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 Halloween Haunted House Shadowbox

I always love seeing the cute little DIY Halloween themed haunted house vignettes or shadow boxes that I see posted on Pinterest so I thought I would try to make one this year.  I started by purchasing a really cool basic Halloween Haunted House Shadow Box Kit from Michaels Craft store.  After using my 40% coupon I ended up paying around $12 for the kit.  The kit is pretty inclusive.  It has almost everything you need to make the fun Halloween Vignette, and yet it allows the maker to still add a few personal touches to it.

Materials Needed:

Recollections Halloween Paper House Box from Michaels Crafts

Asst Halloween Themed Stickers

Asst Halloween pins

Asst Charms

Black ribbon or lace

Supplies Needed:

Martha Stewart Crafts – Fluorescent Acrylic Paint in Orange

Martha Stewart Crafts – Fluorescent Acrylic Paint in Yellow

Folk Art Home Décor Chalk Paint in Rich Black

White Gesso

Glue Dots

Glue Stick

Scissors

Tweezers

Sponge Paint Brush

Step 1:

Since the house is made of brown paper, I realized I would need to pick a base color.  So I painted the interior of each room of the haunted house shadow box in one coat of white gesso (do not paint the outside parts).  This will create a nice base to show off the different colored paints that are used to paint it with.

Step 2:

Using the Martha Stewart Glow-in-the-Dark acrylic craft paints in Orange and Yellow, I painted the interiors of each room in the Recollections Halloween Paper House Box in alternating colors.  Then I set it aside to allow the shadow box to dry.

Step 3:

Then using the Black Chalk Paint, I painted the outer surfaces of the house.  I love this paint because it is really opaque and covered the entire surface in one coat. Once I had finished painting the surface, I set it aside and allowed the shadow box to dry.

Step 4:

I took some of the fun Halloween themed scrapbook papers I have and cut them down to fit the rooms.  I also used some of the cute papers provided in the kit.  I glued them onto the back wall of each room using a glue stick.  The paper patterns or pictures will create the theme for each room and make it easier to decide which items to place in there.  I could have followed the photo provided in the kit but I decided to do my own thing and loosely follow their example.

Step 5:

I sorted through all of the ephemera provided in the kit.  I added additional charms, tags, pins, etc. from my own collection of Halloween themed items to work with.

Step 6:

Once I decided which items I wanted to use, I started to decorate each room.  I used the glue dots to hold some of the heavier jewelry items in place.

Step 7:

To finish the DIY Halloween Haunted House Shadow Box, I decided to accent the outer frame of the house by adding black lace, ribbon, and few other items.

I love how it turned out.  I even used some light up pins to make it a bit more fun to look at.  Once the paint had dried, the actual part of decorating the shadow box only took  a short time to finish. 

This is my first try at a Halloween themed shadow box, I would love to know what others have used to decorate their boxes.  Leave a comment below and share your experience in making one of these DIY Halloween Shadow Boxes.

Once again, I would like to thank Plaid Enterprises for that cool box of paints they sent me.  I am able to apply them to so many projects.  If you want to see more creative Halloween projects, Plaid does have a bunch on their website, including their 75+ No Carve Pumpkin Decorating Ideas Post.

Dollar Store 1930 Style Bowler Hat Tutorial | Halloween Costume Ideas

I needed an affordable 1930s style hat for a simple woman's Halloween costume accessory, so I picked up a simple plastic bowler hat at the 99cent store.  This inexpensive hat was a pretty good choice because it was felted on the outside of the hat which provided me with a nice base to create a hat for my costume that did not look too cheesy.  Below is how I made this easy to decorate 1930s inspired bowler hat for my Halloween costume.

Materials Purchased at dollar store:

• ·      Plastic Bowler Hat  
• ·      Black tulle (4” wide)
• ·      Grey burlap
• ·      Fabric  flowers

Supplies Used:

• ·      Glue gun
• ·      Glue
• ·      Twist tie
• ·      Black Cotton Thread
• ·      Sewing Needle

Step 1:

Cut the tulle fabric long enough to wrap around brim of the hat twice.  Glue or sew onto the brim of the hat.

Step 2:

The take a 6 inch square piece of fabric and gather it in the center, use a twist tie to hold it in place while you sew the gather.

Step 3:

To make the focal piece for the hat, use the glue gun to attach the flowers to the fabric square.  

Step 4:

To finish the hat, glue the focal piece onto the hat.

The total cost of materials was around $4 (plus tax).  I think that was a pretty good cost for a costume accessory and I was happy with the way it came out.

Note:  I prefer sewing the flowers to the hat so they won't fall off during the party.  However, you can easily use a hot glue gun to glue the decorations onto the hat.