DERP.

(Ok like…right after I styled this and took these pics, I changed the ahoge 8D; It doesn’t look so straight up anymore and it’s closer to the front of the wig.)

Cosplay events separate from conventions can be really fun. Sometimes I have a better time at those! Many events are held throughout the year in between conventions—whether cosplay gatherings, photoshoots or themed gatherings.

Back on July 25th, some friends and I got together for a Hetalia-themed BBQ/potluck. My friend Anela and I came up with the dumb idea and it ended up being a success! (Though more people would have been able to come had it not been on the same weekend as Comic Con.) It originally started as a small photoshoot but once we saw that a lot of people were interested, we just turned it into a full blown BBQ. Part of the reason we wanted to do this was because it was summertime and we wanted to do something fun/nerdy and partly it was because Anela was going to Europe for three weeks. This was a good way for her to see a good chunk of friends before she left.

So, friends were asked to pick a country of their choice. Once they picked something, we told them to bring food/drinks and wear an apron that would also correspond to the country. We had TONS OF FOOD. And a lot of drinks. 8D; (I shouldn’t have asked so many people to bring drinks. derp.) 

Both of us didn’t think we’d get many people to join us but at one point we were up to 20 people. xD; Some had to drop for various reasons but we still had a sizable group. Our friend Ryan (Prussia in the collage) offered up his house since we had outgrown our original gathering space.  So, that was awesome! And it made planning a bit easier. 

This makes me want to do more themed-gatherings. So fun! xDD

AND I UH…THINK GERMANY’S APRON WINS. THIS WASN’T A COMPETITION OR ANYTHING. IT JUST…WINS.

(All photos in the collage are from Jason@i360.com, Caitlin/datkate, FER, Anela/anelasama and my camera.) 

OK so like….right after I styled my America wig, the ahoge (AKA the hair sticking up! TV tropes I think? gave this style a name. Or at least I learned about the term on there. xD) or, if you will, Nantucket (why) didn’t look quite right to me so I fixed it the next day. xD; And after wearing the wig once to AX, I decided it really needed to be trimmed more and the bangs needed to be styled somemore too. So this is the fixed version! It bothered me that I still had a collage up of the old style. rauguughh.

I still think the layers could be blended better but I was using regular scissors—I don’t have snazzy hair dresser scissors! That would have helped a bunch, I think. Maybe. 

Anela just uploaded some pics from Anime Expo~ 

We had a derpy 4th of July celebration since I was cosplaying as America that day. She brought random decorations and I brought cupcakes. And then we took pics. OF COURSE. 8D

I lovelove the pics but ughh I wish the wig looked better.  At this point it wasn’t trimmed and the bangs weren’t really styled. (At the time I thought it was fine but~~xDD;) As another blog entry shows, it’s fixed now. Ah well~~

YOU KNOW YOU’D BUY THIS. DON’T DENY.

Obviously this is not me, but my friend Erik. He cosplays as Germany and, in my most *humble* opinion, is one of the best! The photo was taken and edited by my friend Anela (http://anelasama.tumblr.com/). SO PRO.  She let me feature it here on my cos-blog~ ohohoho.  

Check out more of Anela’s photos (and some of her cosplays) here: http://queenmantis.deviantart.com/

And while you’re at it, check out some of Erik’s cosplays: http://www.acparadise.com/ace/display.php?a=49402

WOOOOO congrats to Erik for winning ACP’s Germany contest! :DD  

(Awesome photo by Anela.)

ACP has two contests going on right now! :D Soul Eater and Axis Powers Hetalia. So obviously the reasonable thing to do is post some ~*attractive photos*~ I have of my Maka and America cosplays here on tumblr. Because this is how I roll. I can’t take myself seriously. I’ve always thought it would be fun to enter one of their contests but ever since I joined the site (it’s been a few years now I think) there wasn’t a series I could enter for. If there was I had missed the opportunity. …Until now when I can suddenly enter two of them. 

Soul Eater voting just opened up tonight! http://www.acparadise.com/acp/contests.php?cid=54&t=1

You get 5 votes for that one.

The Hetalia contests have been pimped everywhere but I guess it wouldn’t hurt to link them one more time:

AMERICA 

ENGLAND

FRANCE

RUSSIA

CHINA

AUSTRIA

HUNGARY

PRUSSIA

AKSKF EVERYONE ELSE (Oh snap I realized I have three votes left for this category. Awesomesauce.)

The Axis powers contest is already over if anyone was wondering why Germany, Japan and N. Italy aren’t listed.

You must be a registered member to vote. If you are a cosplayer and do not have an ACP, I recommend getting one! It’s a nice site for organizing photos and cosplays, as well as conventions you attended. You can also comment on photos and the costumes themselves.

I have a good number of friends in both contests so I am excited to see the results! 

LOLOL HAPPY BIRTHDAY ERIK

I think my blingees are getting more and more beautiful if I do say so myself.

My completed cosplays of 2010:

Giselle (Enchanted)

Hiccup (How to Train Your Dragon)

Graham Specter (Baccano!)

Makoto (Street Fighter)

America (Axis Powers Hetalia)

Pretty sure that’s it until 2011! It feels like this year has gone by so fast. .__.

Since I am kind of EXCITE about a Hetalia photoshoot this weekend, I’ll talk about my America cosplay in this post.

BACKSTORY: Gah. Okay. I’ll admit right now I tried to stay away from Hetalia as long as I possibly could. Karen was the first person to introduce me to the series and I had a number of friends who were into it or getting into it. (This was back at the end of 2008.) After being completely immersed in the very small and relatively close-knit Princess Tutu fandom for about two years, I didn’t want to get into anything that had a big scary fandom. (Like, Naruto and Bleach—both of which I like but the fandoms are huge and some of the fans at cons could um…get annoying.) I know, kind of a dumb reason to stay away from a series. Also, as it gained popularity I tried to stay away even more since it seemed so overrated. ALSO a silly reason to stay away, but whatever. I’ve always thought the IDEA of Hetalia was cool but I stubbornly refused to get sucked in. It was getting harder and harder to avoid it. I mostly blame Anela and Annamarie who are enthusiastically into the series and their contagious love for it weakened my defenses. AHH YOU GUYS. 

I had scanlations just sitting on my HD waiting for me to read them and when the anime came out, it was easy just to sit down and watch. (“I’ll just watch…three. That’s only 15 minutes.”  -10 episodes later- “…Ok maybe one more.”)  And even back in 2008 I knew that if I was going to cosplay as anyone from this series, it would be America. At first it was for the very shallow reason of, “Hm, his character design seems fun enough and I’ve NEVER COSPLAYED WITH SOMEONE WHO HAS GLASSES 8DD” That was also a dumb reason. Luckily when I actually got into the series, he ended up being one of my top favorites. Though now I also want to cosplay as S. Italy and Monaco too…and maybe a nyotalia someday skfksf IDK so many. This was an unnecessary and long-winded backstory soo I’ll shut up now.

CONSTRUCTION:  I decided I wanted to cosplay as America for AX this year. AX falls on 4th of July weekend so I thought it would be fun to cosplay as him that day. AND IT WAS, ACTUALLY. Lots of birthday wishes. So cute~ xD My friends and I kept count that day. We APPROXIMATED about 50.

Anyway, because of my semi-last minute decision to cosplay as him I finally decided that instead of making the uniform, I’d buy it. I ordered it from here and now it finally looks like they have sold out after advertising Limited Quantities!! this whole time.

I just took off the buttons and put in snaps since his uniform doesn’t show any.

Got the bomber jacket on eBay for $10. Added details.  I used heat n’ bond to make my own little patches. I tacked them down with stitches here and there to make sure they stay in place. I am sorely tempted to take off the big “50” from my jacket since there were only 48 states at the time of WWII. And the anime version doesn’t have it. Hmm decisions.

WIG: I’ve posted about the wig before, so here’s a link to it on deviantart: Wig + details 

PERSONAL THOUGHTS: America is an awesomely fun character to cosplay and it’s really a blast to cosplay from this series with friends. Gotta say I’m glad finally I broke down and got into Hetalia. I’ve always had a little spark of patriotism in me so representing the country in a small—okay, fine, really dorky—way like this is right up my alley. I plan on making his Revolutionary War outfit (it’s actually the only one I wanted to make but xDD; ) and his cowboy!outfit. That’s probably it. Anela is setting up a Christmas-y themed shoot in December so I’ll put something together for that. And in July friends and I did a reallyyyy fun and FOOD-FILLED Hetalia-themed BBQ. A monstrous collage of pics of that can be found here 8D. 

For more photos of my America cosplay, go here~

Wahh~ Caitlin just sent me a few photos she had taken at AX. Appropriate for Veterans Day, I think. <3

1/3

2/3

(with Tara as England)