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DIY 8 Bit Wall Art! | Nerdy Crafts!

July 10, 2015 by Jamie Satterwaite 3 Comments

DIY 8 Bit Wall Art! | Nerdy Crafts!

I love anything and everything when it comes to vintage games. I have done some perler bead projects in the past, but wanted to go BIG! So that is exactly what I did with this DIY 8 Bit Wall Art!

It started off simple, I seen the trailer for the new Pixels movie coming out and had decided on doing Blinky the ghost from Pac-man… and then it just kind of escalated from there. I had small 1/2 -inch blocks and larger 1 inch blocks so I decided to also do one of my all time favorite characters, Bobba Fett, in the larger blocks (I am a bit of a Star Wars fan)! I ran out of smaller blocks, but ordered more so that I can make all of the Pac-man characters to hang above my door in my office.

He looks great hanging under my DIY Donkey Kong shelves! Hubby has already stated that once his office is completed he will be stealing him from me. I won’t let that happen though, he is all mine! The kids are even going to be making some of there own for their room remodels and I can’t wait to see what they come up with!

I ordered the blocks online in bulk, and was surprisingly cheap! Plus, they arrived pretty fast, so I could get crafting! There is nothing worse than wanting to make something and then have to wait for supplies, but thankfully I only had to wait about 3 days.

Items needed:

Wooden Blocks

Wood Glue (I like Gorilla Glue)

Paint

Paint Brush

Hanger for the back ( I used Sawtooth mounts that I found at my local hardware store)

Since I did not have a template to use, I have created a few of my favorite characters so that you can use them!

Who is your favorite vintage video game character?

DIY Star Wars Themed Kitchen Aid Mixer | Nerdy Crafts!

July 7, 2015 by Jamie Satterwaite 3 Comments

DIY Star Wars Themed Kitchen Aid Mixer | Nerdy Crafts!

I am a bit of a Star Wars fan… okay I am a BIG Star Wars fan! This past week we have been watching the entire Star Wars Saga because our kiddos have never seen the movies. I am happy to say that they love the movies as much as Hubby and I do! So, because I can’t deck out my entire kitchen in Star Wars, I decided to do a Star Wars Themed Kitchen Aid Mixer!

It is not perfect, but I absolutely LOVE IT! If you do not have a cutting machine like a Silhouette, you can always check out Ebay for small decals as well! If you do have a machine, I just goggled Star Wars Silhouttes to find what I wanted and transferred the images to my software to cut.

My Kitchen Aid has seen some better days, it does get a work out after all. It is actually the only appliance that I keep out on my counter top all the time. My other kitchen appliances only get pulled out from the deep dark caverns of the cabinets when I need them and then right back they go when I am done using them. So, the first step in making this Star Wars Themed Kitchen Aid Mixer is to make sure you mixer is clean! Scrub it down to make sure there are no oils or crumbs to be found.

I then mapped out where I wanted my decals to be and measured the areas so I knew what sizes I needed to cut. I did this before deciding on what I was actually going to put on the mixer, so things changed a little.

I decided to put Bobba Fett as the main decal because he is one of our favorite characters from the movie. Before I cut anything though, I printed everything in the sizes I measured to make sure they would fit.

Then, it was time to cut and weed. You will notice a blank area on one side of my mixer, that is because I wanted to put R2D2 there, but ummm…. He is not an easy thing to weed with all of the details and such a small size. I plan on going back in and putting C3PO there when I get more black vinyl.

After I was happy with the vinyl cut outs, I placed them on my mixer. There are a few bubbles in Bobba Fetts helmet, but I am okay with that. If there are an excessive amount of bubbles you can smooth them out with a burnishing tool.

For the quotes I downloaded a font from DaFont.com called Star Jedi. They are actually one of my favorite parts of this project.

As you can see, I am fond of the Dark Side of the Force, Darth Vader really does get a bad rap. But, I had to include the X Wing in because it is a pretty awesome ship!

Of course, my mixer was not the only thing that got a make over. I had to give my crock pot a taste of the dark side too!

Be sure to grab our Free Star Wars Printables too!

DIY Mario Shelves | Nerdy Crafts!

July 3, 2015 by Jamie Satterwaite Leave a Comment

DIY Mario Shelves | Nerdy Crafts!

These DIY Mario Shelves are the perfect nerdy craft for that geek or gamer in your life!

If you have been around for a while, chances are you already know that I am a big nerd. I love classic video games and comic books and have started to slowly transform my boring old office into a geek and gamer paradise. It is still my office and still functional, but I figure if I have to be stuck in here most of the day, I might as well have fun things that I love around me.

It all started with this Goomba… I found him and knew he had to be mine! My Donkey Kong shelves that I made a few weeks ago where already full, so I figured I would make him a new home where he felt comfortable!

So, of course I needed to bring in Mario and Princess Peach to keep him company! These shelves were really inexpensive to make, since I already had the paint on hand all I needed to do was figure out what to build them out of.

I chose to use cardboard boxes that I found at my local craft store, they were cheap and the prefect square shape for this nerdy craft! Check out the video below for a full list of items and to see how I made them!

Here is a copy of the Question mark you will need for this project! Just make sure to adjust the size to your boxes!

Right click and save to your computer!

Who is your favorite video game character?

DIY Donkey Kong Shelves

June 22, 2015 by Jamie Satterwaite 4 Comments

DIY Donkey Kong Shelves

I am a big nerd, I am not afraid to admit it either. I love video games and comic books, so when I decided to paint my office, I figured it would be the perfect time to update my Wall of Awesome. I had seen images of some really cool Donkey Kong Shelves, but could not find them anywhere online to buy or how to make them! ACK! So I went on a mission to make them myself, and you know what? They were really simple to make!

I used some floating shelves that I found online and created a stencil using PicMonkey. The shelves I found had a nice thick front and were actually pretty cheap! All 4 came in a set for just $25! I already had the paint, so my only out of pocket cost was the shelves!

Items needed:

Floating Shelves

Red & White Paint

Sponge paint brush

Stencil (You can grab it below!)

Craft knife or Silhouette Cutter

Stencil Spray (optional)

Right click and save image to your computer.

It took some trail and error to get the image to fit my shelves. I just adjusted the fit size in my printer options until I had the perfect size.

To see how I made these DIY Donkey Kong Shelves from start to finish, check out the video below!

Who is your favorite comic book or video game character?

DIY Earbud Holder |DIY Minecraft and DIY Deadpool!

May 28, 2015 by Jamie Satterwaite Leave a Comment

DIY Earbud Holder |DIY Minecraft and DIY Deadpool!

Summer is hear, which means my headphones travel with me to the beach, the pool and, in general, everywhere! I keep a pair in the garage for when I am doing yard work, so they get a lot of abuse. To help reduce my stress of trying to untangle them EVERY time I need them, I decided it was time to make some DIY earbud holders. Since I was at it, I made a pair for everyone in the house. My hubby have already fought over the DIY Deadpool one, we are both huge fans of Deadpool. The kiddos made some DIY Mincraft ones, of course a DIY Creeps and a DIY Golden Steve. And just for fun I made a DIY Watermelon one, it is summer after all!

To make them I used Perler beads, which can be found in pretty much any craft section. I purchased a kit that came with the beads, peg board and the special ironing paper. For under $10 I made 4 earbud holders, and have about a million beads left over for future crafts.

Other items you will need is a hot glue gun and iron.

To make the DIY Deadpool I used the round peg board with the black and red beads. You will have a total 4 pieces that you will then glue together to create the ear bud holder.

For the larger pieces, I started in the center of a round peg board and made a row of red beads that was 11 beads wide.

I then created the circle in red and filled it all in with black beads. For one of the main pieces, you will remove 3 beads from each side, this is where your earbuds will hook in to keep them secure.

The smaller internal pieces are just a circle that is 5 beads wide, with this one I removed 1 bead from both sides on both pieces. After you have ironed them so that they are melted together, hot glue each piece together, making sure the notches are lined up!

Golden Steve was a little bit more detailed, but you will use a square peg board and will have a total of 10 rows.

Row 1: 3 yellow, 1 white, 6 yellow

Row 2: 2 yellow, 4 white, 2 yellow, 1 white, 1 yellow

Row 3: 3 yellow, 2 white, 5 yellow

Row 4: 4 yellow, 1 white, 5 yellow

Row 5: 10 yellow

Row 6: 2 tan, 1 white, 1 blue, 1 yellow, 1 tan, 1 blue, 1 white, 2 tan

Row 7: 3 empty, 1 tan, 2 brown, 1 tan, 3 empty (only on one side, the other side the empty space will be filled with tan)

Row 8: 3 tan, 1 brown, 2 tan, 1 brown, 3 tan

Row 9: 3 tan, 4 brown, 3 tan

Row 10: 10 tan

Poor Steve got a little deformed, but the kiddos still loved him anyway. For the center create a 5×5 square and remove 1 peg from each side for both. Iron and glue together!

Want to learn some tips and trick on how to make this process easier? Check out how I made the Creeper in the video below!

What character are you going to try making?

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