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The Legend of Zelda Amiibo Case (part 3 of 3: Tutorial: Steps)

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Tutorial

Note: There's a few steps where we're adding subtle detail/texture to the metallic black case. You can skip that if you want and just do the metallic black all over.

Step: Make Your Stencils

Material:

You can use stencil material (they make that for cutting machines), or any thin adhesive material as long as the adhesive is not very strong. I think they also make 12x12 sheets of masking tape. I attempted vinyl at one point which worked fine, but was a little difficult to remove.

This is kind of odd, but it worked: All of my stencils were long thin strips, so when I wanted to use masking/painters tape, I could. It's cheap! I took a piece of 12x12 cardstock and laid out masking tape over it, in 1 inch rows. That formed a reusable base that I could use for cutting out the tape. I then laid a row of painters tape over each row. That's what's going to get cut by your cutting machine. (If the masking tape is also cut, it should stay stuck to the cardstock.)

Since it's spaced at 1 inch intervals, I spaced my design in Silhouette designer to match, and the cuts ended up in the middle of the tape.

The first stencil that you'll need to make is the tan decorative border. It's supposed to resemble this part in the shrine:

In Silhouette designer, I made a squiggly design and tweaked it until it looked right (see how they're lined up on each 1 inch row?):

(see previous post for sample download)

Add dividing lines between each "squiggle" if you are cutting this on a 12x12 sheet instead of strips of tape.

Cut out your design on painters tape or masking tape.

You might be tempted to use each half as a stencil, but the shapes should always be rounded, not pointy. The half that is rounded is going to be the half that you toss out.

A picture might explain that better:

Toss the yellow parts away, these are the areas you are exposing to the tan paint later. Keep the gray parts, these are the stencils. (See how they have the "pointy" parts?)

The second stencil you'll need is the sheikah symbols for the black border around the back. If you're skipping that part, then skip this.

Use the sheikah font to create your row of symbols. Cut it out onto anything... I tried stencil material but I ended up using a cardstock sheet instead. Just personal preference. (Some of the thin sections of symbols may warp but they are easily adjusted back into place.)

You can make enough of this stencil to go all the way around the case, or just make one section and reuse it over and over around the case. I did the latter.

Step: Exterior Paint

Begin by taking the hinges off of the case so that you have a separate door and case to work with.

Tape up the glass on the door to protect it from paint.

Tape up the case to cover the interior and hinges. (I stuffed plastic bags inside and then taped over that.)

Use some fine sandpaper to lightly sand the case. This will help your paint stick better. (I used a primer on mine, but that's because I had to fix an earlier paint issue. You can prime too if you want. It's up to you.)

You don't have to follow this order, but here's the order that I painted:

1 - Paint the entire case (not the door) in metallic black. Allow to completely dry.

2 - Place your border stencil all around the front of the case. Tape over the rest to protect it. Spray the border with the hammered bronze color and allow to completely dry.

3 - Spray the border of the door with the hammered bronze and allow that to dry. (The texture is so cool!)

4 - If you want to add in the panels and sheikah symbol details, continue. They are fairly subtle, but it does add a neat detail. Otherwise, skip to step 7.

5 - Using the blue painter's tape, block out "panels" on the back. The spaces in between will be filled with the matte black paint to make the outline. Also, cover the back 1/2 inch all the way around, where the sheikah symbols will later go. And, cover your tan border so that it doesn't get painted.

See below for how it turns out, to help illustrate how it should work (I did not take a picture of this step, but here's the "after" photo. The blue tape covered the shiny black part.)

Spray the exposed areas with the black matte, and wait for it to dry.

6 - Using your sheikah symbols stencil, lightly spray the metallic black around the back border of the case. It's ok to have spots that are faded and others that are not - it will make the texture more interesting. These will catch in the light, but they are not obvious. The metallic black has just enough shine to show against the matte black.

7 - Your spray painting is done (YAY!) Time to paint some details in that border, otherwise it looks really flat. I tried a few things until I was happy with this part.

Using a medium/darker brown (the paint pen worked nicely here), freehand some squiggles onto the tan border. Allow to dry.
Use the Hammered Bronze spray paint and spray some onto a plate/cup. Dip your foam brush into that and dab lightly over the squiggles, just enough to add the look of raised areas.
Paint some highlights with the tan paint.
Repeat until happy with the look.

I went through a few rounds of this part, because I couldn't get the look right. The darker paint lines kept looking thicker than I wanted. Mine is a bit blurry looking in its final state. It's not a perfect match to the game texture, but I decided that I liked it with less detail. You could keep going and try to match it up better than I did.

8 - One more thing to paint - the wood circles for the orange symbols. This is really easy. Paint the circles with the Rust colored paint, and paint the outside of them in tan. Don't make them perfect circles. They are more organic and imperfect in the game.

Sorry for the dark picture!

Step: LED Lights

I drilled a hole in the bottom at the back, to allow the wiring to pass into the case. There's a groove where the baseball bat insert was supposed to go, so it's perfect to line your wires up inside of that.

I used black duct tape to hold the wiring in place inside the case. Then, I ran the LED strip along the interior, near the front but not flush to it. You want it back a little ways to be able to see the strip, but not so far back that it gets in the way of the amiibos, or they won't stand flush.

As mentioned in the first part, I needed to use a stronger adhesive tape to attach the strip, otherwise it fell off.

This next part is tedious, but the results are well worth it! You'll need to cut out a mask for the lights using black vinyl. You're going to be cutting out strips of sheikah symbols, with occasional spaces between the symbols, and you'll want the strips to be slightly wider than the vinyl so that it can wrap over it and block out any side light.

In Silhouette Designer, mine looked like this:

(see previous post for sample download)

Cut your strips, and weed out each tiny little piece. Tweezers helped sometimes and that little weeding hook as well.

Carefully align and adhere the vinyl over the LED strip as you go.

Step: Orange Symbols

This part is fairly easy and quick. Cut out the orange glow-in-the-dark tape, making some long thin strips and some circles. The tape circles should be slightly smaller than the rust colored circles on your wood circles, so that you see the rust color, but only a little. (See picture for a guide.)

If you have a large wood circle, use a hot glue gun to attach a smaller wood circle to it.

Stick the orange tape circles to the wood circles. Again, you don't need to be exact in your placement here.

Use a hot glue gun to attach the wood circles to the case. Whatever pattern you choose - it's up to you and there's no "wrong" way here. It can help to find a game screenshot and try to match a pattern you see there. I put them on the 2 sides only.

Cut the orange tape strips to match the distance between the wood circles and stick. (Here's where I might go back and touch the strips up later, to add some tan paint to the edges where they touch the circles.)

I'm going to stop saying circle now.

The tape I got doesn't glow for super long, but, it GLOWS and that's cool!

Final Step

Re-attach the glass door to the case.

Put in your amiibos (or whatever this case will be holding)!

Sit back and enjoy!

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The Legend of Zelda Amiibo Case (part 2 of 3: Tutorial: Supplies)

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Tutorial

Here is my stab at a tutorial for any of you interested in trying to make this or something similar. It's more of a walkthrough of how this one was made, than an actual tutorial, but hopefully it will be a decent guide.

Honestly, it's not all that complicated, just a time-consuming project. Is this the best way this could have been made?? I'm sure it's not. It's just what I did! 😁

Please let me know if anything is confusing. A few things I would have done differently and I'll note them here.

Gather Supplies

(1) Baseball bat display case (or something similar)

I got mine at Michaels (craft store). It usually retails for $60! But, they almost always have coupon deals and you can get it for 40-50% off of that price. It's definitely worth it to use a coupon here.

(1) LED Strip Light (waterproof preferred)

Mine came from Amazon... wherever you can find yours, go for it. The waterproof kind have a clear coating, which makes it easier to stick the vinyl on top of for the symbols. I haven't tried using the non-waterproof kind.

Color-changing is cool, but not a requirement if you don't want it.

The nice thing about these lights is that they allow you to cut them at certain spots, so that you can make them fit your project. I had a decent strip of lighting left over.

Not that I'm endorsing a specific brand, this is simply the one I bought:

Relohas Led Strip Light,16.4ft Waterproof LED Flexible Light

Note: The adhesive that was on these was not strong enough, and the lights started falling off after a few hours. This seems to be a common problem in LED strips. I bought some 3M Scotch 4011 Exterior Mounting Tape to attach them more securely. Probably overkill, but I don't want to have to keep fixing the lights.

Second Note: The remote for mine stopped working after a day - it was stuck on red. All of my amiibos looked evil. 😮 I notified the company and they sent a new one, free of charge.

Spray Paint

I used the following for this case:

Metallic Black (for the panels and the textured sheikah symbols)

I used Krylon Brushed Metallic Oil Rubbed Bronze, and then I had a spray paint mishap and had to start over (argh), and then used Rust-Oleum Metallic Black the second time around. They looked almost identical. Really, I think a few different brands would work.

Matte Black (to outline the panels and the sheikah symbols)

You can skip this one if you don't want to add that detail.

A textured and/or metallic tan color (for the border and border decoration)

Krylon Hammered Dark Bronze is what I used.There might be an equivalent in other brands, I'm just not aware of them. Anything with a nice texture would work, or at the very least, a good metallic look.

Model Paint

I bought some of those little Testors paints in Sand Beige and Rust, and some Testors paint pens in Aged Concrete and Roof Brown. You probably don't need all of those, but the Rust and at least one tan/brown color.

Orange Glow In The Dark Tape

I found this on Amazon (surprise): Glow in the Dark Luminous Tape (Orange) . You could also use paint if you have a steady hand, but tape was faster and cleaner looking. And of course, it doesn't NEED to glow in the dark. It's just a neat extra.

Matte Black Vinyl Sheet

This is to cover up the LED lights with the Sheikah symbols. Matte black blends in with the case background really well so that you don't have a shiny border. Here's an Amazon link: Matte Oracal 631 Black Repositionable Adhesive-Backed Vinyl

A Cutting Machine (Silhouette or Cricut)

-- or a friend who has one! These are some intricate cuts you'll need to make.

The Sheikah font

I found one at fontstruct.com , but there may be others out there.

Sample design files (optional)

It seems that Silhouette designer won't let me export the files into any other format. But, here's some screenshots that you can perhaps import and trace.

Sample Border

Sample LED Vinyl Cover Strips

Other Stuff

Painters tape, masking tape, foam paintbrushes, sandpaper. Also, some thin wooden circles. I found a pack for really cheap at the craft store.

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The Legend of Zelda Amiibo Case (Intro, Pictures and Video)

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Introduction

This is a story about how I started with 2 amiibos and ended with a full blown project and amiibo collection. 😊

I have been a fan of The Legend of Zelda series for a really long time!

The newest game, Breath of the Wild, has actually topped my list of favorite Zelda games. What can I say, it's beautiful, it's creative, and I can get lost just wandering around exploring. It's almost relaxing (...until a Guardian pops up).

So anyway... after playing for awhile, I decided to spend a little $$ on a couple of amiibos for some in-game extras. I bought 2 - Link and Zelda (BotW versions). They are AWESOME and I LOVE THEM. My collection grew from there, and soon enough, I had a bunch sitting randomly on a bookcase and it looked like a mess.

After looking online, I saw that the baseball bat display case from Michaels (a craft store) was recommended by a lot of people for displaying amiibos. It's a great size, and you can flip open the front to get to them.

After buying that I thought, hey, some LEDs would look cool in here!

And they did.

And I should have stopped there.

But no.

I don't know why but I started sketching design ideas for the case. I guess because plain black looked so... plain. I have a Silhouette that I don't use much, and I started thinking of maybe making some stencils with it.

Then I found a Sheikah symbols font and that pretty much sealed the deal.

A trip to Lowes and Michaels.... and a couple of more Amazon orders.... and I was set.

This project took awhile, but it was really fun to brainstorm and try different ideas. I would have done a couple of things differently, but I'm happy with how it turned out.

While putting together photos and video, this turned into a chance to learn iMovie also. Not that it's difficult, but I hadn't really played with it.

And so.. the slightly overly dramatic video!

I'm working on a tutorial, in case you're a little obsessed with this kind of thing like me. :)

[Edit] Tutorial added on the next post.

[forward to Tutorial: Supplies] ➡

Argyle Valentine's Day Wreath

Hello there! Nope, I didn't fall off the face of the earth. Actually, I did a bit of crafting, but I haven't gotten around to blogging about it in awhile. (How other bloggers manage to post all the time is beyond me!) Here's a craft that I wanted to post about though, because it's pretty quick and turns out so cute -- and maybe for once I will post something AHEAD of the holiday it's meant for. :-)

What you'll need:
- A wreath form (see below)
- Yarn (gray) - One skein is plenty-- I bought three, oh well!
- Felt, any colors you want

I got the original idea off of a picture on Pinterest, from an Esty seller. It had me at argyle. I LOVE ARGYLE. It's probably my favorite pattern, followed by plaid. (Try as I might, I never got into the whole chevron thing that's such a craze lately.)

It seemed simple enough to duplicate, so I went for it. It's your basic yarn-wrapped wreath form, to start. You can get those foam forms at the craft store, though they never come in large enough sizes for my tastes. Some people like to use pool noodles or foam from Home Depot, and turn it into a circle and tape the ends together, to make their form. Then it can be any size you wish, but, I'm not sure how stable it ends up being. I've made wreaths before using coat hangers for the shape, and unfortunately the wire wasn't strong enough to support the final wreath, and it ended up sagging a lot. Bending it back seemed to help, but it still bugs me.

So, I tried something else - I used one of those green wire floral wreath frames as the base, and wrapped it in foam to make it nice and thick. I used tape around the foam to hold it in place and even out any lumps. It didn't end up completely uniform but it looks just lumpy enough to look more homemade.... yeah.. It is, however, very very rigid, and isn't going to sag.

Then I wrapped that with some strips of felt, for something the yarn could "grip" and to further bulk up the wreath and smooth it out. Also, the color was close to my yarn color, which helps with any gaps that might show.

The next part was wrapping with yarn. Okay, that's a very boring step. It takes a long time, so it's advisable to sit in front of a tv and do a mini-marathon on Netflix. (Doctor Who, anyone?) My arms hurt a little after that part. For the yarn, I used the Red Heart Super Saver yarn from Jo-Ann's in Heather Gray.

Once you get completely around the wreath, go back and fill in any gaps with more yarn.

Next, you'll want to cut out heart shapes from felt. I made a quick little heart template and traced it so they would all be roughly the same shape and size. Lay them out so that they alternate between facing in and facing out. Alternate colors however you want. (I don't think there's a wrong way to do this.)

Once you like your layout, glue the hearts down with some dots of fabric glue to stabilize them. Then, go back to your yarn and start on the side of one of your hearts. Wrap diagonally across the heart, and go on to the next one in the same direction. Once you've gone all the way around, stop and go back around in the other direction around the wreath, to make the cross across each heart. I found it easiest to position my yarn if I did one straight loop (matching the wrapped-yarn) between each heart.

Hope that made sense, as I did this late at night and didn't take pictures of the steps.

You're done! Attach a loop however you want. Use red ribbon for it to stand out, or use more of your yarn to make it invisible.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Bucket Hats Part Two

I know I already posted about these, but seriously, buy this book if you haven't! Oliver + S Little Things to Sew: 20 Classic Accessories and Toys for Children

This post is about another "oops" project. If you're like me, you'll have plenty of those. And, it's very rewarding when you can figure out a fix that actually makes your craft look even better!

I made this hat recently for a niece, using the same pattern as before for the bucket hat. I was focusing so hard on making sure that the final step, where you attach the second cap to the rest of the hat, didn't have any weird bubbling or other issues.

Unfortunately, I didn't pay attention to the reverse part of the fabric, and when it was all sewn up, I realized there was a biiiiig bubble there.

(And forgot to take a picture)

But, I'm lazy. So, instead of ripping the seams and starting over...

... I slapped a heart on top of it.

And yay! Cute!

I modeled it on a doll since it hasn't yet gone in the mail to our niece.

(Do you remember these dolls? They were called My Child and came in a huge variety of hair types, colors, eye colors, etc.)

Striped Rag Quilt

I finally tackled making a blanket! *woohoo!*

I'm not sure why quilts and blankets have intimidated me for so long -- not that intricate quilts still don't -- but for how much I've read tutorials on them, I kept putting off trying to make one myself.

Rag quilts are sort of a beginner's quilting project, so when a friend of mine told me she was having a little girl, I REALLY wanted to make a gift that was more useful, and more of a keepsake, than what I've created so far. I followed this tutorial from Do It Yourself Divas, because it's awesome.

Follow that tutorial if you want to make one... I'm showing some pics along the way but not in that much detail.

I had this great collection of Riley Blake fabric called "Farm Fresh." It's awesome because it's girly, but not princess-ey... I can only imagine the princess stuff gets a little old. This flannel is super soft. You don't have to use a collection, you can totally pick your own styles, but it was rather nice having everything just *work* together so well.

To me, the most frustrating part is the first step: Cut a bunch of really long strips. Then cut some more. Then some more and while you're at it, how about some more? Yawn. It's hard to envison a cute quilt at this stage. Plus, I'm not good at keeping my lines precise when it's a very big piece of fabric... so I had to correct a few that went off. :-)

Finally when you're done with that, and you've sewn the strip fronts and backs together, you can lay out the design for your quilt. Then it starts looking like an actual something!

Sew those strips together...

(Yep, I left the selvedge on by accident... no problem though, just trimmed it all off after all the strips were sewn together, and evened out the edges.)

And then sew on a binding. I did this all with a sewing machine... hand sewing probably looks nicer but I have NO patience for that. For my first time binding, I'm really happy with how it turned out! I used this tutorial from Make It and Love It to do the binding. (LOVE her quilts!)

And then you cut little bits along the edges... and cut... and cut.... Having spring-loaded scissors really does help here, but my fabric was so thick that I had to cut it in 2 parts. This is where you'll want to watch TV or a movie.