Let's Start With The Peanut

So where to begin... I put together three costumes this year (with the help of my cute husband of course as well as a few others). We'll start with the peanut...

My sister decided to be the Planter's Peanut. She is so creative, last year she was Abe Lincoln. How cute is that?  I knew that I would have to really think of something crafty for this outfit though. I had this shirt that I was never going to use and it happened to be the perfect color for a peanut. So I just needed to get fabric to match it. I used about a yard and a half for the skirt. First I stamped the top and bottom with regular acrylic paint to make the indents for the peanut. If you do this, make sure that you put something in between the shirt so the paint doesn't sink through to the other side. 

After that I folded it in half long ways. My mother-in-law was kind enough to sew it for me. I don't have a sewing machine {sad face!} so I always need help in that department.

After we sewed the top, we folded it over about an inch and a half and sewed that. This is where I put the ribbon in so that she could pull it tight around her waist. 

I stuffed the middle of the skirt with some netting. I didn't put too much in though because I didn't want it too poofy.

The shirt was a little bit of a different color than the skirt. It was the closest they had, but it was a little off. So I put a bridge in between the two to break up the color. I took the rest of the netting and tied a bow with it around her waist. The cane was just a bamboo cane from the store and we spray painted it black. 

Her hat was actually from her Abe Lincoln costume last year. I took a ribbon and painted "Planter's Peanuts" on it then put the ribbon around the hat. 

We looked for a monocle, but couldn't find one anywhere. So we took an old necklace chain and I make a round circle with a wire.

It turned out pretty cute!!

Next up.. Jafar...

Honestly, his was really easy. For the cape, we bought two curtains from Walmart. The curtains are cheaper than getting fabric yard by yard. They were only $4.99 each. With help from my mother-in-law, we sewed the curtains together and just left the loops at the top open so that he could put a shoelace in it to tie it around himself. We bought the hat on Amazon and used face paint for his goatee. The shirt and pants are just regular black shirt and pants. The red curtain happened to be a little longer, so when we cut the extra off, we used it to put around his waist. 

What he really loved was his staff. We took an old rubber snake and glued it to a broom handle. One thing that was strange was that the rubber snake wouldn't hot glue for some reason. No matter what I did, it wouldn't stick. Steven came up with the genius idea of putting masking tape around the snake where we were going to glue it. It worked like a charm! After it was all glued, we just spray painted the whole thing. 

He makes a handsome villain! (Side note: Please don't mind the shoes. He loves them!)

The baby of the family didn't need any help from me. She wanted to be a dark fairy. She just wore one of her dresses and they already had the wings. 

How cute is she!

Last but not least! Ursula!!

Every year Steven and I dress up alike and this year the theme was Disney villains. Honestly it was just because I wanted to be Ursula!

 I did my hair up and sprayed it with white hair paint. It took three washes for all of it to come out!

I also got sparkly purple eyelashes to match my costume. 

My necklace was really fun. You probably remember in the movie when Ursula steals Ariel's voice she puts it in a gold shell necklace. So I felt like that was a crucial part of the costume. I found a shell at the craft store and painted it gold. Then Steven (very carefully) drilled a hole in it for the necklace chain to slip through.

I have to give the credit to my Grandma for helping me make the tentacles. I knew basically what I wanted, but I didn't know exactly how to sew it. So I spent one Saturday at her house and she helped me completely make the tentacles. They are triangles that are black on one side and purple on the other. Steven also gave me the idea to sew wire into them so that they can be bent. They turned out really cute right! And I made the tutu by tying strips of netting around a ribbon. The more strips you put on, the poofier the tutu is.  

The outfits seemed like they took a lot more time this year than I normally spend on them, but I think it was worth it! What a cute bunch!

Witch's Boot

I love over-sized door hangs! They are so much fun to make. And who doesn't love a cute witch boot? I made this last year with supplies from the Wood Connection. I told you that I love them!

I wrote on it using a silver sharpie. That was one of my own personal touches I gave to the boot.

You can tell I love glitter!!

Here is a little boot that sits on my table...

I did the writing the same way as the door hang. The wire wrapping was hard, but I was just barely learning how to do it. 

Only two more sleeps until we unveil our Halloween costumes! They have been taking forever to put together, but they are so much fun! I will tell you one thing... I am Ursula! :)

Perfect Pumpkins

I had been seeing these all over the blogging world and was so excited to try them. 

I got the pumpkins at Walmart for $4 each and each pumpkin used 3 pieces of 12 x 12 paper. I cut the paper into strips in order to glue it on to the pumpkin. 

At first I thought it would be easier I cut the strips skinnier, but as I went on I realized that it's easier when they are a little thicker. It ended up being like 1 1/2 inches wide. I modge podged the back of the paper and then stuck it on. Another thing I realized was that it is way easier if the paper is thinner. If you get the thick card stock paper it doesn't form as well to the pumpkin. I let it sit over night (mainly because it was super late when I got done glueing it on!). Then in the morning I modge podged over the top of all the paper and let it dry. Then I spray glossed it to give it the extra shine. 

It was super messy and it took longer than I thought, but they are so cute that it was worth it!

The Season of Witches

Last Saturday was Gardner Village's Witches Night Out. I had never been before so I was really excited when my cousin invited me to go! She had a great idea, we were all going to make our own witch hats and we were each going to represent a different season. I chose winter because I think it's the prettiest!

I can't take credit for the base design of my hat. My two cousins came up with how to make the base and then I just designed it how I wanted it.

We started with a cone and strips. We used poster board so that it would be stronger. 

We took the strips and put them all the way around the hat. Then we took printed paper and layered it all the way around to make the brim.

Then we had to work on the point. I wanted my point all blue and I wanted it to curve. So first I put a large strip up and around the top of the poster board point. 

Then I added wire in the shape that I wanted the curve. 

This was super hard! I just had to keep adding strip after strip around the wire until it got to the point where it was kind of smooth. One thing to remember is that you can't add too many strips, because then it gets too fat and looks funny. It took a while to figure it out, but I finally got it there!

I also added ribbon around the brim so that the edges didn't look too uneven.

Then I added fake snow around the bottom. So here's the thing, for some dumb reason I thought that the can of snow was one of those liquid-to-powder things. Don't ask me why I thought that. So it looked perfect when I first sprayed it on, but then it kind of soaked through and cracked. It still worked, it just wasn't as fluffy as I hoped. 

I had gone to Hobby Lobby when they had their 40% off Christmas items sale and bought these two ornaments. I just superglued them to the hat. I was so excited when I found them, they were exactly what I was hoping to find!

See what I mean about the snow? And you can see the water mark too. But I don't think that it ended up half bad!

I didn't realize how big my hat was until I was next to everyone else, but it looks cute, right!?

Look how cute everyone looks! Spring put grass and birds on her hat, Autumn had fall flowers and a mini pumpkin, Summer made hers into a beach (which I completely loved!), and there was one other winter. She put a snowflake on hers and white paper roses. They all looked so cute! It was such a fun night!

This is Halloween!

As you know, I love Halloween!! I made this last year. We always love dressing up together and I wanted to be able to show off all our pictures. In a few years I will do another frame with all the pictures of our newer Halloween costumes. 

I got the wooden figures at Wood Connection. Aren't they cute!

This is my favorite picture. This was the first Halloween that we dressed up together. It was our junior year in high school. I don't think we look that different actually!