Cerise Magazine

For the thirteenth Craft Check column, I thought it would be fun to go back and revisit all of the crafts featured in Cerise this year and share some ideas for elaborations and variations. So if you’ve tried some of the crafts and want more, or if you’ve been holding off and waiting for more inspiration, be sure to check out all the ideas in this column!
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I was browsing through a craft store the other day and saw these awesome beads. Brightly colored, translucent dice! They’re way too clunky and plastic-y for classy earrings or anything like that, but the bright, 80’s-style colors reminded me of a different kind of jewelry, one that was really popular when I was a kid: friendship bracelets.
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Back in our very first issue, I told you all how to make your own miniatures. Since then, I’ve had lots of people tell me that they love the idea of sculpting their own miniatures, but don’t have either the time or the sculptural creativity. I just started running a new game and I wanted to use something a little more personalized than extra dice or plastic tokens on the battle grid, but didn’t have time to create elaborate new miniatures for every character. So I came up with a method for doing very simplified “miniatures” that may appeal to those of you who find the original “Make Your Own Miniatures” tutorial too daunting.
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What makes a princess? Is it the heritage? The upbringing? The attitude? Nah - I think we all know it’s the tiara! This particular tiara is a special one: it’s a (very) simplified version of the one I made for Robyn to wear at her wedding [Editor’s note: see “Just Gimme the Tiara,” in this issue]. Although that tiara was much fancier, you can see the beginnings of it in this straight-forward design. It’s also tremendously versatile, appropriate for princesses of any age, gender, or personal style.
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I improvised this fingerless “glove” (they would be more properly called wrist-warmers, I believe) pattern when my heater broke down one winter semester and I had a lot of papers due. I needed something that would help keep my hands warm, but which left me freedom of movement so that I could type. Later, I discovered that these gloves work as well for gamers as they do for students, allowing one to keep toasty while handling a controller, stylus or pencil just as easily as a keyboard and mouse.
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As the weather gets cooler in my part of the world, I feel the urge to do some baking – it’s a perfect time of year to make cakes and cupcakes, and decorate them with spray-on food coloring. And with the creative application of stencils, I can create baked goods with gaming themes. And so, as it turns out, can you.
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If you’re a gamer with a non-virtual sex life, you probably already know the value of good hygiene. Soap is your friend! And, it turns out, bars of glycerin soap with a gaming theme are easy and fun to make. Also, the clean-up after crafting is super easy. w00t!

For this month’s Craft Check, I was lucky enough to have the assistance of my normally craft-allergic best friend, Karen Healey. You’ll see her shapely hands in the illustrative photographs, and her commentary about the crafting experience in bold text throughout.
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Any monster-filled gaming session, tabletop or video, can benefit from a little atmospheric mood lighting. It’s easy to just dim the lights, or set up a few pillar candles, but it’s also not that hard to customize some inexpensive glass holders to add an extra little touch of detail to your lighting scheme. Also, it’s fun!
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Because she knows I’m a dice-bag maven, [Senior Editor] Robyn’s been asking me to do a Craft Check since Cerise was just an idea, and now, months later, I’m finally getting around to it. Mea culpa – I hope this one’s enough fun to make up for the wait!

When I was sewing dice bags for my local gaming/comic-book shop, this was one of my favorite designs. It’s distinctive-looking but simple and quick to sew. It’s also tremendously easy to customize to any taste and skill-level: you can make the simple version you see here, or add any amount of embellishment, from lining, to beading, to embroidery. It’s also deceptively capacious: a fairly compact petal-point bag will hold an awful lot of dice, as you’ll see below.
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With a wide variety of back-to-school supplies currently in stock in office supply stores, now is the perfect time to construct your own custom game master’s screen. These screens are very adaptable, and can be made suitable for any tabletop game where one or more players benefit from a space to organize papers and equipment out of the view of others (note: these screens make for a nice homemade gift, if you yourself cannot use one but play in game where another can. And everyone can use the goodwill of the person behind the screen, right?). And because this particular Craft Check project can be so easily customized, the skill of the crafter can dictate the demands of the craft – anyone can have fun with it, from those who have no artistic talents whatsoever on up. (more…)