I don’t do many book reviews on iGT, but I couldn’t resist the opportunity to do so for Bonnie Burton’s amazing new book, ‘The Star Wars Craft Book’. If you haven’t been living inside a Sarlacc, you know who Bonnie is. Bonnie Burton (@bonniegrrl) is the editor and blogger of StarWars.com, a Twitter fiend that never sleeps, and also a published author (see Bonnie’s bibliography). Bonnie’s newest book, ‘The Star Wars Craft Book’ helps fans of the Force to create awesome home-made Star Wars goodies from materials you can find at your home. The book features crafts that you can do yourself at home ranging from “playtime” crafts like puppets and dolls, home decor crafts for the kitchen and living room, Holiday inspired crafts for Christmas and other holidays, “nature and science” crafts for the backyard, and “Star Wars Style” which includes DIY apparel. My favorite section of the book has to home decor. As a die-hard fan of Star Wars, I do struggle to find more unique ways to decorate my home. While you can just go out and buy a random Star Wars poster to hang on your wall, it seems more satisfying to makes your own Jabba the Hutt body pillow for your bed room or even a “Han Solo in Soaponite” for your guest bathroom. Its those personal touches that will liven up your home while showing your guests that you are down with the Fett.
While most children and teens these days spend a majority of their free time stuck in front of the TV or the computer, The Star Wars Craft Book can be a great alternative for kids/teens to have fun while utilizing their imagination. The book beautifully lays out the instructions for each craft with easy to understand pictures. While the difficulties of the crafts do range from easy to moderate through out the book, with a little patience and maybe some trial and error, you can follow the simple step-by-step directions to successfully create any craft in the book. One of the best parts of the book would have to be whats not in it. Each of the crafts in the books teaches the reader many different ways to create homemade crafts. Taking the basic principles and skills learned from each craft, the reader can apply that knowledge to a new craft that they create themselves. After going through the book, one of the first things I wanted to try is to take the instructions for the “Wookiee Bird House” (using a 1/2 gallon milk carton and craft sticks) and create an Imperial AT-ST Walker bird house.
Bonnie’s new book is something that every family with Star Wars fans needs and is a great book to use for some family fun. Whether your a child that loves ‘Star Wars: The Clone Wars’ or someone like me who loves the original movies, there is something for you in this book. ‘The Star Wars Craft Book’ is a delight full of whimsey with a side of badassery.
Now, I’m must go and start my “Washcloth Wampa” doll.
You can get your copy of ‘The Star Wars Craft Book’ by Bonnie Burton on Amazon or Barnes&Nobles !
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BEHOLD! iGeektrooper’s first contest ever! To celebrate the release of Bonnie Burton’s (@bonniegrrl) new book, ‘The Star Wars Craft Book’, I will give a chance for one lucky reader to win the book! Here’s how to play:
1. Follow me on Twitter at @geektrooper (While you’re at it, join our Facebook fan page as well)
2. Tweet the following including the link:
IT’S A CRAFT! Go and buy @bonniegrrl’s new book, ‘The Star Wars Craft Book’ now because @geektrooper said so! http://bit.ly/etxCSj
3. Paste the link to your Tweet in the comments area below. Click the time stamp on your tweet to get the link.
That is it! Pretty simple huh? The contest ends on Sunday April 10, 2011 at midnight (Pacific Time Zone). One lucky winner will be chosen on Monday and announced on Twitter! Just to make sure people don’t spam like a bot, there will be only one entry allowed per Twitter user. Sorry bots.
Good luck troopers!
UPDATE: Congratulations to @LetTheWookieWin for winning our first contest!
Don’t worry folks! We will have more contests in the near future. I promise!
Colorado resident Anthony Le must REALLY love his Iron Man. Considering his feat of making his own bad-ass War Machine costume for the premiere of Iron Man 2 in May is quite impressive. Anthony’s costume is no simple, half-assed cardboard cutout with black sharpie marker colored all over it. This War Machine cosplay is the result of labor intensive work and precision. More impressive is the fact that his War Machine costume was drafted and designed based on a small tidbit that he saw of War Machine during the Iron Man 2 teaser that premiered at San Diego Comic Con this past year. Considering, it is most likely that he had to guess on some of the parts, he did an amazing job. This bad-ass is completely made of high impact urethane material and actually uses about 600+ rivets to give War Machine a little more bite. On top of that, this cosplay features light up repulsor gauntlets and a vibrant arc reactor. This sir, sets the bar pretty high when it comes to fan created armor costumes. The late Stan Winston would be proud. Cheers to you Mr. Le. I want to buy you a Corona.
Hit the jump to check out the epic madness (pictures and specs) by Anthony.
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What would you do if you were knee deep in baddies in a post-apocalyptic Washington D.C.? Freakin’ shoot everything that moves of course! Your weapon of choice would have to be the military grade AER9 laser rifle, which is also the weapon used by “The Brotherhood of Steel” and the “Enclave” in Bethesda Game Studio’s epic action RPG, Fallout 3.
What?! You don’t have an AER9 laser rifle? Go make one then! Over a span of 30 hours, Master craftsmen and graphic artist, Harrison Krix of Volpin Props (located in Atlanta, Georgia) designed and fabricated a full scale replica of the AER9 laser rifle out of wood. WOOD I say!!! Even though it is not made of titanium like in the game, Harrison’s wooden replica is quite wicked to look at. Due to Harrison’s amazing attention to detail and “heavy weathering” painting technique, the finished product looks like the real thing.
I am quiet envious of Harrison as the best thing I ever made of wood was an pencil holder (which ended up being used as an ashtray) in woodshop class in middle school. My hat helmet off to you Mr. Krix for your amazing work! Hit the jump to see a closer in depth look to how it was made!
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Is it THIS cool?!
When I read a science publication, whether it’s printed or digital, and I see two of the most awesome and powerful words known to man placed together and used to describe an object, any object, I get all kinds of giddy with anticipation to see what sort of devastation such an object could unleash. Read the rest of this entry »
Lawn ornaments are a rarity these days. I can honestly say that I have never seen a plastic flamingo or a garden gnome displayed on someone’s yard before. I don’t think I would have ever thought of putting one on display myself, until today. DeviantArt-ist Jaime Margary (AKA Kalapusa) created a bitchin’ lawn ornament of Super Mario Bros. baddie, Pirahna Pete out of modeling clay. This is definitely not the 8-bit rendition of the chomper as Pirahna Pete features some hideously wicked fangs and sickly textured skin. On top of that, Jaime also created a “baby” version of Pirahna Pete which he will be auctioning off on eBay. Hit the jump to see more images plus a info on how to make your own!
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