Futurama Coasters and More!

I promise I won't be renaming the blog Futurama Crochet and Cousins anytime soon. It's purely coincidence that we've got two Futurama posts in a row. I think the joy of having new Futurama episodes on TV for the first time in years has been pretty inspiring for a lot of geeky crafters.

First up are these awesome coasters created by Craftster user zombiecakeses. Whether you call them Hama beads, Perler beads or Fuse beads, they work in the same manner. Create a pattern on a peg board with the beads, iron the beads so they melt slightly and stick together, then remove the peg board and you have your wonderful pixelated creation. Search online or look in local craft stores or the crafting aisle of major toy stores for the beads. In stores they usually come in a mixed bag of colours, where as online you can usually order bags of a single colour. You can also check out my Perler Bead Tutorial if you want more information on how to create patterns.

I love these coasters, not only because they are Futurama, but also because they aren't 16-bit video game characters. Don't get me wrong, I love my Mario Bros. and Pac-Man, but for a while it just seemed like that was all anyone was making with fuse beads. It's nice to see someone branching out to make more modern-day pop culture icons. Now I wonder if I have enough gray to make that Bender head...

I also wanted to share this work-in-progress because the brilliance of the idea blew me away. Craftster user heatheres76 is converting an old Clue game into a Futurama Clue game. Here you have the little game board pieces which she has sculpted herself. The brain slug is one of the weapons, not one of the playable characters. I can't wait to see what the other weapons turn out to be. I'm casting my vote for Torgo's Executive Powder. What would you suggest?

Time To Switch to a Garlic Shampoo

New episodes of Futurama and the appeal of having a really cheap Halloween costume have caused a brain slug epidemic around our house. My boyfriend, who is both wise and witty, appears to be the first victim, but what's really scary is the number of people I have lining up and asking how they can get a brain slug of their own.

If you're the crafty sort you can crochet your own using this terrific free pattern from Hook & Needles. To attach the brain slug to the head I poked a small wire hairband (Dollar store purchase!) through the base of the piece. I thought I'd have to glue it in place so it wouldn't slip around when someone's wearing it, but surprisingly it actually stays put. What can I say. those brain slugs are clingy little devils! The eye was made using a piece of white crafting foam that's adhesive on the back side. Rather than attempting to cut out a very tiny black circle, I just cut open a googley eye and used the black pupil from that.

We were joking that it would be fun to carry around a prop bottle of garlic shampoo when one is wearing a brain slug. Simple enough to make, just put a new label on any old bottle of shampoo. Then I did a little Googling and discovered that garlic shampoo is a real thing. It turns out that aside from combatting the tenaciously clingy brain slugs, garlic shampoo also aids in preventing hair loss. Huh, who knew?