DIY Peacock Costume

So excited to share with you this darling Peacock Halloween Costume.

Usually my daughter goes for spooky or scary see HERE and HERE.

Last year when we were brainstorming costume ideas my daughter bounced around a lot of ideas and eventually landed on peacock -- due mostly to the fact that she had just been on a field trip to a farm and owned her very own peacock feather.

I searched around for some good ideas for a peacock and couldn't find anything that suited my fancy-- a lot of them were Va-va-voom, NO thanks!  And a few were not quite what I had inmind.

So, I stewed for weeks and weeks trying to figure out a good plan for this costume.

I happened to be in my sewing scrap pile, looking for something else, when I came across this maxi dress (purchased from Wal-mart several years ago).  I wore it twice when I was pregnant and everyone commented on how HUGE I was.  It was quickly thrown in the scrap pile after the baby was born.

Once I saw it, while still mulling over peacock ideas in my head, it quickly spoke to me--

 REUSE-- REFASHION -- PEACOCK!

I almost used the entire dress for the costume and it worked perfectly!

Here's how to make your own!

MATERIALS:

1. Maxi dress or green knit fabric

2. Sewing supplies

3. Thick poster board

4. Glue gun

5. Acrylic paint + brush

6. Headband, pipe cleaners, three puff balls.

STEP ONE:  Cut the dress where needed. 

 I cut the bottom for the feathers.  I left the top for the skirt. 

 And I reused the straps.

 STEP TWO:  With right sides together, cut out the feathers. 

 Pin the pieces together.  

Do a quick sew around the feathers from the left side to the right side, leaving the bottom open.  

Clip all the curved edges, so they will turn properly.

STEP THREE: Turn right side out and make sure everything looks good. 

STEP FOUR:  Using the sewn feathers as a guide, cut out the insert feathers from a thick poster board. 

I had a leftover poster board from the dollar store, which I reused, with lots of creative cutting and taping, plus a little cardboard for that one chunk that I ran out of poster board.

STEP FIVE: Using your model, determine where the four holes should be for the straps, using a knife or scissors, cut out the strap holes.

Place the cardboard inside the knit feathers, hopefully everything is a perfect fit! 

 STEP SIX:  Sketch out the feathers and base, where they belong. 

I used this image for help.

STEP SEVEN: Start painting!

 I used acrylic craft paint that dries really fast and it worked great!  

You can see my order below. 

I left it to dry over night, then the next day I flipped it over and did the exact same painting on the other side.

STEP EIGHT:  Once everything has dried.  Feel the straps that you cut out of the poster board, and use scissors to cut four (front and back) slits into the fabric.

 STEP NINE: Cut off the two straps, measure them with your model to make sure they'll fit.

Place them in the slits, pushing through the poster board, hot glue them against the backside of the board.  Repeat for the other strap. 

STEP TEN: Fold in the bottom of the fabric and hot glue down together.

For me, I had too long of poster board, so I had to cut off the excess, so it could fold it up and glue it down.

STEP ELEVEN: Make some simple peacock feather for the head.

I used a headband we already had, hot glued some puffballs to some sparkly pipe cleaners, wrapped them around the headband and called it good.  

She loved it!

All done!

Wa-HOO, Party!  Cutest little Peacock ever!

 Love this girl of mine!

The whole crew!

Halloween is so fun!  What are your plans this year?

We're going with a family theme-- My FAVORITE! 

Better get started!

How to Make a Simple Photo/Wood Plaque

Each year for Valentine's day I make my husband some sort of photo gift of the kids and myself for his office.  Some years I've been more simple sending him a collaged picture.  One time I had the kids paint some triangles to add to a mat for a frame. One year I made "super hero cards". Some years I've painted a hand and put a picture with it.  Last year I think I just took a photo and put it in a frame.

This year I wanted to try something new.  I bounced around a couple of ideas using photos and canvases or construction paper...finally I settled on photos on wood!

This was one of those rare super simple projects that was very fast, yet turned out so cute!

MATERIALS NEEDED

1. A piece of wood, mine was about 12 1/2 inches long.  The wood I used was left-over from another project, so it was already stained and sanded.

2. One frame hanger

3. Two photos with the words "We" and "You!" added on.

4. Mod Podge

5. Red paint

STEP ONE:  Measure your wood and nail in the frame hanger.

STEP TWO: Print off pictures with "We" and "You!" printed on them.

Gather supplies.

STEP THREE: Mod Podge the back of each photo and center them on the wood.  

Use one thin layer.

STEP FOUR: Paint on a red heart.  I did two layers so make it nice and thick.  Let the project dry about an hour.

STEP FIVE:  Once your heart is dry, add mod podge across the entire project.  

I added two thin layers.  Let project dry with about 10 minutes between coats.

All done!  Hang it on your wall!

This project was so cute and so fast.  

My husband loved it.  When he got it he promptly hung it in his office at work and took a picture to show me.

Hope you all had a Happy Valentine's day!

Disney Princess Peg Dolls

My youngest daughter is obsessed with Princesses!

When asked what her favorite Princess is, she will gladly tell you, "Elsa-Punzell"  Because she can't quite just pick one favorite.  As long as she was old enough to pick up books or toys she has always heavily gravitated towards Disney Princesses.

We have very few of those items in our home, in fact, we only own three Princess movies.  But at the library and at friend's homes, she goes crazy if she ever sees a Princess.

And, as you'll remember, she was Elsa for Halloween (by her own choosing, of course).

For her birthday coming up, I decided to paint her some peg dolls.  

I really love peg dolls!

 example A

example B

After I painting them all, I put them in a recycled speaker box and printed out this cute page from Lil Blue Boo. 

Here's the princesses up close, after I put glossy mod podge all over them...on a sunny day.  So the glare factor is turned Way up!  Sorry, about that.

  

 To paint my princesses, I didn't follow anyone else's princess peg dolls, though believe me, there are tons to look at.  I just went to bing.com and searched for their actual images, then made my own, following the original designs.

There are a lot of peg dolls out there with only eyes and whereas I think that's cute.  I think they look strangely muted.  So I insist on always adding little mouths of my dolls.  Girl's gotta sing, ya know.

 

My Family Peg People

Are you a goodwill shopper?  I am very occasionally and more than not I return out of the store empty handed.

Well, I was looking for something very specific (for the second time) one Saturday and let my eight year old play in the toy section.

When I came over to retrieve him, my heart stopped (probably) as I saw this Gorgeous Castle from Melissa and Doug.  I flipped it over to see a $15 price tag and snatched it up as quick as a lick!  Not only was it the castle, but it included furniture pieces. I was thrilled!

Now, mind you it was dirty and dusty to pieces.  But nothing a little elbow grease couldn't solve.

As I came home beaming to my husband about my new purchase I quickly added, "You wouldn't mind if I spray painted the whole thing white and repainted it all....right?"

He somehow convinced him that this would not be the best use of my time and that it was cute enough, as is.  

So we settled on the idea of me just painting some peg people.  That seemed to make everyone happy.  (And as I was finishing painting the peg people during nap time an hour before she was to open the present, believe me I was happy with this decision.)

So, as you know I've made peg people before.  I casually asked my daughter which kind of dolls would be funner for a castle, for example-- Kings and Queens, or like Princesses, or like dolls of the family?

She let me know dolls of the family would be quite fun.

Thus:

So, I painted our cute family.  And as I've explained to the family a few times, it's everyone's likeness, meaning, no, those aren't actual outfits we own.

The three kid peg people came from JoAnns.  

The two adults and the baby peg people came from Michaels.

These little people and castle really lend themselves to some really fun playing.

This has been such a great toy that has been played with almost every day, even the boys really like playing with it.

Who wouldn't want to play with a little peg version of yourself?