Create-Celebrate-Explore

Costume Storage for Boys

As you know, I've been working on Marisol's costume storage area for some time.   Flynn's though was driving me up the wall.  You see, he didn't have one.  All of his costumes were on the top shelf of his closet, and at least once a week I would find the entire lot all over his bedroom floor.    So I finally pulled the Ikea storage box I have been lugging around for the past few years (even through 3 house moves) out of the garage and put together his dress up area during the week.

 

Everything is now within reach and will be easy for him to clean up.  Yes, I will just keep telling myself that he will clean it up and that I won't be left to do it, but we all know the truth now, don't we.

The items on the shelf are just out of reach though.  I absolutely love the Zid Zid elephant mask that a friend gave him a few years ago.  I am surprised it has lasted this long.  And, I could not believe it when I found the dinosaur mask in a box in the garage.  I made it about 10 years ago for Jay (when we were living in Australia) and he was going through his dinosaur phase.  An old chai tea tin was perfect to put all of the mustaches in, remember we used them at the twins cowboy and cowgirl birthday party.  You can also find the details on making the hobby horse there too.

So, for the quick round-up. 

The box - I purchased from Ikea for about $10 a few years ago.  It had unfinished wood around the edges which I painted brown.

The shelf - Was another unfinished wood item that I found at Michael's for $14.99 (don't forget your 40% off coupon).  Again, a few coats of brown paint did the trick.

The rail - Is perfect to hang small accessories on, and to stand up items such as the sword and hobby horse.  That was $9.99 at Marshall's.

 

Handmade Thanksgiving Costume

The kids made these at school recently and wore them for their Thanksgiving feast.

Isn't it adorable.  The vests are made from brown paper bags and the dyed pasta necklaces were a pattern activity - the kids had to come up with a pattern of colors as they beaded.

Fox 5: Homemade Halloween Costumes

This morning we had the pleasure of participating in a homemade Halloween costume segment on Fox 5 San Diego News.  Marisol wore her kitty cat costume and Flynn wore his new superhero costume.

You can view more photographs from our fun morning on my Facebook page.

For links to all of the homemade costumes that were on parade this morning visit Mama Mary Show.

To watch the segment visit Fox 5 San Diego.

Tutorial: A Handmade Superhero Costume

Flynn wanted to be a superhero for Halloween.  Specifically Spiderman, however, my skills (or lack thereof) and time available were not quite going to fit in with that plan, so when we had a look at superhero costumes on-line he decided he wanted to have a cape and mask instead.  Perfect.  I asked him if he would like to be Super Flynn and he was beyond excited.

What you need to make this costume:

• Leggings (I found these thick green ones at Gymboree)
• Plain t-shirt
• Plain shoes
• Pleather in black, green and silver croc
• Solid Alova Caviar fabric (it looks a little like suede) - this is for the cape
• Black foam mask
• Black lanyard cord
• Strong fabric glue
• Needle and black thread

To make:

To make the logo on the front of the shirt and back of the cape I began by creating the logo in a word document on the computer, sized it on there and printed it to use as a template.  I then cut out two identical pieces from the pleather and glued it all together.

The cape is very simple.  I lay the fabric on the ground and started cutting until it looked like the shape of a cape.  I made sure it wasn't too long, folded over the top edge, with the lanyard cord threaded through and stitched it in place.  No hemming required.  I then glued the logo to the back of it.

The second logo was glued to the front of the t-shirt.

Lastly, the mask.  I had purchased a black mask with cord which came in a packet with an orange mask as well.  I cut the eyes on the orange mask so they were wider and then trimmed the outside of the mask too and lay it over the top of the black mask.  Once I was happy with how it looked, I used the newly cut orange mask as a template on the green pleather.  Once the pleather was cut into shape, it was glued on too.

And there you have it, a simple superhero costume.

AS SEEN ON:

Mama Mary Show ... Fox 5 San Diego ... Skimbaco ... Dear Creatives

This post linked to:

Kidzui Blog: A Cat Costume

Are you going handmade or store bought this Halloween?

Follow my tutorial at KidZui to make an easy cat costume.

AS SEEN ON:

Mama Mary Show and Fox 5 San Diego

A Dress Up Station

I still have more work to do on this project, but I wanted to give you a sneak peek at how it's coming along.

There is a little girl in our house who loves to play dress-up.  This is the box I decorated for her to store all of her non-hanging dress-ups; things like pom poms, and gloves.   Can you believe I have been carrying this box around for 3 years.  I purchased it at Ikea for around $10, knowing that I wanted to make a costume box out of it, but hadn't got around to it until recently.  Now I need to do the little mans too (but not with flowers) ... and preferably before he outgrows the role playing phase.

As you can see I went a little crazy with the flower purchases at Michael's ... and the hot glue too. 

My plan is to have some kind of cabinet to frame the dress up station, but I'm yet to find the perfect solution.   I also need to make her a jewelry organizer similar to mine and we need to locate her box of wands, which are probably in the bottomless pit of packing boxes in the garage along with my coffee mugs and clothes.

Handmade Penguin Costumes

The kids made these costumes at preschool.  Aren't they adorable. 

The bodies are brown paper bags painted black, with holes cut in the top and sides and a white piece of paper glued to the front.

The beak and headpiece are made from colored paper, with ribbons to tie them on.

AS SEEN ON:

Babble

The Farm: Fall Festival

Fall not only means apple picking, baking pies and fall leaves (which we don't seem to have a lot of in our part of the country), but it also means choosing pumpkins and fall festivals.   We decided to head to The Farm this weekend.  It's a place I go to as often as I can for fresh organic produce.  We visited The Farm last fall too, for a homeschool field trip.

We watched a puppet show

We picked out pumpkins.

We giggled at the crazy goats.

We had a hay ride.

We ran a pumpkin race.

We climbed hay bails.

And

We picked out fresh produce to take home.

Handmade Teddy Bear Ear Headband

Hmm, I think I promised to post the tutorial for the teddy bear ears from the twins birthday party a week ago.  Oops.

Without further ado.

Step 1:

Cut out the pieces of felt required:

• 1 long strip to make a sleeve for the headband - measure the width of the headband, double it and add an extra 5mm for stitching.  Measure the length and do the same.
• the large part of the ear - Cut a piece of paper to the correct shape and use that as a template.  You will need 4 of these per headband.
• the small inner section of the ear - as above, however you will only need 2 of these per headband.

Step 2:

Stitch the long sides of the sleeve together using an over-edge stitch (either using the sewing machine or by hand).   Pull the sleeve over the headband, fold the ends over and stitch by hand.

Step 3:

Stitch the inner ear to the outer ear.  Then stitch the back and front of each ear together.  Use a couple of strands of embroidery thread. 

Step 4:

Put a small amount of stuffing in each ear.  This is to help the ears stand up and fill them out a little so they don't flop over when stitched to the headband.

Step 5:

Stitch each ear to the sides of the headband.  Stitch as close to the edge of the headband as you can.  If you stitch the back and front of the headbands close together the ear will most likely flop.

And there you have it.

I purchased the plain white headbands from Amazon.  They are $17 for 50.  I found this to be the most cost effective way to do a large number of these, plus I have a lot of headbands left over for future craft projects.

These would make a great Halloween gift for your child to hand out to their classmates at school, or as party hats, which is what we did.

This post linked to:

As seen on:

Crescendoh ... The Crafty Crow

Tutorial: Bumble Bee Headband

Instead of party hats for the twins upcoming birthday party, I decided to make cute headbands - especially seeing as we are getting so close to Halloween and one can never have enough costumes.  This is one of the headbands the kids will be sporting.  There is one more to go.  I'll give you a hint.  It's a Bees and Bears party.

 

Materials:

• Black headbands - I purchased these - 36 for $14.99
• Thin black feather boa
• Black pipecleaners
• Gold glitter glue
• Hot glue gun

To make:

Put a small dot of hot glue just off center at the top of the headband and wrap about 1 inch of black pipecleaner around.  Do the same on the other side.

Attach a small amount of the black feather boa to the top of the headband - again, using the hot glue.

Curl the ends of the pipecleaners.

Dab a small spot of gold glitter glue to the tip of the 'antenna'. 

Done!

 

Tip:  Add a red dot to turn these into ladybug headbands.

 

This post linked to:

As seen on:

Cool Craft Sites / Bueno bonito y barato / Craft