Hellboy and the Hand of Doom

I have finally (almost) finished my masterpiece after about 2 weeks of work. I am please to present Hellboy:

Hellboy is a comic/movie about a secret agency funded by the government called the Bureau of Paranormal Research and Defense. Hellboy, Abe Sapien (Who I need to make as well), Dr. Broom (Hellboy's dad), and Liz Sherman (Hellboy's girlfriend, sometimes) fight paranormal threats to humans. Hellboy in the movie is played by Ron Perlman who is also in Sons of Anarchy (LOVE that show), Hellboy is sarcastic and hilarious and just a really fun character that I have fallen in love with. If you have never seen the movie, then I urge you to go see it, both Hellboy 1 and 2 are on TV all the time. 

I have been wanting to make a Hellboy for a while now so finally I just decided to go for it. I am still not quite done with him, he still needs his belt and belt buckle and his trench coat. When I started to sketch him out I realized that the hardest obstacle would be his Hand of Doom. Somehow by using my magic it came out pretty prefect, I even put wire in the Hand of Doom so his fingers can move.

 His sawed off horns were easy enough, but when and if I make him again I will probably machine sew instead of hand sew these because of the felt pulling, but I still love the way the turned out. I also didn't have any yellow eyes with regular pupils, so I took a pair of brown eyes scratched off the brown and painted them yellow and I love how they look. I also love this little soul patch, it makes me giggle.

 His hair and sideburns were interesting to figure out. His hair is pulled into a sumo wrestler like ponytail and then tied up with string, so I did my best to mimic that.

 This picture is to showcase his pose-able tail and cute sideburns. I really am so excited to finally make him because he is one of my favorite characters and I absolutely love the Hellboy movies, I still need to read the comic too.

 If you have seen the movies, then you know how much he loves his kitties, so here is the obligatory kittie shot. I just love how pissed the cat looks in this photo it is probably because I followed her around with Hellboy until I could get a good photo. Miss Kittie is not my cat, I am house sitting her right now and well lets just say she is a BIG cat and lets you know when you need to feed her.

I really hope you enjoyed this project as much as I do. Feel free to comment below.

Love,

RobbinZombie

One Tiny Stuffie Received and A Little Update

This past weekend I received my stuffie from Lanikins for the One Tiny Stuffie Swap on Craftster. The one thing I love about swaps is creating for another person and hopefully them liking it. I also love randomly getting surprises in the mail, because you never know what you are going to get. I can’t remember the themes I put down on my questionnaire, but I received something I had been want to receive for a while now, BEETLEJUICE. 

It was like Lanikins read my mind. He is perfect, from his hair down to his little suit. He is soft and cuddly and has been by my side while I craft since I got him.

I know that I have been a little silent this week and that has been due to work being crazy, taking my gparents to the airport at 5am and then going to work for 8 hours, and working on a new nugget, which I hope to have finished this weekend to show you. I have also finally received my partner for the Mini 13 Days of Halloween Swap and she is awesome, even though our tastes are a little different, mine creepy/cute and cute/macabre and hers cute, traditional, and vintage I am so excited to craft for her. Trust me this swap will allow me to FINALLY create some tutorials for you guys, so stay tuned.

Love,

RobbinZombie

Things You Find When You Keep Your Eyes Open

I have always been a very observant person and because I this I focus on little detail in my work until what emerges is what I saw in my head. What I love about being an observant person is I see and notice things that most people miss and sometimes it can be something very magical. 

A couple of weeks ago my cousin was in town and we had decided to go to Cherokee Street and go Anitque Shopping. I love antique and thrift shore showing because I love digging around to find treauses and that is where me be observant really helps. Anyway, there is a shop on Cherokee called The Purple Cow and I had been wanting to go there for a while. We went inside and there really wasn't anything that I saw that peaked my interest, but I noticed that there was more items in the outside portion, sort of like a closed in porch. I was so glad that we decided to check out the porch, because this is what we found.

Unfortunately, the outside part you see was closed off to customers, but I was able to get some photos. The backyard was just so magical, everything was made from found objects, including the bridge and fountain.

I wanted to live in that backyard, it was like my imagination in physical form. To describe it without pictures would be impossible. I really just want to go back and touch everything and take everything in, it really allowed my creative juices to flow.

I hope to find more treasure like this in St. Louis, anything and everything eclectic. I hope you enjoyed your tiny trip to St. Louis with me, I promise there will be more awesome photos like these if you continue to read.

Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed it.

Love,

RobbinZombie

One Tiny Stuffie Swap

I just sent this swap package on Monday, so I think it's safe to post. I recently joined the One Tiny Stuffie Swap on Craftster because I needed a break from creating inventory from my upcoming Etsy shop. I had taken a couple month haitus from swapping and I am so addicted to swapping that I really couldn't last much longer. I got partnered up with Saint Angel and Lanikins meaning I made a stuffie for Saint Angel, Saint Angel made a stuffie for Lanikins, and Lanakins made a stuffie for me. I have been partnered up with Lanikins before and trust me she's AMAZING and I have purchased from Saint Angel via her Etsy site, so I was excited to be partnered up with these ladies. 

The conditions for a One Tiny Stuffie Swap is you must send a stuffie under 5 inches by 5 inches. I tend to work on a scale of 12 inches or taller so making a stuffie that small and putting lots of detail in it gave me a fun challenge. After reading Saint Angel's swap questionaire, I decided that I was going to make her Dr. Frank n Furter from Rocky Horror Picture Show. 

I scaled down my nugget pattern to create a mini nug.

The body is made out of fleece and the hair, vest, and panties are made out of felt. I used real stocking for the mini nug stocking and the garter belt holders are made out of felt rolled in glue and tipped with silver paint for the clasp. I knew I wanted a more detailed face than I normally do because that is part of Tim Curry's character, the fact that he is a guy dressed as a girl with make-up on. I painted on the eyebrows and used pastels for the eye shadow and lastly I added big red lips with just a hint of a smirk and a red heart on his arm for his tattoo.

I like the way it turned out, but it took a while for me to like it because I am highly critical of my work (my art teacher use to call me slow and meticulous) and I guess I just wanted it to look a little more real than cartoony. Anyway I like it now especially after I added the lips. 

Here is a progress shot, he kinda looks angry, but that could be because he is missing his hair and his right stocking. I hope Saint Angel likes him, she should be receiving him tomorrow and I hope you like him too. 

If you did like him feel free to leave a comment or if you have any feedback fell free to leave a comment. I don't want this blog to be so one sided, I love peoples feedback.

Love,

RobbinZombie

PS: Also feel free to follow my blog, I promise I won't bite too hard ;)

Ron Weasley Nugget Doll

My best friend Erica turned 23 in May and I asked her about a month before we celebrated her birthday, what she wanted. Her response was "I want either a Harry Potter or Ron Weasley Nugget Doll." About two week before we celebrated her birthday I finally decided that I was going to make Ron. Please forgive the cell phone pictures. I forgot to take photos for him before I gave him to Erica, so when she brought him to the midnight showing I decided to snap a few pictures of him while we waited in line.

I decided to make him in this Hogwarts uniform and I decided that his hair should be the hairstyle he has now. The tie I painted the stripes on and I gave him big blue eyes. Erica loved him so much and that is all the matters. I hope you liked Ron too and I hope you enjoy my creations.

Love,

RobbinZombie

Midnight showing of Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows Part II (no spoilers)

I am currently in line waiting to see the last Harry Potter movie and I'm excited to finally see it, but I'm also sad because it means that the 10 year series is coming to a close. I will greatly miss reading about Harry, Ron, Hermoine and all the trials and adventures they encounter. I know that J.K. Rowling is done with Harry's story, but she is not done with the wizarding world and that excites me. I am also excited to figure out exactly what Pottermore is about and I hope that it lives up to the standards set forth by the franchise. It is sad to see something you grow up with end, but I am excited to see what comes out of it. I also still need to visit the Harry Potter Wizarding World in Orlando, Fl. The only thing I can tell you is that if you have not read the Harry Potter book series, do it. They are well written and they keep you enchanted for hours. I can remember staying up until 3 and 4 in the morning in middle school and high school because they were so good and I didn't want to put them down. Tomorrow in honor of opening weekend I will post some pictures of a Ron nugget doll that I made for my best friend for her birthday, so stay tuned.
Love,
RobbinZombie

SHARKTOPUS!!!!!

Okay where do I start. Well a while ago the SCI FI channel created a movie entitled Shartopus( basically a government experiment gone wrong) where they created a monster that has the business end of a shark and the business end of an octopus (Epic right?) and it killed too many people to count (like 10 in the first 10 minutes). I decided after the first five minutes of watching the movie that I HAD to make one. So now that I have a graduated college and got myself a real job I had the time to create this masterpiece.


This is Chuck the Shartopus

See when the government made the sharktopus they created two of them, the famous one depicted in the movie and Chuck. Lets just say Chuck's brother didn't get enough hugs as a baby sharktopus which is why he went on his rampage.

Chuck however loves to hug, especially his BFF Fail Whale


I drew up a pattern made a prototype and tweaked my pattern. I also decided that he needed to have suckers so I spent three days after work slaving over a lino block carving a 3 part stamp (because the tentacles are so long) to stamp the tentacles onto the fabric. Needless to say my fingers hurt, but it was so worth it because the suckers really add to the final product.



I wanted the tentacles to be able to bend so I added pipe cleaners


The final product is a little over two feet long and very fun and huggable. It took a 1 1/2 weeks to complete and I had the most interesting time trying to attach the shark to the tentacles. It took about three different times, but that allowed me to figure out ways to tweak my design when and if I make another one. 

I hope you enjoyed Chuck

Love,
RobbinZombie

Crafter Crush

I admit that I have craft crushes on several crafters. Basically, that means that I pretty much love everything they make and want it for myself. My first craft crush was on Chelsea Bloxsom or loveandasandwich. When I first viewed her Etsy page, I fell in love with everything because it combined a few of my favorite things, the yeti and the octopus. Ever since then animal hybrids have a special place in my heart. I also loved that her creatures were part hand sewn and part machine sewn. I can safely say that her work has influenced some of my techniques. Here is some of her work:

      

I love the fabric she uses on the tentacles, not just in this piece, but in all her pieces. I love how whimsical her creatures are and the layering of felt. I hope you enjoy her work as much as I do.

Love,

RobbinZombie