I'm gonna beta test POTTERMORE!!!

I AM SO EXCITED!

After staying up most of the night the Pottermore site finally opened and, 14 hours ago, I managed to solve the clue, find the quill, and get my account email!  It's OFFICIAL!  Now everyone has to wait until they decide to officially open the site before we can actually mess around with Pottermore.

I am hoping to get a chance at another account because I'm having trouble accessing my email account.  BUT I still have access to the account so I have everything read to go!

ϟmissmandapanda

Pottermore

THIS IS ALL I'M SEEING WITH TEN POTTERMORE WINDOWS OPEN!

I'm so sad right now.  I had to go to my grandmother's so I could use the internet since mine is still down at home.  I wasn't sure if the website would open at midnight my time or midnight UK time and I'm assuming with all of this traffic it's already open in the UK.

Please let me in Pottermore!!!

ϟmissmandapanda

So my internet is down...

As of right now I have no internet at home so I'm updating quickly from Starbucks.  We are getting new equipment and at the earliest it will be here by Monday. :(

In the mean time I'm going to show a really quick diy project I did before I head out of here to see the Captain America movie with my dad.

I was trying to be more organized in my room and every time I do that I try to find some new way to rearrange the furniture and do crafts to make my space look cute instead of cluttered.  I LOVE earrings.  I like statement earrings a lot and when I wear them I keep them the focus of my jewelry.  I usually throw them on my side table or in a jewelry box where they become cluttered and I start forgetting about older pairs with them hidden away.  So I decided to make them more of a visual display and decoration in my room.

Supplies: A wire (any kind will work) hanger, pipe cleaners (10 to be safe, more if you have a thicker hanger)

Step 1:  Wrap the pipe cleaner around the wire and twist it around 5 times to make the desired width.

Step 2:  After the 5th wrap make a circle with the pipe cleaner and twist the top of the circle a few times so it will make it keep its shape.

Step 3:  Keep repeating Steps 1 and 2 until finished.  When you finish with one pipe cleaner twist its end with another new pipe cleaner to keep it from looking patchy.

Viola!  A cheap, but functionally cute earring holder.

Here is a look at a sad first experiment at using paper clips (which hold well but slide around).

Well that's all I can get posted today so I'm heading out!  Till later!

ϟmissmandapanda

Dumbledore's Army DIY Shirt

I made this shirt for the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 showing.  We saw DHp2 the day before its release, and spent a good amount of time in a crowded line with a bunch of other 'Potterheads' all decked out in costumes and hand made fan shirts.  A few times I was asked where I bought my shirt, only to surprise them and say I made it a couple of days before.  It's a real simple design and the hardest part is making the custom stencil.  It was a pain in my bum.

Supplies: shirt, fabric paint, brush, computer/printer, exacto knife, clear tape, and something to measure with.

Step 1:  I picked the font I wanted to use for the lettering (Collegiate Heavy Outline) and typed up what I wanted: 'Dumbledore's Army,' 'Potter,' and a '7.'  Then print.  Before you print make sure you have the lettering the size you want to have it on the shirt.  Measure the shirt, best if you have the shirt on so you can see how things are spaced on the shirt once you're wearing it, and then use the ruler on Word (or whatever program you're using) to roughly size it to your shirt measurements.

Step 2:  Since I just printed the stencil out on regular paper I put a layer of clear tape across the design so it wouldn't rip and would be a little bit more stiff so I could cut it and not have the paint stick too much.  I then cut out all of the letters with an exacto knife (THE TEDIOUS/WORST PART), careful to leave small pieces attached to the center of letters like 'o' and 'b' so I wouldn't fill in the parts when I painted over it.  I wanted to paint the thin outline of each letter as well, but when it came time to cut that out or paint it very carefully freestyle I decided it was 4 in the morning and it looked cool enough (I get way too creative around midnight and start projects like this).

Step 3:   I taped the stencil to the shirt, I put double sided tape underneath it to keep some pieces like the center of the 'o' from raising up and letting paint under, and then I started painting!  You may need to do a few layers of paint, let it dry a little bit before you add a new layer.  I used Tulip Soft Metallic in gold for the paint.  I really liked this paint, it was very gold and shiny when it was done.

 

Step 4:  Let the paint dry for at least twenty minutes to half an hour and then I suggest carefully taking the stencil off while the paint is still a little moist.  This way the stencil doesn't dry to the shirt and lettering.  I would keep the exacto knife handy for this part so you can use it to help pull the stencil off in places it's sticking.  After the stencil is off fill in the spots on the letters where you had to leave a line to hold the center of the 'o' etc.

Step 5:  Let it dry over night.  It says at least 4 hours laying flat on the paint bottle.  I did the front side early that night then did the other side after the front was dry.

Step 6:  Do any touch ups like edging or making sure none of the stencil is left behind.

 

Step 7:  Wear the shirt everywhere lol :)

ϟmissmandapanda

I just got a new webcam!

I'm setting it up later today so I can make my video.  Right now I'm at Starbucks working on random stuff as usual.  (More like taking pics of myself for no reason lol)


My best friend just got on his flight to Taiwan. He is going to teach English for a year (maybe two years) and I already miss him. Good chance I'll talk about him on here, and if he gives me pictures from his stay I'll probably put some up just so I can gush about him.

In the mean time I finally found out who will be teaching which of my classes for my last semester. I'm happy with quite a few, except one. I've had the teacher before and he kind of went crazy after half a semester. He spent the second half finding new ways for us to do ungodly amounts of work because he was mad. But I liked him up until that point. FYI: I am a total teacher's pet. He was surprised when I told him how old I was, I thought it was cause everyone thinks I'm younger than I am, he said he couldn't believe my age because he thought I was older only because of how I spoke. Apparently he thought I was much more mature, well read, and educated sounding than students my age; told you, total teacher's pet. The best part was when he said he wasn't sure what my heritage was, I like to hear that I look like one of a kind, haha. He thought I must be asian (I'm white), at least half because he said my eyes were extremely distinctive (a little weird coming from my teacher but people make this comment a lot). I told him I wasn't, I'm just of regular old school European decent.  Then he decided I must be Irish or Scottish since my eyes were so green, and my hair looks reddish brown. I'm actually both, and Welsh (and all the other European groups), and possibly Native American through a great-great grandmother that looked like the model for Pocahontas.

You know now that I've actually written that convo out from my teacher I'm kinda weirded out by the whole thing. lol

I'm thinking of possibly posting chapters to a story I'm starting on here. I'm not sure if I'll make them actual posts or if I'll just post them by themselves on their own side page.  I'm sure if anyone actually wants to come to this page they won't want to have a huge random story chapter all the time. 

I'm hoping to start getting some basic designs down for some screen printed shirts I want to make.  I'm going to be figuring out how to do the screen printing by hand asap.  I used to just paint or draw everything by hand on to a shirt but I think I just want to try making it a little more professional.  When I get the pictures off my phone I'll post some shots of when I was making a "Dumbledore's Army" shirt for the Harry Potter movie a couple of weeks ago.

Till then!

ϟmissmandapanda

My first post on here!

I had started a blog a month ago but when this name came up to buy as a .com I couldn't help but move it to this page instead!

My name is Amanda (hence the missmandapanda name) and I'm a university student finishing up a degree in Marketing.  I'm always on the internet, usually reading something totally random on wiki/imdb/or some other site.  I wanted to find a place to put more of my personal findings or happenings besides Tumblr where I update 24/7.  This blog will feature many varying topics: food, art, diy, life, photography, random musings, books, and probably movie/tv ramblings.  Time to escape if you don't want to hear about any of the above!

I will soon be doing an about me video post to introduce myself to any one out there who wants to watch. :)

For now you can find me in these places:

Tumblr
Twitter

ϟmissmandapanda