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Fan Creations

Avengers Fashions Assemble! Her Universe Hits Another Home Run in Marvel Fangirl Fashion

21 April 2015 by Suzannah Otis Leave a Comment

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When I saw this new line of Her Universe designs my mouth dropped and I wished I was 20 again. I may have to throw my pre-conceived fashion notions out the window for a few of these new items. They are that adorable. The Loki dress is to die for, and the Tony Stark jacket is fabulous. I love them all though! Here is the official release from Her Universe below and info on the pre-sale going on at Hot Topic now before the mid-May release of this new Marvel line. Which one is your favorite??

Fangirls assemble! In celebration of the release of Marvel’s Avengers: Age of Ultron, Her Universe – the trendsetting geek girl apparel company, and Disney Consumer Products have announced a new fashion line inspired by fan-favorite Super Heroes from the Avengers films. The Marvel by Her Universe collection will be available mid-May exclusively at select Hot Topic stores and hottopic.com, with an online pre-sale starting April 21st on hottopic.com.

The Avengers-inspired line features designs by winners from the first-ever Her Universe “Geek Couture” Fashion Show held at last year’s Comic-Con International in San Diego where attendees Amy Beth Christenson and Andrew MacLaine wowed the audience with their original, handmade creations on the runway and took top honors at the event. As part of the grand prize, Christenson and MacLaine were rewarded the exciting professional opportunity to design an exclusive fashion collection with Her Universe founder, Ashley Eckstein, for pop-culture and licensed apparel destination Hot Topic. To see the making of the collection, from inspiration to sketches to fittings to ready-to-wear, visit hottopic.com/marvelbyheruniverse.

“It’s been such a pleasure to work with Amy and Andrew to create this line from their initial sketches to the final product sold in Hot Topic stores,” said Her Universe Founder Ashley Eckstein. “Geek fashion is a trend that’s here to stay. Fangirls are making a statement in the fashion community and this new Avengers collection is addressing their demand for more fashion-forward designs.”

“It’s exciting to see Marvel’s female fan base grow with the second installation of our collaboration with Her Universe, inspired by one of the most highly anticipated movies of 2015,Avengers: Age of Ultron,” said Paul Gitter, Senior Vice President, Licensing, Marvel at Disney Consumer Products. “This collection brings awareness of the emerging fangirl trend into mainstream fashion by uniting stylish designs with iconic characters to create a strong statement at retail.”

The action-packed Marvel by Her Universe collection consists of stylish dresses and jackets inspired by popular Avengers characters, available in straight and extended sizes. The six piece fashion collection for Hot Topic includes:

– Captain America Halter Dress, $59.50
– Thor Sailor Dress, $59.50
– Stark Industries Bomber Jacket, $54.50
– Black Widow Dress, $44.50
– Black Widow Belted Jacket, $64.50
– Loki Halter Dress, $59.50

Click to enlarge the photos:

Captain America dress
Thor sailor dress
Black Widow jacket
Loki dress
Tony Stark jacket
Black Widow dress

“Witnessing two talented designers who truly understand the fans and fan culture win a competition at Comic-Con 2014, and then seeing their spin on Avengers turn into real product at Hot Topic makes what we all do feel genuinely authentic – and so much fun,” said Cindy Levitt, Senior Vice President of Merchandising and Marketing at Hot Topic.

In addition to the fashion collection, Hot Topic will offer a wide range of Avengers tees, accessories, gifts and more. The Avengers return to theatres in Marvel’s Avengers: Age of Ultron onMay 1, 2015.

About Her Universe
Her Universe was launched in 2010 by actress and entrepreneur Ashley Eckstein and The Araca Group, a leading theatrical production and brand management company. Ashley and Araca created Her Universe to address the expanding market of female sci-fi and fantasy fans. They entered their first agreement with Lucas Licensing to develop and produce a line of female-centered Star Wars apparel and accessories. The success of that line was followed up with a collection for BBC Worldwide for Doctor Who, CBS Consumer Products for Star Trek, AMC for The Walking Dead, Nerdist Industries, Marvel, Hasbro for Transformers and Studio Ghibli. You can learn more about Her Universe and purchase the current line of fangirl apparel and accessories by going to  www.heruniverse.com and by following Eckstein & Her Universe on Facebook (facebook.com/HerUniverse) Twitter (twitter.com/HerUniverse), Pinterest (https://www.pinterest.com/heruniverse/) and YouTube(https://www.youtube.com/user/HerUniverseChannel?sub_confirmation=1).

Ashley Eckstein Fashion Show winner
Ashley Eckstein with Her Universe Fashion Show winners Amy Beth Christenson and Andrew MacLaine
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Filed Under: Disney Merchandise, Fan Creations, Product Reviews, Themed Merchandise, Top Stories Tagged With: Ashley Eckstein, Avengers, Avengers Assemble: Age of Ultron, Avengers fashion, Black Widow dress, Black Widow jacket, Captain America dress, fangirl, fangirl fashions, Her Universe, her universe dress, Her Universe fashion, Her Universe Hot Topic, Her Universe Marvel fashion, her universe shop, Hot Topic, Loki dress, Marvel fangirls, Marvel fashion, marvel super heroes, Super Hero fashion, Thor dress, Tony Stark jacket

Amazing Disney Bento Boxes – Art You Can Eat!

18 April 2014 by Suzannah Otis Leave a Comment

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OMGiri Disney Bento
Orange Bird Bento!!

I certainly don’t have to tell any of you that the internet is an amazing place. Sometimes you stumble across something that just makes you happy and amazed and inspired all at once. Recently, someone added me on Instagram and their little avatar stood out to me so I clicked on their profile. Adorableness ensued and I knew I had to share their creations with you!

OMGiri (a play on onigiri or Japanese rice balls) aka Mike has made some edible works of art that some may say look TOO good to eat. I have always been fascinated by this art, but my creative ways do not extend to food art, so I just watched in wonder as I saw bento box art gain popularity over the years. Seeing this combination of Disney characters and bento boxes, seemed like the perfect mix.

Mike was kind enough to share photos of his work here today, and also the interesting story of how he got started making Disney character bento boxes and some background on the art itself. I thought it was best to let Mike speak in his own words:

My interest in food art in general took root after a trip to Tokyo Disney Resort and Hong Kong Disneyland. I was amazed by the adorable and creative food both resorts served. It was springtime and Tokyo Disney had sandwiches shaped like Donald Duck’s feet, melon buns shaped like Mike Wazowski, and sweet mochi chicks in Mickey egg cups. At Hong Kong Disneyland we ate at the Crystal Lotus, which is home to the most amazing character-shaped dining experience. They offer dim sum shaped like characters, including the Three Little Pigs, Chicken Little, Duffy the Bear, and the Little Green Men from Toy Story.

While in Japan I bought a couple bento boxes to motivate me to take my lunch to work. I had a bad habit of eating out of the vending machine, or worse, skipping lunch all together. A while later, I found a bento instruction book at a Japanese book store which contained a Stitch bento. I ended up buying the book and decided to try making a bento.

The first bento I ever tried to make was a Oswald. It was fun to make the bento, but what really got me hooked was how fun it was to have the character bento for lunch. In the beginning I just made whatever came to mind. I’d make all sorts of characters. I’d share them around our offices and on Facebook. Eventually I found other bento makers, or as I call them “bento boxers”, on Instagram and really started becoming part of a community. Over time my interest in Disney took over and now I find myself doing all Disney characters. The character bentos are also referred to as kyaraben or charaben. Funny, but I have made only one item out of the bento instruction book so far. And it wasn’t even the Stitch bento!

Disney Bento
Serious Maximus

While in Japan we also became obsessed with onigiri. Onigiri are normally triangle or round “rice ball” filled with fish or pickled ginger. They sell them in convenience stores like they sell sandwiches in the US. We ended up eating onigiri almost everyday for a quick snack on the go. The characters in my bentos are onigiri. They are balled up rice with a filling. I’ve changed it up a bit, avoiding raw fish. Instead I fill them with cooked tuna or salmon mixed with a little mayo and spice. My favorite filling is a crab and cream cheese. I also use leftovers for filling. Left over curries make perfect filling!>What I found was that I really needed a creative outlet in my life. I work in an IT office, which just wasn’t fulfilling  my creative side. Bentos are giving me a chance to activate my creative side before I go into the office each morning. Plus, it helps with my insatiable need for Disney in my life!

I am horrible at planning, so most of my bentos start with me looking up a picture of the character online. I normally start from a photo or two of the character. Then I just sort of play around. Some bento boxers sketch out their bentos ahead, but I truly just make it up as I go along.

As far as ideas, I like to work around themes. In the past I’ve done tied theme weeks to upcoming holidays, new movie releases, Star Wars May the 4th celebrations, and Disney events. Sometimes the idea comes from a post I saw the previous day. I also am really inspired by Disney artists like Jerrod Maruyama. I’ve made quite a few bentos based on his cute take on Disney characters. I love finding older Disney characters and forgotten friends, like Humphrey the Bear. I’m also lucky that Disney now includes Marvel and Star Wars, which opens up so many more characters for me to do. I’ve been a little neglectful of Pixar, but I hope to remedy that this summer. Lately, I started a series based on the Walt Disney Studios Animated release catalog I’ve dubbed “Movie Monday“. A friend and I have started watching all the films in the order of their original release. I will be doing a bento for each film. I also take requests. It a lot of fun to have someone request a character.

My favorites to make are always the characters with a lot of expression. I enjoy making fun facial expressions, like Olaf grabbing at his tiny carrot nose or the serious, disgruntled Maximus. The expressions tend to be extremely challenging, but when it works out they are the most interesting to look at. Villains are also a joy to do, because they have such interesting designs. And of course, any of the ones that are just super cute I love to do. If I had to pick my favorites to make, I loved creating Humphrey the Bear, DisNerd Minnie, Jafar, and the AquaDuck Donald the most.

I really enjoyed reading Mike’s story – and it’s even better to know that he’s making these all for his own lunch, that’s pretty amazing. I wonder if Mike would make a Figment bento box for me? {oops, looks like he’s already made Figment…well maybe he can add a Zanna toon to the mix hahaha 😉 } I love the detail, and the fact that he reaches beyond the most well-known characters to feature Panchito, Orange Bird, and even Humprey the Bear (my favorites along with AquaDuck Donald too!)

Here are some of his masterpieces – Click to enlarge – all photos ©OMGiri, used with permission:

OMGiri Disney Bento
Easter Bunny Mickey
OMGiri Disney Bento
DisNerd Minnie Mouse Bento
OMGiri Disney Bento
Thumper Bento
OMGiri Disney Bento
Love this AquaDuck Bento!
OMGiri Disney Bento
Jack and Sally Bento
OMGiri Disney Bento
It’s Art from Monster’s University in Bento form!
OMGiri Disney Bento
Jafar dares you to eat him!
OMGiri Disney Bento
Panchito Bento – genius!
OMGiri Disney Bento
Covering all bases, he even has the Duffy Bus as a Bento!
OMGiri Disney Bento
Oswald and Ortensia
OMGiri Disney Bento
And even Duffy IN a Sully costume, which my son has and loves. Perfect!
OMGiri Disney Bento
Humphrey the Bear!

You can find more of these wonderful edible creations at OMGiri’s Instagram and Facebook page. Stop by and let him know Zannaland sent you!

Think you’ll try your hand at these for your lunch? 

 

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Filed Under: Disney Dining, Fan Creations, Top Stories Tagged With: bento, bento boxes, charaben, disney bento boxes, Disney fan art, Disney fan creations, duffy the bear, edible art, fan creations, fanart, Humphrey the Bear, kyaraben, obento, OMGiri, onigiri, Orange Bird, Oswald, panchito, rice, rice art

Enter to Win an UNBirthday Button Designed by Keith Lapinig!

3 December 2013 by Suzannah Otis 30 Comments

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UnBirthday Button
(Sparkles not included, you make those on your own!)

When I first saw Keith Lapinig‘s Unbirthday Buttons on twitter, facebook and instagram, I fell in love. I also turned into Veruca Salt and wanted one NOW! Keith has held a few giveaways across his social media platforms but I know many many people (like me) didn’t win and were still hoping to get one of these beauties to wear in the parks, at the grocery store, to Starbucks – anywhere!

Well Keith came to the rescue and reached out to several Disney bloggers to share the unbirthday love and giveaway more buttons. I now have one button to giveaway to a lucky reader! So let’s get right to the unbirthday festivities.

Enter below using the Rafflecopter widget. It’s so easy to do, you don’t even have to leave this page to enter. There are quite a few optional entries as well to give you more options and chances to win!

A big thanks to Keith for being so generous with his time and creativity – let’s hope there’s much more to come! (If you haven’t checked out Keith’s YouTube videos, you are missing out – he is great and gets right to the core of what Disney fans want to see!) Click play below to see Keith giving the Mad Hatter and Alice some Unbirthday Buttons!

 


a Rafflecopter giveaway

UnBirthday Button
(Ears not included either) 😉
UnBirthday Button
Best of luck to all that enter!
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Filed Under: Fan Creations, Giveaways, Top Stories Tagged With: Disney, Disney Birthday button, Disney fan art, Disney fan creations, Disney giveaway, Disney YouTubers, Giveaway, Keith Lapinig, Unbirthday Button, Unbirthday Button giveaway, YouTubers

Disney Princesses in Pop Culture Halloween Costumes

18 October 2013 by Suzannah Otis Leave a Comment

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I saw someone post a link to these images on Facebook, and I knew I had to share them here. I love seeing mashups of Disney icons with unexpected pairings, and this is no exception. Rapunzel as Sailor Moon? Belle as Hermione? Brilliant! And Ariel as Black Widow looks great, although I do think Merida would’ve been a more apt choice for that character. Mulan as Xena:Warrior Princess seems to be a perfect fit! The art is by Isaiah Stephens and you can see the full set of images (and more) at his tumblr (where Merida IS a character). Who is your favorite and who would you like to see in a different costume?

bellehermione

pocakatniss

rapunzelsailormoon

arielblackwidow

mulanxena

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Filed Under: Fan Creations, Top Stories Tagged With: Ariel as Black Widow, Belle as Hermione, DeviantArt, Disney Halloween Princesses, Disney Princesess Halloween costumes, Disney princesses, Disney Princesses pop culture costumes, fan art. disney fan art, fanart, Isaiah Stephens, Mulan as Xena, Pocahontas as Katniss, Princesses fan art, Rapunzel as Sailor Moon, Snow White as Wonder Woman

Amazing Rapunzel “I See The Light” Cake

9 August 2012 by Suzannah Otis 2 Comments

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The part in Tangled when Rapunzel and Flynn sing “I See The Light” is without a doubt, my favorite scene in any Disney animated film, and it has been beautifully created in cake form below. I do not know who Isabella is, but she sure was a lucky girl to get this amazing Tangled cake.

Tangled Rapunzel cake
The detail and accuracy is just beautiful!

 

More photos at the cake artist’s flickr page – Little “Miss” OC’s Kitchen.

 

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Filed Under: Fan Creations Tagged With: amazing cakes, amazing Disney cakes, cakes, Disney cakes, Disney fan art, Flynn Rider, I See The Light cake, Maximus, Rapunzel, Rapunzel cake, Tangled cake, Tangled I See The Light

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