diy cosplay

Darth Vader Accessories

As you know, one of my cosplays for MegaCon Orlando this year was Glam Vader (Lady Vader). I wanted to share how I made some of my glittering, fabulous accessories: my chest box and belt. My crafty and skilled friend, Scotty, helped me tremendously! Here’s how I put it together:

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Scotty crafted the boxes for me in his workshop and I couldn’t be more grateful to him for that. Once I had them in my hands, I gave them all a good sanding and used a clear coat to help seal them prior to painting.

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I sprayed them all down with a gray primer next. Then, I painted the majority of the boxes black. Once dry, I carefully (and time-consumingly) taped off all the “buttons” and painted each their respective flat color with acrylics. Before removing the tape, I painted the buttons again with the corresponding glitter paint and then, gave them each a healthy dose of regular craft glitter. For the silver pieces, I taped off the surrounding buttons and sprayed them with a silver glitter spray paint that I had.

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Once all the boxes was good and sparkley, I decorated them with rhinestones using krazy glue. The final step in this process was to give them a good glitter-sealing clear shine coat.

After giving my belt (just a regular men’s black belt) a spray of glitter, I was ready to attach the boxes. I used velcro to do this and it worked perfectly. I had originally intended to remove the original buckle on the belt and add snaps but it was getting down to the wire (con procrastination is so real) and I scrapped that idea… for now.

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I gave my Vader helmet a coat of glitter spray paint and sealer also because the Glam is strong with this one. For the chest box, I used another section of the velcro tape to attach it to my corset the day of the con. Perhaps not the best solution but it held all day at the con and I can always figure out another solution for next time. (But I’ll probably just use another section of velcro tape again.)

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Thanks for reading!

Love, GK

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D.I.Y. – Cosplay Shoes

Today, I spent the day working on shoes for the Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn costumes I’ve designed for an upcoming comic con in my area. I want to share how I transformed two old pairs of shoes into villainous footwear with a little spray paint. Here’s the paint I used:

I started by taping off the shoes anywhere I didn’t want paint to reach. I used small pieces of tape, mostly, and spent a lot of time and care doing this. Putting in the time during this step really pays off in the end. For the Poison Ivy heels, I taped off the entire bottom of each shoe (I taped off another section later.) The Harley Quinn boots posed a slight challenge when I was deciding exactly how I wanted to spray them. I decided to only spray the tops of the boots with her signature diamond pattern bringing the red into the black lower half. (This way I wouldn’t have to spray over the zipper or buckles.)

I used newspaper to section off the bottom of the boots and protect the inside of the heels.

I used a pool noodle, cut in half, and more newspaper to steady the boots for spraying. I sprayed each pair of shoes with two thin coats of their respective base color allowing about 40 minutes of dry time between coats.

Next, I sprayed each shoe with two thin coats of glitter spray paint. Again, I allowed about 40 minutes between coats. (Before praying with glitter, I taped off the platform and heel on the Poison Ivy pair to achieve a two toned finish.)

Once completely dry, I sprayed each shoe with the glitter spray clear sealer and let dry. Finally, I carefully removed all the tape and admired my work. I also glued some of the ivy leaves from the rest of the Poison Ivy costume to the front of each green heel.

There you have it! Completely transformed a couple of old shoes into brilliant costume pieces. The techniques used here don’t have to be applied strictly to cosplay projects; you can jazz up any old pair of shoes however you’d like!

Thanks for reading! I can’t wait to post pictures of each costume once they’re  completed!

Love, GK