crafts
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Collect scattered pieces of clay, make Pikmin
Oh how we miss you, dearly departed GameCube.As you can see above (well, we hope you know what they are), the homage to Miyamoto-designed Pikmin characters Captain Olimar and the bunch plucks all of our heart strings. Would we ever like to see a third entry in the series for the Wii? Who cares what we want? Would you like a third entry in the series, or do you think it's already run its course?
Zelda Week: They may not be Rupees ...
The deviantart page for user DekuPyro is littered with all sorts of homemade Zelda memorabilia. From painted keychains to the coin you see to your right, DekuPyro is quite the Zelda fan. And that's the kind of thing we love to see.Well, it also helps that this is Zelda Week.Be sure to hit up past the break for some more creations from DekuPyro.
Bring the world's most famous puzzle game to the sides of your head
We don't wear earrings, but we're starting to think that it may be worth it for these great handmade Tetris pieces. Oh, except most dudes can't really pull off the dangly-earring look. And that wearing earrings involves getting holes put in you. We would do anything for Tetris, but we won't do that. Okay, forget that plan.Luckily, when we like a game craft item, we have an alternate method of appreciating it, other than damaging our bodies: we can blog about it and tell all of you how awesome they are. The Etsy store is sold out now, but you may be able to fashion your own with polymer clay. Then you can choose your own favorite Tetromino! Which is the I, right? For pretty much everybody? [Via Crafty Crafty]
Wiimote earrings are simply unfair
Sometime this year, there is going to be a party. There, a young man will meet a girl. For all her charms, her cat-eye glasses, her appreciation for David Bowie, one thing is going to stick with him. The one image he won't be able to shake as the haze of the night gives way to the cruel, golden rays of the sun cutting through his apartment blinds will be her Wiimote earrings. ... And it's just not fair.Ladies, don't nerds have enough difficulty in the dating scene without girls walking around sporting Wiimotes on their ears? How is a guy supposed to not fall for a girl like that? You know what it is? It's dirty pool. Also, we're worried they might attract the wrong element. Sure, the earrings are kitschy, but they're also going to inspire the kind of manic devotion reserved for young John Cusack and stalkers. Listen girls, feel free to purchase to your hearts' content. Just don't come crying to us when the portly guy with the "Wow, I hope that's a Magic deck" bulge in his jeans leers your way.[Via Wonderland]
Hey! Listen! It's your phone
Do you like this cell phone holder with an embroidered Link on it? Would you be willing to pay $14 for it? Well, you can't. Providing further proof that we're bad people, we can only tease you with this wonderful handmade phone case, and link to an Etsy store from which you can't buy it.Well, maybe you can: the seller takes commissions, so you may be able to convince her to make you one like this. Or maybe even a bigger case, for some kind of handheld video game system? By the way, the other cases for sale, while not game-themed, are also adorable. [Via Wonderland]
Show your support for Hordes or Allies
These are awesome, and yes, I wish I could buy one, too. Cypher shows off these ribbons she made over on livejournal, and says that whenever she drives around with the Horde one on her car, fellow Hordies scream "For the Horde" at her as she drives by. Sounds about right! For the Horde!But she says she made them for her and her roommate-- does she keep them both on the same car? I don't know how the whole "Blizzard-created logo" copyright thing would work (and I'm not quite down with putting stickers on my car), but selling both of these as magnets would be a great idea. Very awesome.
DS Daily: We're crafty
DS owners -- and Nintendo fans in general! -- sure seem to love crafts. We've celebrated everything from cases to homemade gaming centers here, with plushies and painted systems and tons more in between. Have you ever experimented with a few gaming-themed crafts of your own, even if it was something as simple as a duct-taped case or using a sock to hold your handheld? Maybe the latter only counts if you decorated said sock, but we'll give you some leeway. Tell us if you've tried out a crafting project, or if you've maybe gotten a craftier friend to do the deed for you. Some couples even find that this is a way for both halves to share in gaming, even if one isn't much interested in the actual playing of the actual games.
NES controller coin purse, Mark III
Etsy user LindseyPorter has taken an unconventional approach to the NES-controller coin purse-- an item that now seems to have been made enough times to have a conventional approach. Rather than destroying a real NES controller, she replicated its image in felt for the body of her coin purse.We're not official purse judges or anything, but we're going to declare this one a winner in the categories of craftsmanship and pocket comfort.While you've got your (possibly NES-controller-made) wallet out, and you're cruising Etsy, check out some cushy, bright, uh, butterfly-y DS Lite cases.[Thanks, bs angel!]
Japanese game store devises winning formula for keychains
Game|Life's Chris Kohler found these keychains while browsing in a Super Potato store in Akihabara. The store makes them onsite out of-- guess-- old games and keyrings. They'll take any game you want made dangly, drill a hole in it, and keyring get. Seen here: Doshin the Giant for the 64DD, Rockman 5, and some unidentified Famicom Disk System disks.We'd totally buy one. And If there's a market for extremely impractical keyrings like this, that kill classic games in their creation, then we just totally got an idea for a craft. (Hint: it's this idea.)
Guitar Hero stuffie for wannabe rock stars
If this is not the cutest game-related item you've seen in a while, then we want to know what is. Unfortunately, it's not for sale (shenanigans!), but the brilliant craftster behind this piece, poisonholly, apparently accepts custom orders. We can't help but wonder if we could get this baby in a special design that looks more like the controller for Guitar Hero III on the Wii ... after all, it just needs another white panel for the Wii remote![Via Hawty McBloggy]
Super Clingy Mario World
Craftster user alkalntrin made this Mario-themed felt board for her five-year-old nephew, along with plenty of felt Mario universe inhabitants to stick on it. And now he can make all kinds of Mario scenarios just by rearranging the pieces! He can make a little non-moving Detteiu Mario level, and pretend that it's going to play itself. This is a beautiful homemade toy, one that would inspire us to make something similar as a gift, if we knew any children. Instead, it's inspiring us to make a felt Devil's Crush board for ourselves. We hope that the kid follows this item to its next natural step: stop-motion Mario movies. A cartoon made by a five-year-old with felt characters would probably still be better than The Super Mario Bros. Super Show, right?[Thanks, Mary!]
Show and Tell: World's best grandfather
What do you do when you realize that you need some custom-built gaming furniture, but you don't have your own personal in-house carpentry ninja? If you are as lucky as reader Raquor, you call up the family. His grandfather sacrificed a few trees on his farm, dried them, and chopped them into manageable pieces in his saw mill. For the record, we think having your own handy saw mill is pretty useful, and Raquor's granddad is welcome to adopt us.With a little assembly, Raquor was able to construct a combination rack-and-drawer system that was just perfect for his gaming collection ... at the time. See, the thing about collections is that they tend to expand, and he reports that these days, some less desirable titles are hidden away in the drawers with a plethora of extra controllers. Hey, so long as it looks good from the outside, we won't tell anyone what you've got in your drawers.Hit the break to see the full-size rack in all its organized glory, and don't forget to show us what you have in the way of awesome gaming gear. From crafts to cakes to collections ... whatever you've got, if it has a little Nintendo flavor, we want to see it. Just take some pictures (or copy your web album links) and send them to showmeit [at] dsfanboy [dot] com. We'll take care of the rest.
And all the gamers say awww
No, no, we're not looking at the adorable baby. Okay, you can look at the adorable baby, but also observe the blurry yellow bits above the adorable baby. What could they be? If you guessed question blocks, you're the big winner!If nothing else, this craft project definitely sports an accurate title: this may, in fact, be the coolest mobile ever, but now we can't stop thinking of ways to expand on this theme. Controller cut-outs were suggested, but what about little character figures? Or better yet, tiny plushies! Gamer babies can learn to love Mario and company from an early age, right? Come February, this very blogger just may be testing that theory. Which means we might need a couple of these as well. Have some slick gamer craft projects to show off? Don't forget about our weekly feature dedicated to all things gaming.
Keep your growing Arkanoid DS fund in here
This is not a bad DS case. In fact, it's not a DS case at all, but rather a coin purse, although we would be happy to use it as a case for DS cards. It's also not the first homemade Nintendo-related coin purse we've seen, or even the first coin purse made from an NES controller.But we like this one from the.deadly.mrs best. It combines the slick '80s design of the NES with some adorable country fabrics. It also combines molded, factory-created perfection with homemade-ness. Is that too pretentious? In that case, we like it because it looks like a thing we use to play games.[Thanks, Mary!]
Waggle while you read
Continuing the "things that look like Wiimotes but aren't" theme: Remember reading? Not on a screen, but in, like, these stacks of paper that are all stuck together on one side? I think they're called ... strategy guides?* Yeah, this Perler bead bookmark is for those.We like how the natural properties of the Perler-bead-made Wiimote (the long, rectangular shape and the flatness, basically) lend themselves to use as a bookmark. The crafter probably made this without any intended purpose and realized only later how perfect it would be to mark pages. If only the yarn were on the other end and grey, the illusion would be complete.*Full disclosure: as a librarian, this blogger is required to know what a book is.[Via Wonderland]
Metroid Week: Legotroid
Things in the Metroid universe can be pretty scary. When you roll (sometimes literally) as Samus Aran, you roll through danger, but such is the life of a bounty hunter. But hey, it doesn't all have to be sinister and piratey; even all things Metroid can be turned into something cute; as they say, where there's a will, there is Lego. Isn't that how that old saying goes?Flickr user graznador has a whole set of Metroid-inspired Lego scenes that will surely solicit a squeal from even the hardest of hearts among you. Who can resist Lego Samus? Not us, that's for sure.
PAX 07: The last Metroid is a hat. The universe is at peace.
We ran into this Metroid attack in progress while perusing the show floor here at PAX. We went for our Ice Beam, but, because those totally don't exist, we used our camera instead. It was ineffective for stopping the Metroid, but it made for an awesome picture.The model here (whose name we didn't get, mostly because we were distracted by haberdashery) is also the artist responsible for the hat, and we've linked her DeviantArt page here.
Show and Tell: Taking girly to a whole new level
Reader Nicole was tired of putting her spiffy DS Lite in danger, so like any smart gamer, she figured a case was just what she needed. But there was a problem -- she's a poor college student, and even a cheap case can really bite into that Ramen noodle money. So, like so many creative DS owners, she decided to save some cash by picking up cheap materials and making her own. But not just any case, mind you -- she needed something special to complement her pink DS. The answer? Skulls and barbed wire. We must say, we approve. Check out the full-sized pics after the break. Got something that makes you particularly proud? We like thingamabobs and doohickeys and swag of all sorts, as well as food and furniture and anything used for fun ... so long as it's related to Nintendo! Just take some pictures, tell us what's up, and send it all to showmeit [at] dsfanboy [dot] com. We'll take care of the rest.
DS Daily: Anti-craft
We've seen a bunch of handmade DS cases, and DS-inspired items, all of which make us smile. But suppose that your DS meets an untimely end? Or you spontaneously decide you hate the thing? There's no reason to let a DS go to waste, right?We want to hear about some potential craft projects using the DS as raw material. Maybe you can make it into a case for something else!
DS Daily: Pants, re-revisited (and more)
We've seen cases made from a variety of hilarious and useful objects, like duct tape, sushi mats, socks, and, well, pants. Even if you're not the crafty type, have you ever looked at something and thought, now that could make a good case? What would make a funny case? Share your ideas -- and cases you've seen!
