Costume Maker Magazine

A nifty little list of major anime conventions this May! (Some of us who are working on the magazine will be at Anime Central taking pictures this weekend, so keep an eye out. ^^ We’ll be posting the pictures up soon after.)

May 16-18

Anime Central ( www.acen.org )
Rosemont, Illinois
JACON (www.jacon.org)
Orlando, Florida
Delta H Con (www.deltahcon.com)
Houston, Texas
Otafest (www.otafest.com)
Calgary, Alberta, Canada

May 17

Anime Street Pavilion (www.eigomanga.com/ahsc)
San Francisco, California

May 23-25

Anime North (www.animenorth.com)
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Animazement (www.animazement.org)
Durham, North Carolina
FanimeCon (www.fanime.com)
San Jose, California

May 24

Arkansas Anime Festival (arkansasanimefestival.com)
Springdale, Arkansas

May 24-26

Saboten-Con (sabotencon.com)
Phoenix, Arizona

May 30- June 1

Epitanime (www.epita-convention.com)
Paris, France
A-Kon (www.a-kon.com)
Dallas, Texas

May 31

JapAniManga Night (www.japanimanga-night.ch)
Winterthur, Switzerland

The next issue’s main theme is something along the lines of “History and Fantasy: From Head to Toe.” More detailed information about what we’ll need can be seen below. ^^

When submitting anything (except to the site galleries) to Costume Maker Magazine, please be sure to read the Terms and Agreements first! You’ll will be asked whether or not you agree to the terms when submitting.

Please submit everything with the information specified by the Submitting Guidlines!

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If you’re interested in writing one or more of these articles or have an idea for one, please feel free to email Lina at lina@szmoon.net! The article will be “reserved” on this page so everyone can see what’s already being worked on. A —— in a space means that there are no ideas for something yet.

Main Theme Articles/How To’s: “History and Fantasy: From Head to Toe”

Non-Main Theme Articles/How To’s

Reviews on Movies/Conventions/Books

Photos

By Lillyxandra of Firefly Path (http://www.firefly-path.net)

Materials Needed:

-plain paper
-pencil
-scissors
-hot glue gun
-hot glue sticks
-elmer’s glue
-acrylic paint (color of your choice)
-spray paint (color of your choice)
-30 X 45 sheet of thin craft foam
-30 X 45 sheet of thick craft foam
-hair dryer
-paint brushes
-velcro
-”goop glue” or “gorilla glue”

1. Designing Your Armor

First, sketch out a design for your armor. Once you have design you like measure the area you will be making the armor for (shoulder,arm,head,ect…)

2. Making the Template

Before you ever cut into the craft foam it is important to make a template out of paper first. Fold a sheet of paper in half. Draw half of the design then cut it out. This way when you unfold the paper you will have a symmetrical shape.

Lay the paper templet on top of the thick foam and trace around. Cut your shape out of the foam and put aside.

Using the same paper templet fold it in half again and draw out a design for the raised part of the armor. Repeat the same steps on the thin foam.

3. Gluing the Two Pieces Together

Now that you have your two pieces of foam (thick foam for the base and the thin foam for the raised part) glue them together with a thin layer of hot glue. Next coat the whole thing in a layer of “Elmer’s Glue” and let dry. By coating it in glue it will allow your paint the armor easily later on.

4. Shaping Your Armor

If you plan on have your armor contour around your body now is the time to shape it. Using a hair dryer warm up the back of the armor for a few minutes or until its easily bendable. Bend the armor into the shape you want until it cools off. The foam should keep its shape once it is completely cooled. You can keep reshaping it until you have the shape you desire.

5. Painting Your Armor

Its best to spray paint the entire piece first then paint over it with acrylic paint. To give it an “antique” look paint the sides of the thin layer of foam black. Using a sponge brush smear the black paint in the crevasses, this helps to give it a realistic tarnished look!

6. Wearing Your Armor

I’ve found it easy to glue a strip of Velcro to the inside of the armor using a strong glue like “Goop” or “Gorilla Glue” then sewing the opposite side for the Velcro to the garment. The armor is light enough to stay in place and easy to take off to transport!!

I’m not sure if anyone noticed this or not, but there was a problem where, after submitting something, the new page wouldn’t load automatically. I just wanted to let everyone know that I fixed this! ^^ I also fixed the problem of the galleries not showing up..
Sorry for any inconveniences!

There’s also a problem with the navigation links not appearing on the tops of pages. I’ll try to fix that asap!

Oh, and here are a couple of things I’m working on adding to the site right now:

-User submitted images appearing on their profiles
-Recent blog entries appearing directly on user profiles
-Adding articles to the site
-And so many more things

I’ve been working a lot on the website, and now you should be able to (hopefully ^^;) add costumes to the galleries, add friends, and create blog entries. I’m still trying to figure out how to separate galleries by users too, though.. Hope you like the changes!

If you have any ideas of what else to add, don’t hesitate to tell me. ^^ Thanks!

Look, we have a new website! ^^ I was sad at leaving the old layout, made by Nicktechyguy, behind, but I realized that this we needed a site that would work in all browsers. This is because I wanted to turn the site into a community site, where people can have their own profiles, upload costumes, and blog. I think it’d be more fun and interesting this way. ^^

Beware: This site’s under heavy construction!