Well...

I WAS going to put to up a nice little tutorial blog today, but since photoshop doesn't want to work for me, it looks like I won't be able to do that. So, after doing a bit of thinking, I figured I'd do a little cosplay feature of some great cosplays I've seen. And with Halloween just around the corner, I figured I'd do some creepy horror-themed cosplays from some of my favourite scary games and animes.



Haunting Ground by ~Colicade on deviantART


The first one up is from Haunting Ground. Oh man, did this game scare the living crap out me. It was pretty much my initiation into the survival horror genre, and man did it get me in. Granted, as with most games, I watched it instead of playing it, and I must say that the person who made the walkthrough was a BOSS, because I would've totally gotten caught by Debilitas and died within the first 10 minutes of the game. xD These two lovely ladies are cosplaying as Fiona, the games main character, and Daniella, the tragic villain. They did a beautiful job on these and I implore you all to go check out the rest of their galleries.



Tempt me, Temptation by ~TheWorldAblaze on deviantART

Okay, so it's time to be biased. This is my friend Bells and she is the CUTEST Blair I have ever seen. I love Blaire's character in Soul Eater, she's so ditzy and bubbly, but can be quite the temptress and Bells captures her brilliantly. Also ,I'm the proud photographer of some of the pictures in her gallery so everyone should go pay her a visit. We plan to get more shoots done in the future, so just enjoy what we have up there for now, haha.



Alfred Ashford by *DugFinn on deviantART

Well, you guys probably would've guessed by now that this list wouldn't really be complete without some Resident Evil.Cause if you couldn't tell(looks at layout), I'm kind of in love with those games. And this is kind of a double nerdiness, cause I'm a total fangirl of the amazing DugFinn, who's cosplaying as the crazy, yet ever so loveable Alfred Ashford here. She's by far one of best I've seen of this underdone character, and everyone should go check her other awesome cosplays as well as her awesome photography. Seriously guys, she's like amazeballs with everything she does, go to her gallery.


And that's all I have for now, or at least all I can fit for now (my journal would go on forever if I put everyone that I love!). With some other updates, I'm going to Oni-con, as Claire, of course. I'll only be there on Saturday, and my friend, who's gonna be my Steve, (OMGIMGONNAHAVEASTEEEVEE!!!) and I are gonna be entering the cosplay contest, which I'm super nervous about because I've never entered an on-stage contest before. So, if anyone's going, please come to the contest to support us(or at least me, haha).

Until next time,
Much love,
Sana

Planning is Essential

Hello all once more!

Yes, I have returned at last and with a few tips. And a new layout!  Whilst I was working on a commission for my good friend, I started thinking about my normal habits when sewing and how I have a way of taking extra-double-super-special-chocolate-covered caution when working on projects. Especially when they’re not for me. So I figured I’d give some tips about taking said precautions that will help your projects look so much nicer.

• Pins are you best friends. Use a lot of them.

Being a personal fan of the dressmaker pin, I find these babies quite handy. I use them even when putting together the smallest things. I think that no matter how skilled you get, pins will always come in handy. Sure they seem to take ages to put in, but the result it well worth it. Also make sure to put them perpendicular of the seam, it’ll make the sewing process much quicker. And the best thing about your pins is that, no matter how bad you treat them, they’ll always love you.

• Zigzag stitch along the edges help prevent fraying.

It’s true! And this is especially a good idea when your fabric frays like crazy.  Like the fabric for my friend’s jacket, it’s really great fabric, but if I pull one thread the wrong way, well, yeah. This wasn’t necessary on the edges where I used biased tape, but all of the inside seams I edged with this stitch and it looks substantially cleaner and nicer.

• When planning to paint a design. Draw first!

I don’t care how much of an expert you are, we all make mistakes at one point or another, and you don’t want that point to be when you’re working on a cosplay, commission or otherwise. Drawing it out on paper beforehand helps you figure out size and spacing. It’s also a good idea to put note on the paper as to how you’re going to paint your design, which direction, etc. Drawing out the design on your piece with tailors chalk or a marking pen is also a good idea as it helps you plot your design before finalizing it. I’ve personally made enough mistakes to know for a fact that all of this planning is essential if you want your design to turn out good.  A decent example is my Claire vest, and I’m not gonna lie, I’m crazy in love with how it turned out.

• UNF, dat biased tape!

Yeah, I’m kind of in love with this stuff now. I personally think it makes hemming a much simpler task. Not mention it’s perfect for projects like the Steve Burnside’s jacket that involve different colored edges. Augh, just, yes. This stuff! It really really made the hemming process easier, so much so that when I got to do a real hem I fussed about until I got myself down to doing it. This last tip seems more like a review than a tip, not to mention it’s a bit repetitive, but I can assure you that, especially when projects have different colored hems, this stuff comes in handy.

Welp, those are the main biggies that I’ve got for now. They’ve certainly helped me a ton, and not only during this project at hand. I certainly hope that they help everyone else!

Until next time!
Love,
Sana

Finding the Balance of Things

My first time submitting using the new blogger layout. Everything was new and nothing made sense?
It's all good though. Anyways, I just came back from a brief internet hiatus. And prior to that, I hadn't really been able to conjure anything to blog about anyways. Being a senior in High School and real life drama has kept me plenty busy. I'm also just thinking of just not getting online during the week anyways, I depend on the internet waaaaaay too much.
Either way, just thought I'd give you guys a quick life update, school started back in September. Like I mentioned, I've been getting over some real life drama, that I'm recovering from quite well, eventhoughittookliketwomonthstogettomycurrentstatebutwhateverheartbreaksucksandIcouldbeworse.
On the convention side, Oni-con is a possible maybe right now. Depending on how things unfold. I'm hoping to go, but I won't be too incredibly sad if I don't. Even though I want to go to the zombie apocalypse shoot really bad.
Anime Matsuri I'm of course excited for. We got a table again, so yay! Make sure to stop by if you're going. For my cosplay plans for the weekend nothing is certain, I'm going to try really hard to get Rikku finished in time, assuming I can get a job. So lets all hope I can manage to do that. If I can, I'll hopefully be able to also put either Nia or Fluttershy on my list for that weekend. But we'll see.

Anyway, fun lesson with Sana time. This past week of internet fasting, I came to the realization of how much quicker I get things done when my computer isn't on. I originally took the break to get away from some people that I needed to, and had intended to stay away a lot longer than I ended up being able to. But when I came back, I was a greeted with well over 1,300 messages on deviantART. A brilliant idea this was eh? But in a sense the break did me good as last night I came to some realizations that have helped me as a person. One, when things don't turn out quite the way you've hoped, you've gotta remember that that's just a small part of your story, and you've got something great waiting for you later. And two, I have got to learn how to balance things better, meaning limiting my internet time. I spend way to much time dilly-dallying about the internet. I really need to start focusing on the important things, meaning school, friends, family, and eventually work. Things not so important include anime, video games, and blogging. [wenoticehowIdontmentioncosplaywut?] Anyways, this probably mean that my blog updates are gonna be even more seldom. I'll keep trying to put together some tutorials or something to put up occasionally. I'm pretty bad at keeping up with, well, anything really. But I'm going to try fixing that. I think there was gonna be a moral to this paragraph, but I don't know anymore.

But yeah! I'm really hoping I can get some new pictures for a new layout, cause the current pictures are from the beginning of the summer, when I weighed an extra 30 pounds. So yeah, I'll try to put that on the agenda as well.

Til next time!
Love,
Sana

The Tale of San Japan 4TW

And hence another convention comes to a close all to soon. I'm probably going to spend to rest of the week tired and mopey as already miss the world of over priced merchandise and loud fangirls. And, yes, that's a good thing. Haha. Welp, I guess I'll be starting with Thursday since that's where our adventures begins.

Thursday
Well, I left the homestead around 11:00am Thursday and we picked Croweh up on the way. Her and I chattered as we headed up on what seemed like an endless ride to San Antonio. We arrived in the city around 2:30, so we spent the rest of the afternoon wandering about and making new friends. When our friend Aza got there we hung out with her and her friend and helped her work on last minute cosplay. Around 9:00 we went to get our badges, and then the day came to a definite close as we excitedly rested our heads and slept until the next day came.

Friday
I awoke early on Friday and threw Toph on. I've said it before, Toph gets so much love! I think it's cause Avatar cosplays are rare in general and Toph is the best. Croweh debuted her Axel cosplay. Anyways, we got up way before the convention started and helped an artist friend of ours set up. I then bought a couple things from her when the artist alley legally opened. We derped around until Aza found us as Finland and we hung out with her for the duration of the day. We went to the Cosplay Group panel, which was pretty funny really. We met some new friends. I got to give Malindachan and Ex-shadows yet another gift that I made for them.(causeI'mcreepylikethat) The day seemed to blur together until that night. We went to masquerade, it wasn't as nice as the one at AM, but I got to dance with someone who I had wanted to and it was lovely.(andawkwardwut?)

Saturday
On Saturday I wore Claire and Croweh wore Olette. We hung out with Cosplay in America until the Video Game Cosplay Contest opened. We signed up and went to the mall to get pictures for her. We went on down to Cosplay Chess to see Aza kick some ass as the Queen of Hearts. We met a really nice Rosette while hanging in the wings. After that we did a shoot of Aza and her minions. Which was then followed by ANOTHER shoot for me as we went down to the parking garage. When we came back up, we went to the in attempt to get more pictures for Aza, but almost got in trouble with mall security so I suggested just going back to the con, because I didn't want to get in any trouble. We went to the dealers room for some shopping and I bought a panda plushie that I had been eyeballing all day Friday. We went to the AMV contest and left early to eat hotel food. It was SO COLD in the AMV contest room, I was shaking when I got out. I was also starving at the time so....yeah. We waited around for lineup for the cosplay contest. The line was endless and tiring, but so worth it. Although by this point in the day I had a headache, so lots of things got on my nerves. Anyways, after the contest ended, so did Saturday. We went back up to the room, I took some advil, showered and went to bed with the song from the Nostalg*a Cosplay skit in my head.

Sunday
Mainly last minute spending and other things, no panels or cosplay. Found some of our new friends and said goodbyes before leaving. Every time a convention ends, I feel a whole in my heart that I can't fill up until the next convention.

ANYWAYS! It was great to see everyone and meet new friends and meet some of my subscribers!
Until next time!
~Sana-san

Road Blocks and Stress and Secrets, Oh My!

Thought I'd be cheesy for the sake of cheesiness.  But in all seriousness, I regret to inform that due to money complications, I won't be able to finish Rikku for SanJapan. This where you all frown and go "Awwww!" And on the note of not doing stuff, we, meaning the whole group, have decided to cancel our Nadesico cosplay due to stress and other things like that. We might do them eventually, but it'll be a long while from now. So, this might get you to saying, then what the heck are you gonna cosplay at SanJapan?! Well....Croweh suggested Pokemon, buuuut, while that may be all good for her, I honestly dislike wearing my May cosplay. It's all baggy on me and I don't like using my own hair because it's too long and plus I've been wanting to redo basically the entire thing.[Don't hate me Croweh! ] So I've been considering a few things. The first being wearing either Kagura or Toph, I've never had the right hair for Toph, so it wouldn't be any different if I were to put my hair into a pony tail for her. As for Kagura, now that I think about it, maybe not for one of the same reasons as May, it's kinda big on me. But not so big that it doesn't work unlike May, actually I just tried it on and it looks kinda cute....so yeah, there's that option. The second idea I had was just to kick it nerdy Otaku street style. As I like to call it. A while ago I did a reconstruction of a shirt I didn't wear and put pieces of an FullMetal Alchemist shirt shirt on it, and I really don't get to wear it often enough. I have some other cute pieces that I could put it with(I have the outfit in my mind as I type). Not really exciting, so I'd probably play photographer for the day, but I'd at least be comfortable, hehe....yeah. Another one that I thought of was throwing together another decora outfit, which would probably look better due to having more hair accessories and cuter skirts. That's basically all I could think up. I'm going to put a poll up with those decisions, and it'll be open for a couple of weeks. Also feel free to comment with any suggestions.
That would be for Friday though. As for Saturday, I came up with something that I could easily whip together in a month. BUT! I'm not gonna tell you guys what it is. Why? Because surprises are fun. I might wait to even give any hints until I'm done. I won't be starting until I get payed(well, half payed. Long story, ain't gonna talk about it) for my friends Hungary cosplay commission though. Which will hopefully be before the week is out, but we'll see. But I am pretty excited about the new secret cosplay I'll hopefully do, and the convention altogether(I get too see all my con friends again! Yay!! 8D)

Anyways! I look forward to hearing any input from yous gais!
Until next time,
Sana

Slight Cosplay Hiatus. Until Further Notice.

I'm gonna try to make this as not whiny as possible.

Well, to put it simply, life is hard. It's hard for a lot of people I have no room to complain about anything. But the truth of the matter is, I have no money, actually, I have negative money. I owe myself money. And I keep thinking and I can't believe it's come to this. I'm going to finish Ryoko, and I'm going to finish Rikku. But I after I finish them, I really don't know when I'll make any new cosplays again. Sigh. It really makes me want to cry to admit that I've bitten off more than I can chew with this. Actually, scratch that, I did cry. I sobbed for several minutes straight after coming to this realization that nothing goes according to plan. What I mainly need to say is I'm not gonna do anything new for a long while. I need to get a job, pay myself back, pay my sister back as I also owe her money and then I can think about making new cosplays again. I've also decided to take some TNT to my cosplay "schedule". I've decided it to be simpler to just make cosplays as they come and not put a specific due date on them, I think it'll keep my hair from turning white and my face from breaking out much longer. So in saying that, if I don’t finished Rikku by San Japan, although that would be ideal for me, I won’t cry, I’ll suck it up, and wear something else. I’ll be able to finish her by Matsuri next year. I’m going to have to stop making promises to both myself and my watchers/subscribers/etc. because I have a way of breaking said promises, and it makes everyone sad. I've also been having a lot of inner drama, and it's been difficult for me to stop being hard on myself.


So, don’t expect seeing anything about my Yuni or Selphie cosplays anytime cause goodness knows when those will be happening. Especially Selphie because I’ve yet to actually play Final Fantasy 8. Yeah.

And to awkwardly wrap all of this up, I need to point this out, mainly to myself. Cosplay maybe the greatest thing in your(my) life, but you(I) need to always remember that life always comes first. You can put the construction of a costume on hold, but life ain't gonna stop or even slow down for you(me), and if you(I) look away for a second, it's gonna hit you(me) like a speeding train.


I hope no one's mad at my broken promises,
Love,
Sana

Summer Conventions Update Primarily Based Around SanJapan

So, I've decided that, unfortunately, I'm only going to San Japan for the summer primarily due to the fact that I've yet to get a job, and  the place I'm going to apply at is hiring when Delta H Con is going on. Much sadness, indeed, but it will be alright as San Japan is like the prom of conventions.

While I'm on that subject, I'd like to mention I offered to help spread the word about San Japan because I believe that it deserves help, and I think that EVERYONE in the world should because it's that great. Anyways, a while back they put up a post on Facebook saying that they got a butt load of postcards and posters that they needed help distributing all over the state. Them being my favourite convention I was happy to help, they told us to send our address to this one email as well as our t-shirt size saying they were gonna give us a shirt as compensation, which was all cool. So I get a package in the mail the other day and I open it and I'm like "Holy-!" I was expecting a good handful of postcards and a t-shirt. I got three times as many postcards(I'm gonna be a busy woman! I'm so excited to distribute them honestly), the shirt, three bumper stickers, and a cosplay show dvd from last year. Wha?! Yeah, I was a little shocked. But...yeah, I love this con. And I hate saying so more after I got free stuff(at least I think the stuff is for me and not more advert), but it was seriously the best con I had ever been to. Everything started on time(in exception of the rave, but that was due to tear-down and set-up time in the main events room), it has an ever-growing variety of events that doesn't just reach out to anime fans, an awesome list of guests, and is just made of awesome. When I went to Japan Festival a while back I met a guy that knew the people that started this con and he talked about how San Japan is an attendee-based convention, versus being a profit based one. And it definitely shows. Everyone we met on staff when we went last year was uber nice aaaaand do any of you guys know any other conventions that have a three-year long Dealers Room waiting list? I don't. Also, their artist alley sold out within half an hour this year I believe. The ones who've been there know, this is a good con, and I think it's just gonna get better.  I say, if you'd be able to go, go. It's a well worth it convention to me.

Well, now that I'm done seemingly bragging about this, if you're interested. The convention is held in San Antonio, TX from August 5-7. Their website is San-japan.org

Enough of this shameless advertisement then, til next time!
Love,
Sana