Cross post from our family blog:

Because what kid DOESN’T need their very own Millennium Falcon?

I rest my case.

I know it’s April, but this project started back in January and it has just taken that long to find the time to finish. We had bought the geekling this exersaucer thing that came in a huge box shortly after Christmas. Per usual, we put it all together and the kid enjoyed climbing in and on the box more than he did playing with the thing that came in it. This caused Lucas and I to do a lot of reminiscing about our own childhoods, and how much fun it was to make believe with boxes. We pulled out a couple more boxes we had lying around for Liam to play with. It took less than 10 seconds for me to make the jump from pretending one of the boxes was a car to, “How cool would it be to have a Millennium Falcon?” … everyone’s other vehicle, of course.

In no time at all I had formed the body of our Millennium Falcon out of cardboard using the exersaucer box and cutting some additional framework from extra boxes we had stored in the garage from our move back in October. I even had the perfect box to form a geekling-sized cockpit to sit in. We used a lot of packing tape to piece it all together. Then all we had to do was wait for decent weather so I could papier-mâché the whole thing out on the driveway. I’m sure our neighbors thought we were crazy. Or cool, maybe? I’m leaning towards crazy, though.

Anyway, fast forward a few more weeks and all of the papier-mâché was thoroughly dry. The Falcon was looking sweet! Then it was time to paint. We picked up some silver spray paint at the hardware store and I then proceeded to destroy the brand new garage floor with it. Hey, at least the paint on the floor is in the shape of the Millennium Falcon, am I right? Besides, that’s what garage floors are for; a constant reminder of how we did stuff in there, plus the shape is like a badge of awesome that makes me smile every time I get out of the car.

Lucas insisted that the Falcon stay out in the garage for awhile after spray painting, and for good reason; it smelled pretty strong. Our little project aired out for over a month. I’d say it was because it needed plenty of time to air out, but in reality, we just got busy. Fast forward now to this week, my spring break. (Perk of being a teacher.) Number two on my Spring Break To Do List was “Finish painting the Millennium Falcon.” Isn’t that on most peoples’ to do lists? Just a typical weeknight for our family. (For those wondering, number one on my Spring Break To Do List was re-hanging 76 pieces of dinosaur artwork in Liam’s nursery. Check!)

Sure, our Millennium Falcon was satisfactorily silver, but it needed some detail work. I admit I scoured the Internet for good reference material, (I also like that when searching for the Millennium Falcon on Google that I get no less than 70 personal results. That’s because we have so many cool friends with similar interests.) but in the end, I took a lot of artistic liberties with my details. I still think it turned out alright.

For those of you that know us, we tend to take a lot of photographs. Of everything. So you won’t be surprised to find that I took photos all along the way, to document our progress and process in making a Millennium Falcon for our 9 month old son. Because really, how many kids can say they have their very own Millennium Falcon? Mine can’t, but that’s only because he can’t talk yet. But when he can… he’ll be one of a very small number of kids that can say they have their own Millennium Falcon.

Over breakfast this morning I threw together a bandolier for the Schnauzer out of craft foam. He makes a pretty convincing albino wookiee sidekick, amirite?

For the full gallery of 47 fun photos including more cuteness than you can stand + all of the process photos, check out our Flickr gallery here: We Made the Millennium Falcon. The photos go in order to show you how the project progressed.

If you’re headed to the Lexington Comic & Toy Convention this weekend, don’t forget that GEEKSOAP and Kentucky Geek Girl have partnered up to bring you some FREE SOAP! All you have to do to snag some GEEKSOAP freebies is to pop by the KGG booth (#109) while you’re there and give ‘em the secret password: BUBBLES. Easy, right?!

Lexington Comic & Toy Convention
Saturday, March 24, 2012
10 am – 5 pm
Lexington Center
Admission $9.20 online/ $10 at the door

For all of the sweet geeky details including a map of the convention & booth space, keep your eyes peeled at Kentucky Geek Girl, where Natasha will make sure all of your LexCon bases are covered. Better yet, follow her on Twitter to stay in the know all day Saturday, too! Have fun and enjoy. :)

Psssst remember… BUBBLES!

To make your wait easier, I’ve decided to introduce the newest house soap in the Game of Foams GEEKSOAP series: House Targaryen!  I hand-carved and molded the Targaryen design myself, and am so proud to finally share and release my newest creation. But before the official release of the soap AND Season 2 on April 1, I wanted to personally give away a complete set of the house soaps to make the start of Season 2 that much better. As if you weren’t already excited enough already!

But before I start yammering on about the contest rules and yadda yadda, tell me about the soap?! You’ll receive one each of the three house designs:

Stark - Winter is coming… be the one true clean in the north by siding with the Starks.
Sigil: Grey wolf on winter white
Scent: Betrayal. A crisp combination of pine, cedar, and eucalyptus with just a hint of campfire to capture the essence of the wintry north.

Lannister - Hear me roar and always pay your debts to cleanliness.
Sigil: Golden lion on crimson
Scent: Pride. A sweet, earthy blend of patchouli, plumeria, and orange; rich and manipulative.

Targaryen (NEW! Not even available for purchase yet in the store!) – Fire and blood cleanses all.
Sigil: Scarlet dragon on pitch black
Scent: Dragon’s blood. A fiery blend of amber, myrrh, sandalwood, and a hint of patchouli. Powerful enough to wake the dragon.

Ok enough already! How do I enter?

The rules are simple; check out the Rafflecopter entry form below to get started. The contest will run from 12:01 am March 19 – 12:01 am March 24. (So Monday – Friday.) One lucky winner will be randomly selected from all entries received, so the more you enter, the better your chances of winning! The winner’s soap will ship out ASAP in an effort to arrive before April 1 so that you have your set in time for the official start of Season 2. Note that you must use the Rafflecopter form below to ensure each of your entries are tracked!

Each method of entry – blog post comments, tweets, “likes” on Facebook, pins on Pinterest, etc. – are worth one entry each. And most methods of entry you can do once per day to give you even more chances to win this awesome set of three hand-carved Game of Thrones soaps! Each house has their own unique scent to carry you away to Westeros and across the Narrow Sea. Got questions? Email me! GOOD LUCK!! <3

Enter Here!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

swtor soap by geeksoap

With spring just around the corner, it’s time to initiate spring cleaning at GEEKSOAP.net. I’m focusing all of my energy on the most popular designs and making them even better than ever, including better ingredients, better packaging, and tons of NEW stuff!

Firstly, as some of you have noticed, I’m phasing out most of the super clear designs to make way for their re-designs. The most popular of my clear series with inserts will be re-made over the next year; my goal is to re-release one a month starting with the heart emoticon, Zelda Triforce, and Cthulhu. They will be even better than before, now featuring only 100% natural ingredients AND hand-carved raised designs. As always, my soaps will continue to be vegan friendly, always plant-based and never derived from or tested on animals.

NEW SOAP!

• A NEW hand-carved Star Wars: The Old Republic design (releasing end of Feb 2012)
• As promised: Batman soap re-design, BATSCRUB and “baby” Batscrub Guest Soap
• A NEW hand-carved top secret addition to one of my most popular series. Hint: April is coming…
• Re-designs coming soon for my most popular clear soaps
• NEW darker (less pastel!) color options for my famous D20 Soap on a Rope!
• NEW packaging and promotional goodies

That’s not all, but that’s the bulk of what I’m currently working on. New soaps, makeovers for old favorites, and so much more. The store site will also be getting a makeover in the near-ish future. With the new soaps come new promotions and giveaways galore, too! I’ve got some contest ideas up my sleeve and will be featured on a few podcasts in the coming months, who will be the exclusive FIRSTS to have my new designs to give away, so find out how and when by following me on Twitter or Facebook, if you’re not already. Contests and giveaways will always be announced there first!

Are you on Pinterest? I started using Pinterest last year to keep track of ideas for my new geekling (who is 8 months old now, OMG WHERE DID THE TIME GO?!), and it seems like lately it has become THE in thing to do. Everyone I know is on Pinterest now, which is totally exciting! Check out my boards, and watch for more social media connection love on the blog and in the store soon as part of the re-design.

Oh! And GEEKSOAP is partnering up with Kentucky Geek Girl and will be at the Lexington Comic & Toy Con on March 24. Look for more information to come soon at KentuckyGeekGirl.com and the KYGeekGirl’s Facebook page. Get some freebies from Natasha and get a code for getting your hands on more goodies just in time for the release of some new stuff!

Whew! I hope you’re as excited as I am about GEEKSOAP’s spring cleaning! Lots of sudsy fun ahead :)

Hey all! It’s been awhile since I’ve put together a fun DIY tutorial over here, so I thought now was as good a time as any, especially with the holidays right around the corner. DIY gifts for everyone on your list this year? SCORE.

I’ve heard of making coasters from tiles, and I wanted to combine that idea with making something perfect for my BFF who loves Batman. What cooler coasters to have than Batman comic book coasters, amirite? I decided to share how I made my coasters just in case you’re looking for a great last minute Christmas gift for the comic book geek in your life… or anyone in your life, really, since you can make coasters in any theme. Ready? Here we go!

Comic Book Coasters

Materials

• four 4″ x 4″ tiles, found at your local hardware store **
• Mod Podge
• Clear spray acrylic sealer (I grabbed Mod  Podge brand)
• Comic books you don’t mind cutting up,  or images at least 3.5″ x 3.5″ ***
• scissors
• craft glue – like my fave, good old Aleene’s Tacky Glue (but Elmers would do!)
• a paintbrush
• felt

You may also want to lay some newspaper out to protect your counter or floor surfaces. I also recommend working in a well ventilated area during the spray acrylic part!

** For the tiles, I highly recommend ones that have blunt or sanded edges. Sure, there are tiles that are like $0.15, making this an even cheaper project, but trust me when I say that splurging an additional $0.15 per tile to buy $0.30 tiles that have finished edges is much nicer than giving your friends or family a set of coasters with rough, sharp edges. Hello, safety hazard! (Especially if they have children.) This is already a project that costs less than a fancy cup of coffee per person to make, so let’s not skimp on safety. You don’t want them to cut themselves on your gift, right?

*** I actually didn’t use comic books for this project, I looked for pictures scanned from comic book pages up on Google Images and printed them on my color laser printer. If you have comic books lying around that you don’t mind cutting up, go for it! But feel free to use images from other sources, too. And if your friend or family member isn’t into comics, the beauty of this project is that you can use any image. For example, I made a second set of coasters for another friend of mine who is an art teacher, and used images of famous paintings instead. Have you had enough of my babbling yet? Let’s get to the directions already!

Directions
1. Print or acquire the four images you plan to use on your coasters and trim them down to approximately 3.5″ x 3.5″ to fit on your 4″ x 4″ tiles. I picked four images of Batman comic books and comic book pages from Google Images and saved them to my computer. Then I selected them all and right clicked to print them and used the following print layout to get all four pictures on the same piece of paper. Conveniently, this method printed the images at just about 3.5″ wide, so I had very little trimming to do.

2. Cover the backside of your images in craft glue – I like to draw a glue line around the outer edge and then zig zag through the middle, too, so that the image doesn’t warp when you mod podge – and glue your images down well on each of your tiles.

3. (Now’s when you’ll want the well ventilated area and newspaper to cover your work surface.) Using the clear spray acrylic, give each tile a quick spray coat and let dry for 15 minutes. I found after a couple of attempts that the clear acrylic coat I sprayed before I began layering on the mod podge really helped to keep my images nice and smooth and sealed for mod podging. (Can mod podging be a verb? If not, it is now!) For me this step was critical because I printed my images, and just using straight mod podge on them made the colors smudge. I like the word smudge.

4. Using your paintbrush, paint on a thin layer of Mod Podge. Try to coat the tile as evenly as possible. Let dry. Repeat until you’ve painted on three layers of Mod Podge, letting each layer dry thoroughly (until you can no longer see the white of the mod podge) in between layers. Grab a sandwich or clean your bathroom while you wait. Just not at the same time.

5. Spray one final quick coat of the clear acrylic sealer and let dry. (Hey look! You can see that I was making a second set of coasters at the same time! Ooooooooh… ahhhhhhh)

6. Cut four felt squares approximately 3.5″ x 3.5″ (like your images!) each, and use your craft glue and the same gluing method you used with your images to affix one felt square on the backside of each tile. My tiles had a grid on the backside which made it easy for me to evenly apply glue and then press the felt square down. Don’t press TOO hard on the felt or the glue will bleed through; press gently along all of the glued areas and lay the coaster flat to dry on its felt.

And voila! You have beautiful comic book coasters! Not into comic books? You could use scrapbook paper and make coasters to fit the decor of your living room, you could collage pages from a magazine or other book, or even use photographs on your coaster set. No matter what theme or images you use, you’ll end up with the perfect custom gift just in time for the holidays. :)

Here’s the coaster set of famous paintings I made for my other BFF. Pretty awesome, huh? Happy crafting, and happy holidays! And if you don’t have time to create some coasters, perhaps some of my EPIC geeky soap over at GEEKSOAP.net is more up your alley? Be the friend that gives the most geektastic gifts this year, whether you make it for them or you have me make it! Best wishes <3

xoxo, Lesley

Incoming shameless plug: Hey, everyone! Christmas is right around the corner! And of course you want to be the one that gives the most geektastic gifts in your circle of friends, so get over to GEEKSOAP and get your order placed ASAP to guarantee timely holiday delivery.

/End spam.

So what’s been happening the past 4.5 months? Well about a month after the geekling was born, as if I needed more on my plate, we decided to buy our first house. And then move 5 days before I went back to work from maternity leave, and a week before my in-laws came to stay with us for a week. Like I said, it’s been just a little intense around here!

Somehow I’m managing a full time teaching job, a new baby, prepping for the holidays and the move/settling in/decorating a new house and all of the responsibilities that come with it, and filling an insanely ridiculous amount of soap orders on the side. Somehow I’ve been successful at all of this so far without feeling too overwhelmed… yet. To help keep it that way, this year you may have noticed that I’ve pared down the GEEKSOAP shop to only focus on my top sellers for the holiday season; this is one of the checks and balances I’ve put in place to ensure that I don’t get in over my head over the next month. I want to make sure that all of my online customers are happy and that I can get orders out in a timely fashion AND still have time for my family. If you’re looking for something that’s currently not available, just drop me a line and I’ll happily get you squared away to make all of your geeky gift-giving dreams come true. :)

Also on the radar is a GEEKSOAP store redesign coming… well, sometime soon-ish. It’s in my head and I’ve got some ideas, but nothing has really been started yet. I hope to make your geeky soap shopping experience even better with the redesign. More on that as I start fleshing the plan out.

Oh! And I almost forgot! I’ve got a super fantastic geeky DIY gift tutorial coming soon that will help you create the perfect last minute gift for the comic book geek in your life. I can’t share yet because I’m giving this amazing handmade gift myself in a couple of weeks, but stay tuned! You are seriously going to love how simple yet AWESOME this gift turns out. And even though I said it’s for the comic book geek in your life, it can easily be modified to suit ANYONE! Yay! See you back here with that tutorial in a few weeks! Until then… good luck with your holiday shopping, and happy (almost) Thanksgiving!

Or should I say… Game of FOAMS?!

When playing the game of foams, you win or you die. Make sure to smell your best no matter where your loyalties lie.

STARK
Winter is coming… be the one true clean in the north by siding with the Starks.

Sigil: Grey wolf on winter white
Scent: Betrayal. A crisp combination of pine, cedar, and eucalyptus with just a hint of campfire to capture the essence of the wintry north.

or…

LANNISTER
Hear me roar and always pay your debts to cleanliness.

Sigil: Golden lion on crimson
Scent: Pride. A sweet, earthy blend of patchouli, plumeria, and orange; rich and manipulative.

Not a licensed or endorsed product. Fan interpretation handcarved with love. Both bars are 5.5 oz of 100% all natural and vegan friendly soap.

This is just one design of many in my GEEKSOAP line. Check out the Soap category for more. My fun soaps are available for purchase at http://www.geeksoap.net

I’ve updated the maternity leave info pages of the GEEKSOAP and Pink Toque Shop sites to include this info, too, to keep all of my customers and fans in the loop. Thanks for all of your well wishes as we get settled into life with a newborn! :)

love,
Lesley

That being said, I have a few excellent recommendations from the GEEKSOAP shop this week, especially timed well with the Stanley Cup playoff finals (Game 7 is tonight!!) – my Hockey Geek regulation puck soap is on sale! You may also want to pick up some powdery fresh Dinosaurs on Parade soap while you’re browsing my On Sale products. Because not much is cooler than hockey and dinosaurs. Really.

Last Thursday I was given a medical recommendation to stop work a week early, so I went on maternity leave from my job a little earlier than planned. This week I’ve been trying to relax and keep my feet up, but it’s hard because I don’t just sit around doing nothing very well. I decided a good project would be to get a jump start on my digital scrapbooking; it’s been awhile since I’ve sat down and designed pages, but with the geekling nearly here I wanted to whip up some fresh QPs for my son’s baby book. It didn’t stop there, though. I also created some brag book pages so that my mom will have something she can take to show off at work right away, and then I made some birth announcements, which are now just waiting for my newborn’s little face and the typical birth details like date, time, weight, and length to get dropped in so that all I have to do is send them off to get printed.

In addition to designing a typical baby book, grandma brag book, and birth announcements for my son, I had this brilliant idea to also create a “Baby’s First Year” book, which consists of a single page for each of Liam’s first 12 months of life with space for a picture and journaling. I imagine it being a way to document each month via pictures and tidbits of text, since he will grow tremendously that first year. When my nephew was born, I was amazed at how different he looked (and how his personality developed) every time I saw him; they grow and change so much so very quickly as they’re turning into their own little person during the first year. I want to be sure to capture that somehow with my son, and while a baby book is going to focus on his birth and traditional baby stuff, I see the Baby’s First Year book being a consistent documentation of all of the exciting changes we’re going to experience over the first year… from looks to personality to those all important “firsts.”

As a lot of you know, I am a huge fan of the best digital scrapbooking software in all the world, My Memories Suite. I’ve been using it since Christmas 2007, and it has only gotten better and better over the years. It’s my go-to when it’s time to put together a digital scrapbook masterpiece and print high quality, gorgeous photo books to give to family and friends. I admit, though, that like other designers I create my quick pages (QPs) in software like Photoshop, and then save the PNG file for use as an embellishment QP in My Memories Suite. So this week I’ve spent a lot of time in Photoshop and My Memories Suite getting everything ready to go for my various baby books and announcements. I picked up a great kit called Expecting: A Boy by Sunshine Studio Scraps (Inspired Designs by Crystal Sweeney) and you’ll find it used heavily throughout most of my latest design frenzy.

Want a sneak peek? Sure you do! Here are thumbnails of all of the pages I made for the baby book:

Preview: Baby Book

[Show as slideshow]

And here are thumbnails of all of the pages for the Baby’s First Year book. You’ll notice that there are three different layouts I used in rotating order repetitively, just changing the textured papers and embellishment used in the design to progress month-appropriately. I wanted this book to be very consistent and not take away from the photos or the journaling so I stuck to a “theme” for continuity and made all of the pages follow a predictable and similar layout but with a slight change in design to represent each month. Some of the thumbnails below show how the page is laid out in MMS, and you’ll see that I have individual wordart headers for “1 month” through “12 months” that I will put at the top of each page, once we know for sure if Liam is born in June or July. You can also see in the MMS pictures where the journaling blocks will go on each page.

Preview: Baby’s First Year

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I also designed three announcements – one is a postcard-sized birth announcement to be printed and mailed out to family and friends after Liam arrives, and the other two are full 12″ x 12″ 300 dpi pages that will go into the baby book and the Baby’s First Year book respectively.

Preview: Birth Announcements

[Show as slideshow]

You can be sure that these pages will be a whole lot better once there are adorable geekling photos to fill the blank, framed spaces, but I am really happy that everything is scrapped and ready ahead of the birth for me to just drop in those photos once we take them. I may throw together the full-size/resolution templates for a more generic version of the Baby’s First Year book as a download if anyone is interested in using it for themselves.

Whew! And now… the wait for the geekling’s debut begins… happy scrapping!

Related Links:
Read my review (from 2006) of My Memories Suite here
View all of my digital scrapbook albums here, all made in My Memories Suite
Check out all of my My Memories Suite tutorials here (featured on the official MMS site as well)
Snag some of my digital scrapbooking freebies I’ve made over the years here

Want to Purchase My Memories Suite for yourself at a discount?
With this link you can save $10 off of the My Memories Suite VERSION 2 software PLUS get $10 in free downloads in the MMS store by being a Pink Toque Craft Blog reader! (That’s like $20 free!) Use code STMMMS21122 as your coupon/promo code at the link!

Leaving Canada wasn’t easy, though. I loved being so close to the Canadian Rockies and we had many dear friends that would be difficult to leave behind. Even though we (and our friends) knew moving back to Indiana was what we needed to do and the best thing for our family, it didn’t make saying goodbye any easier.

The friend I miss the most is my BFF, Michelle. I met Michelle at my first job after receiving my Permanent Residency in Canada, and we just clicked. She’s the coolest person I know! When Lucas and I made the decision to move, breaking the news to Michelle was the hardest.

We moved back to Indiana on August 1, 2009. For Christmas that first year, I made Michelle a set of crocheted Lucas and Lesley dolls, plush versions of ourselves. The sentimental idea was that she now had Lucas and I with her always, even though we were 2,000 miles away. I had so much fun designing the dolls; they turned out even better than I imagined and were so squee-inducing I had a hard time gifting them away! (Especially the Lucas doll. His little glasses were so adorable.)

Fast forward nearly 2 years to the present, and Lucas and I are less than a month away from the birth of our first child. I know that pregnancy hormones are making it worse, but I get weepy when I think about how Aunt Michelle hasn’t been able to be a part of all of this; though we keep in touch, it’s not the same as having her here with us as we go through this life changing event. (She’s going to be an awesome aunt, by the way. I know because she was Aunt Michelle to our dogs first! Ha) :)

I’ve been planning a little gift for Michelle to celebrate the birth of our son; this amigurumi baby doll. While it would seem like a strange gift without the backstory, the crochet newborn is meant to represent our geekling and will help her to complete “the set” of the Karpiuk family dolls. I can’t wait to give it to her! Once again, this little doll turned out better than I expected and was squee-inducing as I put on the finishing touches. It’s so tiny, too! Hopefully it will help tide Aunt Michelle over as a “replacement” until she can meet our geekling in person later this year when she comes to visit. And eventually as our son grows, I’ll have to make a toddler or child version of his doll to replace the baby version so that Michelle’s set stays up-to-date.

So while it seems like a simple crochet baby doll, it has a lot of sentimental value behind it that will hopefully make our friend Michelle’s day since she can’t be here in person when our son is born. Though I know she’d prefer to be here, I also know she’s going to love the meaningful gift. :)

We love and miss you, Michelle!

Check out the full post about the Lucas and Lesley dolls for more photos and info.

See the Lucas and Lesley dolls on Ravelry

See the geekling newborn doll on Ravelry