My Neighbor Totoro Leaf Umbrella

So, after all my posts about Princess Mononoke cosplay and all that, I decided for Halloween I wanted to go as something a little more... cozy. Last Christmas, I got a Totoro kigurumi for a present. If you don't know what a kigurumi is, it's basically Japanese onesies (pajamas). Of course, me loving Totoro, that's the character that I got. This is what it basically looks like:

So, I decided to go as this for Halloween. But, I felt like it wasn't really complete. So, I thought about what I could do to enhance the costume. First I was thinking about making a plushie of a totoro to go with it, but, today is the day before Halloween, and I had school tomorrow so it's not like I had all day to finish it. Anyway, I ended up thinking about totoro's leaf umbrella! I thought, "Why wouldn't that be an amazing addition to the costume?". So off I went looking for tutorials on how to make it. This is where I ran into some problems.

First, there are no tutorials on the web or on YouTube about how to make a leaf umbrella for totoro. I found many tutorials on other things, but not what I was really looking for. So, it came a time to make my own. I rummaged through my garage until I fell upon some materials that I found suiting to use to make the actual leaf and handle. So, here are the materials I used:

• Cardboard (I used a cut up box)
• A large, thick wooden dowel
• Green fleece
• Green felt
• Black acrylic paint
• Hot glue
• Paintbrush
• Pencil

Luckily, I already had all these materials, so I didn't have to worry about running out and buying stuff last minute.

So, let's get started.

First, I got my stuff.

I just used a cardboard box that was used to mail shoes to me. For the dowel, I already had it in my garage, since it was from my dad, so I'm not sure where you could find the same. Try hardware stores like Home Depot or Lowe's.

Next, I started drawing out the design and shape of my leaf on the cardboard. In the picture, It's kind of hard to see the design though.

Here you can sort of see the pattern I went for, but here is the cut out design (you can see it better)

So, you can also see I cut out a small piece of cardboard for the small little stem part of the leaf on the top, but now it's time to cover with fleece! I cut out a square of dark green fleece and placed my leaf on top. 

Now I started to cover the leaf, by overlapping and folding over the excess pieces of the fleece around the edges and gluing them down with the hot glue gun.

These are the finished covered leaf!

Then I basically repeated the overlapping technique for the little stem chunk and then glued that down onto the top of the leaf.

I actually bent the leaf in the middle a little bit just to add some dimension and make it look more realistic. If you didn't bend it, it makes it look too flat and silly.

Next, you want to cover the dowel in the matching color fleece! Start by gluing the dowel onto the edge of the strip of fleece. Then, apply more glue to the rest of the fleece and roll the dowel up in the fabric.

You should get a completely covered stick that looks something like this:

Then I decided to add the detailing on the leaf before I glued the two pieces together. I first tried drawing the patterns on with a Sharpie marker, but that didn't really work, so I ran and got my black acrylic paint. 

I basically just started drawing some leafy looking patterns on the top of the leaf with my paint, until I was satisfied with this:

I touched the paint before it was dried and practically freaked out since I thought I totally ruined my leaf (luckily I didn't smudge anything).

Next came attaching the two pieces together. I applied hot glue to the top of the dowel and underneath the leaf, then stuck them together and held it until it dried. 

Then, I ran into a slight problem. By itself, the cardboard was a little too heavy for the dowel, so it drooped like this:

I didn't like that at all, so I decided to make a support. I started by gluing 3 popsicle sticks together in a stack. 

Then I took my popsicle sticks and wrapped them in green felt (I actually found some in the closet left over, close call for me).

Then I glued it down to the bottom of the leaf and touching the dowel to help support the leaf from drooping.

And, it actually worked!

And that is my finished leaf umbrella from My Neighbor Totoro!

Princess Mononoke's Accessories

So, if you are familiar with San, you would know that there are some accessories that she wears. These include earrings, armbands, a headband, and a spiky necklace. I will be showing how I constructed these accessories for her outfit.

I'll start with the earrings, since they are really simple. I am a huge craft freak, so I already have a big supply of Sculpey polymer clay in my possession. Because of this, I decided to make the accessories out of that clay. I basically took my white clay and flattened it out into an even thickness. I used my clay conditioning machine that I got a couple years ago, but if you don't have that, just use a roller. I actually used old hoop earrings that I had that I didn't wear anymore as a template, but you can always use a big circle cookie cutter. I traced out the circle and then cut it out of the clay. I made two circles and poked a hole at the top of both circles. I baked these in the oven and then attached an earring hook through the hole. 

These are what they looked like after baking. Just attach a jump ring to the hole and put on the earring hooks for completed earrings!

Now onto the armbands and headband. 

I started by measuring around the top of my arms (right below my armpit area) and around my forehead. I then cut out three strips of fabric; two pieces that are the size of my arms, and one strip for my head. I used extra fabric that I had left over from making my San dress (another post) so they could match. 

This was me measuring out the strips from my navy blue fabric.

These are the three strips you should have. Now you have some options: you can either sew these strips or use hot glue. I decided to use hot glue, since it was easier and faster. Basically, I folded the width of the strips in half and glued them together so they were skinnier, then I folded them in half lengthwise and put a small glob of glue to make them into circles (kinda looking like bracelets).  San has a gem on each of her bands, so I made these out of polymer clay too.

I actually used translucent polymer clay from Sculpey, but you can use white too. 

I made three flat circles that were rounded at the top to make raised gems. I baked them and this is what they looked like:

You can see that two of the balls are smaller than the other. The two smaller ones are for the armbands, and the biggest one is for the headband. 

Then, I put a glob of glue on the back of each clay ball and glued them in the middle of each band. This is what they turned out to be:

You can see the top one is the headband and the two bottom ones are the armbands.

Next, the necklace.

When I post how I made my wolf pelt, I'll show how I attach the necklace to the pelt, so for now I'll just show how I made it.

I basically took my white Sculpey clay and made four spikes out of the clay, and then poked a hole through the top each spike, so I could later thread them onto a necklace. I then took my dark blue Sculpey clay and made 5 cylindrical beads that were each the same size. I also poked a hole through each one of those, and then baked all of them. 

Once they were baked, I cut a piece of elastic and strung all the beads onto it in this order: blue bead, white spike, blue bead, white spike, blue bead, white spike, blue bead, white spike, blue bead. This is what it looks like:

And later, I'll show how to attach it to the pelt!

Stay tuned.

Up next: clothes and mask!

Princess Mononoke Knife and Ears

So, I'm making a San cosplay (Princess Mononoke) for Halloween and maybe some conventions, so I thought I'd post my progress on things I made! I started the cosplay by making her knife. I decided not to do the spear, since it would be more annoying to carry around, so I went smaller. In the film, her knife looks like this:

(Obviously it's what she is holding in her hand)

So, for starters I wanted to point out that this didn't come out perfectly. The knife that she has is really long and slender, and the blade on mine is a little stubby triangle thing. Oh well, I still think it looks pretty good.

So, this is what mine looks like:

But, you're probably wondering, "How did you make it?" Honestly, it was simple. I started by making the triangle out of cardboard and the handle out of a paper towel tube that I cut about in half.

As you can see, it took me so many tries to finally get the right shape and size triangle to use.

This is the tube that I used as the handle, but it was too long so I trimmed about half of it off.

Once I cut my triangle, I folded it in half to make a bend in the front. Make sure you cut out two of the exact size triangles, since these go back to back to make the spear head.

I took both my triangles and taped them together. I used the blue painting tape from Scotch, but I suggest using regular masking tape. I didn't have any, so this was my second best choice. Make sure you choose a sturdy tape that can be paper mached over once you are ready. 

This is what it looked like when I taped the handle on. To close the bottom, trace the bottom of the two triangles into some cardboard and then cut that piece out. Place your tube on that and trace the circle onto the piece. Cut out that circle. Now, your tube should be able to fit into the bottom of the triangles without falling out. You should have the spare circle you cut out from the bottom piece and you can use that on the bottom of your paper towel tube to close it off (that's why you see tape on the bottom of the tube). Once this is all taped up, you can start putting on the paper mache!

For the paper mache, I used a simple water and flour mix that you boil on the stove, but you can use the water/glue mix if you prefer that.

Coat the knife with 3 to 5 layers of paper mache, or until it's thick enough for your liking; I believe I did 5 layers. 

Now onto the ears! On top of San's wolf pelt, she has two red and black ears that are above her mask:

So, while I was making the knife, I was making the ears at the same time. I made these out of cardboard too, and were pretty tricky to figure out. Warning: These are extremely difficult to explain, so please, don't be angry :).

I started with the cardboard, and made two triangles that looked the same, just one a bit bigger around all sides. I also made sure to round the sides and top, to make it look less like a triangle and more like ears. I took the bigger triangle and folded that in half too, to make the bent part of the back of her ears. I made another one of these, exactly replicating it so I had 2 ears.

I made sure to cover these in tape also to keep the two pieces together.

You want to make sure the smaller piece is in the front of the ears, and the bent part of the cardboard was in the back. Here is a picture:

This is the back, showing the bent part of the ears. This curves it like wolf ears. 

This is another view of the ears. You don't have to worry about closing the bottom of the ears, since you are going to be attaching these to the top of the pelt hood.

Now off to paper mache the ears too!!!

I covered my ears about 5 or 6 layers of newspaper. Since the layers were pretty thin, it only took about 2 days to fully dry.

Here are the dried ears and knife:

I know some people cover the ears and knife with computer paper to make them easier to paint, but I didn't bother, I just coated them with extra paint. 

I started by painting the ears.

The colors I used were:

I used the white on the ears to prime the front so the newspaper print wouldn't show through the red. 

I started by painting the back of the ears with my black acrylic paint.

You can see in the background that I already primed the front of the ears with the white paint. The back was easy to paint, since you don't have to worry about the newspaper showing through the black paint.

At this point you can see that the knife handle was painted black. Again, this was simple since the black doesn't show the print underneath. The harder part though, was painting the actual blade. Her blade is completely white with a red design on the front. Again, the tricky part was making sure you couldn't see the newspaper print through the white of the paint. It took about 3 coats of white paint until you couldn't see any newspaper. After the white dried, I painted on the red design and then I also added a little bit of red trim onto the handle for detail. 

Once the ears were dry, I painted over the white with my red paint. To be extra safe, I did 2 coats of red to get the vibrant color on the ears. This is what they looked like when I finally finished:

These are my finished ears!

Finally, my knife is done!

Coming up next: 

Clothes, mask, and accessories!

Cold Porcelain

This is a short post just going to be showing how to make homemade air-dry clay called cold porcelain. This recipe is super easy and quick, the only hard part is the "cooking" and being able to not overcook it. If you do overcook the clay, it'll be too hard and when it dries it will crack. If correctly made, it won't crack and will stay very light. This clay can get really nice details into your creation, so you can use it to make literally anything. I'm using this batch of clay to make my cosplay mask, which will be posted soon in the cosplay page. Anyways, let's get to the recipe!

To make cold porcelain, you need these tools:

• A microwavable bowl/container (make sure this isn't used for food afterwards)
• A microwave
• A stirring utensil (I used a knife)
• A measuring cup
• Measuring spoons

These are the measurements and ingredients:

• 1 cup of cornstarch
• 1 cup of glue - 8 oz (Elmer's white glue works best)
• 2 tablespoons of lemon juice (vinegar works too, but it makes the clay smell bad)
• 2 tablespoons of baby oil

Now onto making it!

To make this, first add the cornstarch and the glue into your container. Start by mixing this up a little and then add your lemon juice and baby oil.

Now, make sure you thoroughly mix all these ingredients into one paste.

Now it's time to microwave!

Place your container into your microwave and heat it for 15 seconds. Take the mix out, and stir it up. You need to repeat this step until the mix is thick, sticky, and clumpy. It won't look done, but it is. For me, it took 6 intervals of 15 seconds. 

Now that it's been in the microwave, you want to transfer it onto your table. If you don't want your work station sticky and gross from the hot clay, put down a sheet of cling wrap and rub some lotion over the top of it. Make sure you also coat your hands in the lotion; it keeps the clay from sticking a lot to your hands. Now comes the long part. You need to sit and knead this clay for at least 10 minutes until it comes together into a smooth ball. Also, it should no longer stick to your fingers when you touch it. 

Now that that's all done, you need to lay out a new piece of cling wrap and cover this one in lotion too. Roll your clay into a log and wrap it up in the cling wrap. Transfer the wrapped clay into a Ziploc bag and press out all the air. This should keep the clay from drying right out. 

Now this is very important to know: 

Before using your clay to make anything, let it rest in the bag and lotion cling wrap for 24 hours. This lets all the water absorb fully into the clay and makes your final product moist and it won't dry and crack. 

That's it! 

If you need extra reference, I have a tutorial on YouTube. Here it is:

Rainbow Cake

I was watching some videos about cooking, like I normally spend my days, and I stumbled upon a video and this cake:

Immediately, I was super excited to try this out, since I've always wanted to make something yummy and rainbow. Of course, I fell into some troubles, since I only have two 9" pans, and I needed to cook six cakes. Before you start cooking though, you need the recipes. These are the things you need:

• Cake batter
• Vanilla buttercream frosting
• Food coloring 
• 9" cake pans
• Toothpicks

First we have to start with the cake batter. This whole cake is completely homemade. When I made the cake batter, it seemed I didn't have enough, but I didn't want to make another whole batch of batter. I recommend to double the recipe, to make thicker layers, since you are splitting the batter up. Here is the recipe:

• 2 1/4 cups of all-purpose flour
• 3 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 1/3 cups of  granulated sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup butter or margarine
• 1 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 eggs

First, you want to preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. The baking time depends on if you double the recipe or not. If you don't double the recipe, then each cake cooks for 10 minutes. If you do double the recipe, bake for 20 minutes, then check and put in for longer if needed.

To start the batter, I used a Kitchen Aid standing mixer, but you can use a hand mixer if you choose. Start by putting all the dry ingredients in your bowl (flour, baking powder, sugar, salt). Then start the mixer and drop in cubes of the butter. Once mixed, the mixture should resemble lumpy grain. Turn back on mixer and add your vanilla, then slowly add the milk, make sure to pour the milk at a constant speed, evenly distributing the milk. Then, add the eggs one at a time until fluffy and light. 

Now comes the fun part!

Evenly distribute the batter among 6 bowls. I used a cookie scoop to pour equal amounts in the bowls. I started by scooping one cookie scoop of batter into each bowl, then a second, and keep going until no batter was left. With me, I got about 5 scoops of batter into each bowl until I ran out. If you double the recipe, you should get about 10 scoops of batter in each bowl. 

Now that that is done, you need to pick out your food coloring. I used neon gel colors. You need to squeeze some in each batter bowl and then mix it up until there is no white left. Now, all that's left is to bake!

Once the cakes are done baking, leave them out to cool, and now it's time to make the frosting. I used a basic vanilla buttercream frosting. I suggest doubling this recipe too, since I ran out since you need to frost between each layer. Unlike the photo, I also left my frosting white and didn't color it, since I did a design on top instead. 

Here is the frosting recipe:

• 1/2 cup butter or margarine
• 3 cups powdered sugar 
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 4 tablespoons milk

Use your standing mixer again or your hand mixer. Basically, start by creaming your butter with your mixer and then gradually pouring in the sugar. Start with 2 cups of the sugar and then add your vanilla, and about 2 tablespoons of the milk. Mix and then add the rest of the sugar and the milk. You should get the creamy mixture, and if it's not sweet enough, you can add some more sugar if you like. Now you can frost!!

Some people decide to split up the frosting and color them the rainbow too, but I kept mine white. But, I did add a design. I made circles of food dye around the cake and dragged a toothpick down the top. Here's what it looked like:

This is actually the common design for icing donuts, but I thought it would be cute on the cake!

Finally, it was time to dig in!

YUMMY!

Enjoy!

Oh, and I would advise freezing your cake before you frost the outside, and then freeze a little before cutting it. This will help keep the layers from spreading into each other.