#she painted the top of them purple and glued some sequins and glitter on them

[7-crows-in-a-trench-coat]

childhood is making your older siblings/ relatives arts and crafts projects for their birthdays/ the holidays

adolescence is believing that they didn’t like those gifts because they weren’t useful or well-made (since a little kid made them)

adulthood/ maturity in general is knowing that they loved those gifts because they knew you were sincerely trying to make them happy

[bubmyg]

dinner and a photo booth - ksj

pairing: seokjin x reader

genre: strangers to lovers, non idol!au

word count: 3,227

summary: you’re volunteering at a children’s carnival and no one is using the photo booth despite the man overseeing it’s best efforts so now you’re crammed in this tiny area with said man or why do all these little kids think I’m dating “Mr. Jinnie”?

a/n: part 6 of to lovers! the rest of the series is linked on my masterlist :-) only one part to go ladies jlajsdlfj

The photo booth was, well, a photo booth, a tiny grey box with a black curtain to enter and a tiny slot that printed the pictures afterwards. Someone had plastered heart stickers to every inch, ones that looked straight from a children’s coloring book and would likely have to be peeled individually by an unlucky staff member before the device was sent back to it’s company. A woven basket sat outside the entrance, loaded with feather boas, over sized sunglasses, glittering heart and mustache decals hot glued to dowel rods. There was a makeshift sign, much like the one in front of your card table, that advertised the price of two tickets for a roll of four pictures of their liking.

You’d been busy prying pipe cleaner hearts off the red and pink painted soda bottles of your ring toss game, dishing out handfuls of candy in between, to really notice the patronship of the photo booth adjacent to your stand. Yet, every time you got a breath in the line of starry eyed children to survey the gymnasium, the volunteer assigned to that particular activity seemed to be begging for someone to hand him two flimsy pieces of paper.

“It’s so much fun, I promise,” He was telling a tiny girl with two, dark pigtails. To prove his point, he smacked one of the mustache decals over his upper lip, letting the glittering red shift with his tilting head, “See?”

She giggled but she didn’t take the bait, letting her friend drag her off by means of clasped chubby fingers.

You couldn’t help but do the same as the student, covering your mouth with the back of your wrist as you watched pure, unadulterated outrage meet the disappearance of his eyebrows into black fringe, the comical widen of his irises, the perfect circle his plump lips made.

You watched his outrage morph into delight before your stuttering gaze and you only realized he was staring directly at you when he called loudly, “Do you want to take a picture?—” His laughter wheezed when you startled, shoulders shrugging, palms open, “—Only two tickets. Might make an exception for a staff member though.”

“Not right now,” You recovered, soft laughter shaking your shoulders, “Maybe later though!”

He continued to grin at you, dropping his hands into the front pockets of his jeans, “Just tell them you need to see Seokjin at the photo booth when you’re ready.”

You offered a thumbs up, “Y/N from the ring toss booth might take you up on that offer.”

“Uhm, miss…” You jumped at the innocent pat of a hand on your wrist, finding the innocent eyes of two young boys looking at you. “...could we have our prize? Please?”

Your frantic dish of heart shaped, chocolate candies was only heightened by what you quickly realized to be Seokjin’s hearty laughter in the distance, entirely endeared by you.

The second hour of your shift picked up in traffic and your lapses in time between groups of doe eyed children dwindled to none until you were left helping a constant line of students. There’d been minimal panic moments, just a gentle apology at the awaiting girl and her mother when you needed to refill your treat jar and a dash away to a supply closet in the far corner of the gym to retrieve new pipe cleaners to replace a broken heart ring.

You stole glances at the photo booth keeper, Seokjin, while groups of children took turns at your game. He’d added accessories to his paste on mustache, a velvet top hat with a purple and red feather sticking out from it jammed over black pleats of hair, a pink boa dramatically draped into the crook of his elbows, a giant heart taped to the center of his chest.

He seemed to have a singular taker through the entire an hour, a couple, parents, the man taking the hat off of Seokjin’s head with a wink as his wife buried her face into a red boa. Disappointment etched his features as he took their tickets, ones to get their children out of the gym quicker rather than later, nose wrinkled at the bridge as he explained the process to deaf ears of two middle aged adults already clambering inside the photo booth.

Seokjin caught you staring at him when he turned to deposit the tickets into a clear plastic tub, mouth joining the bridge of his nose in annoyance. You just shook your head, pouting your bottom lip in faux sympathy.  

If you weren’t pressing candy into an awaiting palm, you would have offered the melody of the world’s smallest violin.

The third hour brought another broken heart ring but it didn’t matter much as the bulk of the children had wandered over to the inflatable obstacle courses that now occupied an entire half of the gymnasium. You sent a little girl, the same one who Seokjin had tried to coax into wearing a sequins covered mustache, away with extra candy, only to observe the empty walkway in front of you with a sigh.

You absently twirled at the wires of purple pipe cleaners, braiding three wires together to make one, superior ring that surely wouldn’t break for the remaining hour of your four hour shift. Your hip shifted until you were half perched on top of the plastic wrap that coated the tables, pastel pink and coated in hearts, three dollars a roll from the grocery store down the street.

The purple fur curled together but was harder to bend into shape, thus the ricochet of the material off the crook of your index finger to scrape the pointed ends of metal directly underneath your fingernail. You cursed at the feeling, thigh sliding off the table as you instead used your palms to crunch at the thin material.

A deep tut startled you, the pipe cleaners in your grasp bending directly in half as you turned for the source. Seokjin only clicked his tongue again, palms gripping the far end of the table as he leaned closer.

“Swearing and slacking off on the job?” His lips smacked together in a soft C shape, shaking his head dramatically, “Can’t believe you, miss.”

“You didn’t hear anything,” You countered, pointing the bouncing end of the pipe cleaners in hand at Seokjin, “Did I miss a child or something?”

“No—” His palm came down a top the table, two pink pieces of paper fanning out from the tips of his fingers, “—you’re ignoring me, a waiting customer.”

You regarded him under raised eyebrows as you wordlessly tossed the tickets aside into a basket, handing over the singular, not mangled heart. “Well then I’m very sorry sir. Please proceed.”

Seokjin rolled the heart in his grasp, running a pinched index finger and thumb up and down the soft surface, “How do I win and what do I win?”

“One piece of candy—” You gestured vaguely to the front of the pyramid of bottles, “—two—” the middle, ones painted a different color, “—and three. Or…” You trailed off, waving a flat palm around the rest of your work station, “...one piece of candy. If I’m feeling generous. Five tries at it.”

He hummed, crossing tight arms across his chest, the heart in his fingers spinning circles as he fiddled with it, “Can I propose an alternate prize?”

“Go for it.”

He stretched a long index finger until it prodded at the neck of the far bottle in the right corner. “If I can get it on that one on the first try, you have to come join me in the photo booth for a round of pictures.”

“I’ll take those odds.”

A smug wiggle met Seokjin’s eyebrows as he shoved himself off of the table. He coughed once into a curled fist, shaking out his wide wingspan, crouching as if on the blocks before a track meet in front of you. Shuffle steps were taken, adjusting his position, wrist taking a few practice flicks at the table just beyond the point of his oddly shaped ring.

The toss landed just as you assumed it would, sadly and short, barely catching the edge of the table before the weight of the two humps of the height sent it toppling to the wooden floor below.

His voice dropped as he crouched to retrieve the ring, “Best two out of three?”

“You can if you like or—” You wiggled your fingers for Seokjin to place the ring into, “—I’ll just give you the prize.”

His disappointment went through three stages of grief before it morphed into shining happiness again, teeth appearing as the tiniest of endearing wheezes left his throat, “Oh. Okay. Yeah?”

“I told you I was going to come over there, anyway,” You teased.

“I know but…” Seokjin shrugged, “You hadn’t came over yet.”

“Yes because some of us have been busy.”

As if on cue, a tiny boy wielding a heart shaped lollipop bounded up to the edge of the table, eyes smiling at you before his lips did and positively melting your actual heart. You reached across the table, a gentle hand on Seokjin’s waist as you pushed him to the side to greet the child, handing him his materials and explaining the point system with a tender tone.

Seokjin watched on in silence through the fourth toss the little boy took, leaning close enough only to question, “Would you like to take some pictures in the photo booth? We have some really wacky props. I might even let you keep one of the hats…”

You opened your mouth to scold the man but the little boy beat you to it, turning with two hands on his hips, sticky lollipop brushing bright red across the side of his white t-shirt but the tiny individual took no mind to it.

“Mr. Jinnie, no one wants to come to your photo booth because it’s not cool.”

The little boy turned, tossing the ring faithfully and retrieving his prize with little thought as he scampered off into the depths of the gymnasium. Your smiling eyes met Seokjin’s sulking ones.

“Mr. Jinnie isn’t as cool as he thinks, huh?”

“I volunteer at this elementary school during the week,” He mumbled it so lowly, you had to crane your neck to even catch the last set of syllables he uttered for sure, “I told everyone I’d have the best, coolest booth but instead I got assigned to the photo booth.”

“What’s not cool about the photo booth?”

Seokjin was, essentially, whining, “Me, apparently.”

You rolled your eyes, ushering him away with a flick of your wrist. “If it’s any consolation, I think it’s pretty cool. Go over there and try to collect some last minute tickets and I’ll be over once my relief gets here.”

He ignored the flapping of your palm, complaining, “You mean you won’t be here all night? You signed up for a shift?”

“Yes? That’s all my class said we needed—”

“I didn’t even get a choice!”

“Seokjin,” You rounded the side of your table to press on the small of his back, laughing, “Mr. Jinnie. Go back to work. I’ll be over in like a half hour. Promise.”

“Jin,” He took lumbering, waddling steps back across the aisle toward his, still desolate, post even as you cocked a questioning eyebrow at the back of his head. He turned with a half crooked smile, “Call me Jin!”

It was instead another fifteen minutes when you abandoned your post, your relief showing up in the form of Min Yoongi and his pastel pink sweater, a senior in your university class that had offered the volunteer opportunity to you in the first place. He’d dismissed you with a gentle, “I know how ring toss works”, an adorable smile pressing into fluffy cheeks as he unwrapped and plopped one of the chocolate hearts onto his tongue.

He didn’t appear as giddy as you assumed when you approached him, instead stopping you with a flat palm directly in front of your nose before that same thing cupped underneath your chin.

“Tickets, please, miss.”

“I’m your prize,” You stated bluntly, swatting at his wrist, “I am the tickets.”

“Oh,” Seokjin laughed again, high pitched and cute, “Right.”

You placed your hands on your hips, “Are you going to offer me any props? Come on now, I know your numbers have been pretty low but—”

The basket smacked against your chest with a soft thump, feathers and glitter spilling out onto the floor below and effectively staining your shoes for months to come as Seokjin’s dimpled cheeks continued to beam from above you.

“Take your pick miss—” A loud noise of disapproval clucked in his throat when your fingers secured around the top hat with feathers, “—except for the hat. The hat is mine.”

You settled on a heart sticker that you pasted to your cheek, one you kept in place with gentle pressure as you peeled back the curtain to the photo booth and clambered inside the tiny space.

Seokjin was big, all high pitched noises and uncoordinated limbs as he trailed after you, effectively squishing you to the far corner of the tiny bench while his hat dislodged on the roof and tumbled sideways into your lap. You caught it, pivoting to squash it back over his hair with a soft laugh.

“I think I know why no one has wanted to do this,” Seokjin grumbled, “It’s made for an ant.”

“Or we’re just bigger than the target audience which in comparison to us are ants.”

“Okay miss practical—” He nudged you with his elbow, adjusting the brim of the hat over his head, “—are you ready or not?”

You glanced at yourself in the monitor in front of you, the comical aspect not the feathers poking out of the hat much too small for Seokjin’s head or the giant heart half dangling off your skin but the sheer sight of you crunched in the corner while his shoulders seemed to swallow all the available volume left.  

“Born ready, Mr. Jinnie.”

He huffed dramatically, reaching forward to press a button on the screen, eliciting a short countdown across the screen, “It’s Jin.”

The series of four photos were terrible, to put it lightly. Seokjin was still scowling in the first frame from your improper teasing of his name from the students, the second frame his hat had fallen again and thus your mouth was open as you tried to catch it, the third frame captured the aftermath of his shock and your triumphant catch. The fourth and last was the only one you deemed acceptable, catching both of your delighted laughter in each other.

“Another round?” He nudged your shoulder with his, casting the strip of photos aside in his ticket bin, “You’re not quite...in frame.”

You didn’t have the heart to tease the massive width of his stature for being the cause of your shrinking, instead suggesting, “You go in first this time.”

Your plan to squeeze his legs together by sprawling your stature out in the remaining space failed when you ducked inside the curtain to find his arm outstretched, ready to accept the press of your torso against his side. His hand was warm as it skirted across the small of your back, steadying your stumble onto the tiny bench by wrapping around your far hip and squeezing.

Seokjin’s lips were unintentionally at your temple when he turned to address you but it only fueled the warmth that curled into the hammer of your heart.

“Is this okay?”

You quirked an eyebrow, “Depends. Is this okay with you?”

Dimples pressed into his cheeks again, “Absolutely it is.”

“Well—” You settled into his embrace, relaxing into his side and the crook of his arm around the small of your back, “—then yes. This is perfect.”

The four frames caught your embarrassed surprise from Seokjin’s petaled lips at your cheek, first frame the rise of your eyebrows, second from the curl of your palm across your lips while his seemed to spread into a soft smile, third the crinkle of your eyes in a shy grin, and fourth the press of his nose into your cheekbone while your gaze dropped to your fiddling fingers in your lap.

You’d gathered a small crowd when you clambered from the photo booth this time, Seokjin’s fingers swiping the glossy prints after your stature before a pair of tiny, prying eyes could catch on to the contents of the photos. It didn’t matter that he tried to hide it because the shy roll of your shoulders and his flushed cheeks caused one of the little girls to inquire innocently.

“Mr. Jinnie, is that your girlfriend?” She drew out the term in looping syllables of only a childlike playfulness.

“Guys, no, I don’t—”

“But Mr. Jinnie, you’re blushing,” One of the little boys pointed out with a delighted clap of his hands.

“I’m not,” He turned to you with a cocked eyebrow, affirming, “I’m not?”

You shrugged, offering a quiet you are to the tune of the soft giggles of the children that heard you.

“Mr. Jinnie! Mr. Jinnie!” Pigtails was jumping up and down from the behind someone taller than her, a wicked smile on her lips as she cooed, “Did you kiss her?”

“Okay, guys, that’s enough. C’mon, disperse,” His hand was gentle on the small of your back, “Miss Y/N is off her shift and I have uh, to walk her to her car and nevercomebackso—”

“But…” One of the children in the front full on pouted, tears welling in his bright eyes, “We want to take pictures too!”

“Yeah!” Another declared, pointing at the strip still clutched protectively in Seokjin’s hand, “Like you and Miss Y/N did!”

“You guys have to form a nice neat line before we can do that,” Seokjin watched after you with wide eyes as you went about corralling the handful of children into something that vaguely represented a line, “Take turns with each other! You don’t have to go in with someone else if you don’t want to…”

“You’ll stay?” He affirmed when you scampered back to him, glancing over your shoulder as more curious children began to fill into the rapidly growing line, “They seem to think you’re cooler than me.”

You snorted, patting his shoulder, “They should think it because they’re right—” You laughed when his mouth rounded in outrage and he nearly dropped the curtain on pigtails as she dove into the photo booth after her friend, “—yes, I’ll stay, but…”

Seokjin cocked an eyebrow, “But?”

“You owe me dinner after.”

His expression went through another three stages, something like shock mixed with relief and delight, “Absolutely I’ll buy you dinner. Was going to ask you to anyway—”

“Ask Miss Y/N what Mr. Jinnie?” The next child in line beamed up at the two of you, the end of a purple mustache clutched in his palm, “Ask her to be your Valentine?”

The endeared lines of Seokjin’s expression dulled smug in seconds as he cocked his chin at you, “Actually, yes. Will you do me the honor of being my Valentine?”

A few of the children giggled as you rolled your eyes at him, playfully shoving at his stomach.

“Yes, Mr. Jinnie. I’ll be your Valentine.”

[sutrodesigns]

The Elsa Dress - Part 4

The Shoes

I held off on the shoes for a long time.

I couldn't decided exactly what I wanted to do about them. The actual shoes in the film are transparent kitten heels with a pointed toe box, open sides, and icy details to match the train. Research unearthed several options and I wasn't totally happy with any of them. Most makers I found seemed to use either a shoe with pre-existing clear straps or just a plain heel that they sliced the shoe's upper off of and used acetate sheets for the ice details.

I have never had good luck getting soles to stick to uppers. I know that it is perfectly possible and other makers have had some absolutely lovely results with this method. I, however, have always been very hard on shoes at the best of times and as terribly as I was tempted to get the perfect transparent look, I could just see my shoes literally coming apart at the seams in the middle of the first event I wore them to if I tried this.

Instead, I took another popular route and trimmed and painted existing shoes. They wouldn't be transparent, but they wouldn't fall apart while I was wearing them. I found a pair of Christian Sirano heels at Payless for about ten dollars that, while taller than I’d hoped, had the toe box shape I was looking for. I carefully sliced off the sides, taped off the sole and insole and based them in gesso. The base coat ended up being about four layers, just to keep the very royal blue from peeking through. Then, using acrylic paint (in this case, Folk Art acrylic, which can be found fairly cheaply at most craft stores), I blended out a teal to match the skirt and bodice. I finished them with the Golden Gel Medium and glitter mix I used on the bodice to give them a little more of an icy look.

They served their purpose and didn’t look out of place for Halloween, but I’m still not super happy with them. I liked the paint job, but the gel medium didn’t read as well as I’d hoped and because after the Halloween festivities I was sick and tired of glitter and teal, I just sort of left them as-is and didn’t detail the way I’d planned. I plan to redo them properly with clear worbla and resin in the near future.

Styling

I cannot do my own makeup. 

I probably couldn’t be trusted to do anyone else’s either, but my eyesight is so poor without glasses, I quite literally cannot see my face clearly in a mirror. My eyesight is also so poor that contacts have never been an option and thus I never even properly learned how to apply makeup beyond lipgloss. I don’t even try anymore. I phone a friend.

In this case, the friend actually volunteered. I’d been talking non-stop about my misadventures with glitter and chiffon and she was horrified to learn I didn’t plan on wearing any makeup at all with my dress. She’s the sort who loves fake eyelashes and contour pallets and I only vaguely know that those are things, so she took care of me and did some spectacular things with purple eyeshadow for me. 

Now the wig, I could handle. 

I picked one up at on of our local shops for about $60. It was a little more than I wanted to pay and more than I know is available online, but, as with fabrics, I like to see this sort of thing in person. I did also get a fitting with it, so I could see exactly where the length would hit me and what the color looked like against my skin in true daylight. 

I used a bump-it to keep the shape of the front and braided a side braid the rest of the way down. I hot glued some snowflake sequins to bobby pins to accent the braid. I avoided cutting or setting it in any permanent sort of way, since the wig I selected is also the right length and color for a Season One Danearys Targaryen and I like keeping my options open, but I was pretty pleased with the overall look.

Olaf

I cheated on this one and bought an Olaf bag from Amazon. It was a week before Halloween and I still hadn’t put sleeves on my bodice and I didn’t have time to bust out a thematically appropriate bag without the help of the internet. Fifteen dollars and two day shipping later, I had an Olaf.

Ostensively, Olaf was a plushy backpack. He had straps and a zipper, but the pocket which would make him an actual pack was barely large enough to fit a credit card, much less a phone or a whole wallet. 

It was ridiculously easy to rip out the tragically small zipper and pocket. I stitched up a quick pocket of my own out of muslin and removed some of Olaf’s stuffing to make enough room for a phone, wallet, and house keys. Because of the awkward shape of Olaf’s plushy body, I hand stitched the pocket in and because it was the day before the California Academy of Sciences’ NiteLife Halloween costume party and I still had a top to complete, I added velcro for the closure and I was set.

        And that was it for the Snow Queen Dress!

Overall, I was very pleased with how things turned out. Some of the styling elements, mainly the shoes and my hairstyling skills need a little adjustment for future events and a new set of photos need to be taken (the one above features me attempting to pose with a 102°F fever and trying not to be ill), but generally speaking, I was very, very happy with how things turned out. :)