Tag Archives: DIY

Goblin Ball Halloween Costumes Pt. 2

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Happy Halloween (again) to all our readers who celebrate this weekend (and Monday)!

This year my SO and I decided to be attendees to the Goblin Ball, from the movie Labyrinth and here is an excellent video of the ball scene (and yes, that is David Bowie as Jareth, the Goblin King).

In my previous post I talked about and had pictures of our masks. This post is all about the rest of my costume. I will start from the top!

My hair is going to be huge. I have some blonde spray to put some streaks in it and made these wonderful feather clips to add volume, color and texture.

Photo of feather hair ornaments.

Photo of feather hair ornaments.

Photo of feather hair ornaments.

Feather Hair Decorations
Feathers wrapped around clips.

They were pretty easy to make. I bought a bunch of alligator clips and wound the feathers on with thread.

My dress was a bit trickier. My SO and I wandered around a bit and finally landed in a costume shop. There wasn’t much on the shelves that wasn’t Leggy Lane (sexy whatever) and I was getting a little disappointed. Then, one of the ever so helpful salespeople told me that since they are planning on moving to another location next year, they are selling as much of their rental costumes as possible so they don’t have to move them. This sounded promising and there it was, the perfect ballgown type dress. And even better, it needed some work which meant I could negotiate a price.

Photo of ball gown costume.

After talking to the owner of the costume shop (and making sure he saw the tears and problems), I got the dress for $15. I didn’t have to put too much work into it, it needed cleaned pretty badly and a couple of seams had ripped. So, thankful for polyester, I threw the dress in the wash, stitched up the seams and ironed it and it looks pretty good.

Photo of ball gown costume.

Photo of ball gown costume.

As Halloween was going to be a cold night I knew that I would be grateful for a wrap of some sort to put over my shoulders. I decided to splurge a bit and made myself a shawl of velvet and brocade with some pretty lace that I could use for regular use if I was so inclined. It is made of maroon royal velvet and silver brocade and has lace edging and tassels at the end corners.

Photo of velvet and brocade cape.

Close-up photo of lace on the velvet and brocade cape.

Under the dress was a little more interesting. I will state here that if I had any idea how hard tulle is to work with, I would have bought a crinoline (although I do like what I made much better than what I saw in the costume shop). For this, I looked at patterns before I made it. It came out pretty well, and I now have an off-white crinoline if anyone needs to borrow one.

Photo of crinoline.
It is so pale in color that it makes it a little hard to see here.

My only problem now was that the dress was really just a little too short for me and the crinoline really showed at the bottom. It wasn’t unattractive, just not what I had in mind. I thought, why not make any underskirt that would hide the crinoline and match the dress. I decided to make it out of some pretty green organza that has little sparklies all over it that I found at Joann’s (I have been to Joann’s practically every day for the past week).

Photo of organza underskirt.

Close-up photo of sparklies in organza underskirt.
Here you can see the sparklies in the organza.

This brings us down to my shoes. I wanted something that would have a Victorian era (not that our costumes are even remotely accurate to the era), but wouldn’t cost much. One more trip to Goodwill found me the perfect shoes, in bright blue. This wasn’t a deterrent for me at all, especially as these are the dye-able type of shoes. I bought some fabric paint and painted those suckers gold and voila! The perfect shoes.

Now to make them even better, my M-I-L had these gorgeous rhinestone shoe buckles that are absolutely perfect. I love my family!

Photo of shoes.
You can still see a little of the bright blue color they were originally on the inside of the shoes.
Close-up photo of shoe buckles.
Aren

After all this, last night I was considering how on earth I was going to carry around any personal effects and decided to make up a quick drawstring purse to match.

Photo of drawstring purse.

Close-up photo of eyelets on drawstring purse.
Here you can see the gold eyelets.

I cut a round piece from the same velvet and brocade used to make the shawl, sewed them right sides together, turned it (like a pillow), stitched the edges flat, made a medallion of cardboard for the inside and outside covered with the same fabric to give it shape (which I then stitched together), used some gold eyelets for the drawstring, threaded with some black cord and voila again! A great little purse for my cards and chapstick (and some touch-up makeup).

I cannot wait for tonight! I will post pictures of both myself and my SO all done up. This is going to be so much fun!

Goblin Ball Halloween Costumes Pt. 1

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Happy Halloween to all our readers who celebrate this weekend (and Monday)! My SO and I have a particular fondness for this particular holiday. Not for any specific reason other than we like to come up with good costumes. This year, after some serious debate and wishy-washiness, we decided to be attendees to the Goblin Ball. For those of you who are devout Brian Froud and Terry Jones fans and who love the movie Labyrinth, you should know what I am talking about. For those who don’t know what I am referring to (or who have forgotten, after all, the movie is getting a little old now), here is an excellent video of the ball scene from the movie (and yes, that is David Bowie as the Goblin King).

The most time consuming part of this was trying to decide how we would go about creating our costumes and how much of an homage we wanted to pay to the creators. We ended up doing our own versions of two guests at the ball with a little more color added as we were no longer just background scenery for Sarah and Jareth.

The masks were the first things we started discussing and working out designs. My SO based his on a raven king plastic mask found at the costume shop while mine is based on a paper-mache (papier-mâché) domino mask found at the same costume shop. Then we added lots more paper-mache and plaster to complete our goblin masks.

My goblin mask before painting.
My goblin mask before painting.
My goblin mask after painting.
My goblin mask after painting.

Front view of my goblin mask.

At this point (for my mask much more so than his) there was quite a bit of carving to do to get a sinister, craggy face. With a dremel tool and some clay carving tools I had left over from an old art class, we proceeded to make an absolute mess on our kitchen table and floor. After some agony and repairs done by my SO to my mask, we both finally had something that we really liked. My SO painted his with a tea stain and mine he painted green, then overlaid that with a darker pearlescent green. Overall, my SO finished his mask in about a day and a half, and we worked on mine for about the same amount of time in total.

If you haven’t figured our between the lines, the masks were mostly done by my SO. He is an excellent artist and crafts-person when it comes to plaster and painting. He used to make the scenery and set pieces for the table-top role-playing games he played.

His goblin mask.
His goblin mask.

Side view of his goblin mask.

Front view of his goblin mask.

Our costumes were a bit more difficult to come up with and I will dedicate a whole other post to those tomorrow. We are definitely going to have some fun tomorrow night! I will certainly post some pictures of us in our completed costumes.

Pistachio Shell Animals, Whimsical Cards

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Pistachio Shell Alligator
Pistachio shell alligators grin so you can admire their teeth.
Pistachio Shell Alligator
What big teeth I have!

-Cheri: About 15 years ago I discovered this wonderful nut, that for some reason I had very little knowledge about up until then. It was pistachios. Pistachios are extremely yummy nuts. I love them and really can’t say anything bad about them other than the frustration of the shell not being open enough on a few.

I love to eat the nuts but I also like to use the shells. The shells are these pretty little half clam shells. They have a woody feel to them and take paint, marker and glue really well. They are really a nice item to work with. When I first started making items with the shells, I would very carefully tease the nuts out of the shell to leave it whole and would glue them together to make little Mallard ducks. I would then take the ducks and put them on a pond I had drawn on a piece of cardboard.

After I grew tired of the ducks, I started looking closely at the pretty little ovals and started thinking about all the creatures I could make out of them. Thus, the creatures featured here were created. Eventually, I ran out of ideas. But the funny thing is that every time I eat pistachios I usually save a handful of shells back just in case…..

-Lynne: These make whimsical cards of all kinds. Eat some pistachios, collect the shells, grab your scissors, construction paper and markers and have some fun making your own creations.

Pistachio Turtles
Pistachio shell turtles sunning on an island in the middle of the river.
Pistachio Lady Bugs
Pistachio shell Lady Bugs looking for aphids among the rose leaves.
Pistachio Tree
Pistachio shell tree all decked out in autumn colors.
Pistachio Beetles
Pistachio shell beetles on a window screen dazzled by the lights.
Pistachio Spider
Pistachio shell spider working on a special web for Halloween.
Pistachio Fly
Pistachio shell fly zeroing in on a bread crumb.

Crafty Challenge Two: Do It Best Purse

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Do It Best Keyhole Clutch
Do It Best Keyhole Clutch

-Lynne: Our hardware challenge sounded straight forward when we first proposed it. The idea of being turned loose in a hardware store seemed more like a dream than a challenge and the $5.00 limit on materials cost did not daunt me at all. We are “make-do” sisters.

Earlier this spring, I found the book “Simply Sublime Bags” by Judi Kahn. In it she shows how to make “no sew” purses using fabric and duct tape. I was so taken by the idea that I made myself a keyhole clutch from a feedsack with matching duct tape. The pattern can be found here online, but the book is well worth getting for all the wonderful ideas.

Beyond being extremely cute and novel, my clutch has been surprisingly durable. I have been wanting a slightly larger purse and this challenge seemed like the perfect time to make another one. After all, duct tape is to a hardware store like water is to a duck. Besides with a project like this, all I would need was the fabric and something to hold the fabric together in its purse shape.

I’m afraid that I became rather testy when I realized that glue, thread, staples, paint, ink and tape would count towards the $5.00 total. I can tell you right now that no hardware store can sell you 50 cents worth of glue. We had to buy what materials we needed in the quantities available and we could not buy a quantity and divide the price by the number we used. I only wanted 4 yards of fishing line, but I would have had to buy 700 yards for $2.99. That was more than half my budget. I needed to rethink how to “sew” the purse together.

I wandered the aisles of all the hardware stores in town. I had knowledgeable, helpful men following me trying to help me find the “right part.” They would always take a step backwards when I told them that not only did I not know the part I needed, I did not know what the part would be for. Hardware by its very nature is made to be used in the manner it was made. Wood screws are for wood and metal screws are for metal and never the twain shall meet. People who work at hardware stores are bewildered and confused by browsers.

When I saw the fiberglass window screen, I knew I wanted to use it as the fabric for my purse. I could buy one foot of the 36″ wide screen and stay well within my budget. I noticed a roll of clear plastic vinyl next to the screen and remembered that plastic can be fused into a fabric by heating it with an iron. Heat unlike glue and staples would not cost me anything. I could sandwich the screen in between two pieces of the plastic and have both my fabric and my “glue.” I added some electrician’s tape which is cheap because it doesn’t stick to anything, a carriage bolt, a foot of copper wire and a brass hex nut to my list and I was 14 cents under my $5.00 limit.

I found that fusing the “fabric” could be tricky. You have to keep in mind what will melt fastest and that plastic can shrink in odd ways and iron accordingly. The holes in the fiberglass screen allowed the plastic to adhere to itself, but I found that where I needed a strong bond I had to use just the clear plastic. By cutting the screen smaller than the plastic, the seams were only plastic and strong enough to hold all the stuff I put in a purse.

I desperately needed some decoration for my purse and I only had 14 cents left in my budget, but I had become a crafty challenge participant. I gathered up the paper bag I had used for the free popcorn, the plastic bag for my purchases and the free telephone directory at the end of the counter and felt crafty as well as rich in materials.

The electrician’s tape strengthened the open handles and made a nice decorative statement around the top of the purse. I fused the logo from the plastic bag to the front of the purse to add the graphic text and some much-needed color. Once you start fusing it is hard to stop. I fashioned the copper wire into my initial and fused it in a sandwich of clear plastic, fiberglass screen, the label from the paper bag and another layer of plastic for a hang tag.

Do It Best Keyhole Clutch
–  Paper flower and hang tag initial.

Hardware is hard and I wanted to soften it with a flower decoration. I had just noticed these paper flowers on craftgawker and I had that free telephone directory. I used a paper punch to put a hole in the edge of the purse and threaded the carriage bolt through it and the center of the folded flower. The hex nut secured the flower to the purse and made a “cuter than a button” flower center.

I may fuse some more plastic around the handles now that the challenge is over and I don’t have to worry about a budget. But I am very happy with the results. I love the idea of making your own fabric and fusing is forgiving. If you make a mistake, keep ironing things on till you like it. That is the way to Do it Best.

Do It Best Keyhole Clutch
Top of the clutch.

Crafty Challenge Two: Do It Best Purse

craft, Craft Challenge, Creativity, , , , , , ,
Do It Best Keyhole Clutch
Do It Best Keyhole Clutch

-Lynne: Our hardware challenge sounded straight forward when we first proposed it. The idea of being turned loose in a hardware store seemed more like a dream than a challenge and the $5.00 limit on materials cost did not daunt me at all. We are “make-do” sisters.

Earlier this spring, I found the book “Simply Sublime Bags” by Judi Kahn. In it she shows how to make “no sew” purses using fabric and duct tape. I was so taken by the idea that I made myself a keyhole clutch from a feedsack with matching duct tape. The pattern can be found here online, but the book is well worth getting for all the wonderful ideas.

Beyond being extremely cute and novel, my clutch has been surprisingly durable. I have been wanting a slightly larger purse and this challenge seemed like the perfect time to make another one. After all, duct tape is to a hardware store like water is to a duck. Besides with a project like this, all I would need was the fabric and something to hold the fabric together in its purse shape.

I’m afraid that I became rather testy when I realized that glue, thread, staples, paint, ink and tape would count towards the $5.00 total. I can tell you right now that no hardware store can sell you 50 cents worth of glue. We had to buy what materials we needed in the quantities available and we could not buy a quantity and divide the price by the number we used. I only wanted 4 yards of fishing line, but I would have had to buy 700 yards for $2.99. That was more than half my budget. I needed to rethink how to “sew” the purse together.

I wandered the aisles of all the hardware stores in town. I had knowledgeable, helpful men following me trying to help me find the “right part.” They would always take a step backwards when I told them that not only did I not know the part I needed, I did not know what the part would be for. Hardware by its very nature is made to be used in the manner it was made. Wood screws are for wood and metal screws are for metal and never the twain shall meet. People who work at hardware stores are bewildered and confused by browsers.

When I saw the fiberglass window screen, I knew I wanted to use it as the fabric for my purse. I could buy one foot of the 36″ wide screen and stay well within my budget. I noticed a roll of clear plastic vinyl next to the screen and remembered that plastic can be fused into a fabric by heating it with an iron. Heat unlike glue and staples would not cost me anything. I could sandwich the screen in between two pieces of the plastic and have both my fabric and my “glue.” I added some electrician’s tape which is cheap because it doesn’t stick to anything, a carriage bolt, a foot of copper wire and a brass hex nut to my list and I was 14 cents under my $5.00 limit.

I found that fusing the “fabric” could be tricky. You have to keep in mind what will melt fastest and that plastic can shrink in odd ways and iron accordingly. The holes in the fiberglass screen allowed the plastic to adhere to itself, but I found that where I needed a strong bond I had to use just the clear plastic. By cutting the screen smaller than the plastic, the seams were only plastic and strong enough to hold all the stuff I put in a purse.

I desperately needed some decoration for my purse and I only had 14 cents left in my budget, but I had become a crafty challenge participant. I gathered up the paper bag I had used for the free popcorn, the plastic bag for my purchases and the free telephone directory at the end of the counter and felt crafty as well as rich in materials.

The electrician’s tape strengthened the open handles and made a nice decorative statement around the top of the purse. I fused the logo from the plastic bag to the front of the purse to add the graphic text and some much-needed color. Once you start fusing it is hard to stop. I fashioned the copper wire into my initial and fused it in a sandwich of clear plastic, fiberglass screen, the label from the paper bag and another layer of plastic for a hang tag.

Do It Best Keyhole Clutch
– Paper flower and hang tag initial.

Hardware is hard and I wanted to soften it with a flower decoration. I had just noticed these paper flowers on craftgawker and I had that free telephone directory. I used a paper punch to put a hole in the edge of the purse and threaded the carriage bolt through it and the center of the folded flower. The hex nut secured the flower to the purse and made a “cuter than a button” flower center.

I may fuse some more plastic around the handles now that the challenge is over and I don’t have to worry about a budget. But I am very happy with the results. I love the idea of making your own fabric and fusing is forgiving. If you make a mistake, keep ironing things on till you like it. That is the way to Do it Best.

Do It Best Keyhole Clutch
Top of the clutch.

Crafty Challenge Two: Wire and O Rings Necklace

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"O" Ring Necklace
A study in black and silver.

-Cheri: Craft challenge 2 was a blast. The $5.00 limit adds an interesting twist to the challenge. But I wasn’t too worried about it. Here in Logansport we have a really cool old hardware store. I think they have some of the same merchandise that they had when they opened maybe 60 odd years ago. I spent a good hour pouring over the store, opening drawers and looking in all the little nooks and crannies.

I had so many ideas I knew I was going to have a hard time congealing them into one piece. I have a tendency to overdo things so I decided I was going to get a few items and work with them for a little bit to see what I could come up with. I picked up a variety pack of O rings, a retaining ring, a spring, a small flange washer and wire. I have spent probably the last 20 years making things with wire so I was pretty sure if all else failed, I would be able to make something with the wire.

I divided the O rings up into sizes and worked with the large ones to see what I could make. I eventually hit upon the idea of twisting the circles to create a centerpiece for a necklace. I made wire links from wrapping the wire around a pencil and cutting them apart, and formed the longer pieces of wire by making a loop on each end. I was thrilled with the outcome and I think that the hardware store may become one of my favorite places to go for jewelry supplies.

Wire and O Ring Necklace
The twisted O ring loop supports the two pendant loops.