If you’ve been following this site (or my channel) for the last little bit, you’ll know that I’ve started playing Dungeons & Dragons again. Well there’s only so many things you need when playing D&D. One is a dice bag. Which I’ve just made a new version of. And it’s also handy to have a dice tower. Well I’ve made a dice tower before but the problem I run into with that one is that it’s not exactly what you’d describe as “portable”. So I set my mind to it, and I’ve come up with a design that I’m SUPER happy with for a brand new Collapsable Dice Tower.
It’s definitely more complicated to put together than my original dice tower, but I don’t think overly so. It uses two sections, a tray and a tower, and locks into place using a set of foam core “keys”. I always enjoy it when a design comes into my mind and turns out pretty much exactly the way I envisioned it, and that’s what happened this time. I hope you enjoy it as well!
And of course the real goal here is to have something to blame when I roll nothing but 1s in an evening I can’t wait to try it out next session!
I’ve been told a few times over the years to “get a life”. I suppose they meant something mean, but who cares. I decided to get one anyways! And in doing so, I decided to create my very own DIY 1up Mushroom Plush. If you’re looking to get a life yourself, feel free to download the pattern follow the video instructions and make your very own!
I made mine in green and white, but there’s no reason why you couldn’t create an army of these cute little guys in pretty much any colors you can think of (or find the fabric for). I’d recommend staying away from green and purple though, those poisonous little buggers are a bad time.
If you’ve seen the latest season of South Park (and if you haven’t, I recommend you do), you know exactly what member berries are. They’re these little bunches of grape looking guys that are nostalgia flavoured. Member Chewbacca? Oh yeah. Member the Millennium Falcon? I member. Since these guys are so adorable, and therefore extremely deadly (at least to civilization), I’ve decided to give them their very own physical form. I’ve created a DIY Member Berries plush tutorial that turned out just as I hoped it would.
The only caveat I’ll give is that while making one of these little fella’s isn’t too bad. Making a dozen of them certainly ups the amount of time it takes to do this project. So don’t expect to put this together in an hour or two. Each berry is made from three pieces of fabric which when you’re making a dozen of them means you’re going to be cutting and sewing thirty six pieces of purple, sewing on twenty four buttons, and a dozen mouths. Fairly simple to do, but I was at this for awhile.
As I’ve mentioned in my last post, I’ve recently returned to the world of Dungeons & Dragons. I’m about half way through the latest story, Storm Kings Thunder with a fantastic group of people who are part of my Adventurers League group. If you’re on the fence about playing, I highly recommend it. It’s never been easier to get started, and the 5th edition rules are the best they’ve made so far (In my not so humble opinion). So of course, each week I bring my gear with me. Players Handbook. Character sheets. And of course, my dice. And since I’ve been playing for a LONG time, I’ve managed to pick up more than a couple sets. So when deciding what I was going to make next for my nerd crafts, I made the call to make a brand new dice bag.
Now if you’ve been watching my nerdcrafts for a while, you’ll know that I’ve made a few dice bags already. The first was a bag to hold all my small dice bags and the second was based on Evil Mad Scientist’s D20 pattern. The first one was simply too simple for what I wanted. It had a draw string, but I really wanted a zipper. The second has a zipper, but the pattern wasn’t exactly what I had in mind, and is generally a very challenging piece to put together.
I feel this latest dice bag really hits that sweet spot between being too simple, and too complex. It looks great, stays flat and isn’t too crazy to put together. Hopefully you’ll feel the same!
So I’ve recently (and finally) gotten back into playing Dungeons and Dragons. It’s amazing how much I’ve missed it. I really do enjoy the shared experience of telling a story together with a group of people. Since I don’t know enough people where I am who play D&D, once I made my decision to start again, I had a look around for an Adventurers League group. Fortune smiled upon me, since it turns out that there was a group nearby that was just starting its run of the newest adventure from the folks at Wizards of the Coast, Storm King’s Thunder. Registration was opening soon, and there was a limit of about 20 people to play. Naturally I made sure I was there in plenty of time to ensure I had a seat. In this case, that was being there about 4 hours ahead of schedule. And boy am I glad I was there early. I think there was about 3 people ahead of me in the line, and within the hour, all the available spots had filled right up.
Of course, since I’ve also started putting out new content on my crafting channel, it seemed like an appropriate theme for me to tackle for some new content. So I’m starting off part 1 of a two part set of videos by creating an iron on D&D logo badge. I’ve got something specific in mind for me to put it on, but it’s something you can use on pretty much anything, assuming your anything has about 3″x3″ amount of space to iron on the badge.
If you’re looking to make this, but don’t know how to cross stitch, I’ve put up a cross stitch basics video as well to get you started. I’ve been doing this for at least 25 years now, and I doubt I’ll ever stop. It make take a lot of time to finish a project, but I’m always happy with them when I’m done.
Recently I purchased a copy of the board game Splendor. I’ve played it a few times since, and enjoyed myself every time. I’ve lost every time, but that happens. I’ll get better! What I did notice about the game though, is that while the packaging that does come with it is very well made; Easy to access places for the gem coins; Nice slots for holding the cards; The actual amount of space it uses is pretty excessive. I then decided that I’d come up with my very own DIY Splendor case so that I could fix that.
So I sat down with some paper and all the components of the game, and started designing. Eventually I came up with something that fits all the bits, and takes up about a third the amount of space as the original box. It took a couple tweaks t get it to where I was happy with it, but now that I’ve got one, I doubt I’ll ever use the original box again.
There are 3 files you’ll need in order to create this. At the minimum, you’ll need the pattern. I’ve also made some stickers for the outside of the box, but feel free to decorate this any way you’d like. I’ve also created a condensed copy of the rules so you’ve got a reference that fits inside the box.
Well it’s been more than awhile since I’ve made a nerdy craft for y’all, so I suppose it’s time I fixed that. My latest video is up, and in it I show you how to convert an AiKiou Stimulo cat food dispenser into something a bit more Marioesque. I originally saw this dispenser over at NerdECrafters place, and thought it looks a LOT like the warp pipes from Super Mario Bros. So when I found one of the feeders at my local vets I decided I should really come up with a way to finish the job.
You’ll need the cat treat dispenser, the pattern which needs to be printed on sticker paper, and some 3/16″ foam core. That’s about it.
It’s Super (Mario) easy to put together, and it will make food time with the cats a whole lot more adorable. If they can figure out how to get it out that is. You might need to send in a plumber.
I’ve started a fairly ambitious project. My end game isn’t 100% finalized yet, but to get where I’m going I’ve decided I want to learn how to create perler bead animations. My test subject; Super Mario Bros. I really feel this game is a great choice for my project since it’s got a fairly limited set of sprites to work with, a smallish set of colors, and it’s super well recognized.
Initially I’d planned to make them using what I normally use to edit my videos, Final Cut Pro X. However, it became pretty clear right away that this was not going to work for anything beyond super simple animations. So I did a bit of looking, and decided to try my hand at learning Motion 5. It seemed like a good place to start, since it seems to be similar to FCPX, but be much more suited to creating motion graphics.
So off I went, and I have now got a rudimentary idea of how Motion 5 works. I’m a LONG way from being a pro, and it might turn out that it’s the wrong tool for the job in the end. But for now, I’m gonna keep plugging away at this, and see how it goes.