The Muses always makes the most beautifully textured gowns, and the recent Holiday gown is no exception. They are always shaped very nicely and dance decently (which is always an issue with mesh dresses).
Holiday comes in five colors, and is available at the We <3 Roleplay event (which is where The Muses seems to sell all their products). At this round of Roleplay, Holiday is right inside the doorway of their section, which is one of the ancillary rooms leading off the main event floor.
The texture details are superb, with rows of buttons up the front and the back of the bodice, nice poofy shoulders, and lacey designs on the sleeves and front dress panel. The dress is one-size-fits all mesh, meaning you have to alpha out pretty much everything on your body.
And of course I had to add some fairy wings into the mix!
Often the inspiration for one of my mix and match specials is for a themed dance at Sisters of Eden, the club where I DJ. Recently the theme was Best in Red… and while some took this to mean an elegant gown, of course I went a totally different direction… This was one of those instances where a fortuitous “let’s try this” exercise resulted in a rather cool total effect.
The basis for this outfit was a whole slew of stuff: the main suit, boots, top and bra are from r2’s Yuraku outfit, supplemented by arms from r2’s Nowaki outfit and the Electra Cyber Gloves from A&Y (in seven colors, each of which allow recoloring of a variety of material zones for a neat custom look). Over this I added the B1 Cybersuit Fortran from The Original Black One, which has the most amazing looking animated light coursing through it (animation at the end of this blog entry!). The suit comes with 15 colors and with varying lighting patterns.
To this ensemble I added the amazing fire-breathing Neo-Phoenix Cyber Hair from A&Y, available in 12 colors; and the bento animated Sentinel Tail from CerebusXing, available in six colors.
Then it was time to add in the detailing, such as the eerie Elfin Eyes – Freshblood by DurtTrashDurt Zipper, and the ring details on legs and groin from Normandy, and on the breasts from the Graves Mainframe outfit.
Now to really appreciate this in action you need a little video, so check this out!
See why I enjoy mixing and matching so much? You come up with something no one else is likely to have, and make a splash doing it!
Outfit: B1 Cybersuit – Fortran by The Original Black One (Marketplace link); arms from Nowaki and boots, bra, suit, and top from Yuraku by r2
Feeling a little bad a**? Let’s go biker girl, in all black n’ stuff!
As is my usual thing, I’ve mixed and match a ton of stuff. The main bits are the Fringe Jacket by Jrc, available in black on the Marketplace, and in pastel from the in world store; and the Lara Fringed Shorts by Ascend, available in 16 colors plus a fat pack. Both are available for all the major mesh bodies.
The devil is in the details, of course, and there are quite a few here: Denim N Bead Accessories Choker by Hudson’s, Nym Collar and Coin Necklace by Cellar Door, and the Elaine Belt and Garter by Nanika.
Oh and that motorcycle is the Cayenne Pink Female by V-Twins 🙂
Hair: Koto and Misaki by Argrace (no longer available)
Accessories: Elaine Belt and Garter by Nanika; Nym Collar and Coin Necklace by Cellar Door; Denim N Bead Accessories Choker by Hudson’s; Fingerless Leather Gloves Bento (full perm) by Zafia; Maddison Sunglasses by Redgrave (Marketplace link)
So I did another DJ set, this time with a forest theme… and as a follow on to my last Alice in Wonderland outfit, I did a similar one for Little Red Riding Hood 🙂
I used the same laced demi-top with half sleeves CB155 from Cool Big Bird, this time colored red (and of course still with the transparency set to be a bit sheer). I added the same shoulder puffs from the Ninianne gown by Arwen’s Creations, this time in red; and the same Lolita Lace Cuffs by Sweet Thing. In place of Alice’s apron I used the Baude skirt from Gunshot, adjusting it in color and using the lace trim. The hood is the Winter Cape from Caverna Obscura; fitting hair under such things can always be a challenge but I found the right thing, some short resizable hair, F106, from KMH available at this month’s Salon 52 hair event.
Did I mention there was nothing under this tiny skirt either? Did I need to? 😀 The boots here are the Tana Boots from Reign, along with the same lace stocking appliers I used in the Alice oufit, from !Love-Lei!.
Recently I did a DJ set where I built an Alice in Wonderland decoration, complete with falling down a rabbit hole. As is my wont, I created my own Alice costume for it. And is also my wont, it had to be a somewhat sexy Alice. And as a third wont (wont, wont wont! Oh… sorry!), I made it a mix ‘n match special, including some full perm items.
The basis for the top is the laced demi-top with half sleeves CB155 from Cool Big Bird, which being full perm I colored in light blue and then set the transparency to be a bit more revealing. To this I added the shoulder puffs and long flexi sleeves from the Ninianne gown by Arwen’s Creations; and the Lolita Lace Cuffs by Sweet Thing. Alice has to have an apron, and the Jewel Ruffle Skirt by Bivvia fit that bill; I set the main part of the skirt to transparent, leaving just the top belt and the apron, then colored appropriately. The white part of the apron was also set to be partly transparent for a see through look.
Did I mention there was anything under that apron? Must have slipped my mind to include anything there, gosh… I did add some mesh bows on the hips to ease an awkward transition in the mesh of the apron and its belt. Supplementing the ensemble are (what else?) my fave boots from Candy Kitten.
I also found a new (to me) pose vendor in SEmotions, which has a nice set called Modeling Poses Set 52 at the Equal 10 event this month. Did I mention there was nothing under the apron? One could of course set the transparencies on the top and apron to opaque, and add a bikini bottom… but, why? 😀
Top: CBB155 by Cool Big Bird (Marketplace link); Lolita Lace Cuffs by Sweet Thing; Shoulder Pad and Puffed Sleeves from Ninianne by Arwen’s Creations
When you’re feeling a little bit of denim come upon you (hey, no chortling over ‘little bit’), here are a couple of fun choices: the Fiona Denim Jacket from Addams, and the Miss Butterfly Shorts from Unscrupulous.
The jacket comes in 41 single colors as well as a fatpack, and is for all major mesh bodies. It features an open style allowing you to nicely display any top you choose to add. The shorts come with a lovely belt detail, and the shorts can be hidden to just use the belts over something else if desired. In keeping with some of my recent full perm posts, these shorts are also available from Gunshot as a full perm item (the Azour short) if you want more color options; however if you like this color the Unscrupulous offering is pretty darn cheap and includes a small little top and some pasties.
I have a soft spot for cute… and then I just go nuts and keep tossing things at an outfit to make it cuter, lol
So here I’ve done my usual thing and just gone totally to town with everything except the kitchen sink. This first one is my unicorn look, with three major pieces from three vendors with three different unicorn patterns.
The Hawt jacket from Promagic comes in 30 prints, as singles and a fatpack, and is just for Maitreya mesh. I added some cute lace cuffs from Sweet Thing to it. The jacket fits just right to be worn without a bra or shirt underneath, if you are so inclined (as I am). The skirt is Brianna from CandyDoll, available in fatpacks of 10 solid light colors, 10 solid dark colors, and 30 patterns; or as singles, for all the major mesh bodies. It has a nice cut up one side with a long mesh tie. The shoes/socks are the Smexy Babydoll Heels by Candy Kitten, in fatpacks for 12 solids, and 12 patterns, for all major mesh bodies.
Now if you want silly cute, I got that too! The basis for this one is the Crazy Kawaii outfit from Envious. It is old school, for system bodies, but hey does that stop me? Not on your life! I use all the mesh bits and then add my own mesh top and skirt and there you go, one super silly (but cute) outfit.
The mesh bits of Crazy Kawaii come in five sizes and include the winged headband, arm and leg warmers, hoove boots, and backpack. I supplemented these with an applier top from Butterfly Design’s Pauline outfit; and my fave full perm skirt, Angel from Gunshot. For the latter, I textured it to match the knit pattern of the Pauline top.
Accessories: Betsy Garters by Avaway; High Elf Lace Collar by Zenith; Armour Waist Chain and Seacrest Waist Chain by La Sirena (Marketplace store); Applier Stockings from Stuff My Turkey by Strive Design (Marketplace link)
To round out this round, here is a sweet-but-not-too-sweet ensemble built around the Celebrity Rebel leather jacket by Dirty Princess. This features exquisite detailing all around, and a proudly open front to display… whatever bra or shirt you might choose to wear. Or not. In this case I chose to wear (barely) one of my full perm bras from Cool Big Bird along with the Angel skirt from Gunshot which I textured to match the jacket’s color and patterns. The shoes are Candy Kitten’s Fairy Princess Heels that include the garters.
The jacket features a texture HUD of 20 pastel colors and a metal changer of silver and gold; it comes for Maitreya, Slink, and TMP mesh bodies. The shoes come with 14 styles in a HUD and are for all the major mesh bodies.
Accessories: Hip bows from Kawaii Babygirl Princess by Dirty Princess; Heart Charm Necklace by Bowtique (Marketplace link); Giftwrap Garters and Lolita Lace Cuffs from Sweet Thing; Armour Waist Chain and Seacrest Waist Chain by La Sirena (Marketplace store); Lollipop Guild Necklace by Violet Voltaire
Technically speaking this is another installment in the Mix and Match series, as this outfit is a total mishmash of pieces and parts… but as half of them are not even sold anymore, we’ll just run with it 🙂
I must have things from about eight or nine different outfits… but it was fun coming up with a unique (and, um, yeah maybe little bit sexy) holiday outfit. The lights even blink!
And just to show you that it’s really Ms. Claus who is running the show, me and the elves are gonna take a little break here from all the gift delivering! Oh, but thanks for the cookies and the milk!
Thank you all for reading the blog, and I hope everyone has a most wonderful holiday time, and a happy year to come, full of love and joy!
Oh, and, pssst, Santa…
Just go ahead and put me on that naughty list, it’s okay. Save everyone a lot of time!
It’s that time of year! Time for warm sweaters and hot cocoa and chestnuts roasting and all that! So let’s do some sweaters, shall we?
Speaking of cold outside… brrrr! That igloo was chilly on the bum! But inside it looks nice and warm. My top here is the Annie Ugly Sweater by Pink Cream Pie, which is available in 12 color/silly saying patterns, as well as a fatpack, for all the major mesh bodies. Both individual color/patterns and the fatback also have 24 colors for the collar and cuffs.
Sometimes you have to really get into the Christmas spirit and just get lit! So I did! Hopefully there is a wall socket nearby, ’cause I really got a charge out of this get up. My sweater is the Mesh Hipster Turtleneck by Addams, available in 21 colors (26 when purchased as a fat pack), along with 18 colors for the neck and 18 for the wrists. It is available for all the major mesh bodies.
Accessories: Santa’s lil’Ho Ho Ho Antlers w/Lights by Danika; *NJoy* Christmas string; Christmas Lights String Necklace; Rhosyn Pink and White Wreath by Hatpins (Marketplace link)
And how about some pink floof ball? Gotta have floof balls in wintertime! Don’t you think this will keep me warm? For a little bum-warming in your snow tent, the Snowball Bodysuit and Leggings from V-Tech / Valentine Technologies has you covered… er, uncovered? They are available in five separate colors, and six color fat pack. The bodysuit is available in Maitreya and boi chest size, and the leggings for Maitreya as well.
Lately I have taken an interest in doing clothes texturing, using purchased full perm models that allow one to selectively edit texture faces. While I have pondered selling some of these, which is what most people do who work with the full perm models, so far I have just been tinkering for myself, in order to get unique looks and/or make outfits that reflect ‘me.’ The full perm models are not inexpensive, being in the range of 500L to 1500L typically, as the expectation is that one is selling your new creations and thus eventually recoup your expenditure. However, if the cost does not deter you… follow me on a little path to see what you can do 🙂
For this first installment I will focus on something simple (and very small!). The common component in all of these outfits below is the Angel skirt by Gunshot, which is also a very reasonable 250L. This is a teeny-tiny skirt that really doesn’t cover much at all (which… frankly, was my goal). 😀 Now most people would supplement this with a pair of panties but I chose not to.
The skirt contains three material faces that can each be textured in different ways. They can also be different between front and back but the design of the skirt tends more toward it being the same all the way around front to back. The Gunshot package for the skirt contains models for all of the major mesh bodies as well as four sample textures, a shadow map, and a UV map. All of these latter items can be used in an external graphics program to create your own textures, which can then be uploaded to SL and applied to the mesh model.
In this first outfit, I textured the skirt with an opaque white band around the top, and the two main layers all in lace, to match the lace top and the lace cuffs on the sleeves. This is an example of where I mixed and matched a ton of things, along with the custom pieces, to get just the look I was after, an innocent snowflake faerie (okay, maybe just snowflake faerie…)
For this one I wanted to match the skirt to the top, which is also a full perm model. Before I found the original model, I had purchased a version of it from a vendor who had made her own texture for it. As I liked that shade of blue I wanted to match everything to it, which I did with the Angel skirt and the full perm sleeves from another full perm creator. In this case the top two bands of the skirt are solid, and the small band along the bottom is a lace pattern that matches the lace along the bottom hem of the top.
Top: Kara Top by Vaxer (the full perm model is CBB106 by Cool Big Bird )
Accessories: Good Kitty Collar by The Sugar Garden/tsg; Heart Charm Necklace by Bowtique (Marketplace link); Endear Ladies Key Necklace by EarthStones; Giftwrap Garter and Cuffs by Sweet Thing; Armour Waist Chain and Seacrest Waist Chain by La Sirena (Marketplace store); BoHo Style Hand Jewelry Butterfly by SilveryK
Another vendor who took the Gunshot Baude top and created a nice texture for it is ArisArisB&W, who applied a pretty denim pattern. I created a matching version for the skirt across all three texture bands.
Top: Nicety top by ArisArisB&W (the model is the same Gunshot Baude top as I used in the Snowflake image above)
Accessories: Dragonfly necklace by Pixel Box; Elaine Belt and Garter by Nanika; Armour Waist Chain and Seacrest Waist Chain by La Sirena (Marketplace store);
Arm Harness by L’Emporio
And finally, back to lace, this time with a rose tint and a slightly Victorian look (is not sure the Queen would approve). Here I used the actual Gunshot Baude top with the Angel skirt, modifying the lace pattern from Snowflake to be a little softer in color (as well as a bit more see through… blushes!).
Accessories: Jabot collar by Cog & Fleur; Lolita Lace Cuffs by Sweet Thing; Armour Waist Chain and Seacrest Waist Chain by La Sirena (Marketplace store)
Pose: The Irie Series – Four (m) by an lar (closed)
While these examples of re-texturing have been pretty simple, they’ve been fun in allowing me to make things that are just right for what I want. 🙂 In future installments of Do It Yourself I hope to show you some more complex examples.
Back to Photoshop! More lacy and frilly things await! Cheers!
