From Oogey-Boogey from “A Nightmare Before Christmas” to Raven from “Teen Titans,” Stenz has transformed into many iconic villains and heroes from video games, comic books, movies, and other media in her career.

“I love dressing up as different characters and embodying those characteristics,” Stenz said. “It’s so much fun. Besides that, it’s probably the actual making of stuff. I really like getting hands-on with the foam, looking at the reference, and going, ‘Okay, that looks impossible. I’m going to try and make that.'”

Stenz started her professional career in crafting in 2015, making this year her ninth year fully delving into a profession many never thought was possible. She said that around that time, Stenz was experiencing bad anxiety and started crafting costumes.

After really getting into the craft of cosplaying, her career took off from there.

News Photo by Mike Gonzalez Brooke Stenz’s crafting area is shown on Feb. 29 with different posters, collectibles, and cosplay props displayed around her crafting table.

“This is the magic, right here,” Stenz said as she sorted through all the different foams she had laid out on her crafting table. “I have a lot of samples of foam for panels and whatnot. Each foam has a certain density to them. So obviously, I’m a smaller person, so I use the smaller sizes on a lot of cosplays. But if I want something that’s big and chunky, or thick-looking, I’m going to go up in sizes of foam.”

Stenz showed off the blade that she used to cut the foam, which she had been using for more than a year. To make sure it does not grow dull, she has a whetstone by her table.

Foam is used for just about every cosplay of Stenz’s. She showed off different cosplays of hers on various mannequin displays and one cosplay had angelic wings on the back that stretched about a foot out.

She noted that every feather or ruffle of a wing, which looked like thin crafting paper, was actually cut-out pieces of foam that people might use in a box to move delicate objects.

“They weren’t too bad to make,” Stenz said, laughing. “They’re actually small wings compared to what I normally make.”

Courtesy Photo Brooke Stenz poses in her personally crafted Sally Whitemane cosplay from “World of Warcraft” in a photo by Dustin Valkema.

Now, Stenz has been on the covers for cosplay and video game magazines such as “The Indie Gamer Magazine,” and has received multiple awards from cosplay contests.

On top of being on the cover of “The Indie Gamer Magazine,” Stenz was also awarded the title “Cosplay Creator of 2021.”

Stenz has also gone to many video game, comic, and anime conventions around the country as a guest cosplayer for different panels and shows during the weekend event.

“About three years after I started, a friend had called me and he’s like, ‘Hey, I have a friend that runs another convention and he needs a guest cosplayer,'” Stenz said. “So I was like, ‘Well, I’ve never done it before. Yeah, I’ll do it.’ I didn’t know what I was doing. But I went there and then ended up doing shows with that convention around the country. I think I did six shows and then after that, about every other weekend, we were going out of town going somewhere.”

The next conventions Stenz will make a guest appearance at are the Cadillac Pop Culture Convention on April 6 and the Grand Rapids Comic-Con Spring Fling from April 12 to April 14.

News Photo by Mike Gonzalez Different crafting items, magazines, past props, and new cosplays are displayed on a table at Brooke Stenz’s home on Feb. 29.

“Crafting with foam takes a lot of practice,” Stenz said. “Unfortunately, sometimes lots of money, too, to learn from that practice.”

News Photo by Mike Gonzalez Various foam swords from different cosplays are displayed on the wall above Brooke Stenz’s crafting table on Feb. 29. Keen-eyed horror fans may also notice the Bubble Head Nurse headpiece for a “Silent Hill” cosplay Stenz did.

News Photo by Mike Gonzalez Brooke Stenz points at her Ranger Slayer cosplay from the comic “Power Rangers: Drakkon New Dawn” on Feb. 29.

News Photo by Mike Gonzalez Brooke Stenz shows off her work on Spellbook, the book seen in “Hocus Pocus,” on Feb. 29.