Sneak Peek

Yesterday, I went to hardware store and picked up the above items as part of Christmas gifts for my nieces and nephews. Right now I'm just waiting on a couple other items to come in the mail before I get started. Get ready to expect a new how-to soon.

A Very Nyan Cat Halloween

It seems as if Halloween was here and gone too fast. I had so many ideas and plans for Halloween that I just didn't get to this year, maybe next year. Regardless of time we had a great Halloween.

This year my daughter wanted to be the Nyan cat also known as the Pop-Tart Kitty. This took some thinking on my part to come up with a costume she could wear. There aren't that many out there, but I was able to come up with a costume that turned out pretty good and that she loved.

If you are not familiar with the Nyan cat you can watch a short video of it below. He doesn't do to much other then flies through the sky with a rainbow trailing him. My daughter saw him once and was hooked, so now everything is about the Nyan cat for her. There is even an app to play a Nyan cat game.

I wish I would of taken pictures of the process of me making the costume, but it wasn't too hard to make. It just took time. The materials I used were gray fleece, tan felt, pink felt, dark pink felt, ribbon in the color of the rainbow, and foam. The foam was one of those cheap foam pieces you put onto a bed. I found it was cheaper to buy that, then buying the foam from a craft store.

The pants, shirt, arm warmers, and hat I made from simple patterns, I already had. With the hat, I just added the ears to it. The Pop-Tart is just a basic rectangle shape, that consists of 6 pieces for each of the two Pop-Tart shapes. There is a front, a back, 2 sides, a top, and bottom pieces. There is one pink piece for the frosting and the sprinkles were just randomly cut and placed onto the frosting. The tail was made out of the gray fleece was attached to the back Pop-Tart along with the rainbow ribbons. To keep the Pop-Tart in place I put two gray strips near the inside top of the Pop-Tart so it could rest on the shoulders. Further down, inside the Pop-Tart, I added more gray fleece so it could be tied into place.


Here are some pictures of my little Nyan cat in action on Halloween night

The candy and spider rings that got given to the trick and treaters

We had our yearly spaghetti pumpkin

What is a spaghetti pumpkin you may be asking. Basically it is regular spaghetti cooked, and seasoned however you would normally cook it placed into a cleaned out pumpkin. It is then baked for about an hour at 350 degrees. I mix the different noodles we use to make it look even more interesting. Baking spaghetti in a pumpkin just adds to taste of the pasta and it is sooo good. My grandmother use to make a spaghetti pumpkin every year for Halloween and now I do.

This year our little dog even dressed up for the night. Too bad I can't get my cats to take part.

 

My daughter's score at the end of the night

How to make an easy elf (or Peter Pan looking) costume

I have been seriously ignoring my blog and I'm very sorry about that. I'm going to try really hard not to do that anymore.

Today, one of my friends was asking how to make a simple Peter Pan costume. This made me think of the elf outfit I made for my daughter a few years ago. Since I made it, she has been wearing it almost every year. Yes, it is getting shorter, but last year she used it more as a shirt then a dress. Let's get back to my friend's question about the Peter Pan costume. When she asked about the Peter Pan costume it made me think how easy it would be to use the elf costume I made as a Peter Pan costume. So, today I will share with you how I made it, so you can make one too if you would like.


Materials needed:

•  scissors
•  thread
•  needle or sewing machine (depending if you are doing it by hand or not)
•  pins
•  large piece of green fleece (1 to 2 yards depending on the size you are making it)
•  small piece of brown or red fleece, enough to be used as a belt (the color you use will depend on if you will be using it as an elf costume or a Peter Pan costume)
• small bells (optional) 
• t-shirt or tank top to use as a pattern

Step 1

Take an oversize t-shirt or tank top that your child can wear. You will use this as your pattern. Pin the shirt to your material.  Make sure to leave plenty of room at the bottom. You will be cutting two pieces out, so it would be easiest if you fold your fabric in half before you pin. This way you can cut two pieces out at the same time.

Step 2
 
Cut around the shirt. If the shirt is more fitted you will can to cut it with more space around it. Somewhere between 1 to 2 inches more. If the shirt is baggier then you will want to cut it closer to the shirt.

If you are using a t-shirt you can tuck the sleeves into the shirt to make it easier to use as your pattern. This way the sleeves won't get in the way.

When you get to the bottom you will want to add some inches to it. I made it long enough to reach my daughter’s knees.

Step 3

Remove pins. At this point you should have 2 pieces like the above image.

Step 4

You will now want to take the bottom and cut triangle edges on both pieces like above image

Step 5 

Take the piece that you want to use as the front and cut the neckline down some. You are doing this so that the item can easlily be put over the head.

Step 6
  
Put the two pieces together and pin them together. Sew section a, b, c, and d (were the squiggly lines are) together.

Step 7

Turn the item the right side out. At this point if you are going to use it as a Peter Pan costume cut a strip of brown fleece and tie around as a belt. If you want it as part of an elf costume you can cut a strip of red fleece as a belt. You can also sew tiny bells at the bottom of each triangle edges. The picture on the above left is my daughter wearing the outfit a couple of years ago. The picture on the above right is what it looks like today with some missing bells off of it.



Notes

I like to use fleece for this project because you do not have to worry about the edges fraying, but you can use any type of material you would like.

Cake Decorating

Last weekend I took all my Girl Scouts to a cake supply store. All my girls got to decorate mini cakes. If you have ever seen Cake Boss on TV it was like they were all mini cake bosses. They all got to wear little aprons and got to learn how to ice and decorate a two layer cake. They even gave the girls fondant so they could put some really cool looking items on their cake. Fondant works like play dough, but it is edible. Most of the girls made flowers or butterflies out of it, but my daughter and her friend decided to make SpongeBob and Patrick out of it. It was a really fun day and all the girls loved it.

Here are some pictures for your viewing enjoyment.

Juice Pouch Wallet How-to

Today, I am going to share with you how to make a juice pouch mini wallet.

I wasn't the one that came up with the idea, but this is just how I did it. I have been seeing these little coin pouches online and at craft shows and decided that I wanted to try to make one. I also want to apology for the quality of these pictures. I took these pictures right before my old camera died.

Now time for the how-to:

Step 1
Get a empty juice pouch and a zipper. My zipper is much longer then what I need, but it's what I had on hand.

Step 2

Cut/ slice open the bottom of the juice pouch.
You will want to clean the inside and outside of the juice pouch with warm soapy water and dry it. This way you can make sure all the juice is gone and there will be no weird smell to it after you make it. I ended up letting mine dry overnight to make sure it was completely dried.

Step 3

Flatten the juice pouch, if you haven't already. Line up your zipper, so that a little bit of the end hangs off the side. Make sure you are not lining the juice bag up too close to the zipper's teeth.

Step 4

You can unzip the zipper to make it easier to sew on. I used my sewing machine to sew this. It is up to you what stitch you would preferred to use. I did a small zigzag stitch on mine, but have seen them with a straight stitch.

Step 5

With your zipper undone, sew the zipper onto the other side of the juice bag. Make sure when you do this that your zipper will still be lined up with the other side. I used a pin to hold it in place, to help me.

Step 6

Now fold your juice pouch in half and zip your zipper up.

Step 7

Cut off the sides of the zipper. Make sure to leave a little on both sides hanging over the edge of the juice pouch.

Step 8

Tuck in the sides of zipper into the pouch and sew up the sides. You may want to unzip your bag some when sewing up the side with the zipper, just to make it easier.

Step 9

Now your project is done. Sit back and enjoy your new change purse.

Wish You Were Here, Postcard Contest

At the start of this quarter, in school, my teacher, for my advance photoshop class, wanted us to enter the Detroit AIGA's Wish You Were Here Postcard Contest. We were to either go out and take a picture or use a picture that we have taken in the past, that could represent Michigan. I decided to use a picture that I took of the Ann Scipps Whitcomb Conservatory on Belle Isle just east of downtown Detroit. This is the nation's oldest conservatory. I ended doing some color corrects, and had to boost up the blue in the sky. Living in Michigan it seems like we have a lot more gray skies then we do blue. I submitted my entry weeks ago and almost forgot about it till I received an e-mail about it. I was soo excited when I received that e-mail with my name being on the list of finalists.

Turns out they had over 150 entries and mine made it to the finial round of just 48 submissions. I was the only one in my class to make it in. At this point it is open voting to the public. The 25 entries that have the most votes will be turned into postcards and mailed to AIGA chapters throughout the country. Each person that would like to vote is allowed one vote per day up till March 9th. Please take a moment out of your time and click here to vote for me. Thank you.

Here is the picture I submitted to be used as a postcard

Valentine Zombies

I know it's way after Valentine's day, but I wanted to share this tutorial I made for these little zombie guys. I came up with the idea for these guys for my daughter's valentine's class party. She is a big zombie lover. I was thinking these guys could be great party favors for a birthday party or a Halloween party.


To make these you are going need:

• Green paper (I used scrapbook paper, but construction paper would work too)
• White Paper (I just used printer paper)
• Tape
• Glue (I used a hot glue gun, but tacky or elmers glue would work too)
• Foam (precut or you can cut them out yourself)
• Googly eyes
• A black or red marker (this is for the scars)
• A peach or pink marker (this is for the brain)
• Goodies to put inside, like candy. I put fruit-by-the-foot inside the ones we made
• A paper cutter or scissors would work too if you don't have one
• scissors

Step one

 Get your paper cutter or scissors out and cut your paper in half and then cut those pieces in half

You should have a pile that looks something like the picture below.

Step two

Get your tape out and make the paper into tubes like the picture below.

Step three

Get your foam out. I got this cool little pack below from the dollar store.

From this foam you are going to cut out large hearts. These will be the base/ feet for your zombie. You can use one of your tubes you have made, to figure out how big of a heart shape you need.

Step four

Glue the heart base/feet to the bottom of you green tube.

 

Step four

Next glue on your eyes.

Step five

I had some pre-cut heart shape foam pieces that glued on to give the zombies a heart.

Step six

Next take a piece of white paper and rip it in half. You are going to want to really crumpled this paper up. I ended up crumpling the paper and then uncrumpling it and recrumpling it. You want this piece of paper to sit on at the top of the inside of the green tube without it falling down to the bottom. 

Step seven

Get your pink or peach marker out and you are going to want to color all over the top of the brain. It doesn't have to be perfect. In fact leaving white spots make it look more brain like.

Step eight

Next get your red or black marker and give your zombie guy scars.

Now you have a very cool, friendly zombie for your enjoyment. Don't forget you can take out the brain and add goodies, like candy, small toys, or fruit-by-the-foot like I did.