October 2018 archive

Black Cat Candy Bowl

| Animals, Halloween, Holidays

When it comes to Halloween, I literally can find a way to leave no stone un-spooked. It happens just once a year, so I say, go all out and craft the heck out of it!

This cute slash spooky black-cat candy bowl was inspired by these kitty cat containers that I made earlier this year…just on a grander scale!

You can find the templates on the link above (just resize them to fit your box), and I’ve edited the how-to below!

Here’s what you need:

  1. Paint table legs and round box black; let dry.
  2. Poke 4 holes in the bottom of the box and hot-glue the table legs as cat legs.
  3. Print out templates and resize to fit your box. Trace tail shape twice on felt and the eye/ear shape once. Cut felt pieces out.
  4. Cut out 2 small cardstock triangles and glue onto the ears.
  5. Glue washers to the cat’s face as eyes. Glue black felt slivers on top of washers as pupils.
  6. Glue cat’s face to round box and draw nose and mouth onto the wood, between the eyes.
  7. Cut a piece of wire, about the length of the tail shape. Glue the wire in between the two pieces of tail felt. Glue the tail to the back of the box.

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Barbie Beekeeper Costume

| Halloween, Holidays

When toys can teach our kids about interesting careers, I’m all for it! Barbie has come out with a line of dolls that focuses on getting kids interested in careers through pretend play. Gone are they days when Barbie is just into Ken!

This year they asked if I’d design costumes to match these dolls and this beekeeper might be my fave!

 

What you’ll need:

  • White zipper sweatshirt
  • Jeans
  • White gloves
  • Safari hat
  • White paint
  • White tulle
  • Black, white, yellow felt
  • 1” Yellow pom-poms
  • ½” black pom-poms
  • Scissors
  • Hot-glue gun
  1. Paint hat white. Hot-glue white tulle to the edge, leaving about a 2” gap in the back.
  2. Patch: Cut shapes from black, white, and yellow felt and hot glue together. Hot glue to sweatshirt.
  3. Bees: Hot-glue black pom-pom to yellow pom-pom. Cut 2 thin strips of black felt and glue around the yellow pom-pom. Cut wing shape from white felt and glue to the back of the bee.

diy barbie costume from project kid beekeeper

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Barbie Builder Costume

| Halloween, Holidays

With a new shift in how Barbie is reaching girls, they are designing career dolls that have a very interesting range. When they asked me to make costumes to match this new line of dolls, I was very excited to see this construction builder as one of them. A job that most think is held primarily by men, girls are now learning that women are more than capable of this type of career path.

What you’ll need:

  • White t-shirt
  • Yellow t-shirt
  • Jeans
  • Orange duct tape
  • Orange paint
  • Paintbrush
  • Cardboard
  • Scissors
  • Thin black duct tape
  • Thin silver duct tape
  • Black marker
  • Pink construction helmet

Toolbelt:

  1. barbie builder diy costumeCut 7” tools from cardboard and paint them orange.
  2. diy barbie halloween costume builder tool belt duct tapeAdhere 2 strips of orange duct tape face to face to make the belt.
  3. Cover a sheet of copy paper with orange tape and fold in half lengthwise. Cut up the middle to create to 5.5” by 4.25” rectangles. Tape up the two open sides to make pockets.
  4. Fold over a strip of duct tape to make a 1” tall strip. Glue to the front of each pocket to make a loop to hang tools.
  5. Hot glue pockets to the middle of the orange strip, insert the tools, and attach in the back with a piece of duct tape.

Vest:

  1. diy vest tshirt barbie costume construction workerDraw a line down the center of the shirt and two curved lines around the sleeves.
  2. Adhere a piece of black tape down the center and silver tape on the side panels to match Barbie’s vest.
  3. diy vest from t-shirt costume barbie construction workerCut up the center black tape line and cut off the neck of the t-shirt.
  4. Wrap black tape around the cut edges.

construction worker costume diy barbie project kid

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Barbie Scientist Costume

| Halloween, Holidays, STEM

There was a time, and it wasn’t too long ago, that we only associated Barbie dolls with beauty, fashion, shopping, and let’s not forget Ken. Barbie has pivoted in a big way to teach little girls that they truly can be anything they want to be.

When my friends at Barbie asked me to create DIY costumes based on these new career dolls, I was excited to help promote this positive shift. Check out this intelligent and respectable scientist, with not just matching necklaces, but matching lab flasks, too!

What you need:

barbie scientist costume diy materials

 

  • White costume lab coat
  • Lavender t-shirt dress
  • White felt dot stickers
  • Ruler
  • Pink pom-poms
  • Pink string
  • Needle
  • Scissors
  • Science goggles
  • Plastic lab flask
  1. barbie scientist costume diy project kid dressAdhere white felt circle stickers to dress. Use a ruler to line them up.
  2. barbie scientist costume diy necklaceThread pink pom-poms onto string to make Barbie’s necklace. Knot in back.
  3. Fill plastic flask with water and add food coloring to match.

barbie scientist costume diy project kid

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Barbie Astronaut Costume

| Halloween, STEM

At some point in our lives, we all dream of being an astronaut…of floating around in the space and sticking a flag on the moon. Barbie is now turning those dreams into dolls in their new line of career dolls.

For Halloween, they asked me to design DIY costumes based on these awesome dolls. Super easy, this costume will thrill any girl to match her mini-me.

What you need:

barbie astronaut costume materials project kid

  • White helmet
  • White pullover sweatshirt
  • White sweatpants
  • White neck gaiter
  • White gloves
  • Blue tape
  • Silver tape
  • Red, blue, gray, white, green felt
  • Blue rhinestones
  • Scissors
  • Hot-glue gun
  • 2” white dot stickers

barbie astronaut costume diy project kid

  1. Apply blue and silver tape to the legs, following the pattern on Barbie’s suit.
  2. Cut off bottom cuffs of sweatpants.
  3. Cut out dials and patches from felt to match Barbie’s suit and apply with hot-glue. Glue on blue rhinestones to add details.
  4. Cover holes in the bike helmet with 2” white dot stickers.

barbie astronaut halloween diy costume project kid

 

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Palmistry Plaster Hands

| Age, Decor, DIY Home, Grown-Up, Halloween, Holidays, Tween to Teen

Halloween is a holiday with multiple personalities—It can be silly, gory, spooky, sexy, or—especially this year—mystical and elegant. That’s the aesthetic that inspired this DIY, which taps into the current divination-centric decor trend.
project kid palmistry plaster alginate hands
These hands were featured on the Etsy Journal! 
All styling elements above from World Market.
You will need

Step 1: Scoop alginate compound into a large bucket or bowl. To cast an adult hand, you’ll need 6 cups.

Step 2: Add an equal amount of room temperature water to the alginate powder.

Step 3: Stir the ingredients together with a wood stick. Then eliminate any remaining lumps with one hand, making sure to keep the other hand clean for casting.

Step 4: Quickly pour the paste into the 2-liter bottle.

Step 5: Insert a clean hand, held in the pose that you want to cast, into the mixture. Keep your hand submerged and in position, remaining as still as possible, for 3 to 5 minutes.

Step 6: Tap the top of the alginate with your free hand to make sure it’s fully set. Once the alginate has hardened, gently wiggle your submerged hand and fingers to get them loose. Carefully remove your hand. Congratulations—you’ve just made a mold!

Step 7: Set your mold to the side and mix up some plaster according to package instructions, stirring thoroughly until smooth.

Step 8: Pour the plaster into the mold you created. Depending on the humidity, it can take 30 minutes or longer for the plaster to set.

Step 9: Once the plaster has set, tap the top to loosen, then begin cutting away the plastic bottle using a craft or utility knife. Continue cutting carefully, now through the alginate, being mindful not to cut into the plaster fingers you’ve made. Keep removing alginate until your plaster hand is revealed. If there are any air bubbles or mistakes, use extra plaster to fill in the holes.

Step 10: Let the hand dry for at least 12 hours before painting, and sand off any rough spots before you begin. You can also sand the bottom of the hand into a flat base so that it can stand upright.

Step 11: Paint the plaster with an opaque acrylic paint and let dry.

Step 12: Using a fine-tip paint pen in a contrasting color, follow a palmistry diagram to draw markings on the painted hand.

Step 13: If you want to make a flat plaster hand into a candle holder, use a small chisel or a flat clay sculpting tool to carve out a hole in the plaster to fit the candle. Work slowly, carving just a little at a time, until you’ve made a shallow well that matches the candle’s diameter.

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Halloween Cake Poppers

| Food, Grown-Up, Halloween, Holidays

After many failed attempts at making cake pops (how are there so many bad instructions out there?), I finally watched Kris Galicia Brown’s Cake Pop Decorating Class on Bluprint. It was not only super informative, but it had debunked so many false “rules” of cake pops that I had been using…the biggest being that candy melts should only be melted in silicone or plastic (that’s the true statement).

When Bluprint asked me to make these Jack-O-Lantern cake poppers for an article on their site, I used all of her genius tips!

I swear they are easier than they look!

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