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:

• Round 10-inch diameter box
• Scissors
• 4 6-inch table legs
• Tacky glue or hot-glue gun
• Black felt
• Silver cardstock
• 2 metal washers
• Thin wire
• White pen

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.

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.

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. Cut 7” tools from cardboard and paint them orange.
2. Adhere 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. Draw 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. Cut up the center black tape line and cut off the neck of the t-shirt.
4. Wrap black tape around the cut edges.

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:

• 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. Adhere white felt circle stickers to dress. Use a ruler to line them up.
2. Thread 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.

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:

• 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

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.

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