Thursday, May 26, 2011

Heading to Anime North~

Hi everyone,

Sorry for the long hiatus, but we're getting ready to go to Anime North this weekend! We promise to take lots and lots of pictures, and we'll be back soon with reports, photos and long delayed blog posts! We will also probably have all of the charms we've made in our bags ^___^;.



I (Stephanie) will be in Bodyline's Antique Clock (Shown Above) and my Shurelia from Ar Tonelico costume. Not necessarily in that order.
And Angela will be in this Bodyline dress in Brown and in a surprise decora outfit (that I have never seen).

If you see us at Anime North, say hi! :3


Thursday, May 5, 2011

New Twitter Account

Bet you didn't know what we have a twitter account!

Its true, now we do! Get the latest scoop on what we're working on and what inspires us at twitter.com/cafeASTA

Special treat: Photo shoot outtake!



Still loving all of the sweetness


Behind the Scenes Part 2: PIRATES?!

It’s a pirate’s life for me!

Hello again, Angela here to show you a sneak peek at another one of our delicious looking cookie pieces: Pirate bears!





You can say that this series was if not commissioned then inspired by a fund raiser we were invited to last winter for the GTA Rollergirls…. And used as a prize set for Raffle draws.


I knew right away that I wanted to be pirates. There’s something about pirates that are tough and yet playful, especially when they are cute, big headed teddy bears. How could I go wrong? As per usual I started off with Das brand Air dry paper clay and cut out the bear bases. This was a cutter we had never used before, and I like to call it ‘baby bear’ because it has a huge head, like babies do (Or is it just  my imagination?)


Next (as they dried for about 24-48 hours) I had to think of how pirates dressed, what colors these bears might wear, and what flavors they would look the best in.  Using Acrylic paint for the body (mmm graham cracker flavor) and gems for the eyes, the cuteness only increased.

With puff paint for the clothing, I tried to make each one of them different. Too bad I couldn’t really fit small details like dreads or long beards, but I had the most fun by far with the skulls on the bandanas.


Lastly I added a leopard printed pearlescent bead and some other small treasures and voila! The set of 8 pirates were ready! (theres an extra in the image)


To finish everything off I had to make a hot gun package using small zippered raft bags and our business cards. I’ll admit it was pretty ghetto looking, but I honestly made the packaging 20 minutes before leaving the house. It was pretty random and I can promise you our new (more thought out) packaging is a lot nicer. In this case I hoped the quality of the charms and their adorability would make up for the random display. Next time I’ll be more careful and prepared!



Thanks for checking out our cute little bears! Critiques and comments are muchos appreciated so don’t be shy!