Our Super Duper Super Mario Bros. Halloween! Part 2: Pumpkins and Peach and Mario put-your-face-in-and-take-a-picture things...

And we're back with more on how to make these:

What you'll need:

• So, first of all, you'll need one large, tall box. Our boxes measured about 3-4 feet tall. Yes, it's on the short side for adults, but we figured that children would be interested in these more than adults anyway.
• Picture references 
• Assorted primary color acrylic paints
• Assorted size paint brushes
• A pencil
• A Sharpie
• A box cutter and/or X-ACTO knife
• Your creative artistic skills!

First, gather your pictures. Again, I've provided on this post the pictures we used so that you won't have to search for them, but you can always do other ones if you want.

 The lovely Princess Peach!

 Mario: Hee-YA! 

Basically, it's pretty straightforward. I just drew the picture first with pencil, and then went over it with a Sharpie. Of course, there's no need to draw the face since you will be cutting that out anyhow. After that, paint everything accordingly. You will most likely have to mix up some of your paint to get a skin tone color. I mixed some white, yellow, and red together. I honestly can't say how much of each I did, but what I would suggest is just mixing a little of each and see what you come up with. :)

 After your masterpiece is painted, go over it all with Sharpie again to give it that finished and defined look. 

Once you've got that all done, take a break to admire how awesome you are. You deserve it. ;)

Then, take the box cutter/X-ACTO knife, and cut out the face, and you're done!

 "I am the Princess!"

What a ham... ;)

Now, if you'd like to do the pumpkins, there really isn't much instruction for those, so I'll just list what you'll need and give you the pictures I designed them after.

You'll need:

• Two pumpkins (or more if you want more characters like Toad, a turtle, etc.)
• Picture references 
• Assorted primary color acrylic paints
• Assorted size paint brushes
• A pencil
• A Sharpie
• Your creative and artistic skills! (Funny, this one seems to be so essential...)

My Yoshi turned out just a little different, but basically the same.

King BOO!!!

So there are your pictures, and as before, I would draw your picture first in pencil, then in Sharpie, paint, and then go over again with Sharpie. 

And there you are! :D

Princess Peach Picture:http://s285.beta.photobucket.com/user/HyperGon/media/ItadakiPeach.png.html
Mario Picture: http://www.nintendo.com/sites/mario/
Yoshi Picture: http://www.discover-how-to-draw.com/how-to-draw-yoshi.html
King Boo Picture: http://dreager1.com/2012/03/29/king-boo-vs-meddy/

Our Super Duper Super Mario Bros. Halloween! Part 1: Background

For me, Halloween is a holiday that I always look forward to. Not for the candy, not for the horror movies, not for the gore, but for the costumes. And no, not the whore-rific kind either. Bleh. I'm talking about a real costume that means something, looks awesome, and is home made. Here's what we did:

 Ta-da!

Okay, so I sort of cheated this year and just reused our cosplay from Fandemonium this year...and a previous Halloween before Brandon and I were married, BUT, I did make these and plus, Kessie's costume took a lot of work, and I wanted her to get to wear that costume as much as possible. :)

As if this wasn't enough for you already, we also decided to go full out on our trunk for the Trunk-or-Treat that our church put together. Check. It. Out.

Yup. We're awesome. ;)

Want to know how we did it?

Background:
The background took the most time, but it was well worth it. :)

What You'll Need:

• A big piece of cardboard that fits snugly in your car's trunk.
• Paint in assorted colors. We just used primary color acrylic paint we got from Walmart. 
• Assorted sizes of paint brushes (also from Walmart).
• A Sharpie.
• A pencil.
• Pictures as references 
• Your creative mind.

What we did first was gather a bunch of pictures from the internet of the characters we wanted in our scene. You can have as many or as few as you'd like, and even characters we didn't put in. But just to save you the time of having to look up a lot of pictures for just the right thing, here are all the pictures we used as references:

My husband thinks this character would be awesome to have, and I must say, I really like it in the scene.

 Our scene was based on the old Super Mario games. Believe it or not, this is Bowser. O.o Not as intimidating as he is now, but it works. :)

 A fish. Why not?

 Gotta have a Goomba.

 ...and a flower thing.

 Don't forget the Blooper!

This one was mostly for the bullet.

This was our reference for the overall scene. You can see that our's is a bit different, but it generally helped with the overall look of things.

After gathering the pictures of what you'd like in your scene, get out a piece of scratch paper and roughly draw out what you'd like it to look like. Like this:

Only...better. And not so dead-fishy.

K, so after that, draw out your scene with pencil. After that, outline it all with Sharpie. You will have to do this at the very end too, but I suggest doing it now so that you can clearly see where and what you are painting.

After that, paint everything! This part is pretty meticulous and will take a long time, so you'll probably want someone to help you. We spent at least 4 hours just painting and that was with 2 of us. Ugh.

Once you're done painting, go over the lines again with Sharpie, just to give it a nice finished look.

And voila! There ya are!

Tune in to the next post for instructions on the pumpkins and Peach and Mario put-your-face-in-and-take-a-picture things.

Picture References: 
Lakitu Picture: http://www.mariowiki.com/User:Super_Spike
Bowser Picture: http://www.corksandcaftans.com/2010/01/12/the-birthday-boss/
Fish: http://gamer7heaven.wordpress.com/art-gallery/8-bit-pixel-art/8-bit-mario-art/
Goomba: http://gamer7heaven.wordpress.com/art-gallery/8-bit-pixel-art/8-bit-mario-art/
Piranha Plant: http://www.etsy.com/listing/85570053/super-mario-bros-piranha-plant-favor-box   
Fish and Blooper: http://www.etsy.com/listing/100092913/mario-bros-blooper-cheep-cheep-duo
Assorted Picture:http://www.flickr.com/photos/riotpatch/5379535086/
Castle Picture: http://gamefans.com/2012/07/24/super-mario-games-go-downloadable-on-the-3ds/mario-underground-end/ 

  

Fruits Basket

 (Click here to watch a trailer)

Cute, hilarious, and fun all around. This anime is about a girl named Tohru Honda who discovers the secret that surrounds the family of her classmate Yuki Soma. Some members of his family, including him, transform into the 12 animals of the Chinese Zodiac when hugged by someone of the opposite gender, or when under stress. The anime deals much with how ones influence can have a great impact on another.

• Age Appropriateness: Teens +
• Content Rating: Fruits Basket is almost entirely harmless really. Kyo does swear quite often though, and there is one cross-dresser (if you have anything against that). Also, when those who are cursed transform back from being their respective animals, they are naked, but nothing is ever shown since they generate a big poof cloud when they transform, but other than those things, it's a very mild anime.
• Dub vs. Sub: I watched this anime with the English dub, and I liked it that way. I thought the voices matched up very well, so that's what I would recommend.
• Overall Rating: I would give Fruits Basket a 4/5. It's a wonderful anime and I love it, but aside from a few parts of the show, it was mostly fun to watch once. Although the end doesn't give much closure, and near the end gets a little boring with the same old stuff going on, I would say that Fruits Basket was definitely a good anime to watch all around. 

Fruits Basket picture from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Fruits_Basket_episodes

Pretear

(Click here to watch the opening)

This anime is only 13 episodes long, and the creators could have added in some more elements to make it better, but somehow, I still really liked it! I mean, what's not to like about a story with elements from Snow White, about a girl destined to save the world by merging with 7 different knights (and falling in love with the Knight of the Wind) in order to protect and save the world from the Princess of Disaster? The opening song is also enjoyable, for sure!

• Age Appropriateness: Teens +
• Content Rating: It's not quite for little kids really, simply for the fact that the transformations, although not explicit, are a bit revealing. There is also some mild language thrown around here and there.
• Dub vs. Sub: I would suggest the dub, since it's done well. Plus I do enjoy Luci Christian and Chris Patton who voiced Duck and Fakir from Princess Tutu. 
• Overall rating: I give this a 4/5. I really like this one, and it's kind of nice that it's only 13 episodes long, and they do a good job of making things flow in such a short amount of episodes. The characters are great as well and I love the opening song. 

 Pretear Picture from: http://www.zerochan.net/Hayate,Pretear

Full Moon wo Sagashite

(Click here to watch a segment)

 Full Moon started out as a pretty typical, shoujo, predictable anime, but for some reason I kept watching it. Maybe it was because it was so sweet with an interesting plot? Who knows, but I do know that I'm glad I watched it! This anime is about a 12-year-old girl named Mitsuki, who loves to sing, despite the fact that she has cancer in her throat and the doctors urge her not to. A long time ago, when she was younger, she made a promise with her friend Eichi, who was moving away to America, that when they saw each other again, they would be closer to fulfilling their dreams; he an astronomer, and she a singer. However, Mitsuki learns from a couple of Shinigami (death spirits that she is somehow able to see) that she only has one year left to live. Takuto, one of the Shinigami, takes pity on Mitsuki and transforms her into a 16-year-old version of herself  without the cancer so she can fulfill her dreams. The story that unfolded (took until about episode 16 or something to get really, really interesting) was really good. There was a lot of meaning in it, and focused a lot on how one can change lives through music. Speaking of music, this anime has some WONDERFUL songs! Eternal Snow, Myself (Meroko's and Takuto's versions), and New Future are some of my favs. :) I would most definitely recommend this anime to anyone. Also, you may have to look up the last fourth or so of the show online since for some reason the last bit is unavailable on dvd! :P

• Age Appropriateness: I would say this would be appropriate for audiences as young as 10 or so.
• Content Rating:There really isn't anything objectionable about this anime, aside from the not so modestly dressed Shinigami and if you have anything against an older boy (by about 4 years) being in love with a younger girl. 
• Dub vs. Sub: The English dub is pretty awful. It seriously sounds like a fan dub. Ugh. Definitely watch with subtitles.
• Overall Rating: I would give this anime 4/5 stars. It's lovely and fun and made me bawl at the end. Like I said above, my only real complaint is that it takes a long time for things to really develop into a good story. 

Full Moon wo Sagashite picture from: http://fullmoonanime.wikia.com/wiki/Full_Moon_o_Sagashite