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Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Our Costumes!

Here’s my little butterfly

Costumes (2)

Costumes (3)

She wanted to fly away!

Costumes (5)

And my ladybug

Costumes (9)

Costumes (11)

And when we actually went trick or treating, I painted their faces

Costumes (15)

Costumes (16)

And then the hubby is always a good sport, and was a bumblebee.

Costumes (1)

And of course, I’m a black widow. But the girls made sure that I was a nice widow. They didn’t want me to eat them Smile

Happy Halloween!

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Halloween Manicure

Gasp!  Halloween is TOMORROW!!  Are you ready?

I *think* we are.  I’m sure there will be some last minute craziness, but that happens.

If you know me in real life, you probably know that I’m not all that girly.  I hardly ever wear nail polish, but since Halloween is tomorrow, I thought I’d do something fun with my nails.

Halloween Manicure

So, I painted them all Halloween-ey with Frankenstein on my ring finger nails.  I just did the same thing I did in my DIY French Tip Manicure tutorial, except I used green.

For the Frankenstein, I painted the whole nail green and used white polish for the eyes.  I just dabbed a small amount onto the nail.  Then, for the rest of Frankenstein, I cheated.  I used a Sharpie!  :) 

Just be careful when you’re adding the top coat of clear polish.  If you drag the nail polish brush through the Sharpie, it will bleed.

Halloween Manicure 2

What about you?  Do you like to dress up your nails for different holidays?

Happy Halloween tomorrow!  :)

signature nat

Monday, October 29, 2012

Last Minute Halloween Costumes

Okay Halloween is in 2 days! Are you ready? Here’s some links to about 50+ ideas for you to scroll through if you need a last minute idea! How about on Wednesday we do a link party where you can link up your best Halloween costumes, craft, décor, etc? Sound fun? Okay, plan on it!

You can use these ideas to make a shirt for yourself! She even starts off by dyeing the fabric. We should be friends, I think Smile Over at U-Create.

There are some great costume ideas here. Go check it out! At Kid Stuff World.

Here’s some more last minute costumes. They’re all thumbnail size so you can click on one that you want to see how they made it. Over at Family Fun.

Here’s 20 easy last minute costumes. I love this pig one. It’s actually Pig in a blanket. They’re all creative word play costumes. Over at Babble.com

Saturday, October 27, 2012

What I Wore Sunday: Week 38

Sorry guys!  This week has been absolutely insane, so you get a pre-scheduled post.  I know…hanging my head in shame…  I’ll do a feature post next week, okay?  Thanks so much to everyone who linked up!  :)

frame to match teal and white

…52 weeks of shaking up the wardrobe…

The Rules:

  1. Wear a different outfit every Sunday.

  2. Incorporate at least one article of clothing or accessory that was either refashioned, sewn myself, or handmade.

  3. Outfits can be worn more than once; just not the same way.

This is what I wore on Sunday:

week 38

I loved this outfit.  I actually swapped the belt out for a thicker one and liked it better.  I’m wearing a necklace, earrings and a watch that I made myself.

What about you?  What outfits and accessories have you made?

frame to match teal and white

Link up to anything you have refashioned or sewn yourself.  It doesn’t have to be dressy, and it doesn’t have to be worn on a Sunday.  It doesn’t even have to be worn by you.  Show it off!

  • No links to shops or giveaways, please.

  • Link back to Crafty Cousins on your blog too, okay?!

  • Bonus points for following Crafty Cousins or liking us on Facebook!  :)

  • Tell your friends about the What I Wore Sunday Link Party.  What’s a party without lots of partiers?

Can’t wait to see what you’ve got! 

signature nat

Friday, October 26, 2012

Spider Legs

Okay, here’s the last costume and we’re all ready for Halloween! First off, this will hopefully help one of our readers from Facebook, Tiffany, whose daughter wanted to be a spider. I’m going the scary version, but you could adapt it in fun colors to make a non scary version. Here’s my supplies:

Making Legs (2)

Some opaque tights (I didn’t want sheer pantyhose)

Making Legs (11)

And some foam insulation from the  Home Depot. Quick note, you can use this stuff to make wreath forms, and it’s about $1.50 for a 6 ft piece. Mine was in the plumbing aisle. If you have those pool noodles, you can use those too.

First thing was I stuck the foam together and took off the tape. I didn’t want it to come off and stick to my fabric.

Making Legs (10)

I cut it into thirds next. Approximates at least.

Making Legs (12)

So now I have 3 foam pieces.

Making Legs (1)

If you want, you can do 3 pieces of full foam, but I thought that might be heavy, and not bend out of the way as much. Oh by the way, I cut the foam to the length of fingertip to fingertip, minus a couple inches. Okay, now take your tights

Making Legs (3)

Cut off the legs where the seam is that joins them to the panty part.

Making Legs (4)

Then sew from the toe up to the top, just about in the middle. A little off to one side in the middle.

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Then sew right by your first seam again.

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And then cut your tights in half, right down the middle of those 2 seams. Here’s where yours might differ from mine. I did this so I had 8 total tubes.

Making Legs (8)Making Legs (9)

Then, you’re going to turn those inside out, so the seam is on the inside. And thread it onto a foam tube.

Making Legs (18)

If you want to do more fun curvy legs, thread it one and stretch the tights so it makes the foam bend.

Making Legs (15)

You may need extra foam, so 2 tubes total. It looks really fun though! So if you wanted to do that, you just measure arm to fingertip for the length, and then a little extra for the curviness.

I didn’t want that look, so I loosened the tights so there wasn’t any stretch, and then put another tights tube starting at the other end and made them meet in the middle. There was a little overlap.

Making Legs (20)

And I sewed through the foam to keep the tights in place. Just a few stitches.

Okay now you have 3 covered legs, so what next? I grabbed my Medusa costume dress

Neighborhood Halloween Party (8)

Which this picture doesn’t do any justice to the awesome costume, but you’ll see more of it here. It was just a plain black knit dress from the DI when I got it. I’m pretty sure it was sleeveless. So, to make it awesome, I changed a few things.

 

Spider Dress (11)Spider Dress (12)

For the neckline, I added some jags with black fabric, to make it more interesting.

Spider Dress (6)

I added sleeves with making big bell-like tulle sleeves, and then before I sewed them on the dress, I added strips of jagged black fabric, and then sewed it on a sleeve. Hint, I tried to dye some tulle black and it didn’t work. It turned a gray color (which is what I used to decorate my table for Halloween.) because it’s not a straight cotton or natural fabric. Okay? So buy black if you want black.

Spider Dress (9)

For the bottom of the dress, I cut jags up into the hem of the dress (making sure I kept it the overall length I wanted), and I sewed the cut triangles onto other parts of the dress. Here’s a little illustration to help.Jagged edge hem

So I cut the red lines, and then moved it down to the blue line to make an even longer jag. I also added tulle triangles underneath just to give it more of the jagged look I wanted.

Spider Dress (7)

Finally, I added some netting wrapped around the dress and sewn down in a few places from the top of the dress to the bottom. I love this netting. I wish I could remember where I got it. But it totally reminds me of something a femme fatale would be wearing off her hat to cover her eyes, and of course she has a beauty mark right by her red lips. Back to the spider. So on the back of my dress, down the middle of the back, and just below the armpit line, I sewed in 3 pieces of black yarn.

Spider Dress (14)

I tied on my spider legs so the yarn was right in the middle of the legs. (the pin marked the middle)

Spider Dress (15)

I tied some yarn around the legs at the end so the legs stayed together. It just depends on the look you do of how far you let them spread.

Making Legs (14)

I sewed the yarn through my sleeve at the top

Spider Dress (1)

And finally I sewed on some red felt in a diamond shape so I’m a black widow. I actually did this before putting the legs on so I could maneuver on the sewing machine easily.

Spider Dress (13)

So that’s the last costume. And just in a rebuttal against Natalie’s cheapskate post, I gotta tell you my total cost for all the Halloween costumes. $16. Here’s the summary, ready?

Bumblebee shirt: $0 I had a coupon.

Girlie skirts: $1 for some tulle. Had everything else.

Wings: $1 for the knee high tights.

Antenna: $4 for the headbands.

Spider Dress: $10 for the tights and foam. Dang it! If I didn’t have to buy 2 packs of tights (which are hard to find anyway), this would’ve been an under $10 Halloween!

So I reuse past costumes, and just update them. Happy Halloween! What help do you still need for your costumes?

Halloween Button copy

Thursday, October 25, 2012

Halloween Luminaries

Halloween Luminaries from a Mason jar (15)
 
About a week ago, I was wasting time researching Halloween crafts on Pinterest.  I came across this one from Our Best Bites and decided to try it out with my kids.
 
 
It was a huge mess and loads of fun.
 
Halloween Luminaries from a Mason jar (2)
 
Yes, Monkey is still in his pajamas.  Before you judge, it was Fall break, and it was only 8:30 in the morning.  My kids do not know how to sleep in.  Sigh…
 
Jingus and Crocky made some, too, but they made their luminaries when they got back from piano lessons and the camera was put away.  Sorry, Dudes!
 
It was a fun and messy craft, but we all loved how they turned out.
 
Halloween Luminaries from a Mason jar (18)
 
We arranged them onto our “mantle” (a.k.a. the piano) and lit them up with flameless flickering tea lights.
 
Halloween Luminaries from a Mason jar (24)
Halloween Luminaries from a Mason jar (10)
Halloween Luminaries from a Mason jar (11)
Halloween Luminaries from a Mason jar (12)
 
Lots of fun.  This is a fantastic project for kids.  I’m glad I took the time to make a gigantic mess and a fun memory with my kids.
 
signature nat