Meeple Bag

In getting ready to teach my favorite board game, Carcassonne, at Nuke Con last week, I decided that I needed a new bag to draw out the tiles.

I have one bag that came with one of the expansions, but this bag was for the new 10th anniversary edition that I had to have. I could use the current bag as a guide for size. 

First, thinking of material, I thought of Spoonflower, and maybe I could make some meeple cloth. If I had time I could, so maybe will put that idea on hold for another time.

So I decided to use the bleach splatter method, and got some nice black material. When I told The BFF that I'd really only be a couple minutes in JoAnn's, this time I really meant it. Straight to the remnant bins, there's always plain black remnants in the bin. 

I spent one whole evening cutting little meeples out of freezer paper, and another spraying the bleach. Does anyone else have a problem with the smell of the bleach? I should have used a face mask!

Anyway, I think it turned out pretty good. It's always interesting to see how bleached out something will get, and I was pretty happy with the coloring I got with this material. Good thing it was a big remnant, I'll make something else with it.

Meeple bag front

Meeple bag back

Meeple bag with guests visiting

Photos with the new toy

Trying out the wonderful light box set I got from my folks.
Of course, my first tries are with meeples!

Ten on Tuesday

10 Best Games (video games, board games,
card games, etc)

(If I haven't mentioned it before, I am a gamer! So today's topic is perfect for me, and might even give you a gift idea.)

Carcassonne

Zombies!!!

Roller Coaster Tycoon

Scattergories

Last Night On Earth

Betrayal on the Houst on the Hill

Cranium

Meepet Juice Break

True Colors

Vikings

Miniature Painting

Miniature Painting
Originally uploaded by seeshells.

This is what the table looked like where we could do the 'paint and take'. Bunches of miniatures to choose from, plenty of paints, brushes, plates for pallettes, everything you need.
The little block of wood in the front has gummy stuff on it, you can stick your miniature on the wood so you don't have to hold onto the miniature itself. That saves painting your fingers. ;p

Gamey Vacation Report. The Final Chapter

Skeleton Miniature
Originally uploaded by seeshells.

Here's the other miniature I painted. I learned that skeletons are super easy to paint if you use two techniques: a wash, and drybrushing. First, you wash the whole mini in dark brown or black (I, of course, can't follow directions and had to use dark purple), using a wash of miniature paint and water. When that is completely dry, you drybrush your cream or white (or in my world, orc flesh green). The trick to drybrushing miniatures, and I think this trick goes for any kind of drybrushing, is to make sure you don't have too much paint on your brush. This means you have to go over it several times, but that's better than too much paint.
Keeping my eyes peeled for creativity and artistic ideas, I noticed the beautiful fountain the campus had. The campus was in general very beautiful, and it was way cool to be outdoors in the middle of the night after gaming into all hours, and walk through the campus.
I was also very inspired by being able to join in some playtesting of new games. Games that may some day have beautiful bits, while in playtesting mode are just on index cards with self-laminated chits. Very fun to play games while they are still in their infancy. I am inspired to work on my own games soon.

Gamey Vacation Report. Part 2-Electric Bugaloo

Sketch of Miniature
Originally uploaded by seeshells.

One of the activities at the gaming convention was a 'make and take' paint your own miniature. You could paint one per day, free paint and miniatures provided by Reaper. If you've never seen painted miniatures, you're missing out. First of all, they are tiny little sculptures, which I mistakenly thought were origionally carved much larger then the molds were shrunk down. So who ever is out there carving these tiny things, those folks are amazing. Secondly, there are some people who paint minis as a hobby that paint these tiny things so fantastically. I have only painted minis at conventions, so I have just a handfull.
On Saturday, there was also a painting miniatures class, which it worked out that I was able to go to. That is where I painted the miniature in the last post. I learned a layering, a wash, and a drybrush technique that are secrets of the wonderfully painted minis, and these techniques work translated into other mediums.
Another thing that was advertized that piqued my creative interest was an "Artist's Jam". It wasn't scheduled at any specific time, and I wasn't sure what to expect, but I brought my sketch pad and some pencils.
I guess I was maybe imagining that there would be something at the "Artist's Jam" to sketch. Like a model of some sort, not necessarily live, but I'm not really the sketcher that can just sit and draw whatever, so I dug the mini I had painted to use as my tiny model, and the picture here is the result of my "Jamming", just some figure sketching of the mini.
After a few more games, I came back to the "Artist's Jam" area, and started on my felted Zombie. It wasn't specifically about sketching, I had realized, and although I am very proud of myself for sketching in public, and with others, the "Jam" was more about being together each doing our own thing, and I was more comfortable with my needle than I was with my pencil that day.

Gamey Vacation Report. Part 1

Painted Miniature
Originally uploaded by seeshells.

When we last left our hera, she was about to head out to a weekend game convention, complete with tiny new purse.
Well, the purse has lasted quite well, with only a few small issues about it's, well, smallness. But more on the tiny purse another time.
On to the report from the Game Convention!!
I took off the whole day Friday, tho we were leaving town around 3:00, and finished the shopping and packing Friday morning. One thing I needed to pack, to figure out, was a small project. I really wanted something that I could work on quickly and easily, and would fit in a small space. If I were a knitter or crocheter, I imagine projects would be easy to take along, but even those would be bigger than what I wanted to take with me this time. Since I've been doing the felt embroidery lately, I decided I could easily take some cut pieces of felt, tiny scissors, and a few colors of embroidery floss, and they would all fit in my small (4x5) tin lunchbox. But what project to start?
After looking around Crafster last week, I saw this awesome zombie doll, and it made me think, Hmmmm, I could felt embroidery a zombie!
So, in a rush, because by the time I did the errands I had to do Friday morning, I was somehow behind schedule, I cut out some free form shapes based on a couple zombie face sketches I had done. At the last minute, I realized I had forgotton to bring home the needle from work that I had been using, and had to dig out an old needle that was bent, but at least I found one!

I didn't end up having a lot of time to embroider, but that means I was busy with other things, but I got one eye socket done while I was there. Other artsy/craftsy goodness of the weekend included the artist's jam, painting miniatures like the one shown, and tons of great ideas and inspiration.
More on the specifics later.