Elsa for Halloween…A DIY Costume

*My daughter wore this costume for Halloween 2014 but I am just now getting around to sharing it now – complete blogger fail*

Like practically every other little girl in 2014, my 5 year old wanted to be Elsa for Halloween. I could have bought a costume but we kind of have a tradition that Mom makes your costume. As long as I can get away with it I’m going to stick to that plan.

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Since my sewing skills stink I knew making a dress from scratch wasn’t going to happen. I needed to find a dress that already fit Caroline and add to that. I found a completely white dress that had been given to us, discussed the design with Caroline, took a trip with her to the fabric store, and just jumped in to making it.

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Caroline picked out this blue sequined overlay (is that what this is called?) so I hand stitched it onto the white dress.

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At this point the dress was too short for Caroline so I needed to add some length with the blue satin (aka old bridesmaid standard fabric).  I have no idea why there is a seam in the middle of the dress.

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We made a cape which was made of the blue satin and then the blue sequin overlay sewed on top of that.

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Add a little face paint for Halloween and we have one happy camper princess.

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I also bought this accessories set on etsy for Caroline (I can’t find the store now). She wanted all the pieces and I thought why not. On the end of the gloves I added sequins to make them look even more “princessy.” This set blew the budget but I didn’t really care.

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Blonde Elsa braid with brunette hair = little girls dream

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What are your little ones going to be this year?

Easy Harry Potter Wand

My son went to acting camp this summer and the theme of the week was Harry Potter.

One day he came home with this magic wand and I thought it was the coolest thing.

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Here’s how he said they made it:

1) Take a chopstick and pour hot glue all around it

2) Wait for the glue to dry and then spray paint it black

Simple!

What a great addition to a costume this could be!

A Home Made Ghost Pinata

I made this pinata last year for our Halloween party but never got around to sharing it. This project is easy and lots of fun as long as you are not a perfectionist with your decorations.

Since the name of the game around here is use what you have this project was totally free. I used newspaper, a balloon, flour, water, salt, crepe paper, and construction paper.

I started by covering an inflated balloon with strips of newspaper using a glue/water/salt combination. I would not use this method again since it was just difficult to spread the cold flour mixture all over. Instead, I would just use a mixture of half glue and half water. I’ve used that in the past and it’s a great consistency.

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Over a period of days I added several layers of the newspaper. When I felt I had a sturdy enough oval I cut a flap in the bottom of the pinata and deflated the balloon in order to remove it.

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Next I grabbed white crepe paper which was leftover from someone’s birthday party and covered the entire oval using a glue gun. *Remember to leave a spot open in the top so that you can hang your creation somehow.

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The next step was to glue on long pieces so the “ghost” would in fact look like a ghost.

At  this point you can place the candy or trinkets into the bottom of the pinata flap and then glue it shut with some pieces of crepe paper.

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My five year old then helped me create a face for our ghost which we glued on.

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And here she is in all her glory getting whacked by my daughter at the party.

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Once someone busted open the pinata and everything fell out it was as if they had never seen Halloween stickers, bubbles, pencils, toys, plastic fingers and spiders before.

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I’ll definitely be making another pinata this year – this one served us well.

Santa Letters

The Dear Santa letters are written and are now on their way to the North Pole.

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In my opinion, there really is nothing cuter than little kids handwriting.

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And my eight year old has included a special message to Santa just to explain a few of his behavior choices lately.

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“I haven’t been perfect, but I’ve been good.”

🙂

I’m pretty sure Santa has noticed the good.

Christmas Wreath 2013

Because I am trying to decorate on the cheap but also needed a change from our regular Christmas decor, I decided to make as many of the new items as I could.

This wreath on our door is one of the new items (looks better in person).

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I took a sad old wreath which I had previously glued ornaments onto (it was a sad hot mess) and decided to spray it white.

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I then put on a row of glue and my daughter and I put a glitter mixture on top of that. I used equal parts silver and gold glitter.

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I kind of love it.

100%  change for free.

I may add something in the middle eventually but for right now I’m enjoying that I can sale right through the rest of winter with this on my door.

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Have you added any new decorations this year?