Happy Halloween!

I spent the better part of this month talking about my Hylian Shield Tutorial. Now is your chance to see the shield in action! Presenting my HALLOWEEN COSTUME 2014: Link the Hero of Time! I spent a lot of time making the shield and sword look accurate. I also spent quite a bit of time on the costume itself. I included some details that you may not even see… I wore a locket around my neck with a Piece of Heart and a tiny Potion Bottle, had the Small Key and Dungeon Key, and I even had the boring-old compass! Here are some fun photos of my ADVENTURES AS LINK:

  

I am ready to fight for Princess Zelda!

 

I spent some time cutting down bushes for Rupees

and checking for Gold Skulltulas.

Here I am getting ready to fight an enemy.

Visiting the locals in the town…

…and SMASHING all their pots!

Now I am on my way to my next adventure…

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Halloween is Only a Week Away!

Gosh, Can you believe we are almost done with October and that HALLOWEEN is only ONE WEEK away?! I can’t

I’m sure you know by now, but I am going to be LINK from the Legend of Zelda for Halloween. I already posted a tutorial with steps to make your own Hylian Shield, but I would like to share some more photographs that showcase my handiwork. I also want to show off my awesome Master Sword:

While I did not make the sword from scratch like I did the shield, I did do some alterations and a paint job. I painted the hilt, added some gold detailing, and wrapped the hilt with suede leather. She’s a pretty convincing Master Sword and well made too!

Detail of the sword and shield together.

How to make your own DIY Hylian Shield Tutorial PART TWO

This is Part Two of Three in a tutorial to make your own Hylian Shield from the Legend of Zelda series. If you would like to start at the beginning, please follow this link to PART ONE.

We last left off at Step 4 after having cut out the front and back shield pieces. I hope you have gathered your hardware and tools to add some of the important details to the shield! Let’s start with the front of the shield and work out way to the back.

The chipboard pentagon in place. To the right you can see some of my hardware.

Step 5: Gather your hardware and your Chipboard or corrugated cardboard. For my shield, I used chipboard from the back of a  nearly empty sketchbook. You could also use a full sheet of matting material for framing, or even a cereal box. The chipboard is the perfect thickness but is HARD to cut. So make sure you have some spare X-Acto blades handy and a good pair of scissors at the ready.

We’ll use the Chipboard for the pentagon at the top of the shield as well as the interior shield design with the bird and Triforce. This will add dimension to the shield without making it the same depth as the outside boarder. I used my template from earlier to cut out the design for the interior of the shield. Trace those pieces onto the chipboard and get cutting. It will take a few passes with an X-Acto blade to get the pieces all the way cut. Once cut, place all the pieces on the front of the shield in the way you want to glue them down. Use beads of glue to cover the back of each piece and press it down. Allow ample time for drying.

Leave the right wing of the bird unglued for now. We will be placing screws for the handle through that side of the shield.

Make sure you use enough glue. You don’t want the pieces to come off!

Step 6: Detailing the back of the shield is a little less tedious than the front. For the wooden buttons, you will want to gather 3 small screws that will pass through 2 layers of foam-core and still have about 1/2 cm of thread sticking through. Prep both pieces that make up the back of the shield. Cut small slits with your blade in each of the three corners where you will be securing a wooden button. Then push/screw the small screw so that the head is on the BACK of the shield and the thread end is sticking out the front. Carefully screw the thread of the screw into the wooden button, securing it to the shield. This is a little tricky at first, but you will find it easier after the second one. I also put a little glue on the underside of the wooden button as I was screwing it into the foam-core for added strength.

Now glue, glue, glue! When the first wooden button was in place, I used the screw as a hinge and opened up the BACK of the shield. I then put a generous amount of glue on the back of the cross-shaped piece.

Be generous with the glue. You’d hate for the pieces to come apart in battle.

Align the two pieces and press together gently. Set aside to dry.

Wooden buttons screwed in place. Other hardware staged.

Once the wooden buttons are secured, it is time to add the brads to the vertical beam on the back. As with the screws, make a small slit with your blade where you would like them to go. Carefully push the brads straight down (they bend easily). Put a little glue on the bottom of the brad for extra strength. These will pass through both layers of foam-core and have a little bit sticking out the back. This is okay as this will help secure the front and the back pieces of the shield.

Set aside the BACK half of the shield and add the 3 wooden buttons to the FRONT half of the shield. Use the same method you did for the other wooden buttons AND for gluing the two front halves together. Once the wooden buttons are secured and dry, it will be time to move on to the handle.

Step 7: Adding the handle.

Once the brads and wooden buttons are in place, it is time to move on to the handle. I made my shield RIGHT HANDED. If you would rather use your shield with your left hand, just slide the handle over to the other side of the shield. Wherever you are putting the handle, make sure to measure carefully to ensure it is straight up and down. To properly secure the handle, you will need to work with both the front AND the back of the shield.

This is the last time you will see them apart!

Make holes on the back of the shield where you will be inserting the screws. Turn the screws around and push them from the back. Mark where they land on the backside of the FRONT half of the shield. This is where you will be screwing them from. Remember where I told you not to secure the right wing of the bird? That is because we will be inserting the screw through there and we will use the wing to cover one of the screws when everything is secured.

Measure carefully!

Lookin good!

Following the manufactures instructions, secure the handle. For my handle, I begin with the head of the screw on the FRONT of the shield, with the thread passing through to the back and into the handle. Add glue between the two halves before completely screwing them together. Secure tightly. FYI: mine came with two sets of screws, but I thought that one set of screws would be strong enough. It seems secure with just the single set.

Step 8: Finish the front of the shield by gluing the right wing of the bird over the screws for the handle. Once the bird motif is finished, you will want to start adding more brads to the front.

Laying down the last piece of the bird motif.

These add a nice amount of detail to the shield as well as more contact points to secure all parts together. By adding more brads around the perimeter of the front and back of the shield, we are making it stronger and less likely to pull apart with use. There is no right way to do this…just make sure it looks symmetrical on each side. Also be sure that you stagger them from the front and back so that there are not two brads pushing into each other.

There is no “right” way to put the perimeter brads down.

Once the shield is secured with brads and glue, make sure that there are no parts that seem loose or out of place. If anything seems loose, add a little extra glue (or whatever you need to do to fix the problem). This will be the last time you will be able to make any major changes without it being difficult. The next step after this is PAINTING! We are almost done!

Click here to continue on to PART THREE.

Getting Ready for Halloween

I suppose I have made it pretty clear, but just in case you weren’t sure, I am going to be Link from the Legend of Zelda for Halloween. I’ve never been one to wear ready-made costumes; even as children we always had a handmade costume from Grandma R. As I’ve grown older, I continued that tradition, frequently making my own costumes. I was never really one for following the trends as it were.

The biggest challenge for this year’s costume was not the outfit itself (I basically had that together, save some time to embroider and work on accessories). The biggest challenge this year was Link’s shield and sword. Link is pretty recognizable, but if I were to dress up as Link without his trusty sword and shield…well, that wasn’t an option. I did some research at the beginning of the month to prepare myself for the “real deal” of making or finding a sword and shied that would work for my costume.

Looking online, there are very few options that look good and don’t cost an arm-and-a-leg. Since I need both my arms to swing my sword and use my shield, and since Rupees don’t grow on trees, I decided to make my own Hylian Shield. I styled the design after the shield from Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess. I chose this shield for a few reasons: The materials I had for Link’s tunic matched that character design perfectly, and I really like the way they designed the Master Sword and Hylian Shield in that game. Also, it was the last game where Link was playable as a left-handed character (on the Gamecube version) and I wanted to be true to the “Corrie-Fisted” Link I grew up with!

Concept artwork for Link in Twilight Princess.

Obviously I will share the costume itself, but in the next few posts I will share my progress in the making of the Hylian Shield. If you have any questions, please message me or add a comment. I hope my instructions will inspire other gamer girls (and boys!) to make their own Hylian Shield!

Until next time!

Sketching out to-scale drawings to make the shield.

Tiny Hylian Shield Tutorial Part 3

If you need a to-scale example of the size of the shield I showed you how to make, here you go!

This shield is just the right size for my cat, Ferdinand. He is ready to go in to battle with the most ferocious of foes! Watch out!

Hi-yah!

Can You Guess What I Am Making

This October I will be working on a couple DIY projects. In the spirit of Halloween, they will have a similar theme. I am wondering if you can guess what I will be making based on the supplies I am using!

These are most of the supplies I will use. I will also be using larger materials like paper, cardboard, and foam-core.

HEY LISTEN! Here are a few hints:

It’s something that you can hold. It won’t be too big nor too heavy, unless you are quite young.

It’s something that I’ve talked about before on this blog.

3 is an important number.

Calavera Makeup

Calavera makeup for Dia de los Muertos

I know that Dia De Los Muertos is a few days away , but I thought I’d share some “Dia De Los Muertos” makeup that I did over the weekend. I volunteered (through/for the shop) at an awesome Halloween/ Autumn Festival at a local elementary school, working an activity booth and passing out candy and treats to kids. The event was put together really well and I had a lot of fun!

Since it was a Halloweeney event, I wanted to wear a costume, but not something that was:

1: Not too scary, as I was at an elementary school and there were lots of young kids.

2: Not too hard to wear, as I was outside and running around after bean bags  for 4 hours.

3: Fun. I didn’t want something boring or goofy. With a latex allergy, a lot of masks and “special effects” makeup are off-limits anyways. Many people really liked the make up too. Although, I think I scared a couple kids who just saw the left side of my face first. :-)

This is what I came up with on the fly, and I think it turned out well and really didn’t take that long to do.  My only complaint is that I rode my scooter to work and a little bit of the makeup on my forehead got smudged from my helmet, but despite having my full-face helmet on, that was the only problem I had (didn’t even notice it with the wig once I put that on). I plan on doing this again if/when we go downtown for Dia de los Muertos this week. I know that they have people there who will do the face painting for you, but I think it’s more fun to do it myself!