RB's motivation: LIVE NOTEPAD LIVE C'MON

Okay so I did this beautiful test run of the final mock up of the headpiece, drapery, and wig coloration. Because at Daisho the main pieces here, went crumbling down, and were not up to my personal standard. SO just more fixing up again

I was feeling good about it, because this was the day I heard Monty passed and everyone was saying just do something creative and here I was.

I stayed in this shit for twenty fucking minutes, just walking around my dorm so comfortable with this extra two pounds on my head

Homes tucks from Daisho again gave me the idea, Magnets. I couldn't do strips or anything smaller but instead had to sew a 3 quarters thick magnet into the wig and then this giant block thing onto the headpiece.

I also had to put this toothy thing into the drapery so that it will stick into the wig effectively. I have to really dig it in, so that it does;t pull the wig down as well ( which happened). I had all these preparations and plans working so well in the test run

And still the outfit was pissing me off. No recognition again, was just looking for a regular notepad form earlier. But I learned from the trial and error that the headband needs some real digging into the wig to stay. And since the magnet in the wig is round, the head piece kept rotating upside down. SO just more magnets next time

BUT THIS TIME I WAS SMART AND MADE HANNAH HELP ME DOCUMENT

It seems ritual now that if I take off Notepad early and I'm still energized that I wear the makeup for the rest of the night

Through a night of panel jumping, werewolf card games and arguments, bonding, friends nearly crying, hearing about shitty people owing money, no food, and all out strange nonsense at a convention in general, the cherry on top was I almost get locked out trying to search for Hanna for my phone charger at 1 am before she leaves for the bus and I mistake this skinny guy in shorts taking a smoke in 1 degree weather instead of her. And my face is this

It's so ridiculous I just ask, CAN I TAKE A SELFIE MAN? SO I DID

Gorgeous Saturday. It never even ended. I had to pack like crazy and watch out for peoples shenanigans so I didn't get to sleep till 2 pm on sunday and then that final night

-RB out

RB's motivation: notepad wig art kid improvise

So we started with this curly banged blonde wig bought at Daisho Con. Really good strategy: if you can't buy the wig needed for a cosplay try at the convention as in the past couple years vendors have realized they can make a lot of money off people impulse buying for the sake of raving, new con goers,  the dreaded almost finished debut, and some people feeling pretty kawaii at the time.

I didn't have time to deal with Arda because of school and giant gaping hole of a lack of funds so I put a lot of trust in daisho and was pretty happy for an improvised solution.

But I have studied my source material enough to know that I needed MUCH shorter bangs, as in half bangs and well as an almost undercut bob. Oh and colorful pastel madness

So that's what I did. Excuse poor kitchen lighting. My environment is not the best right now. First time cutting bangs, they're super uneven for sure but still lay pretty flat. And I took my time on them with my ghetto salon of two chairs, fishers scissors, and a plastic bag. Oh and Lillyhammer playing away on netflix

So here are some details of the color. Very subtle technique but hopefully the whiteness overall of the full outfit will make them appear more vibrant 

  

technique was literally taking used chalk pastels, prismacolor brand, from like this fucking semester at MIAD and running them through each strand and curl. I mixed up colors as well for some gradients. I used probably about 5-6 colors

Pretty much here, I got the 36 pack though. This is all I had and I got to wear down the pastels for almost a good month so I was very familiar with them. I actually reccommend the softer the better. If anything try sidewalk chalk as well as an experiment.

I for sure know since mine were pretty hard pastels that they will not rub off on my clothes or my hands. Once it's on the wig hair it's staining. So can't really reuse the wig for later things

Which is okay for me

-RB OUT

RB's motivation: So it's been awhile???? We've been working hard

So let's start with I've been in college for a month and a few days now. It's been different, that's for sure. I've gone through phases of fatigue, anxiety, shit I forgot to eat, why am I doing this, I have no money, oh man this is awesome, can't believe I live here, I hate this city, I'm awesome, I suck, I wanna go home, why can't college be the weekend all the time, and why the fuck don't we have a TV guide button? It's been quite a ride so far and we're just at the start of freshman year. 

This is a fun bonding experience with friends.

This is my relaxation because I get homesick a lot more than I thought I would. A very close bookstore with cats walking around

And a really awesome vintage store which i got a bunch of swag from. SO far they sell wigs, sailor senshi outfits, and casual elsa prom dresses for halloween costumes. 

Besides the fun times in Milwaukee, and the schoolwork, I have been working on cosplays and I'll say I am so damn close to finishing Ruby Rose AND Notepad now.

Here is one of the biggest things I accomplished. Notepad's headdress

I used quite a few things, gold card stock, masking tape, gold colored acrylics (quite a few brands), black spray paint, a paper plate, hot glue, soho glue, and super glue. As well as real pencils.

Above is a WIP

Above is the completed look of the front. Below is the back. Hopefully no one will get so close up they can see all the flaws and unevenness. I'm planning to remake it in the next few years b/c new cosplays will be expensive as fuck. But for now I am pretty satisfied

Also worth noting is I can actually pull a real pencil out of the back when I need to write shit down, for funnies. It's kind of difficult to do in a jiffy but it's a nice touch I think.

Now onto the veil. Beautiful torn fabric from Diva off a halloween sale. Here I am with my greasy hair checking the fall and length. And there's my beautiful cellphone that I have now! That I paid for with my own fucking money!

The full veil is pretty heavy and goes down to probably mid calf or ankle. I will have to drape it over my shoulders help balance myself. I'm going to have the stiffest neck from this I know it.

Here it is all together. It's attached by two barrettes glued to the base of the headdress that clip to my hair. There is also a cut in the fabric that the clips slide through to get to my hair. It's a weird system and very different than what I planned originally but things change because of complications as we all have learned so far. 

Originally in concept that opening was going to be for a clamp like hair clip to fit through and grab much more securely to my hair as well as the veil. But that fell through since the clap became far too big after the golden stuff was added. I didn't expect it to make it so much smaller but it did and I rather change the plans then have the clamp break the whole thing.

I was actually very happy at the time

ANd then there's Ruby. She was kind of a pain to get done because it was the start of getting into the groove of "I'm in college, it's hard, I don't have a job anymore, school's actually important, I have to wake up again, what is lack of alone time?" LIIKE seriously all i did was hem lace to a shirt and skirt. And it felt exhausting. 

Watched the social network during the whole process of the skirt, good movie, very david fincher.

Recycled an old Hell Girl skirt and extra red lace from my prom attire

And used even more to do the boots. Now this was a real process. Since I can't sew into the shoes, since they're a rubbery material and shoes I decided to attach it to velcro on the inside

The velcro is hot glued to the inside of the shoes while the lace is sewed to the detachable part of the velcro. So if I want the boots to look normal again I can just take out the red lace. 

I know in the actual design everything is ruffles but honestly I like the consistency of the red lace here much better. Plus it's my own very personal spin since it came from my prom attire

Last but not least I got my wig yesterday! From the Cosplay Chaos Fox since she's doing much better and back on her feet doing commissions.

I really like it. Gives me the emo phase I couldn't afford to go through in middle school. Also fits well and goes with my natural hair incase things peak through.

-waist cincher via Chaos

-bullets

-make the pack

-makeup ideas

Once these are done we can do a giant test run pre con hopefully! Because there are things I did not document that are completely done

Also I made a tumblr! rbvonsrp.tumblr.com

-RB out

RB's motivation: I'M WIGGIN OUT BRO jk puns but seriously never again

 Well I am never trusting Mallats again. Seriously wasted 50$ on wigs I can NOT use and can not return AT AT ALL. I know I should have tested out these things and thought more on my decision. But then I almost feel like they should have helped me make my decisions better like, "oh what costume are you putting together? Don't buy this then" They didn't exactly steal my money but ya know, no returns wtf.

Anyway here they are. I wanted to get a wig for Fluttershy and Notepad and I did not get them

 This one looked promising, much shorter than I expected but I thought okay, 32$ should get somewhere

 See and it looked like nice quality for a skin piece in the netting and extra volume around the head

And it turned out to be so fucking short. Like fluttershy isn't asking for a lot but I know she has long hair. Like it wouldn't have been a huge problem expect it has no hair in the back. My neck felt cold there was so little hair in the back

 Now onto the white one. I was already uneasy taking it out of the bag here. It didn't need to be that long, just curly

And it didn't even seem that much curlier than the picture

And then I put it on and got mad, like really mad. As you can see in the picture. It made my head look so damn bug and the bangs were so thick and just ALL WRONG. I know I wasn't just cutting them wrong, they were made wrong..... It looks like a fucking elvira wig

So I said fuck it, I got to find a way to resell these things... So i turned it into an elsa wig. Just took the holding spray and an hour in my garage listening to music and sort of vented. 

 I need to work on my french braiding more, seriously it keeps comign out pretty loose....

On better wig news I got the pearl wig done. It'll need some got to be gel, but for only hairspray a ghetto wig stand, gravity, and the book of morman soundtrack I think it turned out well.

Bad pic of the front

 Nice DBZ pic of one of the sides, this was all taken at 3 am. So only difficult selfies

And another pic of the side. I know I'm goind to have to do something bc it won't cover my dark hair fully. Like maybe putting in extensions or spraying my hair down with yellow spray before putting the wig on. We'll work it out

So to end this post here's some pics of Diva looking like a desk hooker in a Harley Quinn test run. Thank god she got a better skirt to complete the look more

Tata for now lovelies. SRP will hopefully update on Geek.kon bc I couldn't be there to enjoy it

(I'm in college and the dorm life is great)

-RB out

RB's motivation: Notepad dress yourself!

So I think everything from the neck down for Notepad might be done. I'm almost jittery thinking about it like, really? Are you sure? Almost can't tell, just so used to never getting anywhere really close

So i'll take you down my journey of just this dress. Here is the dress, and because I ran out of all my fabric that the cosplay fox gave me, I started using curtain fabric. The hem is perfect for making the veil too. But see the slight clash in shades of white, one is cream, the other stark white

Also all the damn fabric the curtains gave me. Like I seriously cut them in half, one for the veil and the other is just for cutting up for the dress. AND I STILL HAVE FABRIC LEFT OVER.

Also neck piece entirely finished, even with the pearls attached the right way, plus with help from Diva as the only other person who has seen me wear a test run in real time.

Giant test run of the dress pretty much finished. This is with the petticoat. I'm concerned it's still not big and poofy enough. But it is pretty heavy so far. And if someone touches my butt I can't feel it. I also almost tripped, so a little worried even if I was willing to add more fabric, when is too much?

But besides worrying, here is the start of the headdress. Yes this is a paper plate cut down and spray painted. We all have humble beginnings. Getting prepared to cover the rest in gold sculpy as well as attach the pencils later on. The hole in the middle is for the clip that will attach to the wig eventually. Don't worry I have a plan, I'm sure of it 

Here is the dress in two damn petticoats. I felt a huge difference, but my standards will forever be, not enough poof. But I couldn't see my feet when I looked down either, so good enough, we'll stick with two petticoats and call the operation done for now

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! -fatigue-

All that's left is how to dye all that damn veil fabric black, an easy way that is......sharpies won't work this time.
-RB out