Thursday, May 19, 2011

Tutorial (kinda): Monster Photo Booth

Since Nate's Lil' Monsters party was posted, I've received tons of emails with request for a tutorial on the Monster photo booth. While I'm no good at writing down the things that I work on and to be honest, I wing it most of the time. LOL. It's true. This time I took a few photos to show the process..... somewhat. Also to show that I did in fact make them myself! When I made the carnival game booths for Nate's Carnival party last year, people did not believe that I had made them myself but I'm a very handy woman actually. I work a saw and a drill much better than my hubby (sadly). I'm also the one that usually puts any furniture together! LOL. You can check out the carnival booths here and here.

I started with a jigsaw, pencil and a ruler.
I recycled one of my game booths and decided to extend the back wall to make room for the monsters. The side walls are pre-cut wood boards from Home Depot, measuring 4'x2', priced at about $7 to $8 each. The new back wall is a thinner wood board (sorry I couldn't tell you the type because I don't remember) but that was also pre-cut at 4'x4', around $13. I decided to cut a foot off the side, making the back wall 4' tall by 3' wide. I used a hammer and nails for this, only because I was in a hurry but I recommend screwing them together with thin screws. Much more secure that way. Did that make any sense??? LOL
I didn't bother to paint or touch up the insides since I was going to cover the walls with fabric. Which I forgot to take a picture of but it was very simple. I bought enough fabric to fit the dimensions inside of the booth and with a staple gun, attached the fabric to the walls. Much easier than having to paint it all over again. The fabric I bought in the Downtown L.A. fabric district.It was now time to cut out some monsters! I purchased another pre-cut board, same one used for the back wall of the booth. Drew the shape I wanted with a pencil and pulled out my jigsaw. By the way...... I LOVE my jigsaw! (Excuse the way I look, but I don't wear make-up when I'm gettin' down and dirty!)
Cut out monsters, now time to cover them with fun furry fabric!
I bought a yard of each color but really only needed 1/2 a yard for each. Each monster measured about 3' tall and about 1 1/2 to 2' wide. I purchased this fabric in Downtown L.A. as well.
Using my staple gun, another of my favorites, I stapled the fabric to the back of each. Making sure that the fabric was nice and snug. The facial details, eyes and mouth, were cut from foam sheets, glued on with a hot glue gun. You can get those at any craft store.
That is how Charlie and Bud were born! :)
I know it wasn't very clear but I hope you got the jist of it, hehe!



4 comments:

Tini Posh said...

Great tutorial! I like to say I will try it..but this mama is not very handy with a saw..LOL! But maybe I can talk the hubs into helping me one day...Love Charlie and Bud!

Veronika said...

How cute! My guess was it was made from cardboard and a staple gun. lol I was way off!!

J. At Your Service said...

Thank you ladies! @Clauds- don't be afraid! Pick up that saw! LOL.
@Veronika- I think a lot of people thought it was cardboard. That's why I decided to post it. I've been getting tons of emails about it!

Hannah said...

this is great, I am so making one! thankyou! what cricut cartridge did you use to cut out the "Say Grrr" I suppose I could use any alphabet one. I just really like that one!