Review: F.A.C.T.S. 2012 in Ghent

Hello everyone! =)

Today I want to take a short break from Christmas. I bet you all are quite annoyed by it, right? No escape of Christmas songs, cookies, and so on. And buying all presents, of course. So I just want to skip the Christmas thing for now and tell you about my stay at F.A.C.T.S. a couple of weeks ago.

First some basic information: The F.A.C.T.S. is an annual convention in Ghent, Belgium, dealing with comics, sci-fi, fantasy and japanese cartoons. A dear friend of mine - using the pen name Calssara - was invited as a Guest of Honour and she asked me whether I would like to accompany her. And well, what should I say? Of course I said yes, because I just love travelling and I love seeing different places. And I was a bit curious about the other guests. I studied the website of F.A.C.T.S. and found a list of invited actors, writers, etc. Maybe you know Norman Reedus, Sean Patrick Flanery, Lauren Cohan or Charles Dance - just to name some. To sum up the guests where people related to The Walking Dead, Vampire Diaries, Game of Thrones and many more. I tried to get an autograph for a friend, but the queue was just too long. So after a short time I lost interest and moved on to he food station. Since we were in Belgium we had to try the waffles - and wow, Belgium waffles are the best I ever ate. They were even served warm. Paradise! ♥
All in all you could compare F.A.C.T.S. to the RingCon in Bonn, Germany. I guess. I have never been there, but friends of mine. And they told me.

source: Calssara's FB page

Now I want to tell why my friend Calssara was invited. As you may have noticed she is neiher a movie star nor a novel writer. She is a costume artist. She makes all of those costumes herself and with some she participates in international contests. She was chosen twice as a German represantative for the World Costume Play Summit in Nagoya, Japan, and once for the European Costume Play Gathering in France, where she won the first price. This is the link to her website. I think you should pay a visit, because seeing her in her beautiful costumes is always better than just read about it. At the F.A.C.T.S. she was one of the three judges for the costume contest.







The pictures below show some of the participants and winners. Do recognize any character? =)
Have you ever thought about dressing up as one of those characters? For carnival or another event? Come on, guys, tell me - don't be shy! ;)

source: Calssara's FB page

source: Calssara's FB page

Love,
J.


EDIT:
I was asked to upload some more pictures - well, here they are! :)
All photos were taken by Calssara.

 

 

 

 

 

 

How to: Christmas Stocking

Hello everyone! =)

Just as promised: here's my little "How to make a Christmas stocking" tutorial. I made a very plain stocking, the basic version or so you might say. Of course you can add further decoration or accessories :) Instead of a long speech I want to show you the pictures I took while sewing.

Christmas Stocking Tutorial

 What you will need:

• sweets! Lots of. And maybe some healthy stuff ;) Your stocking has to be filled afterwards
• fabrics (I recommend using felt. It's very easy to sew plus you don't need to cast the edges, because it does not fray. But you can also use jute or something similar)
• scissors
• fixing pins
• needle and thread
• glue (better use the white adhesive for handicraft work. It will become transparent when dried. Other glue might leave stains on the fabric)
• pencil or marker
• decoration

Draw the shape of a stocking unto the fabric. I used red felt. You can get felt (and jute) in every fabric shop as cut goods and sometimes in craft shops in form of a small sheet. I bought my felt in a local craft shop for 0,40 EUR a sheet.

Try to use as much space of your sheet/fabric as possible. Note: when you sew them together and turn it over afterwards the capacity of the stocking will shrink.

Fix the one side of the cut stocking with pins on the fabric and cut the second part.

Now we need the typical white edge of the stocking. Put the red felt part on the white fabric (you can also use fake fur to make the stocking extra fluffy) and mark the edges. You will need two white trimmings - one for each side of the stocking.

Glue or sew the trimming onto the outside of your stocking. As recommended earlier use handicraft adhesive to prevent stains on material.

If you want to hang your stocking apply a pull strap. Just sew it in the back of your stocking.

Once you applied both trimmings, put both sides on top of each other. Make sure the trimming is inside, this is very important. Otherwise you will have the wrong side on the outside.

Fix both sides with pins and sew them together. I used my sewing machine, because I am a bit lazy. Sewing by hand is also okay, it will just need a little bit more time. Leave a span of roundabout 0.5-1.0 centimeters to make sure you sew both sides. Of course this span can be shorter, if you worked more careful beforehand.

Afterwards cut back the seam allowance and turn the inside out. Then iron your stocking.

After you are finished with ironing your stocking is supposed to look like this. Now it is time to apply all the decoration! Better put a paperboard inside, if you want to glue. This way the stocking can't stick together by accident ;)

Et voilà: your Christmas stocking is finished! Now fill it with the stuff you like the most.

In case you made your stocking bigger, you can use it as a cute packing for Christmas presents, too. A good book, jewelry or a perfume might fit inside as well ;)

I hope this tutorial was useful for you. How do you like it? Was it easy to understand? Or maybe it motivated you to make a Christmas stocking yourself? Please give me feedback so I can improve.

I wish you a happy and pleasant St Nicholas' Day! <3

Love,
J.

Little Announcement: St Nicholas' Day

source: http://www.business-cloud.de

Hello everyone! =)

The reason I'm writing this entry is a small announcement. I did a bit of brainstorming and instead of telling you about Santa Clause costumes and so on, I just want to show you a small DIY tutorial. Unfortunately I did not have any chance to hop into a fabric shop last week, so I will try to do so tomorrow. I want to show you how to make Christmas socks for sweets and little presents. So make sure to stay tuned! ;)

As you may have noticed: today is 2th December. The first advent. Are you already in Christmas mood? Sadly I am not. Some friends on Twitter tweet about their stays at Christmas markets, the first snow and Christmas songs on the radio. Until now I have not experienced any of these this year. Sure - there is sooo much time left until Christmas, but I'm a bit scared I might miss Christmas mood again this year.

Time to prepare a couple of plans to prevent this:
- baking Christmas cookies with a dear friend while listening to Rolf Zuckowski
(Okay - that was a bit embarassing... but honestly: there can't be Christmas without Rolf. Have to listen to his Christmas songs every year again and again. I still own two CDs. Is there somebody out there who knows him? And listen to his songs during Christmas time just like me? In case you don't know about whom I talking, click this link ;D)
- Christmas market! Eat and drink a lot of the good there: candied almonds, hot wine punch and so on
- Christmas themed movies (Christmas Vacation, Merry Christmas/Joyeux Noël, Home Alone, ...)

Do you have an recipe to get into Christmas mood? Please tell me! ♥

Love,
J.