DIY

How to mount and frame a picture: a simple guide

Recently I bought some lovely prints with the profit I made from selling my very own prints on my Etsy Shop. I wanted to mount them up to look really nice, and thought it’d be useful to share the process on how to do it. So here’s a step by step guide on how to mount and frame a picture.

Things you’ll need:

1) A picture frame & print (obviously)
2) A sheet of thick card for the mount
3) A craft knife and metal ruler
4) Masking tape
5) A pencil

Before you start

Before you start to mount the picture, you’re going to need to pick a frame for your print.

In the images here I was mounting an 9″ x 11″ print. So I bought an 11″ x 13″ frame that was an inch wider all the way around to give an even border. But you don’t always have to make it even, often fine art prints are mounted with a mount that’s a little thicker on the bottom. Decide what’s going to look best with your print.

Cutting out the mount for your print

For the card I bought a sheet of white card from my local art shop, it’s about 1.5mm thick. It had an “ice white” side and a slightly cream coloured back, so be sure to make sure you cut it the right way around.

Step 1: Cut the card to match the size of the frame, the simplest way to do this is to just use the wood from the back of the frame to make a template, draw around it and cut it out.

Step 2: Lay your print out on the rectangle of card you’ve cut and measure to see where you’d like your print to sit. As I mentioned above, for me in this example I wanted a standard 1 inch border all around.

Step 3: Next draw out a rectangle on the back of the card, slightly smaller than the size of your print so that there will be a little overlap. I measured a 1.2 inch border all around, that’s quite slim, you might want slightly more. Draw it on the back so that there’s not unsightly pencil marks on the front when you’re finished.

Step 4: Using your craft knife and a steel ruler, cut out along your lines. As you can see in the pictures I cut it from the back, at a slight angle, this means that when the mount is reversed back to normal there’s a slight bevel on the edge. You don’t have to do this, but it looks much more professional. Remember before you cut to ensure your knife is really nice and sharp, so use a fresh blade, or snap off the end of the blade to sharpen it if you’re using one like mine in the picture.

Framing your picture in your mount

Step 5: Now to attach your print. Lay the print on the back of the mount, and if you’ve measured and cut correctly there should be a slight overlap of a few millimetres. Line it up neatly and then fix in place using masking tape. This will make sure the print won’t slip when it’s in the frame and the edges will all line up neatly.

Step 6: Flip it over and pop the whole thing in your frame and admire the beautiful mounted framed print you now have.

Step 7: Time to decide what to frame next? I’d suggest one of my lovely illustrations from my Etsy shop here.

Drag Star Wars x-wing pilot cosplay outfit

For the latest Sink The Pink, I decided to make my very own drag Star Wars Luke Skywalker X-wing fighter pilot cosplay costume. It was a real labour of love. I ended up taking pictures as I made it, so I thought I’d share them here so you can make your very own.

Here’s how I made my very own DIY drag Star Wars X-wing fighter pilot uniform:

The Control Panel

This was a pretty simple bit to make. I went to the art shop and bought a bunch of foam board. I got a sheet of 10mm thick in white, and a sheet of 5mm thick which was black on the front and grey on the back. Looking at some pictures of Luke’s costume, I the chopped out a bunch of buttons and glued it together. I used 3 or 4 layers of the thick white foam to give it some depth.

The hose is from a local plumbing shop, I think it’s a drainage pipe for a washing machine or dishwasher. I chopped a hole for it and then used my glue gun to stick it in place.

Finally I got some grey webbing from the haberdashery up the road and stuck that to the back. I pushed a couple of nails through the webbing and into the foam to ensure it didn’t slip. On Luke Skywalker’s costume the hose goes into a pocket, but as I was planning on wearing this with essentially a swimming costume (no pockets), I ended up using a bit of EVA foam, and attaching the hose to the back of the webbing so it loops around my body a bit.

The X-wing pilot flak jacket

To make the flak jacket I bought a half metre of white canvas from the fabric shop, and a half metre of wadding (about 15mm thick. Then it was a case of using a bit of paper and drawing on my chest to get a rough outline of what the jacket shape should look like. I cut two out, sewed them on the machine with about a 1cm border, and then flipped it inside out so that it had a nice seam. Be sure to leave a little gap at the bottom so that you can stuff the wadding in later.

Next I cut out a wedge of the wadding, wedged it inside the vest front that I’d made, and then machine sewed back and forth and back and forth and back and forth until I had something that resembled the ribs on Luke Skywalker’s flak jacket. Finally I sewed up the gap at the bottom that I’d left to push the wadding into.

Next, I did exactly the same all over again to make the back of the flak jacket. I sewed on some velcro strips so that it’d be easy to adjust once I’d put it on. And finally I made some bits for the shoulders to hold the two sides together. These were a kind of angled piece as that made it sit correctly when I put it on. I hope the pictures make it clear.

Voila, that’s how to make Luke Skywalker’s x-wing costume flak jacket.

The Space Blaster Holster

This was pretty simple to make. I used 5mm EVA foam and cut out a shape based on the toy gun that I’d bought. Using a hair dryer I warmed it up, then bent it over the shape of the gun and let it cool so that it was the right shape. Then simply folded it over and stuck it down using contact adhesive. I folded over the top and bottom too gluing just at the edge to make some belt straps, then chopped it down a bit to make it a bit more like a holster shape.

The belt and thigh straps I made from some grey webbing that I’d bought along with some pom buckles. Simply cut the webbing with scissors to the right length, then use a lighter to melt the end to stop it from fraying. You can sew it really easily with a sewing machine and in minutes you have a Luke Skywalker X-wing style holster.

The X-wing fighter pilot helmet

To make the helmet I started off buying this Top Gun helmet from a fancy dress shop for around £30. I looked up all sorts of things, but this seemed the lightest (I had to dance in it) and closest to the real thing.

Next I removed the visor and sanded it to make it ready to paint, and glued on a strip of EVA foam to make it a bit more like the shape of Luke’s x-wing Star Wars helmet. Eva foam is great, it’s what lots of cosplay people seem to use, if you warm it, you can form it to pretty much any shape and when it cools it stays in shape. The best glue to use to stick it down is contact adhesive.

Then I gave it a few coats of white matt spray paint.

Once that had dried. It was a case of painting it up to look like an official x-wing fighter helmet with decals. I used some red electrical tape to add the stripes along the top, then a mix of posca paint pens and some acrylic paint to paint on the logos etc. Finally covering it with a coat of spray varnish to lock everything in.

Oh and finally, the helmet itself was way too big for me, so I used a bit of the wadding left over from the flak jacket and padded out the inside to make it snug.

How to tuck: A no nonsense guide from a Drag Queen.

Back when I was a baby drag queen, I found a lot of confusing online advice on how to tuck. None of it made much sense, and most of the guides were written by people who didn’t actually tuck themselves. Most of the guides I found were completely impractical too, they do it in a way that meant you can’t pee. Which is fine for a photoshoot, but not great if you’re planning on going out for a night or performing on stage. So I ended up working out my own technique on how to tuck, and that’s what I’ll lay out here.

drag queen with a tuck job — Where has it gone?

It turned out that tucking wasn’t just a mystery to me too. Once I’d learned, I ended up teaching a steady stream of queens how to tuck in dressing rooms across London. I became so good at teaching that I ended up turning my technique into a performance. This culminated in me doing a How to tuck workshop live on stage to 3000 people at the Sink the Pink street party! The local council weren’t quite prepared for it and ran over to the organisers almost pulling the plug on the event! But I considered the performance a community service. I’ve since been booked to do my live How to tuck workshop at a bundle of other nights.

Performing my Tuck Job Workshop on stage

So following on from my How to make your own drag hip & butt pads post, here’s another how to guide.

How to tuck in 5 easy steps (with pics):

Step 1: Balls up

This is the first, and probably weirdest step of the whole procedure. Basically you push your balls up and out of the way so that they’re not dangling around being all in your face. Most of the guides talk about pushing them up into cavities in your body. It sounds weird, a bit medical and quite confusing. I spent ages poking around for some odd ‘channel’ to push them into. As if I had a pair of secret vaginas no one had told me about. Spoiler alert, alas I don’t.

So let me break it down for you. Right above your balls is a bit of skin (where your pubes are) that’s not attached to your hip bones etc. You simply cup your balls, and gently push them up under the skin at the front of your body. They kind of sit just above and to the sides the top of your penis. Right at the front of your body, not in some secret internal cavity.

When I’ve taught people in the past, they’ve had two big fears:

Does it hurt? It doesn’t hurt, at most it just feels a bit weird.
What if they get stuck there? They won’t, literally as soon as you stop holding them up there they’ll fall back down. That’s why we need to get some tape.

That’s it, that’s most of the mystery of tucking. Now we just need to hold it all in place and smoothen everything down.

Step 2: Sausage Roll

So, your balls are now up, and you’re left with a penis and an empty ball sack hanging around. It’s time to start creating the illusion.

For step two, you wrap your empty balls sack around your penis like a sausage roll. This means that your balls won’t simply fall back down into your ball sack when you let go.

Wrapping your balls around from either side can also have the effect of creating a bit of a labia lewk. Although that won’t really show until later in the process…

Performing “How to Tuck” at Pluma Barcelona

Step 3: Wrap the burrito

In this step we’re going to wrap tape around the sausage roll you’ve just made to hold everything in place. But first we need to talk about tape.

There are loads of different types of tape that you can use to tuck. You need a tape that’s going to:

1 Stick to your skin (we want things held in place)
2 Have a bit of stretch (things move around down there)
3 Be a bit waterproof. (things can get sweaty down there)

Some Queens swear by using Gaffa tape. It’s a solid choice, it’s mostly water proof, but my god it’s a bugger to get off. And to be honest it’s kinda overkill for the job.

Another common choice is Micropore Tape – This is the stuff that tattoo artists use to hold on the cling film. It’s designed especially to stick to bodies and it peels off quite easily, but not too easily. It’s good for a quick tuck, but if you get too sweaty it’ll rip.

The tape I most recommend is called Clear Marine Tape. It’s the stuff that model boat enthusiasts use to repair their toy boats! It’s great because it’s designed to be water proof, it’s got good stretch to it and it’s completely clear. So the illusion you can create is almost clock proof.

So, once you’ve bought your tape from the toy boat shop, we’re on to the next bit. Simply wrap up around your penis and scrotum from the base of your penis and down the length. Don’t wrap up the head, that would be weird and you don’t need too. Especially because you might want to pee.

Oh, I forgot. Step 0. Shave! You’re going to want smooth skin down there.

Step 4: X marks the spot

So I’m a Drag Queen who likes a drink when she goes out dancing. But most of the tutorials on tucking seem to assume that you never need the loo!

So I ended up coming up with my own plan on how to tape and still go to the loo. It’s pretty simple.

You get some more of the tape and you tape an X shape. It runs from either side of the top of your penis and crosses just behind the head. It then leaves the head of your penis tape free. Which of course means that when you put it all back out of the way you can still pee.

If you bump into me in a club one day, please buy me a Jack and Coke to say thanks for this life saving tip!

You’re going to want to leave a fair bit of tape loose at the other end. It’s about to go right back and up over your bum.

Ok, nearly there…

Step 5: Down under

The finale! Next we’re going to grab everything and ‘tuck’ it all out the way to create the illusion. So to recap, your balls are up and out of the way. Your scrotum is wrapped around your penis and taped in place. You’ve run an X of tape down over your penis.

Next you squat down low. This is important as it means your tuck won’t snap loose when you bounce around and slut drop. We then grab the loose ends of the X, and pull everything back and underneath. The tape then sticks inside and up over your bum like a thong. It leaves the head of your penis upside down and facing out the back (so you can pee).

Around the front you should just be able to see the base of your penis. And perhaps a little bit of the fold of your scrotum, which now looks a bit like labia. Your balls will be held in place and won’t be slipping out and back down.

Voila! Look at you and your beautiful smooth crotch.

If this worked for you, then please comment below and share this article.

Also why not give me a follow on instagram to say thanks xx

How to make your own drag hip & butt pads

You can paint your face, you can put on a weave, you can slip on a dress and heels, but baby those hips don’t lie. It’s time to learn how to make drag hip pads.

There comes a time in every queen’s story, when she realises that those skinny little boy hips don’t scream feminine mystique.

It’s time to get up close and personal with some upholstery foam and a pair of scissors. Ladies and Gentlemen (and those who don’t conform to such dull binaries) I present:

How to make drag hip pads

What you’ll need:

A nice chunk of foam padding – I bought an off cut from Pentonville Rubber in London for about £5. Get a piece about 2 inches thick and about 100cm by 75cm.
A sharp, strong pair of scissors
A roll of cling film
A permanent marker
A big piece of card or cardboard
A bread knife
A full length mirror
Plasters (trust me)

Step 0: Research

So you want to make your skinny little hips turn heads like Shakira? First you need to spend some time deciding how big and what shape you want to create. Are you aiming for soft curves, toned thighs or serious booty. Like some drag queen deity, now you get to decide the body shape that you’re blessed with.

Step 1: Make your hip pads template

First put on your favourite pair of Black Milk leggings. Then grab a roll of cling film and wrap up your legs from your knees to your hips. Be sure to already be standing by a mirror and have your permanent marker and scissors to hand, else you’ll be doing a weird little shuffle around your flat with your legs tied up.

Once you’re nice and tight in your cling film bondage, then grab your permanent marker and draw a line to mark out the template for your pads. Basically you are trying you mark where you’d like to add a little jelly. The line should follow your muscles, down the front of your thighs, loop around, up the back and the swoop around your butt. Basically you should end up with something that looks roughly the shape of Africa.

The cling film template tip has been shamelessly stolen from this video, which is well worth a watch.

Step 2: Cut out your hip pads template

Reach over, grab those scissors and cut yourself free.

Cut out the two templates so that you’ve got something to work with

Then transfer the shape on to card so that you’ve got something more permanent to work with, and so that next time around you can simply jump to step 3!

Step 3: Transfer your template onto your block of foam

It was at this point that I realised that although I had two wonderful templates, they both had slightly different shapes. Obviously you want your pads to be identical. Lop sided is not “A look”. So I got the best of my two templates, drew around it, then flipped it over and drew around it again to give two perfectly symmetrical shapes:

Step 4: Chop chop

Grab a bread knife, and chop out the two shapes. Watch those pretty little fingers of yours.

Step 5: How to make drag hip pad Curves!

Now it’s time to start shaping your new booty. Grab your knife and roughly chop a whole chunk off the edge of one side of each of the shapes to begin to curve the edges.

Don’t be shy, you’re going to need to chop a load off these bad boys and the deeper you can cut now, the easier it will be in a moment.

Remember to cut the correct side of each of your shapes, you don’t want to accidentally end up with two right hand pads!

Step 6: Protection

This is where things really start to get interesting. First of all, wrap your fingers up with some plasters. Trust me, you’ll thank me for this tip later when your hands are aching and you’ve got blisters all over your fingers. Big shout out to my lovely friend and fabulous queen Ginger Johnson for this tip, it honestly saved my right hand.

Step 7: Smooth

If you squeeze the pads in now, you’ll find out two things. Firstly that your favourite leggings will nearly burst and secondly that you look ridiculous. It’s time to start shaping your new hips to start to look like a woman and not a cartoon.

Grab your scissors and start chopping. Turn that initial rough chop into something a little smoother. Snip, Snip, Snip, Snip, Snip, Snip, Snip, Snip, Snip, Snip, Snip, Snip, Snip, Snip, Snip, Snip, Snip, Snip, Snip, Snip, Snip, Snip, Snip, Snip, Snip, Snip, Snip, Snip, Snip, Snip, Snip, Snip, Snip….

It’s about now that you begin to be really grateful for the tip about the plasters.

The thing to do is to try and smooth your way in from the edge reaching a rounded peak at the top. The thinner the edges are, the less the pads will show under your clothes.

Here’s what they looked like at this point: Kapow!

Now much as I love Kimmy K, I’d decided that I wanted my pads to look a little more realistic with my frame. I thought about my mum and my sister and realised that had I been born with them, mine would have been a whole load more subtle.

So, with aching fingers, I picked up my scissors again and continued to snip. It’s worth at this point to have a think back to your research and really look at the shape of the hips that you want to make. Where’s the widest point? How do they curve down the leg?

For me, the pads I wanted to make slowly got thicker as they came up from the knee with the widest point about level with my crotch. Thinking back to our map of Africa. The thinnest bit was at South Africa, sloping up towards the widest bit being at around South Sudan.

Then the two bits that covered my bum cheeks (Algeria through to Ghana) were quite rounded with a big deep curve under my bum running from Nigeria through to Chad.

Now there’s two ways to wear pads. Some people say to wear them under lots of layers of tights with the lumpy bits sticking out. The tights will smoothen them out. However others say that if you flip them over and have the smooth side out, a good pair of leggings will force them to curve back on themselves.

I decided to wear mine with the smooth side out, and here’s the final results:

As a comparison, here’s a shot of my legs with and without the pads:

Personally I’m over the bloody moon with them. They add just the right amount of curve to be convincing, but not too much that they begin to look comical.

Hope you found this helpful, if so, why not say thanks by following me on instagram x

Also be sure to check out my How to tuck tutorial too

Oh….

One more step…

Robyn Withawhy

DIY