#i have so many of the stickers. if you order some and want extras just say like. 'give me extra stickers' in your order & ill give u some.

[xmoonlitxdreamx]

[reblogs appreciated!]

I've gotten some new followers from my overwatch art recently, so just wanted to quickly mention that I do have some older overwatch stuff in my store too! links below if you're interested~

stickers:

charms:

[kissami]

UN ÁNGEL- Cloud strife Headcanons

sum. Need boyfriend headcanons for cloud? SAY LESS.

warning: modern cloud, oc cloud srry I love him soft, might be a little self insert because of the stuff I like but that’s all

femreader! with she/her pronouns

song of the day: igual que un ángel - Kali uchis

boyfriend Cloud who knows your order by heart at your guys’ favorite coffee shop and no matter how many times he does it, it never fails to make you blush and impressed.

Boyfriend Cloud who never fails to make you ticklish especially during intimate moments that you can’t help but burst out laughing.

Boyfriend Cloud who sometimes can’t handle all the attention and affection so he distances himself but can’t help but miss you even more.

Boyfriend Cloud who loves picking you up from university on his motorcycle to show off especially knowing that Reno would be there. He is still very bitter that Reno was your first kiss in fifth grade and not him because he was too busy helping collect Tifa’s shopkins from the grass at recess.

Boyfriend Cloud who loves going to Aerith’s flower shop because he helps her make your bouquets extra pretty just for you. #bestfriendprivileges

boyfriend Cloud who has recurring nightmares of losing you to Sepiroth. No not the “I’ll steal your girl,” kind of way. More like he murders you and Aerith at the same time. Perhaps something from a past life?

Boyfriend Cloud who loves watching studio ghibli movies with you especially ponyo and spirited away. Let’s not get started on his love for Princess Mononoke.

Boyfriend Cloud who goes with you at the bookstore for now on to carry your books because he found out that a guy put his number inside of a book after catching it for you when you accidentally dropped it from your stack pile.

Boyfriend Cloud who’s COMPLETELY and UTTERLY obsessed with you. Not the annoying obsession, but the obsession that makes your tummy in knots and the cute things he loves to do for you. Whether it’s making you lunch for school/ work, leaving cute notes on your door handles, or literally dropping everything instantly for you when you call.

Boyfriend Cloud who hid in the bathroom after you guys had…yk…and too embarrassed to come out. If only he knew you were on the bed breathless and wanting more.

Boyfriend Cloud who baby trapped you. With a cat. Her names Honey and every time there’s an argument he uses her as an excuse to visit you. “We can’t let our cat have separated household problems,she needs both of her parents so please answer the door.”

Boyfriend Cloud who had no idea him getting a lip piercing would be in the way of kissing you for it to heal correctly. He ran out of the piercing shop and only agreed to come back to get a matching eyebrow piercing with you instead.

Boyfriend Cloud who not only made you a playlist, but this mf burned a cd for you, made tifa draw a one in a million piece of art for you for the cover, has a sticker of it on his car, and even bought a necklace that had the Spotify playlist code. So whenever a person flirts with him, he’ll hold it up and say, “scan this and read the description. That’ll be my answer for you.”

Boyfriend Cloud who didn’t understand why you were so obsessed with kpop, especially BTS. Him and jungkook have beef apparently. He also buys you albums all the time and even sacrifices himself to let you use his phone to make sure you guys get tickets to concerts.

Boyfriend Cloud who WILL call your work to call off. He doesn’t care, cuddles are more important.

Boyfriend Cloud who forces you to drink water whenever you hang. You always complain about headaches and he makes sure when you’re with him you’re hydrated.

Boyfriend Cloud who is addicted to Dr.Pepper. You gave him some when you two went to watch Barbie in the summer and it’s his holy grail. “We need to head to Costco, I ran out of my pepper.”

[darkficsyouneveraskedfor]

Paradigm Shift 3

Warnings: this fic will include elements, some dark, such noncon/dubcon, and other untagged triggers. Please take this into account before proceeding. It is up to curate your online consumption safely.

Summary: you get transferred to a new position but it’s hardly a breath of fresh air. (plus!reader)

Characters: Loki, Bucky Barnes, this reader is known as Billie.

Author’s Note: Please feel free to leave some feedback, reblog, and jump into my asks. I’m always happy to discuss with you and riff on idea. As always, you are cherished and adored! Stay safe, be kind, and treat yourself💜

💼Part of the Bad Bosses AU💼

Dark roast, black. You're tempted to order one for yourself but the extra dose of caffeine might unhinge you after the morning you've had. Transfer, no desk, a firing, a stolen desk, and two painfully aloof bosses.  

You go back up to the office, the short reprieve offering some clarity but not solutions. There has to be some way to get more than a grunt and a closed door from these men. Geez, if you wanted to work with children you would've done so. 

You knock on Mr. Barnes' door. The one next to it opens first. Laufeyson considers you from head to toe and Barnes appears not a second after. He takes his cup without a thanks. 

"Mm, and where is mine then?" Laufeyson challenges. 

You blink, long and hard. Of course. Of course! You let out a slow breath, "what would you like, Mr. Laufeyson?" 

You don't miss the quiet snort from the other door and it closes before you can glance Barnes' expression. You have a suspicion he expected this. It's like your first job when you worked with a bunch of men in stocks. Their numbers were as bloated as their egos. 

“Matcha.” 

The door shuts in your face. Again. You bite down and stretch your fingers wide. It’s fine. It’s fine. Growing pains. 

Matcha... what? Iced? Latte? Hot tea? Smoothie? Wonderful, a guessing game. 

You will be getting yourself another coffee for the trouble. Another trip to Roasters and you settle on the simplest option; just tea. You’re certain if you’re wrong, he’ll let you know.  

You stand at the two office doors and contemplate your life decisions. Is this worth it? Can you beg Odinson to take you back? To send down another poor soul? You almost feel bad doing that to someone else. You’re about to give when that innate stubborn ticks in your jaw. It’s only been a few hours. You don’t just give up that easy. 

Knock, knock. There’s a delay before Laufeyson answers. You’re not put off by it. You know the tactic. It won’t work on you. If his tea is cold, it won’t be your fault. 

“Matcha, sir,” you hold out the cup. 

He accepts it and reads the sticker on the side. He narrows his green eyes and looks at you, “note for next time, I prefer Garcon’s to Roasters.” 

Click. Another shut door. You’re really starting to get angry. You laugh out the flurry of agitation and turn away. What else can you do but think of it as a joke? It has to be. It’s just that absurd. 

You sit at the desk and open your laptop. You get it hooked up to the monitor and refinagle the cords. That’s an accomplishment at least. A tiny morsel of victory. You glance around and frown. It’s like the waiting room in Beetlejuice; everyone looks miserable. Well, can you blame them? 

Your phone buzzes and you check the messages. Girl nights hangs like bait at the end of your day, keeping you swimming through dark waters. It’s a bit ridiculous. Your friends are all like you in one way but all vastly different in many other ways. You all spend your days taking care of men who couldn’t give a shit about any of you. 

You can already taste the Paloma; bitter grapefruit with the burn of tequila. You are dying to drink away this day. You look at the clock and nearly whimper. It’s not even one o’clock. Ugh. 

You plug away at your desk. You get the daily agendas templated then spend time scouring the web. You have something in mind. You’re pretty sure you can make it work. As long as those grumps can do the simplest of tasks. 

You customize the survey and send the link. You doubt you’ll get a response today or even at all. It’s a hail mary, really. Barnes’ door opens, then Laufeysons. Your chest fills with dread. Great. 

“Hello, sir and... sir,” you sit up as they approach. 

“What is the meaning of that quiz?” Laufeyson demands. 

“It’s not-- 

“Asking a lot, aren’t you?” Barnes crosses his arms. 

“No, I just--” 

“What business do you have about my dry cleaning?” Laufeyson hisses. 

“I have lunch when I have lunch. I'm not a child at grade school,” Barnes sneers.

“Okay, woah,” you put your palms out, “first, there’s an n/a column, you can choose not to disclose the information. Two, I need to know what to do. What do you want from me?” 

Both men frown and look at each other, then back to you. 

“I can think of one,” Laufeyson raises a finger, “don’t treat us as children who need you to put our socks on.” 

“Good one,” Barnes scoffs, “also, you could stop with calendar reminders.” 

“Those are automatic,” you mutter. 

“And the arguing,” Laufeyson points at you. 

You sputter, dizzy at their onslaught of criticism. They can tell you exactly what they don’t want but they can’t give you a clear answer as to why you are there. You calm yourself with a breath and sip of coffee. 

“Mr. Laufeyson, Mr. Barnes--” 

“Why him first? My name’s first alphabetically,” Barnes says. 

“I--” you stop yourself and take another taste of your coffee, “if my presence is getting in the way of your work, I will go back upstairs and talk to Mr. Odinson--” 

“Mr. Odinson? Thor?” Laufeyson says, “no, you won’t do that. In fact, that is another item for your list, no talking to my brother. Especially of me.” 

You could tear your hair out. You could hit your head on the wall. You could gauge your eyes out and drown yourself in your coffee. Instead, you smile. 

“Got it,” you say, “well, sirs, good luck with your meeting this afternoon.” 

“Yes, thank you,” Laufeyson intones. 

“Mm, sure,” Barnes says and they both turn on their heels then stop at once. They face you in sync with each other. 

“Meeting?” They ask. 

“Mmhm,” you nod, “it’s in your calendars.” 

They stare at you. 

“If that’s something you’d like me to brief you on,” you say tritely, “you can submit that in the survey.” 

Laufeyson hums dryly and Barnes growls. Neither says anything further as they retreat. You keep your eyes on the screen as your heartbeat races. You can’t believe you said that. 

[welcome-to-the-end-of-eras]

Pulleyverse characters sending their children off to college

Mori: he's the type of dad to pretend to not care whatsoever about his kid going off to college but secretly be devastated and not want it to happen at all. He'd hold it together until the moment he got in the car to go home after move in and just burst into tears. I can very clearly picture him telling Six not to expect to come home every weekend, and then proceed to ask her if she wants to come home every weekend.

Thaniel: he's sending Six off with a full arsenal of self defense tools and techniques. At least two knives, a whistle, brass knuckles, tasers, the works, and he'd drag her to boxing practices at least once a week leading up to her moving in. He's 100% the "'your kid got in a fight' 'did she win?'" type of parent.

Merrick: the BIGGEST school merch dad you've ever seen. He is raiding the fucking bookstore for hours trying to find the cute little "[school] dad" t-shirts and bumper stickers, and be coming out with at least 90% of their inventory. He orders the other 10% of it online the same night. He's got mugs, coasters, lanyards, anything you can put a logo on. (Plot twist, his kid transfers school the next year)

Raphael: I think he would be the most worried about his kid at parties and teach them as many tips and tricks to stay safe specifically at college parties. That and he would want to make/bring them food every day of the week bc he wouldn't trust a school cafeteria at all. And take them grocery shopping. And bring them home once a week. And-

Joe: he'd be the parent who's actually chill about sending his kids to school. Especially where he has two of them going off to school at the same time, he would get too wrapped up in the chaos of moving them both in at the same time to actually worry about them as much. At the end of the day tho I think he would trust his kids to be smart and reach out if they need help so he wouldn't mind as much if they were farther away.

Missouri: he'd definitely go wandering around the entire campus just to see what it's like. They'd all be looking for him to bring stuff up to the dorm and he'd be on the other side of campus checking out a cool pond he found on the very edge of the school property. Almost gets kicked out for wandering into private areas every year.

Valery: he'd have an absolute BALL trying to help his stepkids pick their classes for the year and just stack their schedule to help them graduate exactly on track, or even earlier if they wanted.

Shenkov: blubbers like a fuckin baby every time and doesn't care who notices. He makes move in a big family thing so everyone has to go and help move the others into school, then hugs the kids goodbye for as long as humanly possible while absolutely sobbing. (Plot twist, the school is only an hour away)

January: tbh I think he would be advocating strongly for gap years/career paths that don't require degrees. He seems like the type of person who wants everyone to get a chance to enjoy their early twenties before they go off to college. Once his kid does get into school tho he'd ask them all about what they're studying (and absolutely love it when they get all excited about it like Gale does).

Gale: Also really wants to know about what their kids are studying, but they go the extra mile and find copies of their assigned reading/textbooks to read and talk more in-depth with their kid about it. How they got copies of some of them, no one is sure, but they have them.

[dervampireprince]

Hello my lovelies, just a little reminder (or update if you weren't already aware) that I'll be away most of October seeing my partner in person for the first time in our over two years of long-distancing. However, I've been working extra hard to get every audio for October and November recorded before I leave so that you guys still get every audio you should. So for those that just watch my audios on Youtube or support me on Patreon you won't notice a difference.

For those that follow me elsewhere you will notice some changes. My last Twitch stream before leaving will be October 7th and I won't be streaming again until November 7th. Depending on whether I can get my old laptop to work properly or not, crossposting the audios to Tumblr and soundgasm may or may not be possible while I'm away. If it's not possible I'll post them all there once I'm back. I'll also be less active on social media and Discord while I'm away.

My Etsy shop is closing tonight, October 6th at around midnight UK time (around 4pm PST) and won't be reopening until October 20th so if there's something you've been wanting and wanted it to arrive between those dates you'd have to order it in the next few hours. Any open orders will be shipped out on time as usual before I leave for my trip. I have some new items in the shop since the last update here (Ghost, Vampire Hunter D, X-Men) and I'm working on more new things including my first standee and might be making some Supernatural stickers.

Thank you guys so much as always for your support! The only reason I'm able to afford this trip is due to how many of you support me on Patreon and I am forever grateful to you all.

[copperbadge]

Hey Sam, I remember reading a post or response from you about how to give to charities anonymously, but now that I’m searching, I’m finding a few different responses but still have questions. Any chance you could do a round up post? Wondering about the following:

1. How to give cash

2. How to give small amounts anonymously (e.g., if you can’t set up a DAF)

3. How to opt out of being sent branded junk if you can’t give anonymously, because it will end up in the garbage (seriously, no more pens, stickers or magnets please)

4. In giving anonymously, how important is the tax receipt? I only take the standard deduction on my taxes… is there a reason to bother with tracking the receipts?

Appreciate your help!

Ah yeah, it's rough knowing how to do some of these things. I've written about some of them, probably most of them, but disparately over several posts, so let me see if I can answer succinctly and all in one place.

How to give cash: You are pretty much confined to two options, giving cash to a staffer in person or mailing cash in an envelope. If you have access to the office of the nonprofit you may be able to swing by and drop the cash off, but it's not super convenient and often not possible. If you're at an event you can hand it in an envelope to a staffer, and that's really the only way my organization gets cash donations, but that requires you to be at the event. And technically I can't recommend mailing cash since the risk of theft is a real one. Giving cash is fine legally, but nonprofits often aren't thrilled with it because it can put their staff at risk and also there's, well, there's no way to track that donation to a person. But yeah, throw them dollars between two thick sheets of paper and mail that in with a note saying "This is for the XYZ organization" so they know they can accept it.

2. Giving small amounts anonymously: It depends on how you're defining 'small'; I have a DAF (for the readers: a Donor Advised Fund -- I talk a little about them here but I've never gone indepth) which has no minimum deposit or minimum monthly contribution, but they do have a minimum donation amount of $20. To me that's not especially large, but I know to many people it can be. Pretty much the only way to give an amount smaller than $20 anonymously is to give online through the nonprofit's website using a cash giftcard (like a Visa gift debit card), and just not give an address. If you custom-order checks you can sometimes order checks without a home address, or with the bank's address, and pay with one of those, but I've never tried that.

If you do use a DAF (and I can recommend Charityvest, they've been mine for several years now) you can always set up to pay small amounts into it and just have them send all that money in a lump sum once or twice a year. I pay in $75/mo and from that they pay out three $20 donations a month, and at the end of the year the extra $180 that has just sat there becomes a nice extra donation. Always bearing in mind of course that once you pay into a DAF that money is gone, you can't claw it back even if you haven't "donated" it yet -- just putting money in a DAF is considered a donation. Readers, if you're curious about DAFs I recommend googling, lots of banks have "what is a DAF" pages, but if you're not finding what you want to know do feel free to come ask me.

3. Opting out of swag when not giving anonymously: I'm tempted to just say "Ya can't" because it's hard, especially with larger orgs. Even if you opt out, often you'll still get mailings that are considered "stewardship" (maintaining a relationship) rather than "solicitation" (asking for giving) and swag counts as stewardship. You can always start with sending the org a letter saying "Please put me on a Do Not Contact list, I will continue to give but don't want to get your swag". If that doesn't work, start returning mailings -- if you get something from the org don't even open it, just write "return to sender -- no longer resident" and drop it in the mail. This is not guaranteed effective; some places will either just change the name to 'resident' or retry every so often just in case. You can call the org and ask to speak to "records" or "data", and then just be super up front: "I want to keep supporting you but I really don't want the swag, how do I get that turned off?" They can help, but if you give to another similar org, a lot of times orgs will do "list exchanges" where they swap mailing lists, and if the org does that and you're on the other org's list, you get put right back on the "ok to mail" list for the first org.

I will say, swag is very, very cheap and gets results, so you can also look at this as "well, it was wasted on me, but the five cents this pen cost will get them $1 from someone, so in accepting it, I am still helping them to gain donations." This depends on your tolerance for waste, of course, which I'll talk more about in a minute.

(I personally like getting magnets, because I put stickers over top of whatever's printed on the magnet, cut it out to the shape of the sticker, and behold! I have a cool magnet!)

4. Tax receipting: I'm not a CPA or a tax lawyer and I fucked this up the last time I talked about it, so take this with a grain of salt, but there is an "above and beyond" deduction -- after the standard deduction I believe you can deduct an additional up-to-$300 for charitable giving, and if you were to be audited you'd need receipts to prove that. (As I said, if you're planning on this, fact-check first, I am not a strong source for this information.) (Edited to add: comments informed me this is no longer the case, so I'm glad I added in the disclaimer :D) If you give via a DAF, no problem; the DAF tracks where and when and how much you gave, so I could use my DAF's records as "receipts". You can also, if you lost or didn't get a receipt, contact the org and ask them for your giving record for the year. Here's the problem -- if you are giving in a way that allows you to avoid giving your address, there may be no way to get those receipts, since you can't prove their record with your name on it is you. So if you want receipts but want to give semi-anonymously definitely make sure they have your email address. If you're giving $300 a year, you probably want to take that deduction; if you're giving $20 a year, probably it isn't worth it. But yeah, to get a receipt you generally have to give them enough information for them to identify you, but you don't need giving receipts if all you take is the standard deduction.

All in all, the options are -- give cash and get no receipt, give via DAF or using a giftcard and get receipts to your email, give with your address attached and just hope they honor your request to be removed from swag mailing, or give however you want, put up with the swag, and bear in mind that them sending you the pen or magnet or keychain wasn't much of a problem or cost for them and will get them money from someone.

Honestly, option four isn't the least irritating, but it's probably the least labor-intensive for you. But it really is a question of what you want from your relationship to the nonprofits you support, and how passionately you feel about the "waste" status of swag they send. Only you can determine where your tolerance point is between "having to put in so much effort not to get this stuff" and "having to throw this stuff in a landfill". It's a regrettable part of being a donor and building a relationship with a nonprofit, but we in the nonprofit field do appreciate your giving and your tolerance :) While there are some outlier bad-actors in the space, trust me, for most nonprofits, nothing we do is gratuitous. Almost all of us are on such a thin wire that if something costs us money and doesn't get us more money, it gets binned very quickly.

[waywardstation]

One last store update! After this I will begin sending emails to a subscriber list.

You can input your email of choice for my shop newsletter into this google form here.

A quick summary of some things:

I was unable to finish orders by printing their shipping labels by today, despite what I said last week, because of health issues that had to be addressed instead.

More of my product order was messed up, had enough items to fulfill every order but I’ve been left with ZERO extra stock on a couple items to put into my shop after.

I got enough interest in the Halloween keychains and stickers so I will be making them.

Full explanations below ^^

I have now packed every single order and reviewed all of their contents. However I was unable to send them out today as at some point last week I became very unwell. I’ve been going downhill for a while but it has never gotten to this degree this fast before. I still don’t really know what caused it and so I had been unable to pack over the weekend and couldn’t get all the shipping labels printed for them today.

I will be printing these labels out and taking chunks of the orders to the post office over the next few days.

But the more I’d packed the more I’d realized more of my product order had been messed up. I had ordered extras of everything and yet some of the products that I ordered just BARELY fulfilled every order — I had to use some of the initial samples to fulfill every order but rest assured they are the exact same as the products in size and quality. I have exactly ZERO of some products left over for shop stock when I’d ordered 10-15 extra of every item (as well as TOO MANY of some less popular products that didn’t need all these extras) which sadly means a few items will not be in stock when I open the store back up. I may put discounts on the unwanted extras I received because of this.

While I would expect by default to receive the products in the quantity that I ordered, I also understand that I ordered hundreds of products all in one order, and that is only one order that is being fulfilled out of the many other orders they get daily. I myself did not count out every single product to check because of the sheer amount of everything that was ordered — I had ordered over 500 keychains alone to fulfill the preorders and the entire order has taken up a full room when all spread out. But I still did not count beforehand and would only find out once I’d run out of a certain product, so I accept this is partly my responsibility too. This should not happen again as I never expect to make an order this big again, I had only done this for shop startup, and I will be making another order to restock these products. But it’s still sad it happened.

I apologize for this and I appreciate all of your patience once again. I am explaining all of this as I believe you are owed information about what is going on seeing as you’ve put money into this, and I myself said they would all be sent out by Monday. I just want to be transparent ^^

And one last thing — many of you wanted Halloween merchandise, so I will be moving forward with that! (I’ve decided they will not be glow in the dark though, as I’d have to make every vibrant color instead transparent for the glow to come through, and I believe the designs would suffer too much without these colors)

I have ordered from this manufacturer multiple times before over the years and they’ve always gotten it right with more reasonably-sized orders, so I am confident these will not have the same problems as this preorders period has.

Thank you again very much for your support and understanding up to this point!! <3

[alex-fictus]

Not a suggestion, more a question - how do you make your stickers? Your art inspired me to make stickers but I don’t know where to start!!

Ooh Tutorial Time! I have a small rundown of my process here. (I’ve got a video here, but I’ve had an update in my materials. Also this got a little away from me, I hope this helps and lemme know if there’s anything I need to elaborate on!)

---  Materials:  Printer - Epson Ecotank 8500 Cutters - Silhouette Cameo 4s (I’ve got 2 at the moment) Paper - Zicoto Glossy Vinyl Laminates - Glossy and Holo Star Laminate (Both Self Adhesive) Misc    Off Brand Sticker Cutter mats     Ruler Squeegee with extra microfiber wrap    Sports glove tack spray or sewing basting spray

Printer - Aim for a photographic printer at the minimum. General print quality, color variety, and paper handling will make sure your prints are the highest possible quality. They’re a little more expensive, but my last printer lasted 4 years with frequent weekly printing. The ecotank is nice, it’s more visual that the ink is actually disappearing than the pre-filled cartridges lol.  Cutter - I’ve only used Silhouette, but I’ve heard to stay clear of Cricut due to general cut unreliability and lack of customer service assistance. I’ve also heard great things about the Siser Juliet cutter from mutuals. In order to use 2 machines at the same time, I had to purchase the Business license ( p sure it was a one time $50 purchase, but I can work twice as fast). If you want to cut by hand, check out what kind of ergonomic scissors you can find. Classic scissors over time can really screw up your hands, especially when you’re making fine cuts. 

Printing and Sizing - The Silhouette Studio resizes your stickers without many issues with quality changes. This does kinda depend on the base size of your files. I always make my stickers on a canvas 3000x2000 pixels and 300 dpi. I wouldn’t go any lower than 100 dpi for print, and no larger than 500 dpi, but you can always test this out.

Paper - I enjoy the luster of the paper I linked above, there’s almost a pearlescent quality to it. If you’d like a different quality, I recommend still sticking with glossy vinyl for your paper. Laminates on matte sticker paper have had a lot of trapped air underneath for me and it tended to be more likely to bleed in contact with water despite being laminated.

Laminate - If you’re just doing paper finish stickers, you can skip this step :)

Laminate them to make them more water and scratch resistant. The laminates I’ve listed are all self adhesive. There are also heat adhesive laminates, which require a heat laminator. I haven’t experimented much with heated laminates. Mine are best rated for hand wash, though they can go through the dishwasher a few times.  When laminating your sticker sheet, be sure to not cover your registration marks. When your cutter tries to read over them and the surface is really reflective, it can cause the machine to read improperly (and it’s worse with the holographics lol). Either precut your laminates like I do in the video I linked above, or you can use matte tape over your laminate to dull the sheen. If you accidentally cover your registration marks, the matte tape is a lifesaver.  Self laminating takes some muscle memory to not get bubbles trapped under the laminate, but a wide squeegee and firm pressure helps make sure you get as few bubbles as possible.  Mats - Your cutter will come with a few, but I find that my off-brand ones are just as good and less expensive. I prefer low-tack, but there comes a time when the tack is absolutely gone, and I have 10+ mats just sitting around. That’s where the Sports Glove spray or Sewing basting spray comes in! After washing them (soap and water, then dry for a few hours), I hit them with a few coats of spray. Right now I’m using Pow’r Tac Grip Spray. It’s just ok, but this leaves less residue on the back of my stickers than the Basting Spray I used to use. I retack every month or so, but that’s more bc I’d prefer the mats to be less sticky than risk ripping my backing sheets. 

----

If there’s anything you’d still like to know, please let me know!! 

[the-nosy-neighbor]

History of the Stickers Page

In the interest of finding more information about what is going on with this puzzle, I went and checked the archived versions of the Stickers page.

A bit of this is repeated from when I was writing the other post on solving the puzzle.

I was looking at the Halloween update once again.  Based on information from Nightmind’s stream about it, they verified that the looky loo page in the beginning is a code.  It appears to be a directional code that uses the sticker page as a guide.  They were unable to finalize decoding it.  There is some confusion as to what it means, what direction to move in and what the origin is.  In the news portion of the update, it says that they are starting with a musical monster so that makes sense, and on the sticker page it states:  “remember, there’s no place like Home, neighbor!” 

In order to understand a little bit better what is going on with the stickers, I decided to hit the internet archive:

Jan 13, 2023

This is July 23 of 2023.  

I looked at it and thought, normal, but wait!  Barnaby is missing.  Sometimes on the archive layered items are left off, but I don’t think it would have been the only layered item.  

From November 2023:

He’s back, and they all have new outfits.

This is from February of 2024.  

This is Wally’s answer from the small update.  I noticed recently while looking at this that he has included quotes around OK, like the prompt has.  He didn’t include the period.  He has also made himself a little house where he and home are hanging out.  He also has put an eye in a home.  Based on this, I am wondering if there are other shapes in there or if he just threw the extras down to the bottom.  There are multiples of each banner and sticker. All of the character banners are on “I.”  There is a Wally banner at the top on his face, his seems to be the only one with some that have just his face, not I.  But up there at the top is Wally and his good buddy Barnaby.  Notable is that this page is titled “spread the good word,” which connects to our theories about religion.  

In reviewing the notes again, I wanted to focus on phrasing. This text about starting with Julie has to be a really strong clue. They are talking about the record sets and how they are in terrible shape, “we thought we would organize these findings by each of the neighbors.  After all, every neighbor is important and we want our favorite puppets to shine as brightly as they did so many years ago.  A musical monster seems like the perfect start. Keep an eye open and have a Happy Halloween.  Don’t forget to wave down below.”  

Side note:  I thought the “down below��� bit was a clue in the past, but it might be just a Halloween thing.  

So, there are a few potential hints there:

“Shine as brightly” could be a reference to Sally

“Musical monster seems like the perfect start” considered to be a hint to begin with Julie.  This makes me think of some stuff released on ko-fi before the update that is not found on the site at this point.  It was related to music.  

But this–”keep an eye open”; I thought wait–Julie is keeping an eye open.

For more info on who is staring at who, see my previous post about Looky-Loo.

Also, and this isn’t chronological, but nowhere in this seemed to make sense so far, (forgive me if I repeat myself from my last post) but I noticed that on the title page, the biggest black smear is on the title page where you would see the author’s name.  I’m a little unsure if Wally is responsible for the black stuff.  We’ve seen him paint over the page with Julie’s family, and use bright colors, but there is also black.  I have theorized in the past that the black stuff is from the transfer from their reality to ours, but there are also the tendrils to deal with.  I assume escaping.  I wonder if we should be looking for more black stuff in the media from the show itself.  Back to the title page.  I have attempted to lighten this photo, and it surprisingly worked really well.  

So it looks like there isn’t an author’s name to begin with, but maybe they were all counting on me to not lighten it.  Another option I thought it might be is a character (still looking for Sunny), but you can see there isn’t a character there.  

I found a parallel in between the experiences of both Eddie and Poppy.  They both pull the Steve Martin “all I need is this…:” (from The Jerk)

Eddie: (He lets out a heavy sigh as he finally relaxes.) Maybe this is what I needed… A loveseat and my single pea on a plate... Yeah… Yeah! I’m finer than a frog’s hair split four ways!  

POPPY: [Sighs]…What a relief, I’m not sure I could have done another show. Who knows what she would have had me done that time. All I need is my peace of mind. Oh and my um- Where is my lantern-

[Doorbell chime plays. Scratching on wood.]

POPPY: Ah- There you are, you beauty… Allow me to light you.

POPPY: [Sighs] Everything I need. My sewing needles, my lantern… And my peace of mind…

And I just have to point out, she had crochet needles earlier.  She is holding crochet needles in the picture.  I’m not sure that it is relevant, but I figure it could be a clue to things going wrong. 

[heehoothefool]

I FINALLY FUCKING FINISHED SIDE ORDER

SPOILERS BELOW AS I TALK ABOUT IT

Okay so first and foremost congrats to Nintendo for making a genuinely fun new way of playing the game that felt really inventive and fresh. "Splatoon Roguelite" was not a concept I'd ever imagined seeing, and it certainly wasn't something I was entirely sure I'd enjoy when it was confirmed as a reality.

And yet, I found myself having an absolutely wonderful time with this game! It's not so hard it's impossible, but it's also not so easy that I get bored, striking a really nice balance of keeping me both deeply invested in the gameplay without ripping my hair out in a fit of gamer rage.

I think like many others, I too would have liked maybe a few more bosses in the boss floor rotation, but genuinely I'm more than happy to over look that just by virtue of how fun the game turned out to be. I do think maybe Parallel Canon could have stood to be a bit tougher, it really just feels like an Octoling Onslaught level from past solo modes, but that's about my only real complaint for how the bosses themselves play.

The music kicks ass like usual, and I liked the way they handled the story so that both players who really only committed to the one Big Run and players who, like me, went for all the palettes, had a good chance of leaving the dlc rather satisfied with their answers.

In terms of palettes, I was genuinely surprised with how good most of them felt, and was especially surprised when I found myself sincerely enjoying palettes with weapons I normally would despise! Finding out that Marina's palette was actually genuinely viable, and possibly one of the stronger palettes I the game, was such a rush of joy to me. In no world had I ever considered a brella, paired with a sprinkler and ink storm, would ever be a viable combination in a game like this. And yet it was so genuinely fun to play with and build and very quickly opened my eyes to very creative palette building methods!

Some part of me does wish the order clone weapons you got for beating a run weren't just Skins, because some of those kits were genuinely really good and unique and I would have loved to play with them in a competitive setting, but I do understand why Nintendo, and especially the Splatoon Team, didn't lock An Entire 12 Unique Weapon Kits behind a paid DLC, and I appreciate it deeply. (A new Luna kit would have been nice tho)

Also, holy fuck was 8's palette hell. Don’t get me wrong, it was a very good and enjoyable challenge, but also I reached Overlorder like 6 different times and kept dying on the final phase because I turned off my Damage Reduction Hack in favor of Increased Damage and An Extra Life while still being able to have like. 12 chips. So every enemy shy of the little bastards and the sprinkler bitches would one shot my armor. Not to mention Reef Slider spam. I kind of wish the chip reduction vs. active hacks wasn't as unforgiving as it is, but that's a personal preference and not really a complaint I'd genuinely launch against the game. I was just having a rough time due to the splattershot's low damage compared to the Jelleton's high hp. I felt like I'd been handed an Arospray with a little more range and a slower fire rate, but no added damage, and been launched into a profreshional Salmon Run match Alone. A really good weapon if you want a real challenge from the game.

Overall I loved this, and I'm definitely gonna make a few more runs to try and get the Prlz to buy out Cipher's shop. I already have all the gear and banners, just gotta pick up the stickers and decorations.

[scrapheapchallenge]

"Just Neil Gaiman being wholesome again" but also Rob Wilkins being extra wholesome too! On Tuesday evening I went to this talk https://living-knowledge-network.co.uk/library/the-worlds-of-terry-pratchett By Rob Wilkins and Neil Gaiman.

Neil was co-author of "Good Omens" with Sir Terry Pratchett, and they collaborrated on many other books together here and there, just not sharing co-author status too - read this article for more info: http://www.elizabethcallaway.net/good-omens-stylometry?fbclid=IwAR2hVnd8aTYFBZqphk8SzYt8j1NucBl5mUxbDscF3kljQ9Bpuq2leUW2S6I Confirmed by Neil yet again on Tuesday.

Rob Wilkins was Terry's PA, and now manages his estate, as his representative. He also wrote "A life in footnotes" - the official biography of Terry.

On Tuesday evening, I arrived at the British Library very early, and was guided up to the Piggot Theatre lobby to wait by a security person, so I was there before anyone else, including Rob. All the staff were absolutely lovely. When they noticed there weren't any gaps for wheelchair spaces in the audotorium, facilities engineers were summoned and made short work of unbolting a set of 3 seats to make a wheelchair space for myself and another wheelchair user who turned up later.

Then Rob turned up, carrying a mannequin, Terry's leather jacket, scarf, hat, and other stuff.

Now the email we recieved before the event said that Neil wouldn't have time to do any signings that evening, although they didn't mention Rob, so I asked him if he might be able to sign my copy of "a life in footnotes".

He happily said yes, and once he'd sorted his things out, he came back out to chat to me for a while and OMG he was the loveliest person EVER!

I gave him a print I'd signed of my ink portrait of the Bentley, and some stickers of my other Bentley illustrations, and he said "WAIT! I have presents for you too! I'll be right back!" Then rushed off to the green room. (Below are the ink portrait, then I gave him small stickers of the "this is fine" flaming Bentley - which I was also wearing on my t-shirt that day - and my most recent digital portrait of Crowley and the Bentley - and yes it is all hand drawn, not a photo manipulation, feel free to zoom in. A couple of years separate these 3 drawings and I'd been working hard on learning photorealism.)

He came back and gave me Terry and Neil badges, which he explained you only get if you meet them in person. I had met Terry (and incidentally Rob as well) years ago at a book signing, plus I met Neil, albeit briefly, on Tuesday as he came through the lobby and said hello.

He was happy to chat and especially about cars, which he also loves. He confirmed that I was 100% correct about the "2 whole cars and a cab for CGI" between seasons 1 and 2, and that the interior colour change is nothing to do with plot it legitimately is just continuity errors if they forgot to cover the new Bentley's new seats with covers matching the old Bentley's orange ones. (The cab only also has orange leather seats).

When I told him about this year's RREC (Rolls Royce Enthusiast's Club - also for Bentleys) Christmas card design, he was delighted, and asked to take a photo of the image I had of one on my phone because he wants to order some as well.

I showed him my re-usable coffee cup from "give me coffee or give me death" which we were given on the set tour, and which I had Sir Derek Jacobi sign at a comic con the other week. Rob thought that was wonderful, and then did something extra sweet...

He asked me "if you're ok trusting me with this for a little while, would you like me to sneak it back to the green room to ask Neil to sign it for you as well? Then I'll come and find you afterwards to give it back again."

HELL YES! I couldn't believe it! I hadn't wanted to ask because we'd been told that Neil wouldn't be signing things due to lack of time, so for Rob to spontaneously make the offer was not something I was expecting. He did also take my Occult Edition of Good Omens to ask if Neil would sign that as well.

I didn't fully expect that he would, and was prepared for him to come back later and say "sorry he was too busy", and that would have been fine, but no: Neil DID sign them both!

Neil writing "burn this (big fancy) book!" was a spin on how Terry used to sign copies of Good Omens: "burn this book" - which is actually embossed on the rear cover of this edition.

Later, Rob also signed it for me, as did Colin Smythe, who was Terry's publisher and lifelong friend.

We were sitting at the front, only about 7 or 8 feet from Neil, the talk was wonderful, we laughed, we cried a little, and Terry was with us in the form of the mannequin with his jacket, scarf, and hat (which are also on set of Good Omens at all times while filming, and also even during rehersals/table reads - so he's always present.)

Rob is honestly so bloody wholesome, he was hugging a lot of people, and ever so sweet, taking time to chat to other people as the venue filled up, and stayed behind to sign things and talk to other folks as well.

I also got to chat to Dr Pat Harkin and Dr Jan Clarke, who were the researchers who spent months of hard work tracking down Terry's lost short stories in the national archives in Boston Spa, which were released in a compliation book "A stroke of the pen." If I'd known that they'd be there as well, I'd have taken that book and asked them to sign it too. They were in the audience and sitting next to us with Colin Smythe. I was truly surrounded by Pratchett royalty, and everyone, without exception, was SO friendly and lovely.

I had done two prints of the Bentley drawing and stickers, for Rob and for Neil, in case I got chance to give them to them, and when I gave Rob his, I said I had some for Neil as well, and again, he OFFERED to take them to give them to Neil for me.

Although I didn't get chance to thank Neil in person, I wanted to reach out to let him know I was very grateful for his kindness as well, so sent him a message via his "ask" channel, although not with an expectaction of reply - just for him to see privately and know that I was appreciative. But he chose to actually publish it as a public reply, which was lovely of him. I hadn't wanted to thank him publicly just in case he didn't want others to know that he had signed some items after all. I'd been expecting to have to wait until he did a proper public appearance with signing at a comic con or something - although with him living in the USA, not the UK, I may have had to wait a long time.

So I guess the answer is to getting an autograph - turn up 2 hours early, and be very VERY nice and polite to Rob Wilkins 😅 (but also don't expect results - I didn't, it just sort of happened).

[koskela-knights]

What piece of AW2 merch do you wish Remedy would make available already? My friends and I are torn between the Ahma beer neon sign and the Kalavega Knights motorcycle club jackets as our first choice, but I also think they could make bank on FBC windbreakers and mugs or Cult of the Tree necklaces and Cult of the Word moleskin-esque notebooks.

Oh, love this question! There are so many interesting trinkets they could turn into merch.

I was honestly also thinking about the jackets becos they're just so wonderful and cool! Although those might be more expensive to mass produce? Additionally, maybe Jaakko's beanie and Ilmo's cap. Both being mundane wear you could wear in your daily life. Mugs, windbreakers and notebooks also sound really neat.

I'd love it if they released full-size posters of the Alex Casey movies and Yötön Yö you find during Alan's section. I'd definitely want to buy one of those!

Saga's charms would be cute to have as a bracelet or separate keychains.

Other things that come to mind in no particular order

a flashlight like the angel lamp

maybe the deer masks?

AW2 patches & stickers (OGoA already have some patches available in the webshop)

In Between with Mr Door business cards or a small replica scale of the sign

Postcards from Bright Falls and Watery <3

As a fun extra, they could ship every order with a manuscript page, be it from in-game, or a tongue-in-cheek manuscript or FBC document of the thing(s) you order 👀 Or like, a piece of Saga's investigation board, a small photo with text on it. It would really add to the meta level of their games and storytelling.

[aemfocus]

At the start of covid, I decided I really did not want to return to my day job and I wanted to make a solid go at opening a sticker shop! Specifically one that would make gaming stickers.

Pictures and some info under the cut.

I was a janitor for the FAA and I asked for much better PPE, the sort you ask for in a pandemic, this was at the start of it all and my manager just... refused to order so I quit. (my spouse made in bonus what I was making in a year lmao, so I was fine)

I've always wanted to make a go of being self employed and I LOVE planners and stickers, and for years I've been watching my fav small shops with interest so... I figured lets do this!

I spent time figuring out taxes and all that; then I found a decent cheap first printer; after I got to drawing up 10 sticker sheets with a bunch of state stickers I was working on as well.

This one was the first, and I'm not a huge fan, the lines weren't clean etc. but I spent a bunch of time testing paper, ordering from 'the competition' as it were and eventually landed on something easy to work with and affordable. I tried to figure out 'branding' and landed on something I kinda liked. Even came up with a name for the shop.

Starberry Oats.

This was another earlier one, and I'm -really- not a fan, and I wasn't at the time but I figured it would fill a little void.

Finally things I really like! And am proud of!

Fallout and Skyrim stickers! They are, of course, my most popular, as I do give them out to friends and people in various discords.

My second most popular sets! The retro goodies, I loved making these, and they were such a pain to get to print well.

Some basics, I enjoyed making these but they needed to be themed better, as it is I have trouble working them into my planner!

I LOVE THIS ONE. One of my personal favs, because it's one of my fav things to draw.

Another popular set.

And that's what I planned to open with!

Except I never did. My MIL kept moving in and out, my SIL kept having issues, life just became a lot, and I kept pushing it aside because I didn't want to open a shop and not give it a full 40hrs a week.

Then 2023 happened, and it got ugly AF. But at the end of the year my spouse and I sat and had a conversation about if I would return to work in 2024. I know the tumblr knee jerk reaction is to always have a job and always be self sufficient, because ya never know. But if my spouse hadn't been our only source of income I wouldn't have been able to take care of my mother, or in 2023 his mother. After 21 years I kinda know. Anyways my cats are getting older, I would have to put one down if I was working. An otherwise happy healthy kitty, just because it needs some extra care. Fuck that shit.

At the end of the day we opted for me to not return to work and I assessed if I wanted to make the sticker shop a real thing. And I decided after watching several ugly charge back orders on very small sticker shops, that no. I don't want to. But I do want to give stickers to people. I still want to make them. But for me. And friends.

SO this year I started back up.

Cuttlefish and octo friends. I love drawing them, so relaxing!

Also some fic stickers.

I plan to make more sticker sheets this year, planning a BG3 set, a Mass Effect set and maybe Dragon age. My hands might be shaky as shit to the point of being unable to draw many days but damn if I don't enjoy it. <3

anyways if you made it this far TY! <3

[fourseasonsfigs]

Building Block Figs - Catching Light

Continuing on from the last Building Block Figs - Basking in the Sun and Building Block Figs - Beautiful Fight Scene in the Middle of the Lake, Part 1 and Part 2, we have this wonderful set.

These figs make me laugh - I love them so much! I don't know why, I just find them ridiculously charming.

This building block set is 1,544 pieces, measures 8.4 x 17.6 x 15.6 cm, and is rated 10 hours. I did indeed take all 10 hours to build this, if not a little bit more.

Here is the sales pic of what the finished product is supposed to look like:

Cute, isn't it? As usual, sellers do a much better job of setting the scene than I do. I will say, though, that I did make two little tweaks to the set to make it a bit more canon compliant. Can you spot them?

It'll be easier to tell as we get better pictures, so I'll get into it!

First, here's the box of doom bricks. Like the others, this came in a generic sales box, with a super handy little unsnapping tool, and a sticker with a black and white image of the set and QR code instructions.

Once again, you'll notice my line up of extra bricks from the previous sets hanging out in quasi-neat little rows. Originally I figured I'll leave them all out in case I ran short of any, but in reality, this set maker gives me extras of each color every time. Which is handy, as you will see for later posts, when I make some adjustments to the fig sets to make them a bit more canon compliant.

As you can see, there's a LOT of extra bricks left over. To be honest, there shouldn't be so many white bricks - those are from another set that I made a major change to. I'll post about that one tomorrow.

Here's the different order of assembly - I went ahead and started with the base and tree, as they suggest.

As you can see, this is a very beautiful terrain here. I did not remember this area being so green and flowery from the show - in fact, I remember it being kind of sandy and desolate, but my memory is pretty lousy, there might be a scattered flower or so. Let's check.

HUH. There is not a flower in sight, is there. Hmmm. Well, this is kind of gonna bother me. Maybe I should have looked up the inspiration before putting together the entire 10 hour plus set, huh! Well, the little flowers are easy enough to lever off.

Hmm, anyway, moving on (for now).

So a couple things here. First, as you can see, there are only two green colors. I mean, one normal color really - the light green here is actually a neon green. It's brighter than it looks here. It looks great here, don't get me wrong, but now all I can see is the very sandy terrain of that screenshot.

Second, I tried something a little different here. It actually takes a long time to sort all the individual bricks, so in an attempt to shave off some time, I decided to experiment with this set. As you can see, I dumped the entire bag out to the right and am just picking out individual pieces as I go.

You'll note it's now evening. This tree took a LONG time to build. I actually timed myself up to this point, and to get to this mostly-done state took 2 hours and 58 minutes. I was pushing hard, too, because I really, really wanted to get the whole tree done that evening before I went to bed. But there was no way. I was too tired and was hitting the point where it was less fun and more work. So, despite really not wanting to, I summoned my inner adult and called it a day here.

Fast forward through time to the next day, and I'm all bright eyed and ready to bust this tree out. And it's done! I like this tree a whole lot...I think they did a beautiful job modeling it. Imagine if they had the full Lego suite of colors and special pieces! It would be really something. I kind of like it this way though (although I would take more colors, I can't lie). It really has an old-school style charm.

You can see the grey rock there where Lao Wen will be propped up against. And of course, the cheerful greenery and pink and yellow flowers.

Feeling VERY accomplished, I put the tree aside, and moved on to A-Xu.

Yep, looks pretty good. I was a little surprised they picked the medium blue color instead of the dark blue color, considering how bright the dark blue color actually is. But this looks fine too.

I am going to proudly say that I did, in fact, knock this fig out in record time. I've put together two and a half A-Xu figs by now (the half is going to be explained tomorrow, I promise!), so this third one went like a breeze.

As you can see in the back, I couldn't help myself, I was starting to make a few little piles of the colors I was working on. The big messy pile of bricks was kind of a pain, and I had to keep resisting the urge to sort them out.

And here he is! All done. He has a very solemn no-expression on his little brick face, which is appropriate. Can you see how there's a little bit of a neck (nothing too saucy or anything), the thin white layer of his under-robe, and then the lighter blue layer? I love it. Very charming. We also have his black belt with a bit of the tails.

It was yet another evening by this time, but since I did manage to finish him before I went to bed, I did indeed sleep the sleep of the righteous.

I woke up even brighter eyed and with pep in my step, ready to rock this last fig out. 10 hour assembly time? I don't think so!

I had now made three Wen Kexing brick figures, so the fourth one was gonna be just as quick as A-Xu was, no doubt. I pulled up the instructions on my phone, and got ready to go. 95 steps for our battle-weary Valley Master, huh? Huh. That's kind of a lot. But considering A-Xu was 85, not too bad. The tree was 119, by the way.

As I looked at the picture, however, I noticed that they had Lao Wen's (virtually) omnipresent hair wispies here. Given that this red wedding costume is the one outfit where his hair is pulled back all the way, it kind of bugged me. Which is funny because I've never liked how he doesn't have the wispies with this hair style on the show. It's my least favorite look on him, which is too bad, because I did like how they at least mixed his hairstyles up some. In my defense, I feel like I'm right (so right!) about how much better he looks with the wispies with this hair style, because you could see it at the concert. And he looked spectacular.

Anyway. Warring between my extreme desire for him to have the wispies and the simple fact of it not being canon, I started to build.

I got the first big chunk done very quickly indeed. Many of these figs are done where you do a big piece, and then set it aside while you work separately on the next piece. This is where I was.

And that's where I stayed, for a long time. I built this piece three times. I had to completely disassemble the entire thing the first time I built it, because I was off on my brick count, and the second time I had to disassemble it down to the first third.

Part of the problem was the way the directions were. As you can see, they still have the first "set it aside" part showing up on the directions directly under the new piece. Unfortunately, all that red blended into each other when I rotated the image around, and it was very easy to accidentally think I needed more or less pieces than I actually did.

I went ahead and built it with the wispies, as directed...and then just couldn't do it. I disassembled half the head and re-built it again without them. I also think that this fig, just like Lao Wen, does not look as good without them, but canon is canon.

Unfortunately, it was so late and I was so tired by the time I finished him (and yet also pretty jubilant), that I forgot to take a pic of the finished fig! Yes, I literally finished this set late last night, despite my best intentions of finishing it up and then triumphantly posting about it on the same day. It did, in fact, take longer than the 10 hours build time.

It took a long time, in general. My finger tips have actually toughened up a bit, so they don't feel sore from snapping the bricks in place, but my neck isn't all that pleased with me from hunching over these various sets for so long. So, I've been taking a few more breaks to stretch and do other things.

But, I woke up early today, and very happily took this set's beauty pics in the clear light of the morning. I love it!

I love how this set all fits together. We have the tree growing over the edge of the base, and Lao Wen there leaning up against the rock. A-Xu is standing with his elegant posture, and their little brick hands are reaching out to each other. Cute cute cute!

Wow, this light is great. I clearly should get up early to take fig pics more often.

The tree looks great, I think (and not just because I spent hours building it!).

This is a good view of the rocks behind Lao Wen here, and his big ponytail (I do like this part of his hairstyle).

The green doesn't look so bad on the ground, I think. I'll pull off the yellow and pink flowers, and maybe make a brown patch on the corner closest to A-Xu. That'll keep it colorful but make it a bit more like the show.

A-Xu's hair looks great, as usual. You can also see how I removed the wispies on Lao Wen's hair. I'll get a close up later so you can see it better.

Shoot, not my best pic - can't really see any of the detail on A-Xu's glorious night-black hair.

There we go, now you can. Oops, I see I knocked a tiny piece out of kilter on the bottom of his hair, I'll have to fix that. But! Here you can see both changes I made from the instructions - the lack of wispies of course, and then I made Lao Wen's guan gold instead of white. This took a while too, because I didn't have enough yellow pieces. The only yellow I had from any of the sets was literally from the yellow flowers here and the few extra they gave me of it. I actually pulled a few yellow flowers off the base there and replaced them with green or pink, just because I needed them for his guan. I then also carefully checked to see what internal yellow bricks were covered up by the black of his hair, and replaced them with black so I could save the yellow ones for the parts that did show. I'm very happy with how it turned out! It looks just like the white one, except, you know, yellow.

I don't know why they didn't originally design it with yellow, given that it is gold on the show, and they had already included yellow bricks with this kit. Maybe they felt the white stood out more or something. Anyway, it was bothering me it was white, so I'm glad I was able to figure out a way to make it work.

Alright, we're back around! And a bit of a different angle here, so you can see the poses a little bit more clearly.

Alright, a true top-down pic here. May I just say one more time how much I like this tree! The detail in A-Xu's guan is really nice too.

The bottoms-up pics are always tough here with the bases. Not a flattering picture, sorry A-Xu!

A close up of our noble shixiong with his little hand outstretched...

...and our weary shidi. What a great set, I love it! I'm so delighted by it, I can't even tell you.

Alright! come back tomorrow, for the much hinted at next set. And the last one, for a while - I have to wait for the remaining sets to be sent to me.

(Come back tomorrow, she says, as she still has some assembly on the last fig to do! I'll wake up bright and early tomorrow, and hopefully finish up).

Material: Plastic bricks

Fig Count: 506

Scene Count: 35

Rating: They're actually both reaching for their light

[link to the Master Post Index]

[oftlunarialmoon]

Top 5 Hobbies for a Kawaii Lifestyle

Originally posted to www.onlyfunthings.org on January 11, 2019

Ciao lovelies! Today here’s 5 “Kawaii Lifestyle” Hobbies!

Now before I begin, I want to say that these hobbies are NOT the only hobbies that can be included in a “Kawaii Lifestyle”! You could do anything for hobbies and still lead a kawaii life. These are just some hobbies that may be considered “Kawaii” traditionally/stereotypically.

So now, let’s get into this super cute hobby list!

#1- Toy Collecting! Many Kawaii Lifestylers that I know of, myself included, collect toys! Some collect vintage toys, some collect modern and some collect both! Toy collecting can be very fun for many reasons. For one, if you have a more childish nature/if you’re an age regressor, you can play with the toys! For two, your toy collection can make great kawaii décor! Toys come in all shapes and colors and sizes, so you can carefully select what you want to display! Some Kawaii toys to collect that I recommend: Num-Noms!

As well as: Calico Critters (also known as Sylvanian Families), Shopkins Lil Secrets (Which are a lot like old school Polly Pockets), Squishies, Molang figures, Monster High Minis….ect! 

And going right along with toy collecting is…

#2- Toy Photography / Doll Photography! Another super fun and “kawaii” hobby is toy photography! Toys and dolls can be easier photo subjects (sometimes) than humans in my opinion because you can pose them exactly how you imagine, and you can take many shots while they hold the same pose! There are many highly poseable kawaii dolls like Monster High, Ever After High, Made-To-Move Barbie, and even BJD!

#3- Crafting/DIY! A big part of Kawaii subculture which isn’t really talked about enough in my opinion is the amount of crafty kawaii lifestylers! I’ve seen so many crafty kawaii lifestylers who make their own clothes, jewelry, accessories, décor… but yet I don��t see much discussion about it, and it can be hard to find good craft tutorials online for that specific niche! But crafty-ness is a big part of kawaii culture! I’ve even recently discovered a good place to get some kawaii stickers and beads for cute resin and jewelry projects, Blippo.com ! Blippo has many very kawaii items for pretty cheaply, just the other night I ordered a BUNCH of stuff for under $12 and free shipping, as well as a free mystery welcome gift! (my full review of Blippo is coming soonish, my orders are still in post). Another great place to find kawaii craft supplies is Aliexpress using search terms like “Kawaii Cabochon” and others like that. Just remember that Aliexpress is similar to Amazon/Ebay and you should always check the reviews before buying anything! (Note- this post was not sponsored by either of these sites, this is just my own opinion).

#4- Baking! Baking can be so much fun, and you don’t even need to make things from scratch to have a good time! Want to know a secret? Some of the best cakes I’ve ever made were with a modified box mix! One of my best tips is: “To make a boxed cake mix really amazing, follow the directions on the box EXCEPT: add 1 more egg than what it calls for, instead of using oil use melted butter (and double the amount), instead of water use milk!” This tip I found on Pinterest, and I’ve used it several times to make some of the best cakes and cupcakes I’ve ever made! ….So I bet you’re wondering how this hobby is particularly “kawaii”? Well, the decorating of course! Decorating cakes, cupcakes, cookies and more is one of the best parts of baking! You can make the baked good as kawaii as you want!

#5- Journaling! I know I mentioned this briefly in Wednesday’s post, but let’s talk quickly about how to make this kawaii. Again, you can use sites like Blippo.com to find cute stickers, washi tape, pens and pencils! You can also doodle in your journal and draw cute things like flowers, animals, and chibis! You can also press flowers in a journal for extra cute-ness. 

What do you think of our suggestions? What do you consider to be “kawaii” hobbies? Let us know in the comments!

Remember to Stay Awesome and Love Yourself!

[owlyjules]

Hi Julie!

Im sorry if this is too invasive (no need to respond if it is), but what are your thoughts about being able to make a living as an independent artist? I’m trying to switch personally from an unfulfilling life path and I do not have people in my life that are supportive of the direction I want to go (artist). I don’t necessarily make the same kind of art as you, but I was just curious if you have advice because your work is very professional and you seem to be doing art full time successfully! We’re there certain goals you tried to meet to be able to produce art at a specific rate, what experiences did u have selling on Etsy/making prints/stickers, etc? Any words of wisdom or insights would be appreciated 🙏🏻 thank you, and have a wonderful day! ✨

Hi! and that a big question!

First and foremost, I want to make a bit clearer my personal situation before answering.

You see I actually have a full time job atm as a BG Designer/Senior Layout artist at an animation studio. So sadly I can't fully speak on being an independent artist myself. (Even if its something I dream about as well.)

I started convention (back in the before times) and then recently Etsy as a way to test out the waters if I could make the switch. and while I wouldnt be able to fully support my family without my full time job, I am not gonna lie that this extra money has been helping us A LOT when I would fall in between animation contract or when some personal family stuff happened.

I still think there is value in being artist and pursuing it. I know many artist who DID DO IT and are still doing it! And I am sorry your family is not supporting you in this. (I dont know the situation but for me at first I remember my dad being mostly worried about me being able to pay my bills if I went in a more art focused career. so hopefully some of their critique, while hurtful, comes from worry.)

I think a good starting point would probably to start on with an Etsy and selling little things like stickers or postcards and see how it goes while continuing a full time job to be safe. When I first started I would only order about 20 postcards and not more than 25 or 50 stickers. Then as you settled and get your foot in, you can always do more!

Long story short, I think its a switch better done slowly and that require you to diversify the type of things you offer, from etsy shops to commission as you settle into this freelance life.

Its a hard one that I havent fully reached myself either, but knowing how some artists are able to, maybe you will too!