 I made Galadriel's brooch using a large glass dome pendant and worbla. The 50mm clear glass pendant was purchased from a vendor on Etsy, called WillowRunCrafts. The pattern I used as a guide was designed by Jakcosplay and the free download is linked to her youtube tutorial.
I have a confession to make: I hate styling wigs. It's messy. It's tedious. It makes me nervous. Give me armor making, resin casting or hand embroidery any day, and I'll feel right at home, but please not wig styling! Now that I've got that off my chest, it might come as no surprise to you that I held off on styling Zelda's wig until the very end. Of course, actually pushing up my sleeves and doing it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, but it wasn't a cake walk either. Keep reading to see how I did it.   Depending on the character you wish to cosplay, you might find that you need to add color or thickness to your wig - especially if the wig fiber content is thin. While it is possible to dye the wig fibers of a light colored wig darker, it's impossible to add highlights (lighter color) to a darker wig without physically adding more hair.
For most, even thinking about messing around with a threaded needle on a newly purchased wig might sound intimidating. Many people commission others to do what they're afraid to do themselves, after all. But commissioning can be very expensive, so learning how to do this yourself will save you lots of money.  Ever wanted one of those cool looking animal tails that you see people wearing at conventions and Ren Fairs? Vendors would like to sell them to you for $30 or more, but you can make your own for less than $15.
Read on to find out how...  Do you have an old pair of shoes that need a new look, or you simply need them to match your cosplay? Here's a quick way to revamp them to fit your needs using paint, glue and a little decoration.
 Believe it or not, Zelda's necklace was more complicated for me to make than her shoulder armor or crown pieces. The reason being was the depth of the layers of the necklace combined with a bottom jewel shape (which is supposed to be level with the tallest layer). Sound confusing? I thought so, too.
 Those of you who are familiar with the Lord of the Rings might recall a couple scenes where Arwen Evenstar wore a gorgeous red and black gown, commonly called her "death dress" as depicted during Aragorn's morbid vision of her while gazing into the palantir.
Well, here's how I recreated it.  Have you ever needed a gemstone of a specific shape, color or size, but can't find them at any stores (or online)? As cosplayers, we often encounter this problem, which is why casting our own gems is often the only choice we have.
To make Inuyasha’s Tessaiga sword, we sandwiched a dowel rod between two layers of pink insulation foam, using liquid nails to adhere them, and let it dry overnight.
Define the sword's edge by using an electric sander, or in my case, a drill with a sanding attachment. Important: Always wear a dust mask whenever sanding foam! Once the foam has been shaped to your liking, give it three coats of gesso to fill in any minor nicks and prepare it for spray-paint. Once the gesso has dried, spray paint the sword silver, hot glue faux fur around the base and wrap the hilt with black nylon ribbon (both materials found at Joann Fabric). To make Asuna's - Sword art online- rapier, I used a pine wood base for the general sword structure and hilt. The sword's basket and silver cross was made from 3mm craft foam (be sure to coat the foam with mod podge, wood glue or plasti-dip to seal it before painting). The other wrap-around designs were made using 2mm craft foam.
I used these paints: Folkart Metallic Aquamarine, Folkart Metallic Silver and a gloss varnish. I also hot glued on some acrylic blue rhinestones to the basket. Much sanding was required to shape the wood, but it's very durable and accurate to character. The sword measures about 40" long. I'll also be posting Kirito's sword soon!  The Making of a Sorceress, by Julie Hall
Edea Kramer (sometimes mistakenly called Ultimecia) was the most challenging character I’ve replicated thus far. I had spent weeks pouring over picture references and deciding on materials (convincing myself I could do it!) until I finally took a deep breath and dove in. Despite her eloquent style and cunningness, Edea wasn’t exactly my favorite of all Final Fantasy 8 characters. But I do adore a good challenge, so “long live the sorceress”.  If you’re familiar with The Lord of the Rings trilogy, then perhaps you might've noticed the lime-green dress that Arwen Evenstar wore at Aragorn’s coronation during in the last installment: Return of the King.
Well, I fell in love with it; simply had to make one of my very own. After searching through many patterns, I decided to use Simplicity pattern 4940, view C. First, I made a mockup pattern out of muslin fabric. (For those of you who don’t already know, muslin is very cheap – about $2/yd at your local fabric store. Before even thinking about cutting on your good, expensive fabric, I highly suggest making a muslin mockup first!)
 The hardest part about Lightning Farron's shield was determining the pattern. I had to look at many pictures to decide how wide/long I needed it to be based on my own height and armspan. Once I got that right, I scaled up a picture of the shield that I found online (because I suck at drawing) and printed it.
I then cut out the paper pattern pieces and traced them onto craft foam. The foam I used was all 2mm thick, except I doubled the layers on the black design for durability – meaning I had to cut four of those out and glue them together. I highly suggest Foamies craft glue for sticking foam pieces together!  This is pretty much all there was to Lightning’s crimson sword. The hardest part was figuring out how big to make it. Since Lightning’s not a very proportionate character to begin with (super long legs and unrealistically skinny), deciding on sword measurements was tricky, but I'm thrilled with the results.
 Paper Mache can be used as base material for many projects, such as helmets, shoulder armor and props. It’s super cheap and easy to make!
Materials Needed (depending on which method you use)
 It took me awhile to shape it and it’s not perfect, but it’s much better than paying $250 for the original.
I used silver Sculpey Accents clay, a couple of cheap metal rings (you can make the rings out of clay too), chain link, jewelry eye pins, a small swarovski crystal and silver leaf paint. Be sure to stick the eye pins into the clay before you bake it. I actually made two of these. The first one had a clear crystal and the 2nd was pink. Total investment, maybe $20.  I was lucky enough to find a pair of black boots that were already designed with the front rim higher than the back at a thrift store. I painted the front of them tan using floral spray. Never use acrylics or regular spray paint on leather or it will just crack and chip away the moment you put them on. I’ve never had a problem with floral spray, so I use it for all leather. It can typically be found in the floral section in most Joann stores.
First off, I used lots of paper to wrap around the boots while I was wearing them and then drew my patterns. Then I traced the patterns onto craft foam and cut out the pieces. After 2 coats of mod podge and 2 coats of paint, I hot glued the individual pieces onto the boots (layer by layer).  Measuring 63″ tall (exactly my height), it took 2 days to finish Yuna’s staff. I used 1/4″ thick plywood for the main staff head middle and 2mm thick craft foam to sandwich it in. The paper pattern shown in the picture is WITHOUT the blue areas. The pattern shown on the wood includes the blue areas. I used a broomstick for the staff’s base. I got lucky and bought one that’s already pointed at the end at Lowe’s hardware, but you could also sand the end of any broomstick to get the same effect.
We cut 1/4″ gap in the tip so that I could fit the staff head in between. After cutting the craft foam out, I made cuts at the bottom of the circle to fit around the broomstick (so the only thing inside the slit was the plywood.) The gold and silver rings are also made of craft foam. I might get a larger bell, but this one works for now. There’s a hole drilled at the bottom handle to thread the bell.  This is the cheapest and easiest costume piece I’ve ever made in my life. One pair of thrift-store-quality black leather boots, $10. Pink paint, $0.99. Gold sharpie marker, $1.50…and there you have it. Anna’s boots for less than $15.00! You only might consider using a pink sharpie instead of paint if you plan to wear them in the snow!  The key to making Aerith (Aeris) Gainsborough’s bracelets was layering them to give them a “stacked” look. The largest ring (closest to my hand) was made from 6mm craft foam, the middle ring was 3mm and the smallest ring was 2mm. I also added two thin strips of 2mm foam to accent the largest and middle rings.
After coating liberally with mod-podge, I painted them. Since FFVII version Aerith has silver bracelets and Advent Children’s Aerith has gold, I decided to paint them both silver and gold. The accent pieces were painted gold and the smallest ring was just painted gold at edge to give it uniformity with the other two.
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