PhantomhiveFanatic

Hang Drum

someone asked about sitting poses so i drew a bunch while watching a movie YEAH

I know a ton of you have been waiting for this one. Teaching you to make your own plastic keychains!

To start off, I think the biggest question everyone has is what I use to make them. I work with shrink film. You might be familiar with Shinky Dink brand shrink film as a kid. I use Grafix brand white inkjet shrink film. The inkjet kind is relatively pricey compared to the regular kind. If you’re using regular, I don’t recommend you stick it in your printer. Sharpie markers would be good for that.

Alright, now open up the file with the images that you’re working with. Make sure your images are a lot bigger than you want your finished product to be since they shrink significantly.

You’ll also want to lighten the opacity to about half. I go somewhere between 50-60%.

Now print your image out! I’ve found that it works best for me when I have it at the plain paper setting, and standard print quality.

Holepunch with a ¼" holepuncher BEFORE you shrink them. It’s so much more work to have to punch holes when your plastic is thick!

Cut out your design, leaving the amount of border you want.

Set them on a tray for convenience. An aluminum foil sheet works too, but I recommend cookie trays because they are easier and quicker to get out of the oven.

Preset heat. Your shrink film package will tell you what temperature to set it at, but I find that it isn’t always accurate for me. I generally set temperature to 350 degrees or so.

Put them in the oven. Remember to keep track of time! I leave them in for about a minute and a half.

After time is up they should be super small! Magic!

If your charms are not flat, put something heavy on it right out of the oven when they are still hot and malleable.

If you’d like to, you can seal them now. In my last two batches, I used clear topcoat nail polish. The problem with that is that I need between 3-5 coats of it, and it takes a while to dry. I’ve been experimenting with modpodge.

For lariats, you can use jump rings or lobster clasps.

Here is one that I made that wasn’t sealed. The finished texture after shrinking is a little bit rough. There’s nothing wrong with leaving them unsealed, but because they are inkjet printed, the colors wash right of without protection.

This is one that was sealed with modpodge. The colors become a little more vibrant and smooth and water resistant. Things often get stuck on when applying or drying so be careful.

These ones down here were sealed with clear nail polish. They come out shiny if you put enough coats, but the grainy texture will still be there.

So easy! Ten 5-step drawing tutorials

SO what do you do when your long wig becomes ridiculously tangled and shitty? YOU FIX IT.

After the the last con I went to my Yuno wig got pretty messed up and needed some serious TLC. So I gave it exactly that. Let me help you with your messed up wig too.  So I actually didn’t take any pictures of what I did before I started detangling, so here’s the run down of how I prepped it: I washed that bitch in lukewarm water with some special extension/wig shampoo and ran my fingers, then a wide toothed comb through it until it was somewhat alright. I then spritzed some leave in conditioner in it, rubbed it in, and hung it up to dry for a bit. NOW ON TO THE REAL WORK. DO YOU SEE THIS TANGLED MONSTROSITY???  IT’S NOT GOOD. LETS FIX THAT.

The stuff I used to help me tame this beast was: -Satin Strands extension/wig shampoo -Got2B dry oil hair taming mist -Got2B glued freeze spray -A sobe for drink breaks -OGX Argan oil spray -Various sized brushes (large paddle brush, small wig brush, and a soft bristle brush) -and of course my hair straightener (I kept mine at a low-medium temperature but different straighteners can vary; on mine I set it at 4) so the process I used went like this:

1. Separate it into parts as best you can; working with smaller chunks of hair is a hell of a lot easier.

2. pull apart the tangles and run your fingers through the part of hair you grabbed first.

3. BRUSH BRUSH BRUSH!!! (I started off with my large paddle brush, and moved to my little wig brush and just alternated like that until I got all the snarls and tangles out)

4. Now at this post no mater how much you brush it, your wig will still be frizzy and not super nice looking… SO what do we do? we straighten it. 

5. once it’s nice and straight and you’ve taken out as much frizz as humanely possible, spray that bitch with some dry oil/argan oil/some kind of oil to tame the frizz and flyaways and keep it silky smooth.

6. Give it one last brush through to work in that oil and it should look a hell of a lot better now~ My wig looks a tad messy still at the end only because of its uneven cuts and due to the fact that I didn’t spend a lot of time combing it out a whole lot; I plan to restyle it and cut it a bit more (for yuno it’ll be in low pigtails so I’m not worried about it being super straight) but rest assured it is as silky smooth and tangle free as the day I bought it~ Feel free to take my advice with a grain of salt as I’m in no way a professional, just a fellow cosplayer trying to help out/make someone’s life a little easier if I can! I’m sure there are many more tutorials/guides on how to detangle and fix wigs out there, this is just my experience with the shitty process that it is. 

Eri112’s money saving tips.

So, did you reblog this money saving challenge last January?

I did.

I remember thinking that it would never work. I remember thinking it would be too hard.  I remember thinking HOW CAN I HAVE CASH IN MY ROOM AND NOT SPEND IT??

I just counted and it turns out I saved more than this person calculated.

I saved $1500 in cash. In one year.  In a Mason jar.

If you had told me last year that I could do this, I never would have believed you.  I have never been a financially secure person.  This activity taught me so much about myself as a spender. 

Here’s how I did it.

For those who have never seen this, the basic concept is that you print out this (or google 52 week money challenge…You can find many variations on this)…So the first week, you put in $1, second week is $2, third week is $3, etc.  The final week of the year, you’ll put in $52.  There are 52 weeks in a year.  See how that works?

As I said, though.  I somehow ended up with more.  I’m not sure how that happened.  Let me tell you how I managed to save money period.

PLEASE KEEP IN MIND, I AM NOT A FINANCIAL PROFESSIONAL.  FOLLOW THESE TIPS WITH CAUTION.  I CANNOT GUARANTEE THEY WILL WORK FOR EVERYONE.

1. Create your own payday. I have 2 jobs.  One is my full time job that pays every two weeks on Thursday.  The other is a part time job that pays every week on Wednesday.  So, usually by Thursday, I have all the money I’m going to make that week.  So, I made Thursday my pay day.  Every Thursday, I made sure to put in the amount I was supposed to for that week.

2. Use small bills.  This was CRITICAL to saving money for me.  If I didn’t have the cash I needed, I would swing through the ATM and then ask a family member to trade a $20 bill for $1 bills.  I put in the required money and then hid all of the other ones under the jar.  That way, in future weeks I would have the ones I needed to make a payment.

3.  Hide the jar in plain sight.  I kept the jar in my room, but it was hidden.  This way, I wasn’t tempted to spend it.  I have 3 jars in my room.  One is my “happy memories” jar where I right down all the good things that happen to me.  Then I have my savings jar.  I also have a jar for paying myself to work out.  (Any time I work out, I pay myself a dollar.  I use this money for fun stuff like going to the movies)  In order to remember my savings jar and hide it at the same time, I put it directly behind my happy memories jar.  That way, I could see the jars, but I couldn’t see the money inside.

4.  Pack the money tight! It took my father a good five minutes to help me figure out how to get all of those bills out of that jar.  This was quite fun to watch (“HEY DAD!  I’m giving you $1400 in a jar!  Help me get it out!”) and quite difficult to do.  This is because I packed every inch of that jar.  Having the money packed in tightly made it really difficult to take money out.  The harder it was to take money out, the less I wanted to.  I’m quite lazy.

5.  Don’t be afraid to borrow, but write it down and pay yourself back in two days.  I’ll admit, there were a few occasions where I needed to borrow some money from the jar.  I never took more than $20.  I also forced myself to pay it back in two days.  Now that I think about it, I remember there was one time I borrowed and charged myself interest because I didn’t follow this rule…

Now, as I mentioned, my father is the recipient of this large stack of cash.  He was incredibly proud of me, but this lead to a conversation of how I could put away money that could earn some money.  He also suggested ways to get out of debt.  So here is what he suggested.

1.  Open a mutual fund with a high/mildly aggressive interest rate.  A mutual fund is an account that you deposit a set amount every month.  I’ll be opening one later this week.  We found one that earns 13% interest.  We agreed that I will put away $50 a month for 5 years.  Please note that these accounts will charge a fee if you withdrawal from them.  We did the math.  If I put away $50 a month for 5 years, I will have deposited $3000.  With a 13% interest rate, I will have $4394 by the end of those 5 years.  That’s correct.  The bank will pay me $1394 just for using their mutual fund.

2.  Snowball your debt. I also have acquired a lot of debt over the years.  I won’t lie.  I love to shop.  I have credit cards for every store, including amazon and LLBean (in NH, that’s a big deal).  When I receive my bills this month, he and I are going to sit down and compare them all.  We’ll be looking at total amounts due as well as the interest rate.  Then, I will pay in full anything that I can.  That way, I won’t continue to be charged interest on small amounts.  Then figure out how much money I can send to the bigger bills.  Once you know who has the highest interest rate, you can figure out how to divide that money.  You pay the most money to the highest interest rate.  On the others, you pay the minimum balance.  This way, you can put more money towards the bill that you lose the most money on.

Some advice from my rich sister:

Find a way to earn money when you shop or waste time online.

My sister and I use many different apps for saving money on groceries or shopping.  Message me if you’re interested and I can send you my sign up links.

I also use many different websites for earning money online.  Check them out:

Bing: Without using it for every search I do, I’ve managed to earn $10 in Starbucks gifts card through Bing.  I’m 54% away from my $5 gift card.  All you have to do is search for 30 things through Bing.  It can be random (I’ve searched my name a hundred times) and they suggest different stories for you to search.  You don’t have to click on any of the search results.  Just search.  There are other ways to earn with Bing, but searching is the easiest.  Check it out at Bing Rewards and start earning your gift cards now.

Treasure Trooper: I’ve also been on Treasure Trooper which I originally discovered through another Tumblr user (Thanks Diana!.)  I’ve been using it for a little under a year and have already earned $30.  You can answer surveys, listen to music, complete tasks…It’s pretty easy.  You should check it out.

Inbox Dollars might just be my favorite, though.  I’ve been signed up for a little over 5 months and have already earned $46.77.  They also have surveys and videos to watch.  They also send you e-mails and every time you click “view e-mail” you get 0.02.  That adds up.

Swagbucks is an awesome website where you can watch videos (in the background while you sit on Tumblr) and answer surveys, etc. to earn points.  Then you redeem those points for gift cards.  I have earned $45 Amazon gift cards.  It’s so easy.  I love it.

So, this is all I have to give for money advice.  I can certainly answer questions.  Don’t hesitate to message me.  Here’s to having a little more cash to play with!

aka “I’m a 22 year old newb and needed to find some resources”. Here’s what I’ve found so far that has really helped me! Lots of these are youtube tutorials; I find it more helpful to see someone doing it rather than just reading about it.

General:

Makeup Starter Kit Guide

How to Apply Makeup for Beginners

18 Makeup Tips for Beginners

Easy Beginners Makeup - Drugstore

Simple Everyday Makeup Tutorial

Makeup for Beginners 101: Intro and Essential Items

Beginners Makeup Bag (with TONS are helpful links in video)

Makeup Mistakes We All Make

10 Beauty Mistakes I Used to Make

Makeup Mistakes Black Women Commonly Make

13 Beauty Hacks

Makeup Trends We’re Ditching in 2015 (hilarious)

Specific:

Eyes:

9 Different Eyeliner Looks

How to Make Your Eyes Look Bigger

Beginner Eye Makeup Tips and Tricks

Easy Ways to Use Liquid Eyeliner

Eye Shape x, x, x

Face:

How to Cover Acne & Scars

How to Apply Foundation

Best Foundations for Women of Color

How to Find Your Undertones

Blush for Face Shapes

Make Your Nose Look Smaller with Contouring

Lips:

How to Wear a Dark Lip/Finding Your Tone

Matte Lip Routine

Brows:

Eyebrow Tutorial

Perfect Eyebrow Tutorial

Tools:

Breakdown of Brushes

Youtube Channels:

TheMakeupChair

Chanel Boateng

Makeup Game On Point

Michelle Phan

Blogs:

Makeuploversunite

makeuptips-blog

makeupartistsofcolour (half makeup, half informational)

Cruelty Free Brands:

Hard Candy

N.Y.C.

e.l.f.

Lush

Wet n Wild

bh cosmetics

Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics

Impulse Cosmetics

Urban Decay

illamasqua

Melt Cosmetics

Sugarpill

Colourpop

Kat Von D

Anastasia

NARS

Smashbox

*Important Note: Some of these brands may or may not be sold in other countries that require animal testing by law in order for the products to be sold, but I don’t have the time to research animal testing laws outside the US as well as what brands sell in those countries. So I’m leaving this one up to you. 

Okay, this has been in my drafts for at least 3 months now. Time to roll it out! Keep in mind, these are videos/bloggers that helped me specifically and there may be some videos/links that aren’t as useful to you. That’s okay! I recommend you get lost in the beauty blogger side of youtube at some point, it’s a lot of fun and you never know what you’ll find!