now, I'm showing you a hat made from cereal boxes covered in paper mache and tissue. You should not be in want of inspiration for headwear on my blog.



I wore this hat to the last weekend of Scarborough Faire. There was some confusion as to the actual "Day of Wrong" traditionally held on Memorial Day weekend. We took advantage of this and chose to dress steampunk for Sunday. ;)



I was trying to urge my SO to make a prototype for his second leather hat (I will post this soon) out of cardboard, so he'd have a pattern to work from. But, as usual, he decided to just wing it. That got me thinking that I could just make a wearable hat with the cardboard. The hat went together fairly quickly. The toughest and most time consuming part was deciding on a color to paint it. :)



This hat is made from a large "family-size" Frosted Flakes cereal box. Never thought we'd finish that cereal, the box was so big. But, it was just the right size to make the brim in one piece. This was important to avoid having an unwanted crease in it. I chose to piece together the crown of the hat.



The ribbon hatband is the only part of this hat not made with the cardboard. It is really long in back. I think it's a nylon or polyester fabric used in sheer curtains. My mom had kept this large piece back from her bellydancing days in the 70's. I ripped off a narrow piece and hemmed it with the sewing machine. I got the idea from the hatband scarf Joanie Stubb's wore on her gray hat in the HBO series "Deadwood". However, mine hangs down to my calves. I should mention that this isn't very practical. Being so breezy at faire that day, I had to tuck the end into my belt to keep it from reaching out and strangling passersby.



It was SO's idea to make it slant down in the front. He also came up with the idea to make the fake hinges on top when I was inspired to create a trunk look with the keyholes. The brass nails are just paint. I can't count how many folk asked me if it opened. Sadly I had to reply that it didn't. Next time, I will make one that opens. I'm always for functional garb and perhaps some ventilation up there. :)



Hope you've enjoyed reading about my hats. You should have seen the photo shoot my mom and I had outside the other day. We hung a white sheet from a tree and I played musical hats. :) That's why we get occasional dappled light on the hats. I really have enjoyed making and wearing these hats. I'm tempted to just wear them everyday. It makes me surprised and saddened that traditional hat styles lost there fashion appeal for so long. I hope they make a permanent comeback in everyday wear.

Old Dusty Cowboy Hat Makeover

I stumbled upon the niftiest idea the other day on Youtube.com! What'cha think of our new future steampunk hat? It cost us about $2.50, since I bought two felt hats for $5 at a flea market.



The other day, I came across inspiration in a video of this guy making a felt cowboy hat into a "Buster Keaton" hat. (Yes, he says the name "Buster Keaton" an annoying number of times, at least 34 times, I think, during the tutorial) But, the idea is a fabulous way to revamp an old felt hat to give it new life.

BTW, don't ask me how I found this tutorial that inspired me. I frequently get sidetracked at that site spending time that I should be doing other things watching video after video about anything that pops up in the right sidebar. :)


This one started out as a sad looking dusty old typical cowboy hat made with beaver felt. An expensive hat in it's day, it was looking pretty pitiful. Living in Texas, we see these Stetson-style hats everywhere. (I wish I'd taken before pics.)

I had to remove the lining and sweatband, trim off the edging on the brim and clean it like the dickens. After that, we essentially made what is referred to as a "porkpie" hat, which got it's name from the top of the crown resembling (what else but) a pork pie, by soaking an existing hat in a sink and reforming it. If you rework a hat, you really don't need to fold the crown in like the pork pie as we did. Though, cowboy hats tend to be very tall on top making it a nice way to change the look. If we find other bargain felt hats, we may try some different style crowns.



I should mention that there was a tiny hole in the top of this one that I had to plug with a small piece of felt scrap I cut off of the brim. I basically needle-felted the hole until it was filled in adequately. Can't even tell there was a hole there! Gotta love felt. :)



How about a porkpie pirate hat?! Yeah, that's what the other ended up. It was a softer and floppier women's wool hat. We intended to starch it with the Keaton's sugar recipe. But after playing around, we rather liked the piratey look. Bet no one else at faire will have a pirate hat like this one. ;)



There's a little more info about the original recipe to remake a hat at the Buster Keaton Society page. It was really a quite simple and rewarding experience. If you try this, I'd love to see/hear your results.

When I get the chance, I'll be posting yet another hat, this time made with paper mache on cardboard. Until then, take care!

Goggles - A Steampunk's Essential Provision

It seems, to most people, you aren't "Steampunk" unless you sport at least one pair of goggles or some type of eyewear. :) Actually, I think they are so popular because they're the perfect quick way to make any outfit scream steampunk. But for me personally, I haven't found a pair small enough to fit on my mini top hat. ;)

My SO and I have created three pair of goggles so far in our attempt to adorn ourselves in gadgets. These were all HIS ideas. I merely assisted where asked to. I've posted his first, more complex, pair in a previous post (also glimpsed in the last pic of this post). They are still my fav, probably due to sentimentality. But, they are very unique, too. I've never seen a pair like them. This last pair are pretty impressive, too. However, they used the typical welding goggle base that you see just about everywhere steampunks gather. :)



The above pair are the most recent attempt displayed on the hat also his creation. He found a used and rather beat up pair of welding goggles at a fleamarket. They cost us $3. If you look closely at the pic, you can just barely see the deep pits in the lense where they saved the previous user's eyes.



I helped on these by cleaning, sanding and painting the hard black plastic frames. I sprayed them with black, silver and gold paint and applied a little metallic Rub 'n Buff to the high spots for a nice aged feel. He then made the strap and applied the gears and other tid bits.



He also whipped up a matching hat band for his hat while making the strap.

BTW, I just love his hat. I'm still in awe of how this was just about his first experience working with leather. He plans to make another shorter one in the near future. Can't wait to see how it turns out.



Here is another pair of simpler goggles that we experimented on just before making the others. He hasn't added any doodads, yet. I tried to paint them to look like wood. I think I'd like to antique them a bit so they don't look so new. Does the shape in the lens look familiar to you? If it does, you're showing your age. ;) It's inspired by the piece used in the center of a vinyl 45 record.



This hat was one of mine. I've had just about forever. Though it was a wee big, the daughter wore it and this pair of goggles to Scarby (ren faire) for the SP invasion. She looked adorable, if I do say so myself. She had no less than three people actually identify the lens. :)



Grandma wore SO's original goggle masterpiece on her Indiana Jones hat as a last minute attempt to put something together. She was a good sport for participating in the SP invasion with us. She still isn't sure what "steampunk" actually is, bless her.