And the Website is Up

Konichiwa!  So, before I forget about it, I just finished setting up the informational website for the project.  Here is the link (http://reachingoutgsgogold.weebly.com/ ).  It's not completely finished yet because I'm waiting to add pictures when I get the borders on the murals (probably tomorrow, I hope), but the information is there in case you'd like to look it over.
That's all I've got for now, though, so I'll catch you reader-sans later!


- Turtle-chan

The Light...! I Can See the Light!

Konichiwa!  So, I am insanely behind on updates, as per the usual with me.  Basically all I've done for the past several weeks is work on these boards except for one week in which I was working on a cosplay (if you ever decide to cosplay as Grell Sutcliff from Black Butler and you're detail-oriented like I am, give yourself more time than a week to get it done...  Trust me... -_-) and I pretty much forgot about updating the blog...  Sorry about that...

Anyway, here's what I've done over the past month an a half or so.  I got the critters drawn on the boards like I said I would and geez was that a pain!  Elmer the Patchwork Elephant is my nemesis!  That took hours of drawing and erasing and staring at reference pictures and getting angry and having to leave the room so I wouldn't break anything and coming back and starting over again.  Ugh.  But I finally got it done, so it ended up alright.



You probably can't tell, but this is the outline for the Caterpillar

And Yurtle...

And this is Elmer...

Then, I had to go on an expedition through a couple of different cities to find materials.  That was interesting to say the least.  I went to a couple of different thrift stores to get pieces of clothing that I could use for scrap fabric, I got caulk and sandpaper from Home Depot, and I got a ton of clearance craft supplies and the BEST GLUE EVER from Michaels.  Seriously, if you want to glue something down and for it to never come off, use Weldbond.  It's more expensive than normal glue, but it works really well.

A pile of materials!

So, then it was time to start actually getting stuff done.  I spent hours and hours and hours on these suckers and I was an idiot and decided to start on Elmer first.  I mentioned he's my nemesis, right?  Yeah, that was awful.  I employed all of the help I could get out of my family to get him done because I was seriously struggling to find volunteers.  That's the bad part of working on things in the summer.  Everyone was out of town or busy with other things for the most part.  So Elmer was a family affair and he has turned out to be the most glam elephant to have ever glammed.  I almost feel like I should give him some eyelashes and say he's a Rule 63 version (for those of you who aren't familiar with the geek world, Rule 63 essentially means that there is a genderbent version of any and all characters in some other dimension.  It's a rule I often employ for cosplaying as I cannot crossplay because you can only bind so much...).

Getting some help from my brother O.o

Minion labor!  Er, I mean, help from siblings! (>.>)

My mom helping cut things because this world is not made for lefties

Belladonna the cat decided she'd pitch in, too

Me, working on Elmer.  My hair was so short then...

The next one on my hit list was the Very Hungry Caterpillar and thank goodness he was so easy!  I also managed to get together with another girl in my area who has been working on her Gold Award as well, so we helped each other out on the projects and she had managed to get together a couple of volunteers whom I drafted to work on my project a bit as well!  One of our volunteers was a local Eagle Scout and he was appalled at how much harder our Gold Award requirements are than his Eagle requirements.  We just kind of laughed at him in a sad, resigned sort of way...  I'll finish eventually...

We ended up moving into the shade because it was too hot

Another scout and troop leader stopped by for a while

Teamwork!

And today I am finishing Yurtle the Turtle.  One of his arms is made of plaster, so I'm having to let it dry, but once it's dry enough I should be basically finished with him.  We're also painting the backgrounds again as per my dad's request.  I wish we'd done that BEFORE I glued everything down because now I'm having to paint around the pictures, but unfortunately he was right.  It does look better with painted backgrounds...  Those are almost done.  I'm actually just waiting on them to dry at the moment.

My brother helping me paint.  I got lazy and didn't take many pictures of this process...

Our plan is to have everything finished and turned in by the end of this week because orientation for college starts Saturday (and lasts until Tuesday -_-) and then classes begin Wednesday, so I don't know how much time I'll have to work on things after that.  I've gotten two and a half of the forms filled out and ready to turn in.  I think I have like three or four and a half more, which makes me kind of want to cry, but I'll get it done somehow.  After that, I need to make fliers about the issue, I'll probably be creating either another blog or a website about the issue tonight and I'll put the link in my next post which I anticipate will happen either Thursday or Friday, and I need to make a poster to turn in to the council.  Other than that, I'm almost done.  Thursday we're going to go and get the wooden border to finish off the boards and our plan is to take everything in on Friday.  I'm almost done, but it feels like I still have so much more to do...

Alright, well, I'm going to go and be productive some more, so I'll catch you guys later.  I'm almost done!  I just have to keep myself motivated for a few more days and then I can rest (sort of...)!


- Turtle-chan

And so it Begins!

Konichiwa!  I know it's been absolute ages since I've posted anything, but senior year with all of my AP classes and a massive research project for Biomed was insane.  But, I've finally got the ball rolling again on my project now that school is out.  I need to get this done before college starts up, obviously, so I have the pedal to the metal!

Over the past few days I got the boards for the project cut out, marked off, and spray painted.  There are three boards with a 1 3/8" strip around the outer edge where I will attach a decorative border.  The border I marked in pencil and then taped over with painter's tape so that I don't have to redo the markings later on.



Blank Board with Borders Marked off

Blank Board with Borders Taped

Then, I took the boards outside and spray painted them with some grey primer just to seal the wood in so that none of the kids get splinters.  For this part, I got a little help from a local Boy Scout (aka my little brother!).

Me Spray Painting and Making a Fashion Statement (Hey, it's summer!)

My Not-so-Little Brother Spray Painting (I made him wear his scout shirt for this!)

All Painted and Grey!

What I'm working on now is drawing on pencil outlines of all the characters to make forming the pictures easier.  I have two of the three completed, so I think I'll be able to post pictures of that step in a few days, depending on the weather (one of the boards needs another coat of paint, but it's been rainy here).  I figure I'll need to contact the council again soon to set up a date I can present the finished product.  I anticipated having it finished by August if all goes well, so please keep an eye out!  Catch you guys later!

- Turtle-chan