Rubix Cube Tissue Box Cover

I've got a secret...

...."I'm Batman! Shhh!"

If you are a fan of Big Bang Theory, I'm sure you have already noticed the awesome Rubix Cube tissue box that Sheldon and Leonard have in their apartment. Well, I decided that we had to have one for our new 80's Geek Living Room! 

**These are now available for purchase HERE or you can scroll down and learn how to make your own.**

As with the Super Mario Coasters, making a pattern would be more difficult and time consuming for me than the project itself. It's pretty simple though so a detailed pattern shouldn't be necessary. Start by cutting five pieces of plastic canvas to 37 line squares. Assuming that all plastic canvas is the same size, your pieces will be just under 5 1/2". On the fifth piece, cut a hole in the middle that is 13 lines in from every side.

Here is the basic pattern for each color block: 

This is the order that I used for my colors:

Each block takes about a 5' piece of yarn. You can put the colors into whatever order you want but I recommend going off of an actual Rubix Cube. I just made up colors for one and it wasn't until I had already put it together that I realized some of the blocks weren't technically possible. So I had to rip it all out and start over again because I knew that it would bug me every time I looked at it.

Once you have finished your color blocks, fill in the inside black lines on each panel. Then stitch all of the panels together and all along the bottom edge. I went over all of the sides twice just to make sure that none of the plastic showed through. 

Now just slip it over a square tissue box.

Front View:

Back View:

BAZINGA!

Super Mario Coasters

Continuing with the 80's geek theme that we have going in our living room, I decided that we needed some 8-Bit Super Mario Coasters!

They go along perfectly with our Nintendo Controller Coffee Table. :)

(Left to right: star power, yoshi egg, coin, mole, fire power, green mushroom, ghost, red mushroom, turtle shell, spitting rose, feather flying power, wind up bomb.)

I would take me forever to make patterns for all of these so here is a head on view of them that should make it easy for you to follow. These are made out of perler beads which I am sure most of you played with as kids so I won't do a big tutorial or anything. Even if you aren't familiar with it they come with instructions to help you out. If you want the melted side on top then place the beads exactly as they are shown above. However, if you want the unmelted side on top like I did, you will need to flip it over and do a mirror image. 

These coasters are each 18 pegs wide and tall which makes them about 3 1/2 square inches. You will need the large square pegboard to make this size. To make sure they wouldn't scratch the table, I hot glued some felt onto the back. It seems to work best if you put the hot glue on the felt and then lay the coaster on top. If the hot glue dries too fast and the pieces don't want to attach, you can reactivate the hot glue by laying your coaster on a table with the felt facing up, place a piece of cotton fabric over it and heat with an iron on low heat, moving in circles until they stick together.

The best price that I have found for perler beads is this 22,000 Piece Multi Mix which I had shipped straight to the store for free. Sorting through all of them can be a pain though and you might end up not having enough of a certain color. If you want to buy the colors separately here is the best price that I have found for  1,000 Piece Solid Color Packs. I have been keeping each color in a snack size ziploc bag then I dump some of each color that I need into a paper cupcake liner while I am working on it.

I also made a little caddy to hold all of my coasters. I made these four panels then put them all together with hot glue:

It holds all twelve on my coasters with room for a few more. :)

If you like these coasters but don't have the time to make your own there are now a few available in my Etsy Shop:

Pac-Man Coaster Set

Super Mario Coasters - Set A

Super Mario Coasters - Set B

Super Mario Mushroom Coaster Set

Orange Creamsicle Fudge

This awesome fudge tastes just like a creamsicle! The orange and white marbled color makes it great for a Halloween treat too. The original recipe said to put it in a 13 x 9" pan but I thought it came out a little thin so next time I will probably use the 9 x 9" pan that I usually put fudge in. Other than that, I love this recipe!

Orange Creamsicle Fudge

adapted from Group Recipes

Ingredients:

3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) Unsalted Butter

2 cups Granulated Sugar

3/4 cup Heavy Whipping Cream

12oz bag White Chocolate Chips

7oz jar Marshmallow Cream

1 Tablespoon Orange Extract

Red and Yellow Food Coloring

Line a 13 x 9" pan with aluminum foil and spray foil with cooking spray.

In a large saucepan, combine sugar, cream and butter over medium heat. Stir continuously until the butter melts and sugar dissolves.

Bring the mixture to a boil. Continue stirring and boil for four minutes.

Remove from heat. Immediately stir in marshmallow cream and white chocolate chips. Stir until the chocolate is melted and smooth.

Quickly pour about a third of the fudge into a bowl and set aside. 

Add red and yellow food coloring to the remaining mixture until you have a nice orange color. Stir until the orange fudge is evenly colored. Pour orange fudge into the foiled lined pan and spread evenly.

Drop spoonfuls of the white fudge over the top. Drag a knife through the fudge to create swirls. 

Refrigerate for 1 hour or until fudge is set. Pull the fudge out of the pan using the edges of the foil. Use a sharp knife to cut into 1-inch squares. 

Store in the refrigerator in an airtight container for up to one week.

Link Party 78

Thanks to everyone who linked up last week! Check out a few of my favorites:

Jewelry Organization @ Healthy Branscoms

Cute Altered Trench Coat @ Monzanita's

Watermark Shirts @ Kristina Grapes

Slow Cooker Cola Beef Stew @ I Thee Cook

Colorful Chevron Toddler Quilt @ JAQS Studio

Thank you all for linking up!  If your project was featured feel free to grab a button from my sidebar.

PARTY ETIQUETTE:

• Please become a follower of Polish The Stars
• No links to shops
• In the "Name" spot put the name of your project or recipe.
• Link directly to your post - not your home page.
• Add my button or a text link to your post to spread the word.
• By linking up you give me permission to use content from your post for the purposes of featuring your project.

This party will be open until Friday at Midnight. My favorite projects will be featured at next week's party and added to my Pinterest link party feature page!

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Follow along to see if you get featured!

Dexter Party Part Three

Today is the day! The final installment of my little Dexter Party. It may doesn't even compare to the awesome Amy Lau Dexter Dining Room but I also didn't have a very big space or budget to work with. Most of this was put together using things that I had around the house! I have a few ideas that you could use to make it even better if you have the extra cash though and hopefully this post will be a starting point to inspire you to come up with even more party ideas.

To start with, I made a yarn blood splatter stand like Dexter uses during his day job as a blood splatter analyst. I also took some black garbage bags which he uses to dispose of the bodies and filled them with blankets.

Then I set up a gruesome little buffet area mixing elements from his day job as a blood splatter analyst and his alter ego the serial killer.

In Dexter's office he has some framed blood splatter prints so I decided to make a few of my own. For the blood I filled a small container with some red acrylic paint then added some brown acrylic paint to darken it. Once I got it to a shade that I liked, I mixed in some water so that it would splatter better. I took this mixture outside, put a bunch on my paintbrush and started flinging it onto thick white scrapbook paper. I did a combination of just flinging the brush at the paper to get big drops and running my finger over the brush to   get a fine spray. Then I cut strips of black paper and glued it on to make a frame. To make this look even better you could buy some square black frames that they make for record covers.

Or, if you want to go with more of the nighttime serial killer theme, you could grab some painters plastic from the hardware store. Then just splatter it with the blood paint mixture and hang it up. Find a few head shots of people and hang them on the plastic to portray the victims of the serial killer that he has caught.

I talked about my blood slide box yesterday. You could also lean the cover to a window air conditioner vent against the wall since that is where he keeps his trophy blood slide box.

To make these blood rimmed martini glasses, I took the leftover blood red gel icing and applied it to the rim of the glasses with the paintbrush. You don't want to use the red gel straight out of the tube because it is too thick and you won't be able to get the drips. Either my mixture was a bit too runny or I got overzealous and used too much of it because some of the drips continued all the way down the stem of the glass so you might want to watch that. You will also want to include straws for these drinks because the icing might get a little sticky when you try to drink out of the glass.

Yesterday I talked about Dexter's killing kit and the more expensive options if you want to put together a more accurate kit. This one only cost me $13 compared to $700 though so I can't complain. :)

For the food, I went with some delightfully gruesome Blood Splatter Cupcakes. You could also add some Blood Slide Suckers, Puff Pastry Intestines, Plasma Shooters, Cured Epidermis, or Adam's Ribs. Or you could go with a menu made up of only red foods which would give you tons of possibilities. You should also check out this Vampire Dinner Party which has a great menu idea complete with a few blood splatters. It also has some great inspiration if you want to go with a dark black and red theme instead of the white and red like I did.

I covered my buffet ( okay technically it is my dresser since I didn't have anywhere else to set this all up. Lol!) with some white curtains that I had laying around but a cheap white tablecloth would work just as well. Then I covered the top with a few sheets of plastic wrap like Dexter uses to tie his victims to the table. 

When our actual Halloween party rolls around, the cupcakes and martinis will be in the kitchen with the rest of the food so I am going to have some gaps to fill. I thought about getting a severed hand from the dollar store and painting each of the finger nails a different color like the Ice Truck Killer did in season one. I'm not sure yet what else I am going to do though.

If anyone else has ideas to help other people trying to plan a Dexter party, leave them in the comments section. I will keep a running list at the bottom of this post with all of the additional suggestions!