Pumpkin Carvings!

It's almost Halloween so I finally carved out my pumpkin. It was just a small one and I tied in my school spirit with the holiday! The UCF Pegasus.

I also found this picture of a carving I did 2 years ago in honor of Jennifer Rardin's book Bite Marks that had come out around Halloween. Enjoy!

DeviantArt t-shirt contest entry

There is a t-shirt contest going on at deviantart.com. This is my entry that I submitted. If you like it and have a DA account, head over to this link and vote for me! http://lalakergirl121.deviantart.com/#/d4csl8g

Halloween door contest.

Last year for Halloween we had a door decorating contest in our dorms. These are a couple pics from my door. I'm thinking about using the spider again this year.

 The black widow making her way up the door. I made her out of a 10 inch styrofoam ball and some different fabrics. The legs are made from pipe cleaners.

This is the top of the door and I made it look like four bodies that have been wrapped in webs were getting ready to be eaten by the spider. Each one has a scared face of me and my roommates attached.

Sadly we didn't win but it was fun building and decorating everything.

Pygmy Puff Cage.

For my sisters birthday I bought her a Pygmy Puff from Harry Potter, at Universal's Islands of Adventure. I made her a cage for him to be kept or transported in. These are a few pictures of the finished cage.

Her Pygmy Puff ended up being named Peggy, and he is the cutest Peggy I've ever seen.

Under The Sea

Here is the first of my mini paintings. This is an underwater scene with a fish and some different plant life. It was painted on a 3''x3'' canvas with acrylic paints.

Mini Basketball Court Model (Court) Part 6

This is the 6th and final part of the mini basketball court model. This part will be the the making of the court and attaching the baskets.

 Materials:

clear gel glue

pencil

different colored sharpies (based on the team court you want to make. You can also use paint if you like.)

11 inch by 6 inch piece of 1/8 inch thick balsa wood

clear coat gloss finish (painted on the court when finished coloring)

paintbrush

finished stands from part 5

3/16 inch NBA logo printed on paper (optional)

Estimated time: 20-25 minutes (not counting the time it takes for the glue, marker and paint to dry)

Instructions:

1. Get your piece of balsa wood cut to the right size.
2. Draw all the lines on the court lightly in pencil. (follow the NBA lines on above image. You can make it bigger if need be by clicking the image and following the link to the source.)

3. Outline all the lines, in sharpies, the color they need to be based on the team you like.

4. Fill in all spaces with appropriate colors with sharpies.

5. Finish with a couple of layers of the clear coat gloss finish to give it a shiny waxy look of a real floor. Then glue the stands to either end and let dry.

 Here are the links for the other parts:

step 1  http://craftyconstruction.blogspot.com/2011/07/mini-basketball-court-backboard-part-1.html
step 2  http://craftyconstruction.blogspot.com/2011/07/mini-basketball-court-backboard-part-2.html
step 3  http://craftyconstruction.blogspot.com/2011/07/mini-basketball-court-stand-part-3.html
step 4  http://craftyconstruction.blogspot.com/2011/09/mini-basketball-court-model-stand-part.html
step 5  http://craftyconstruction.blogspot.com/2011/09/mini-basketball-court-model-shot-clock.html

Mini Basketball Court Model (Shot Clock) Part 5

This is the 5th part of the mini basketball court model. This part will be the the making of the shot clocks that will go on top of the stands.

 Materials:

scissors

x-acto knife (with flat blade not angled)

black ultra fine point sharpie

red ultra fine point sharpie
clear gel glue

one yellow plastic lid (mine was from a can of nuts)

1 clear plastic Starbucks cup

three square plastic bag clips (AKA bread tags, bread tabs, bread ties, bread crimps, or bread-bag clips. See above picture. Color doesn't matter, they will be colored with a sharpie)

the finished stand/backboard from part 4

Estimated time: 60-90 minutes (not counting the time it takes for the glue and marker to dry)

Instructions:
1. Cut the ends off of the bag clips, making them into rectangles with smooth sides.
2. Then cut the rectangles in half making squares.

3. Next use the flat blade to cut smaller squares out of the bigger ones making a square frame.
4. Color all the frames with the black sharpie.
5. Then cut out squares from the yellow plastic lid to fit inside the frames. (you can use the squares you cut out of the frames to make sure the sizes are right.)
6. Next insert the plastic squares into the frames. They should stay in place without glue if they are the right size, but if not u can glue them in.
7. Using the black sharpie making numbers for the time and shot clock. Make sure the numbers themselves are yellow and just the area around them is black.
8. Use the red sharpie to color in the bottom shot clock number. The Top number for the time stays yellow.
9. Cut the Starbucks cup or whatever clear plastic you are using into squares using the square cutouts from step 3 to make the right sizes.
10. Glue the clear plastic squares on top of the yellow squares that have been colored.
11. Then glue three of the six shot clock pieces together making a triangle. Set aside.
12. Next cut four triangles out of the yellow plastic.
13. After, glue a yellow triangle to the bottom of the triangle shot clock. If the base is too big you can cut it to make it the same size.
14. Then glue another triangle to the top, and once it is dry color the top and bottom with the black sharpie so you no longer see yellow except for the numbers.
15. Finally, glue the finished shot clock to the top of the stand/backboard.

 Here are the links for the other parts:

step 1  http://craftyconstruction.blogspot.com/2011/07/mini-basketball-court-backboard-part-1.html
step 2  http://craftyconstruction.blogspot.com/2011/07/mini-basketball-court-backboard-part-2.html
step 3  http://craftyconstruction.blogspot.com/2011/07/mini-basketball-court-stand-part-3.html
step 4  http://craftyconstruction.blogspot.com/2011/09/mini-basketball-court-model-stand-part.html
step 6  http://craftyconstruction.blogspot.com/2011/09/mini-basketball-court-model-court-part.html

Mini Basketball Court Model (Stand) Part 4

This is part 4 of the mini basketball court project. This part will be the end of construction on the stand that will hold up the backboard.

 Materials:

one 1/8 inch square dowel stick cut in half (or a 1/8 inch rectangle dowel)

x-acto knife

duck tape (color of your choice)

clear gel glue

2 inch square piece of Styrofoam

1 inch square piece of 1/4 inch thick balsa wood

silver sharpie

backboards from steps 1 & 2

top of stand from step 3
two 3/16 inch NBA logos printed on paper (optional)

Estimated time: 10-15 minutes (not counting the time it takes for everything to fully dry)

Instructions:
1. cut two 3/8 inch squares and two 1inch by 3/8 inch rectangles out of the foam. Then take the squares and make them a U shape by cutting out the middle. Next take the rectangles and hollow them out from top to bottom on the backside.
2. Glue the U shapes to the back of the rectangles lining up the hollowed out sections. Then shape the rectangles as shown in the picture below. (they should look somewhat like a really elongated hexagon)

3. Cut two 1 1/8 pieces off the dowel and two 7/16 inch pieces. Then color them with the silver sharpie.

4. Once the foam pieces have dried cover them on all sides with duck tape. Then place the colored dowel pieces into the back of the foam with the longer pieces going in first lengthwise and the smaller pieces in the base laying down.

5. Next cut the 1 inch square piece of balsa wood in half.

6. Glue the balsa wood to the base of each piece.

7. Glue the top of the stand from step 3 to  the top of the foam base.

8. Finally glue the backboard to the top of the stand.
9. If you want the to add the NBA logo to the backboards print and cut them out then glue them to the left side of each backboard.

 Here are the links for the other parts:

step 1  http://craftyconstruction.blogspot.com/2011/07/mini-basketball-court-backboard-part-1.html
step 2  http://craftyconstruction.blogspot.com/2011/07/mini-basketball-court-backboard-part-2.html
step 3  http://craftyconstruction.blogspot.com/2011/07/mini-basketball-court-stand-part-3.html
step 5  http://craftyconstruction.blogspot.com/2011/09/mini-basketball-court-model-shot-clock.html
step 6  http://craftyconstruction.blogspot.com/2011/09/mini-basketball-court-model-court-part.html