Dollar Store Halloween Hat Tutorial

If you are looking for a cheap and easy woman’s Halloween costume accessory that is easy to make, this Halloween Gothic Themed hat is so fun to make.  My daughter wanted a lightweight and easy to wear gothic styled hat.  Her budget was around $10.  So we went to the local dollar store Halloween costume department to see what would work.   They had some great pieces, which we put together to create this hat. We started with this cool hat blank we got at the dollar store.

Materials Purchased:

•       Felt Hat  
• ·      Spider web patterned fabric square 
  
• ·      Decorative Halloween Cape
  
  
  
• ·      Floral spray with Plastic Spider (you can also find similar items separately at your local dollar store or Craft store)
  

Supplies Needed:

• ·      Glue gun
• ·      Glue
• ·      Scissors
• ·      Black Thread
• ·      Needle
• ·      Long nose pliers
• ·      Wire cutters

Step 1:

Remove all the decorations from the hat.  If you have any residue left on the hat from the glue, just pop the hat into the freezer for an hour.  Then scrape off the glue.

Step 2:

To create the veil, using the needle and thread, loosely gather one end of the spider web fabric square.  Then pin it onto the front brim of the hat.  Once you lay it out and like the way it looks, you can either tack it down with a needle and thread or glue it down with a hot glue gun.  It is all a matter of preference.

Step 3:

Cut the cape in half, lengthwise so you end with a nice long piece.  Then either glue or sew this piece onto the crown (the area just above the brim) of the hat. 

Step 4:

Attach the flowers using a glue gun (or sew them) to one side of hat brim.

Step 5:

To finish just adhere the glitter spiders* to the hat. (If you cannot find any glitter spiders, they are pretty easy to make. You just put craft glue onto some plastic spiders and cover them with glitter. )

Since we already have an abundance of crafting supplies in our house.  We only needed to spend a total of $6 (including tax) to make this hat and she got to personalize the hat to reflect her own vision.  I highly recommend checking out your local dollar stores for accessories to personalize your own costume pieces.  

DIY Half Pumpkin Crafts - Halloween Sparkly Spider Craft Tutorial

My local Michaels store put their half pumpkins on sale for 60% off, and then we were able to apply a 20% off the entire purchase, so we bought quite a few of these fun to create some fun half pumpkin halloween craft projects and use up the Folk Art Home Decor chalk Paint.  This tiny 2 ounce bottle really seems to cover a lot of surfaces.    We have been having fun coming up with ways to use this paint and loved adding it to our family Halloween craft stash.  This particular sparkly spider themed half pumpkin door decoration is one of the projects we came up with and it is pretty easy to make.

Materials Needed:

• Harvest Market – Half Pumpkin (Michaels Stores)
• Fabric Leaves (dollar store)
• Plastic spider rings (dollar store)
• Large Plastic glitter covered spiders (dollar store)
• Jewel Bling Strips (eyelet outlet)
• Small rhinestones

Supplies Needed:

• Folk Art Home Décor Chalk Paint in Rich Black
• 1 “ Plaid Mod Podge Tools Foam Brush
• A6000 glue
• Glue Gun
• Scissors

  

Step 1:

Remove tags from the pumpkin and clean it off. Then, using the foam brush, paint the pumpkin with some broad strokes of the Rich Black Folk Art Home Décor Chalk Paint.  Make sure to leave a lot of white space on the pumpkin.

Step 2:

Use the scissors to snip off the plastic ring part off of the spiders.

Step 3:

Use the A6000 glue to adhere a rhinestone onto the back of each spider.

Step 4:

Using the A6000 or the Glue Gun, adhere the black leaves onto the top of the pumpkin.

Step 5:

Carefully lay out the jewel strips, making sure to vary the lengths. Remove the plastic backing and adhere to half pumpkin. 

Step 6:

Using the hot glue gun, carefully glue the spiders onto the ends of the jewel strips.  Be careful not to get burned or to melt the spiders.

Step 7:

Adhere the Large Spider to the top of the pumpkin. Be careful to place it where it won’t interfere with the how the pumpkin hangs.

Step 8:
Hang the Halloween Spider Themed Pumpkin on your door and enjoy.

Note:  I paid for everything used in this project except the Folk Art Home Décor Chalk Paint in Rich Black.  Thank you to the folks at Plaid who sent me this cool 2 oz bottle of chalk paint, so far we are loving it. For more Halloween Crafting ideas, check out Plaid online or my Halloween Pinterest page.

A Sampling of Costumes From the Renaissance Faire

I thought I would share some fun costume images for those who are looking for Renaissance Faire or Halloween Costume Ideas.  These are just a few of costumes I encountered at my visit to my local Renaissance Faire.  These are only a few examples of some fun renfaire garb ideas.  Personally, I love the one above of a dog dressed as a pirate.  Many of the visitors with service dogs had really fun costumes for them.

There were all types of fun costumes to be found this year at faire. Including the "Three Sisters" who were witches of sorts.  They had a really fun gig they did throughout the faire.

I am not sure what these characters were supposed to be but they are fun costumes.

This zebra costume was an amazing makeup job and held up well during the 100 degree day.

The Fairy was very popular with the kids.

As was this performer who did mime and interacted with the various guests at the faire.

Some folks came dressed in their Wild West Gear.

The tree man was a great addition to the faire this year.  He was about 12 feet high and it was amazing that he could handle the hole filled terrain in those stilts.

Then of course there were more traditional renaissance faire costumes, like the Queens Guard Costumes.

And male and female peasant costumes.

These female Renaissance Faire performers had on more traditional costumes.

This child's Renaissance Faire costume was very meticulously made and held up well throughout the season filled with daily performances.

There were all types of interesting faire garb to be found at this event. I hope you enjoy this sampling.
Leave a comment below and let me know what types of costumes you see at your local faire or event.

Halloween Polymer Clay Coverd Candy Tins Tutorial

    In my never ending search for fun new ways to recycle old containers. Here is a very simple way to recycle an old mint tin and candy containers into something useful.

    The first thing I did was to condition the clay with the pasta machine.  I put it through about ten times to get it nice and soft.  This is to make it easier to imprint onto the clay.  

    For the Halloween Candy Boxes, I just went ahead and covered the pre-sanded containers with the clay and then used a knitting needle to imprint lines on them (see below for details).  

• For the Pumpkin, I added polymer clay eyeballs and some tiny spiders.
• For the moon light pumkin patch, I shaped balls of clay into pumkins and used the knitting needle to make the appropriate markings.  I made the bat shape and moon the same way.  I used the Jacquard mica powder to highlight areas of the pumpkin patch.  Then I  baked them in the oven (craft oven...not food oven) for the time specified by the polymer clay manufacturer. Once it was done baking, I let it cool for a while

For the Altoid Container:

The I took one of my rubber stamps and pushed it (image side down) onto the clay.  I carefully removed the rubber stamp.

Then I took the empty "Altoid" mint container and sanded it down.  This is done to make the surface adhere better to the clay.  Then I put a coat of "Lisa Pavelka's Poly Bonder" which is glue that is geared for use on polymer clay.  I placed the polymer clay (image side up) onto the mint box.  I cut off the excess clay and finished off the edges.

Then I added some flat rhinestones, a little brush of mica powder and baked it in the oven (craft oven...not food oven) for the time specified by the polymer clay manufacturer. Once it is done baking, let it cool for a while. Then add a chain or string.  There you have it, a quick and easy polymer clay project.