Carnival Calamity 2025 Part 7

On to the final part. I was getting concerned because I was running out of time. This is day before the Carnival and needs to be ready.

Terrible Geometry

I always have trouble with Geometry. I’m fine with ordinary 2D Shapes but goes all to pot when I need Depth. I did them best I could but I have run out of Time so am drawing by eye rather than measuring. I am supposed to have Two Cubes but they have turned out a bit rough.

I will Trim them up a little when I Cut them Out. I will also add Dots because they are supposed to be Dice.

Backgammon in Play

I glued the Dice in place either side of the Centre of the Backgammon Board. Now to put down the Counters.

I could have done the easy thing and gone for the Starting Position with the Counters. However I thought that would be a bit boring. Therefore I have gone with a more organic feel. I have the Counters in Play including one that is sitting out in the Centre waiting to rejoin the Game.

Too Hot

Arggh it is Too Hot! This is not good. The glue is melting. I am having to reapply it and stick down the points.

Snakes and Ladders

It is the morning of the Carnival and my boyfriend is decked out with the Snakes and Ladders Board. It is Pinned to his T Shirt using gold Safety Pins. I have put one in each of the corners. Hopefully it wont get too windy.

Backgammon Ready

My Backgammon Board looks great against this Blue T Shirt. This has been a very cheap way to dress up and add to the fun of going to the Carnival. 

P.S.

I took some spare Pins with me just in case we lost any. We didn’t and everybody loved our outfits. What is more I only need to remove the Counters and use real dice to be able to play.

Carnival Calamity 2025 Part 6

 Carnival Calamity 2025 Part 6

I have Cut Out one set of Brown Triangles. Now I need to do the same with the Grey.

Grey Triangles

Instead of Measuring and Cutting into Sections I am trying a different method. I have tried to draw the Triangles from the Marks so I get more out. Trouble is it made it very difficult to see what I was trying to Cut Out.

Line them Up

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Starting with the Grey Triangles I placed them at the Bottom in an alternative pattern across the Board leaving a gap in the Middle.

Unfortunately the Triangles were very uneven as I had shaky hands whilst Cutting Out. Once the configuration was correct I glued them in place.

Down the Centre 

I place a Black piece of Felt down the Centre of the Board then proceed add more Triangles. The Triangles on the other side are directly across from the original Set. However the Colour Scheme is opposite. I made sure they were correct before gluing.

Mini Circles

Taking a small piece of White Felt which was an Off Cut I began to draw some Mini Circles.

White Set

I Cut Out the White Circles which I will call the White Set. I haven’t got quite enough so need to Cut Out some more. After I have fifteen Circles in my Set I shall do the same thing with Red Felt. This will give me thirty Circles or should I say Counters in total.

Carnival Calamity 2025 Part 5

 Carnival Calamity 2025 Part 5

I am moving on to another Board Game

Getting Started

Once again I am going to use Felt. I picked three Colours that I thought would work well together. Once I had those I could get Started.

Fold in Half

The Base for the Board Game is going to be Yellow.  The Light Brown and the Grey are roughly the same Size to I need to Fold them both in Half.

Divide in Sections

After Cutting in half my next task was to Divide into equal Sections. After that I Trimmed off the Excess

Cut Sections

In order to move on I had to Cut the ones that I had Measured in to Individual Sections. I have Eight in total.

Pointy Sections

The next part was to turn those Sections in to what I needed. At the Top of the Section I made a small Mark in the Centre. Then using a pencil and a ruler I drew a Line between that Diagonally to both Bottom Corners.

Once I had Drawn the Outline that I wanted I cut out the Triangle. If you want to get really technical it is an Isosceles Triangle

Oops Bit Short

Now I had one I could repeat the process with the other seven Sections. I needed more than eight pieces for what I had in mind. Taking the other Half of the Light Brown Material I continued making more Triangles.

I am not entirely sure what happened but for some reason some of the Triangles were Shorter than the others. Hopefully I will be able to work around it.

Carnival Calamity 2025 Part 4

Carnival Calamity 2025 Part 4

With the Grid done I can start on filling it.

A Bit Small

Rather than use new pieces of Felt I have scoured my collection for odd pieces I can cut up. This piece however has come out a bit Small.

Much Better

I try again with a Bigger piece. This time it comes out much Better. I have been able to get some twists and curves in. This is a clue to what I have decided to make.

Slithering

I have Cut Out a variety of Colours of Slithering Snakes and Glued them on the Grid. This of course is going to be the old time favourite Board Game Snakes and Ladders.

Place Ladder.

I have Cut up some Thin pieces of Felt of different Lengths. I Glue them over the top of one of the Snakes. I will continue to do this with other Colours.

Hey Presto

Hey Presto I have a completed it. If I had more time I would have Overlapped the Snakes and Ladders more.

Carnival Calamity 2025 Part 3

 Carnival Calamity 2025 Part 3

Well now I have calmed down after last weeks fiasco I am ready to try again.

Start from Scratch

Since I am now out of the Blue Felt I have abandoned Connect Four and have got some Yellow Felt and Starting from Scratch.

Measuring Again

As always it is back to Measuring to make the base from which to work from. 

Full Squares

I am going with another Grid Pattern so the Yellow Felt is Full of Squares.

One to a Hundred.

Although the Felt is Full of Squares I do not need all of them. Taking a Ball Point I number them starting with One and going up to One Hundred.

Trimmed and Labelled

I have now Trimmed and Labelled the Grid with a Start and a Finish Point

Carnival Calamity 2025 Part 2

Carnival Calamity 2025 Part 2

I have to confess that it has been quite a while since I took the photos and think that some went astray so bare with me.

Start Trimming

I do not need the Full Grid so I start Trimming to get rid of the Excess Rows

Seven by Six

Rather that looking this up I am doing this project from Memory. I am therefore not quite sure how many Square that I need. So far it is Seven by Six. I will definitely have to check before I cut any more off.

Fold Through Centre

I have Folded the Felt through the Centre Point.

Diagonal Snips

Taking a Pair of Scissors I make some Diagonal Snips along the Fold. This forms a Triagonal. Some are bigger that others but I am not overly worried as I will even them up once I open it back out.

First lot of Holes

I now have my First lot of Holes. These are Diamond Shape. Once I have repeated the process with all the other sections I will Trim them to make them Circular.

Calamity

I love my boyfriend dearly but at this moment I could strangle him. He distracted me at a vital point. This means instead of the Holes being cut in the Centre of the Squares I have actually done it across the the Line.

I am so angry I could spit. The problem is that not only have I messed up the Top but also the Bottom Felt as they are Pinned together. This is one instance when doubling up has worked against me.

No matter which way I look at it this time there is no clever way to cover up the mistake. What was going to be the Board Game Connect Four has now become Connect Calamity. I am going to have to completely rethink this.

Carnival Calamity 2025 Part 1

Carnival Calamity 2025 Part 1

Every year we have a Carnival in summer. Each year is a different Theme. This year the Theme is Board Games. I thought it would be an excellent time to play Dress Up.

Starting Square

I have quite a bit of Felt left from other projects. I pick a nice large Blue Square to Start with.

30 Centimetres

I take a Ruler and Measure the Length. It comes to 30 Centimetres.

Middle Line

I Measure Half Way to 15 Centimetres and make a mark in Chalk. I Measure the same distance on the Opposite Side and make another mark. I then Draw a Line between the two points. This is my Middle Line.

Centre Column

I have taken a Second Piece of Felt and Pinned the two together with the marked one on top. I then take the Middle Line and place my Ruler directly over it. I then Draw a Line either Side of the Ruler.

Once the Ruler is removed the two Lines have created my first Column. This is the Centre Column that I will be working from.

Nine Columns

Starting from my Centre I move the Ruler either Side to create additional Columns until I have Nine in total.

Grid

I spin the Felt around and then using the same technique add more Lines. This had given me a Grid with Small Squares. I have Nine Columns and Nine Rows in total.

Watch Out There’s A Minx About 2019 Part 4

Watch Out There’s A Minx About 2019 Part 4

Now I had the outfit I wanted to add an Accessory. This was in the form of a Catapult. I would like to point out that this is not designed to actually work.

Catapult Material Selection

I found a Twig and then gathered a selection of materials that I thought I might need.

Twig Excess Removed

The first thing I did was level off the ends and remove any excess bumps that I might catch myself on.

Catapult 1^st Elastic

I found a few pictures of various types of Catapults. I picked one that had thin Elastic. I tied one end of the Elastic around the Right Side of the Twig.

Threading Catapult

This Catapult has a Leather part that is used to hold whatever is to be fired. I was lucky enough to have a section of an old Leather Belt with holes in that I could use.

Knotting Catapult

Once I had threaded the Elastic through the first hole I made a Knot so it wouldn’t pull back through.

Final Thread

I then threaded through the rest of the Elastic and Knotted it. On the other side before I tied the rest of it to the other side of the Twig.

Finished Catapult

This gave me my finished Catapult. So on to getting the whole Ensemble together. I dyed my hair and then after donning the outfit I was ready for the Carnival.

Minnie the Minx 2019

My boyfriend took this photograph of me after the Carnival enjoying a Minx Sized Milkshake. Needless to say we had a brilliant time. In fact some folks in the Parade stopped to take photographs of us (He was dressed as Dennis the Menace). Also it is not often you get a Hi Five from somebody dressed as Spiderman.

Watch Out There’s A Minx About 2019 Part 1

Watch Out There’s A Minx About 2019 Part 1

I am known for have Idea’s that are completely impractical due to the lack of time. This project is no exception to the rule. Each year we have a Carnival. I have long wanted to be a part of it but never have.

Nowadays with my poor mobility I will never be able to walk the Parade especially at this time of the year when it is hot. Therefore I in my wisdom decided to this year just dress up in costume just for the hell of it.

The theme for 2019 was Cartoon and Comic characters. My other half said that everybody would be going as DC or Marvel Characters. Since we in the UK have a rich heritage ourselves I should go as one. The Character he suggested was Minnie the Minx.

Making of a Minx

Minnie the Minx has a very distinctive look. For those that haven’t heard of her I will post a link at the Bottom of the page. Since I had less than a week to get it done I have to admit that I bought the Top off Ebay.

For the Skirt I trawled the local Charity Shops. I found one in Treetops that was right colour and roughly the right length.

Found a Skirt

One slight problem was the fact that it was about two sizes too small. As we know women’s clothing labelling is pretty much a pick and mix. However I slipped it on (over my other Skirt as no changing room). I decided that it was worth a risk. I thought that I might be able to add a panel or something to make it bigger.

Removing Underskirt

 

I removed the Underskirt. Normally I would have unpicked this but due to time restraints I just cut it out. I then trimmed any excess.

Now the Underskirt was removed I tried it back on. Since the Skirt was more or less the same shape all the way around I decided to move the Zip to the Side.

I was delighted to find that I was able to do up the Zip and with a bit of wiggling I was able to wear it and still be able to breathe. So no further alterations would be necessary. I would just have to remember to breathe in!

Minnie the Minx

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minnie_the_Minx


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