DIY Life

Batman kicks butt in his latest movie, The Dark Knight, a gloomy yet action-packed flick that scored big at the box office this weekend. A summer blockbuster has been born, to be sure. The stunningly cool vehicles used in the movie are attracting interest all on their own, especially the sleekly menacing Bat-Pod motorcycle.

It turns out the bike was a bit of a DIY job on the part of the film's creators. According to an article in Popular Mechanics, the 'Pod is actually a motorcycle-ATV hybrid, all wrapped up with plumbing parts and some creative duct-work. The entire exhaust frame was custom built especially for the movie, while those massive wheels suffered blow-out after blow-out until the steering was just right. Another cool little factoid: the footrests disguise the bike's radiator.

Speaking of The Dark Knight, the movie's star, Christian Bale, seems to have gotten himself into a spot of bother with the police. Read all about it at our sister site, Cinematical.

Iron Man gear is all the rage these days, thanks to the popularity of the new hit movie. We recently went to my nephew's fourth birthday party, and as a gift, he received an Iron Man mask and an arm attachment that shoots discs. Ah, the weaponry a four-year-old apparently needs....

If you've got an Iron Man buff in your household, why spend the money on a store-bought mask and arc reactor when you can build one yourself? Details after the break.

About a month or so ago, a set of Lord of the Rings amigurumi made by Sammi Resendes (Craftster user Artoo1121) and her boyfriend were prominently featured on a number of sites. The dolls were unusually detailed, with full cloth outfits resembling their film costumes, painted "embroidery," and tiny polymer clay accessories like helmets and staffs. However, there were no instructions for you to make them at home.

Since then, however, Sammi has posted free instructions for how to make the Fellowship of the Ring in crocheted doll form on her blog, Geek Central Station. There are several patterns:

• The Hobbits and Gimli
• Aragorn and Boromir
• Gandalf and Legolas

The hitch? The clothing patterns aren't free: they can be purchased from the Geek Central Station Etsy shop for $7. That price seems reasonable to me, given how much work went into them.

In the meantime, amigurumi lovers will want to keep an eye on Geek Central Station: Indiana Jones is the latest character to join the fun, and a line of Star Wars dolls has also appeared, with some patterns available for purchase. Sammi says the cast of Futurama will be next! [via]

Carol Meldrum's book Knitted Icons came out recently. It features ten-inch-tall knit versions of various celebrities, ranging from Chairman Mao to Gandhi, Queen Elizabeth II to Madonna. At this writing, it's the featured book at Urban Outfitters' online shop, and as such, they have a free pattern from the book for you to download.

You can make this adorable Audrey Hepburn doll, which depicts the beloved actress as Holly Golightly in her iconic Breakfast at Tiffany's gown and updo. (Sadly, Holly's eyelash-embellished sleep mask is not part of the outfit.) It's done in four different Rowan yarns, and even has a tiny tiara, necklace, and cigarette holder.

It would make a wonderful holiday gift for your most stylish friend, albeit a kitschy one. Here's a direct link to the zipped PDF file: Audrey Hepburn as Holly Golightly.

It's been over a week since Halloween. For days, you've been nagging your roommate to take down that ghost decoration they put up in the corner of the living room, near the ceiling. The trouble is, said roommate (who is usually pretty good about washing the dishes and not using all the toilet paper without buying more) claims not to have put up a ghost decoration anywhere in the house.

Meanwhile, the ghost stares at you balefully, waves its arms around, attempts to make spooky noises, leaves ectoplasm stains on the walls, and is starting to gather dust. You think you may have a bit of a problem on your hands: you're not afraid, you're annoyed. So, who you gonna call? There aren't many actual exorcists in the phone book, let alone Dr. Peter Venkman. (Does he even count as an "actual exorcist"? I mean, have you seen the man work?)

My prescription: get a copy of Ghostbusters and run it incessantly on your DVD player this weekend. At the same time, visit the Ghostbusters Prop Archive, a site dedicated to building all sorts of replica props from the film. Make a point of lingering on the pages for Proton Packs and Ghost Traps: print out a few plans, make some notes, and, most importantly, let your uninvited house-guest see you doing it. Periodically make calculating glances in his direction. Munch on marshmallows.

If your ghost is a reasonably bright ghost, he'll put two and two together and head for someone else's apartment. He doesn't have to know that you're not figuring out how to build real ghost traps, right?

If you just want to make some costumes and props for Ghostbusters cosplay or fan films, the GPA would probably work for that, too, I guess... because I'm joking about the exorcism idea. The site has all the detailed information, screen grabs, and building suggestions you could possibly need to make your project a success. There's even a small shop full of elements that may be difficult to find: knobs for the goggles, belts for the uniforms, etc. Get busting!

The Munsters and The Addams Family are two classic television shows that, aside from being destined to air back-to-back in syndicated reruns until the end of time, instantly call Halloween to mind. I personally prefer the Addams Family, but there's one thing that the Munsters had over them in spades: really cool cars.

The Munster Koach, created by the studio of legendary auto customizer George Barris, is an 18-foot-long, hearse-like hot rod made from parts from three Ford Model Ts on a handmade frame. It had a gloss pearl black exterior and a red velvet interior, and cost $18,000 to build in 1964. It served as the family car in the series. Two Koaches were eventually created, along with Grandpa's iconic coffin-based car, the Drag-U-La.

Now you can create a third, when you check out Cláudio Dias's excellent paper model of the Munster Koach at PaperInside. But mortal, be warned! His close attention to detail means this isn't an easy papercraft. You'll be making multiple parts in glossy golden foil, and along with some complex cutting and gluing, you'll need to have good paper-folding skills under your belt. Cláudio has some tips on building his Munster Koach; at the very least, read all his posts to the topic at the link before you start.

When you're ready to take it on, you can download the model for free. Happy haunting!

The Jawas are a Star Wars species known for their propensity to scavenge and resell mechanical objects. Wouldn't it be ironic if you turned the tables and built a Jawa of your own?

To make the body, you build an armature out of plastic conduit pipe, then you pad out the shape of the figure with foam. The hands are a padded wire form covered with gloves, the eyes are flashlights with amber reflectors over the bulb, and the head is a big Styrofoam ball, cut and drilled into the correct shape. The eyes are inserted into drilled holes, and the head is covered with fabric. You'll sew and detail a cloak, then paint it to look like your Jawa has been hanging out in the deserts of Tatooine for a long time. Finally, you'll finish with purchased accessories and put it all together.

This process should cost you a little over $100, and even that is mostly the $40 leather bandolier that the Jawas wear; you'll also need a few power tools. If you're ready for the challenge, you could have one finished in time to greet Trick-or-Treaters in less than a week; you could also easily adapt the instructions to build any kind of spooky little standing figure that your heart desires. Visit How To Make Your Own Jawa for more details!

The Nightmare Before Christmas was released in 2003 1993. It quickly went from being a cult favorite to being a Halloween classic: if Christmas has multiple versions of A Christmas Carol, and full ownership of Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer, Nightmare could be the definitive Halloween movie. (We won't tell Sleepy Hollow about this. Heads might roll!)

One of the most endearing characters in Nightmare is Zero, Jack Skellington's ghostly dog. Zero does very little but behave like a living dog, bounding happily around, being affectionate towards his friends. He has a pumpkin nose and a dog-shaped head, but otherwise looks like a sheet draped over a dog's form.

Livejournal user Lizville has created a Zero crochet pattern! Not exactly amigurumi -- the "sheet" part of the character's design keeps it from being crocheted entirely in the round -- but impossibly cute, down to his little embroidered orange nose. You may want to make one for yourself; however, since the 3-D version of the film is currently in theaters, you may also find yourself making one for a young friend who's seeing the movie for the first time.

(And if you love The Nightmare Before Christmas, be sure to check out Jackyll & Hide, Knitty's clever Jack Skellington hat/mask!)

[via Craftster.]

Edited: Yeah, I know it was 1993! Weird error.

Knitty just sent out an email announcing a special new fall project, Jackyll and hide.

What is it? A ski mask themed to resemble Jack Skellington from The Nightmare Before Christmas! Furthermore, Saskia de Feijter has designed her mask so that it can be worn as a perfectly normal-looking white knit hat: just flip up the bottom half. That means it'll be useful for the rest of the winter, too. Those sneaky ghosts!

This would make a great Halloween costume, along with the shirts you can buy that have the associated parts of the skeleton printed on them.

(Speaking of which: don't forget that the Disney Digital 3D version of The Nightmare Before Christmas is going to be playing in theaters for three weeks this year! If you love the movie, it's totally worth it.)

Stop the presses! This just in! Breaking news! Lego has released their largest ever building set and Star Wars fans are drooling themselves to death. The Ultimate Collector's Millennium Falcon kit boasts over five thousand pieces and is large enough, at nearly three feet long, to hold action figures in it's flip top cockpit. The kit comes complete with five action figures including Han Solo, Chewbacca, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia Organa. Also included is an official certificate of authenticity.

The kits from the original production run (undeclared quantity) will each be released with their own certificate of authenticity sealed in the protective box. The Lego site indicates that certificate numbers will be randomly released in the interest of fairness. The model features many moving parts, comes with a display card detailing ship specifications and stands without a base on it's own landing gear.

Oh yeah, the kit will set you back $500. No one ever said being a Star Wars fan would come cheap.

Here are some other great Lego ideas we've blogged about!

Did you know that today is International Talk Like A Pirate Day? Every year, I take this opportunity to call my dog a "scurvy bilge rat" while she barks for her breakfast, to say ARRRRRRRR! a lot, and, of course, to watch Certain Films Starring Johnny Depp.

Last year, I was hit with the inspiration to do a massive post on my personal craft blog, full of every pirate-related craft I could possibly find on the Internet. The focus was knitting, but I also looked at kids' crafts, model ships, beading, embroidery... you name it, and if it was out there, I tried to find it.

What I came up with was Craft Like A Pirate: more pirate craft links than you can shake a parrot at.* Many of these crafts are admittedly those with skull motifs, but there are also treasure chests, booty, striped items, and so on. A few that are close to my heart are the We Call Them Pirates hat, The Pirate Queen's Booty Bag, Jack Sparrow's Favorite Socks, and Yorick, a scarf with skull shapes on both ends.

Since then, I've turned up much more. Sail on through to the rest of the article to see what treasure awaits!

*Please don't shake parrots. It's a mean thing to do to the parrot, and besides, they will bite you.

The advent of cheap digital video cameras and accessible editing software has opened up the world of filmmaking to anyone with a few hundred dollars and an ample amount of free time. Of course, as is the case with most creative industries, the sudden influx of amateur footage has made the distinction between well-shot and poorly-shot film drastically more obvious.

The trademarks of the novice filmmaker are many: shaky footage, poor lighting, terrible audio, choppy editing, and that's to say nothing about the plot itself or the acting. Shooting high-quality footage isn't as hard as you might expect, and it doesn't require a second mortgage to pay for brand new, state-of-the-art video equipment. Well-shot video from a $250 camera is much preferred to crappy footage from a $18,000 Red One.

In hopes of teaching you how to shoot your own professional-grade video on an amateur-grade budget, we're featuring several posts that will highlight DIY projects to help improve your filmmaking. To kick things off, I thought we'd take a look at various DIY camera rigs and mounts. The first step in shooting quality video is to capture smooth, steady footage -- unless, of course, you're going for that in-your-face, cinema vérité look, where the more your camera shakes the better.

Following are eight projects that will help steady your camera, and give you the flexibility to shoot from a variety of unique vantages.

Over the last few days, we've talked a lot about amigurumi, cute crocheted or knitted dolls.

Soon after American crafters were introduced to the amigurumi concept, they started making amigurumi inspired by their favorite characters in pop culture. For obvious reasons, this leaned heavily towards SF fandom, anime, and manga, but don't be surprised to find a couple of real people in the mix.

• Star Wars: This detailed amigurumi version of Wicket the Ewok is done in two parts (tutorial here). Not everyone likes the Ewoks, but who can say no to Yoda? Both are for crocheters.
• Futurama: Bender Bending Rodriguez! He likes beer! Like a jerkier version of Homer Simpson, in robot form, in the future.
• Card Captor Sakura: Kerochan, above, the suspiciously cute guardian of a magical deck of cards. The creator of this pattern also crocheted the "studious Amineko" that has been our amigurumi mascot for the last few days.

Click through for pirates, Daleks, and more... oh my!

The long-awaited Simpsons Movie opens today, and KaptinScarlet's post on Instructables shows you how to make the filling-leaking pink sprinkled donut used in the advertising for the film. (That KaptinScarlet is a glue-gun hero!) All you'll need is plastic bags, masking tape, hot glue, spray paint, and a few other supplies, then you can mount the finished donut on a trophy base or in a shadowbox case.

If you have, like some people I know, been collecting Simpsons action figures for most of the last decade, this could be a great centerpiece for your collection. However, if decorative fake donuts aren't your thing, why not try this recipe for real jelly donuts? Homer would approve.

Last week, I made a little post called Pottercraft, which some of you seemed to like. But no sooner had the post gone up than I discovered a whole new cache of Harry Potter-related projects to delight and amuse... or bemuse, depending on your personal feelings about rampant fandom.

Many of the following projects were found on Instructables, and most are costume-related. A few are quite technical. While it's too late to work them up for a book release party, you can still get a head start on a cool Halloween costume or a present for your favorite Potter fan. There's also a contest where you can vote for your favorites (though not, alas, SophieAngele's dragon wheelchair, which she posted on Craftster).

Join me after the break for more wizardry!