Toralei Stripe Cosplay - Monster High

I made all these pieces from scratch, including hand screening all the patterns on my arms, legs, kerchief, and the dress! I will post a more in-depth breakdown of my Toralei Stripe cosplay when I have a chance (it was an intensive process to say the least!). For now you can enjoy some of the photos :)

All Photo Credits: TM 2012 SMASHWORKS. All Rights Reserved.

Toronto Zombie Walk 2011 - Baywatch Zombies

For Toronto Zombie Walk 2011 I finally got to execute a concept that I had envisioned over two years ago! Last year I had to miss doing the zombie walk because of my new insane grad school workload but this year I was having none of it. Baywatch and zombies seem like the perfect combination to me so I was dying (harhar) to do a mash-up for the walk. The garments were all modified and distressed for the costume and I made the patches myself. All the makeup and prosthetics I did from scratch! The best part was that we did the slow motion Baywatch run zombie style, it was great to hear people cracking up as we passed them on the street :) There are a ton of photos online of us but I'm only posting three!

Oh yes, and we made it on to BlogTO! :) http://www.blogto.com/city/2011/10/toronto_zombie_walk_2011/

Monster High Fearleading Cosplay - Frankie Stein

The final costume of the Monster High cosplay trio that I designed was my own character Frankie Stein :) As with Draculaura and Deuce Gorgon's costumes, I designed mine from scratch, hand screening all the trims, body coverings and using a vector rendering of the MH logo I'd drawn for the chest. I had never modified a wig before this project so that was a HUGE accomplishment. I'm so happy with it I think I'll likely do a post just to show it close-up :) I made it stable enough that it hasn't changed since I first put it on! This costume between the uniform, arm and leg coverings, and the f/x makeup was a huge amount of work and I couldn't be happier with how it turned out!

Photo Credit: TM 2011 SMASHWORKS. All Rights Reserved. 

Photo Credit: TM 2011 SMASHWORKS. All Rights Reserved. 

I made the earrings from scratch using my long-lost childhood sculpting skills with Fimo/Sculpty and created Frankie's skull earrings. My ears are stretched larger than a normal gauge plus a normal ear piercing wouldn't be able to handle the weight of these so I opted for the clip-on earring backs. They were nearly impossible to find in the city! I could not believe the amount of store employees that gave me brain dead stares when I asked if they carried them. Who would have known they were so rare!

Photo Credit: TM 2011 SMASHWORKS. All Rights Reserved. 

The f/x makeup was done by myself. I made the cheek stitches from scratch, actually sewing through the semi-completed prosthetic while it was on my face. It turned out great! I loved being able to incorporate some authentic elements into something like this.

Photo Credit: TM 2011 SMASHWORKS. All Rights Reserved. 

Monster High Casketball Cosplay - Deuce Gorgon

Ah, Deuce Gorgon. Putting the Deuce in seduce ;) This year I was very excited to have my partner join me for his first time cosplaying! After debating which Monster High character he wanted to be for Fan Expo Canada we decided on Deuce Gorgon. I had a heck of a time figuring out how to translate his snake hair and initially planned on doing an insane f/x prosthetic. In the end there just wasn't the time to execute it so I came up with an alternative plan and it worked beautifully. I designed a hat and hand screened a gradient print that was a larger scale pattern to what Deuce's hair looks like. Instead of opting for the Casketball hair version where his snakes are sticking up, I opted to go with the flipped down style of his Dawn of the Dance hair. This was more fun anyways since my partner got to flip it from side to side and put a snake in front of his eyes like a loose curl when he felt like it :)

Photo Credit: TM 2011 SMASHWORKS. All Rights Reserved.

I made the uniform from scratch, hand screening the trims and drawing a vector MH logo for the chest. I also made the socks and hand screened the pattern on them. The glasses were painted with stained glass paint to make them green.

Photo Credit: TM 2011 SMASHWORKS. All Rights Reserved. 

Monster High Fearleading Cosplay - Draculaura

After attending SDCC (San Diego Comic Con) this year and meeting Garrett Sander, creator and design manager of Monster High I knew I HAD to do this group cosplay for Fan Expo Canada 2011. Initially the friends I usually do a group cosplay at Fan Expo Canada were all going to join in this Monster High epicness (I'm the official costume maker for the group) but a large number of them couldn't attend this year! Regardless of that, we represented with a group of 3 and I don't think it could have be more epic :)  

This is the lovely Draculaura in my original Fearleading uniform costume design. I made the uniform from scratch, even hand screening the trims. Many many many yards of trim! I also created a vector logo in Illustrator for the MH logo on the uniform chest. Draculaura made her own wig and did her own f/x makeup, all for her first time. I think she looks great!

Photo Credit: TM 2011 SMASHWORKS. All Rights Reserved. 

I made the earrings from scratch too, free-handing the design on shrinking plastic and then making them into earrings. If you've seen my blog before you know how much I like to play in the area between 2 and 3 dimensional props so I liked the idea of using these for her costume instead of real safety pins :)

Photo Credit: TM 2011 SMASHWORKS. All Rights Reserved. 

Monster High Cosplay - Fan Expo 2011 PREVIEW - UPDATE!

UPDATE! I've now published three new posts about my Monster High Fearleading (and Casketball) cosplay designs for Frankie Stein, Deuce Gorgon, and Draculaura! Check them out :)

I can't resist posting this one.. 

Photo Credit: TM 2011 SMASHWORKS. All Rights Reserved.

(ORIGINAL POST)
I attended SDCC (San Diego Comic Con) this year and one of the many highlights was meeting Garrett Sander, creator and design manager of Monster High at the official MH booth! The experience along with all the amazing doll prototypes pretty much decided it for me.. I was determined to cosplay as Monster High characters for Fan Expo Canada 2011!

I'll be doing a long post for these costumes but this is a sneak peek! I designed the entire costumes from scratch for Frankie Stein, Deuce Gorgon, and Draculaura (minus her wig which she did herself). So excited to do a post on these, they were a huge amount of work but I am so happy with how they turned out! Can't wait to do more ;)

Photo Credit: TM 2011 SMASHWORKS. All Rights Reserved.

Halloween 2010 (2.0) - Chucky.. also known as "The Lakeshore Strangler"

My second Halloween costume undertaking this year was Charles Lee "Chucky" Ray who is also known as "The Lakeshore Strangler" by horror aficionados :) I unfortunately had to miss the Zombie Walk earlier in the month, breaking my yearly tradition so decided to console myself by morphing into a character that still haunts many. I did all the f/x makeup from scratch, using a combination of scar wax and liquid latex for the base, adding color. After sealing it, I manually sewed in the stitches with a needle and fishing line.

I made a shirt from scratch after realizing that rainbow striped long sleeved shirts are impossible to find! Who would have thought. I screened the "Good Guys" logo on a pair of overalls and found a pair of red kicks that I added the white stripes to. After that, all I needed was a nice sharp knife and a switch blade... Oh yes, and a creepy frozen smile that I kept on throughout the night..

Hi. I'm Chucky, wanna play?

Photo Credit: TM 2010 Matt Demir. All Rights Reserved.

Photo Credit: TM 2010 Kat Sylvester. All Rights Reserved.

Halloween 2009 - Vampira & Absinthe/Green Faerie

Long awaited Halloween costume post! I unfortunately only have full costume photographs of my second costume, The Green Faerie, or Absinthe Faerie. My first costume was Vampira, cult goddess and horror movie host from the 50s! I got a corset made specifically to use with this costume and although it was insanely late on delivery, it thankfully fit and worked with the dress I made.

For the Absinthe Faery I used green powder over the entirety of my exposed skin which took quite some time as I had different shades for contouring. I didn't want to make myself look completely flat, especially on the contours of my face. Additionally, I had elf ears which were somewhat a pain because it turns out they are quite impossible to do the initial adhering by yourself. This is a two person job! Luckily I got some help last minute for which I was very grateful.

The dress was actually two separate dresses, the top layer made of a two-toned voile that I frayed around the edges. The under dress was made of green satin.

I was extremely excited about making the wings! Instead of doing the typical wings with straps, I decided to experiment with a version that was strapless. It stays on with a reinforced circle of metal wire that slides between your bra band and your center back. It was amazing! I was worried it might not stay in there but it didn't come out once. And I also had the ease of just plucking it out from my back when I was navigating through extremely busy areas.


The wings themselves were made of green tinted cellophane. After cutting out the wing shapes I wanted, I took two different gauges of wire and made veins running through them, using the largest pieces to adhere them to the circle base. Then, I ironed the top and bottom wing pieces together and to finish, repeated ironing with a textured piece of fabric on top so they would have a discreet pattern across them.

American McGee's Alice Costume

Finally, I have had time to start photographing my backlog of design projects! This was my American McGee's Alice costume design from FALL '08. For the event, I'd also done really nasty slashed wrists that I had stitched back up and they looked realistic enough to make people gag, including Kat who knows my F/X capabilities well enough:) lol