Dollar Store Costumes

A Gift For You!

Cost $3

I bought three items: a beautiful purple gift bag, purple ribbon and a package of multi colored tissue.

Cut the hole out of the bottom of the bag. Staple ribbon from the front side of the bag to the back side of the bag over each shoulder. Staple tissue paper to the front of the bag. Use some of the purple ribbon to make a bow for her hair and then staple some tissue paper to the ribbon!

Puppy Love!

Cost $4

I bought 4 items: 4 hand micro fiber dusters!

All the rest of the items were found on a scavenger hunt around my house. I attached the two skinny dusters to a headband, dressed our model in a brown turtle neck and handmade scarf from my talented aunt. The finishing touch was a little makeup to provide the nose and the whiskers!

 Pop Corn Anyone?

Cost $5

I bought 4 items: an apron, a bag of 10 individual popcorn bags (but only used 4), two packages of white jar openers and a pair of sunglasses!

Cutting up the bags and placing them on an angle really made this costume reflect the fun that comes along with eating popcorn. Once again I just stapled away, securing the bag to the apron. Then I cut the jar openers in half and stapled those on as well, bunching them up at random to make each look unique! I used the extra parts of the bag to make the head band around her head. This was the only part of the creation where I had to use tape to secure it. I cut out the "fresh" in one of the bags and i taped them on to her glasses!

These unique costumes were so fun to make!

Note: these are handmade ideas that have not gone through the standard of safety testing that store bought costumes have- so be safe.

Shelf Pumpkins

Sure you can buy lots of pre-fab witches, wolves, monsters, and ghosts.  But, Crafty Life and Style hopes you are filling up the house with handmade Halloween decorations this year.  If you like to leave subtle little reminders of the season around the house...here is one idea, shelf pumpkins. 

Here's what you need:

1-12x12 piece of orange fabric.

2-5x6 pieces of green fabric (or infant socks)

1-black marker

1-scoop of bird seed

1-package of cotton balls or other stuffing

3-tan rubber bands

Several strips of tan and green raffia

Glue gun
Scissors

Sewing machine and associated products optional

First lay out your 12x12 orange fabric.  Place the scoop of bird seed in the center and spread into a small circle for the base of your pumpkin.  This will help weigh down your pumpkin and hold it in place on your shelf.  Fill the center with cotton and begin to lift the corners of your orange fabric, bunching up the sides to form a round ball.  Keep pushing down your cutton as you pull the fabric tighter and stuff as much filling in as you need until the pumpkin is the desired size.  You will have extra fabric on top.  Just wrap a rubber band tight around the top to hold your pumpkin together.  Then, cut the excess fabric, leaving a small "stem" at the the top of your pumpkin.  Now, wrap the raffia around the stem, tie it in place, and reinforce with glue.  Now you are ready for the legs.

There are a couple of options for the legs, depending on whether or not you have a sewing machine.  If you want to try to sew it...here's what you can do:  Lay a 5x6 piece of green fabric.  Fold it the long way, with the inside facing out.  In order to create a point on the toes, you need to draw a sew line similar to what I show below.

Once you are done, flip the fabric so the inside is back on the inside.  Put some cotton in the botton of the foot.  Then, tie it off with a rubber band about 1 1/2 inches from the bottom.  Tie raffia around the rubber band, use glue to secure it and make a ribbon with the raffia.  Repeat the process for the second leg.  Once the legs are ready, fold the legs above the feet until their flat.  Flip the pumpkin over and sew the flat end of legs to the rump of your orange ball.  Put the pumpkin right side up and draw your face on as the final step, so everything is even.  If you don't have a sewing machine and want to avoid sewing the legs...you can try to ad-lib with a pair of cute infant socks or stockings.  In the end, you have a cute little pumpkin to sit on a shelf at work, home, or in your car.  Thanks to Crafty Grandma for this one.

Halloween Party For The Kids

Halloween is so magical for the kids, so why not throw them a fun party? You can have them make their own construction paper placemats. Give them the stickers and markers and help them personalize their placemat. Give them some coloring books and plan a fun snack for them.

I had fun making a centerpiece for this party! It really impressed my little guests and it was rather simple to construct!

Supplies:

-1 small piece of felt
-gauze
-1 foam cone
-1 foam ball
-4 white pipe cleaners
-2 wiggly eyes
-1 tooth pick
-tacky glue

-mod podge or fabric stiffener

-1 piece of cardboard cut into a circle. That will be your base and you cover it with paper towels.

-black shiny ribbon

-spiders and web to decorate with

-one milk carton bottom

Adhere the round cardboard cut out on top of the milk carton base. Then adhere cone to the cardboard circle. Insert 1/2 of the toothpick into the tip of the cone, put a little glue around the top area and then push the ball down on top of the toothpick. Allow that to dry. Twist the pipe cleaners together and then wrap around the top of the cone.

In a separate bowl dunk your gauze into enough Mod Podge to make it wet. Fold the gauze in 1/2 and then drape over your foam creation. Allow it to dry and then decorate with your web and spiders!! Too cute! Have fun~ Crafty Lady.

Anchor Man Halloween Costume

 Everybody wants to be on TV! I only had a day to make it from scratch and I think it came out great! I used foam board and duct tape and made him a full fledged news set! You cut the square out and use the remains for the rest of the construction of the desk, script and microphone flag.all the different colors are achieved through duct tape and the microphone ball is a Christmas ornament!

You strap it on with a homemade wire harness that is criscrossed to meet in the middle of the back (which took a little trial and error to make it comfortable).  Put on your best outfit and dad's tie and away you go! As soon as your child puts it on he will begin to give the news. "This is your anchor man and it's cloudy with a chance of meatballs!" Teach him to say "You stay classy"! It's truly going to be a one of a kind costume.

Ghost Family

Here is a simple Halloween craft the whole family can work on together.  In the end, you'll have a fun display for your windows and this is VERY inexpensive.

Here's what you will need:

1-Cardboard

2-White paint

3-Black paint
4-Small tip paint brush
5-Red glitter glue

6-Medium sponge or brush for painting.

7-Scissors

8-Suction cup hanger

9-Fishing line
10-Hole punch


The list seems long...but it is simple.  The hardest part is drawing the shape of your first ghost.  I made several little ghosts out of wood, but if you don't have a saw to cut out the shape...just use cardboard.  For this, I used the cardboard on the back of a paper pack.  FREE material.

Draw your ghost, cut it out, and use your first model to trace all the ghosts you'll need.  Paint the ghost white on both sides.  If you use thin cardboard, it may curl a little as you paint the first side.  But, if you paint the other side quickly, it straightens out.

When that dries, draw on your eyes, mouth, nose, and other lines.  Use your small-tip brush to copy over your lines with your black paint. 

Put a dab of red glitter glue in the mouth to make your tongue.  Write the name of each family member on the ghost's belly.  Make sure you follow all these stops on both sides.

Finally, punch a hole in the top and slip your fish line through it to hang from your suction cup hook.  We put ghosts for the whole family in the window, even the dog!!  The whole project gave us something to do together as a family and makes the window look fun on the inside and outside.

You can use the same idea to make smaller ghosts to hide around the house...or try a bat.  The possibilities are as endless as your imagination.

Trick Or Treat!

We're welcoming Halloween early to Crafty Life and Style. This week we will offer you affordable ways to make this a Halloween to remember! Today it's a two-for! A hand made trick or treat bag and zombie costume!
Let's start with the bag!

Supplies:
-gift bag (recycled or from the dollar store)
-ribbon
-Halloween themed paper from your scrap bin
-pre-cut letters
-black acrylic paint
-foam cut outs (Halloween themed from the dollar store)
-glue
-double sided tape
-stapler

Really, you can pretty much go crazy and even give the supplies to your children and have them customize their own bag to their liking. there's no way to go wrong. For me, I thought I would staple the ribbon on to the bag. I liked the look of it and it was the easiest and fastest way to get it to stay attached to the bag. I then glued the letters right on to the ribbon and then glittered them up.

I had this great piece of Halloween themed paper from a previous layout so that went in the middle. To help my "OR" pop out of the page I seized the opportunity to finger paint a black patch and then down went the letters and foam cut outs to finish it off. It was such an easy and fun project.

Then the zombie costume. This was lots of fun. Second hand stores offer a treasure trove of clothing that you won't feel bad about cutting up. The pants, vest and shirt cost no more than $8! I grabbed the scissors and began cutting random holes. Feel free to shred, chop or do whatever you feel you need to make your clothes look worn. Then pull out your red, white, brown and grey acrylic paint. Blotch the paint on the fabric, saturating it and making sure your colors stick out. Layer different colors on top of each other. We painted this while it was still on our zombie boy. It resulted in the need to be washed up but the fun we had doing it was worth it in the end.

Then for the makeup- you can use either baby powder and lipstick like we did or makeup from the costume store.  This is a one of a kind zombie that all the friends will be sure to be spooked by!!

Halloween Week Coming Early!

We are excited to announce that Halloween is coming early to Crafty Life and Style! For the week of October 17th through the 23rd we will be providing crafty, tasty and visually exciting creations all with helping you get ready for All Hallows' Eve! You don't have to break the bank to go all out and provide your family members with a Halloween they won't soon forget!

Fun crafts to do with the kids, affordable homemade costumes that will win any contest, and ghoulish treats that kids of all ages will enjoy eating! Come on! Join us every day for the fun and if you leave us lots of fun spooky comments we might even post pictures of us in our childhood homemade costumes!!