Big Hero 6 Takes Halloween!

This year for Halloween we dressed as characters from Big Hero 6!  

Peter dressed as Hiro Hamada, I was Go Go Tomago, Will was Baymax, Clara was Honey Lemon, and Bennett was Fred!  Sadly, we didn't have a Wasabi, but I think it worked anyway.  Keep reading to find out how we made the costumes!

For Will's Baymax costume, we bought his mask and we also bought him a pair of red sweats.  Then I took purple fleece and sewed it onto the body of the sweatshirt.  I made the wings by sewing a basic wing shape, stuffing them, and then sewing them onto the back of his sweatshirt.  I made the black "hinges" or "joints" around his knees and elbows by just sewing loops of black elastic that he slipped on over the sweats.  Then, we just drew on his access port with black permanent marker, and his costume was finished!

Go Go Tomago:  For my costume, I wore a black wig (easier than trying to make myself a helmet, plus I already had the wig!).  Then i just wore black leggings and a black t-shirt, with a yellow crop top over the top.  I could not, for the life of me, find a long-sleeved yellow shirt anywhere, nor could I find any yellow fabric dye (and I didn't have the time to order any off of amazon and have it shipped here), so I ended up cutting an old white shirt that I had and spray painted it yellow!  While I would not suggest doing this for any piece of clothing that you want to last, it worked perfectly for a couple of nights of Halloween parties and trick-or-treating!  Then, I made simple leg covers by just sewing a tube shape out of an old yellow pillowcase I had in my fabric collection.  We made the discs for my ankles and wrists by cutting 4 circles out of card board and glueing yellow fleece and small red circles onto them.  Then I just stitched the edges closed.  I also made small loops of elastic and stitched them onto the backsides so that I could slip them over my hands and feet. 

Fred:  This costume was by far my favorite, but it was also the most time-consuming and intensive!  I could not find blue sweats for Bennett's costume anywhere, so I ended up buying some blue sweatshirt fleece from a seller on eBay so that I could make my own sweats!  I found this great free pattern for the sweatshirt and I just used a pair of pants that he already has as the pattern for his pants.  Once I had the sweats made, I was able to just cut out the shapes for the eyes and mouth (actually, Peter cut out all of the extra pieces for me!) and sew them on.  Then I made the horns and flames by sewing and stuffing the shapes and hand sewing them onto the hood and sleeves.  I made the tail using this pattern, but changed up the shape so there were only spikes on the end and I made it curved to match Fred's.

Hiro:  Peter's costume was the easiest to execute!  We bought the mask and a set of black sweats, then used an old t-shirt he had and cut it and just sewed it straight onto the sweatshirt.  Then I sewed the red circles onto the purple "armor".  We used more of the same purple t-shirt fabric and sewed small tubes to go over his knees and stitched two more red circles onto them.  Then, he just slid them up over his knees and his costume was finished!

Honey Lemon:  To create Honey Lemon's costume, we already had a pink dress for her to wear, and then I bought her a long sleeved shirt.  I couldn't find matching leggings, so I bought an XL women's t-shirt in the right color and made her some leggings.  I had made her her purse for her birthday earlier this year, and then I just used more of the same orange fabric to make armor (I made a basic vest pattern and had her wear it backwards, then I just sewing small triangles and attached them to the shoulders) and a belt.  Then I crocheted her helmet using a basic kid's hat pattern and made up the rest as I went!

Here's a shot of Benny about to super jump just like Fred does in the movie, however, Bennett has a little bit of a hard time getting off the ground :)

Here we are about to go trick-or-treating . . . 

And, then walking home after a very successful night.  I loved watching that little Fred tail swish back and forth as Benny walked around!

And just enjoying the spoils . . . 

It was a super fun Halloween!  But, I'm secretly glad it's over and that I don't have to make any more costumes for a whole year!

Christmas Activity Advent Calendar

The holidays have been crazy for us so far!  We took a last minute trip to Utah to be with family and to celebrate my grandma's life after her passing.  It was wonderful to be with family during such a time, and during the holidays, especially since we hadn't planned on going home at all this year.  So, I'm really glad we made the trek back to the states, and luckily most of our Christmas shopping was done before we left, but it's been a pretty hectic few weeks.

One thing that has been put on the back burner has been my blog!  And, although we're only just over a week away from Christmas, I wanted to share our family's Christmas activities that have filled our advent calendar this year.  Last year, I made a simple, retro-inspired advent calendar for our family.  And, last year, we filled it with small treats and trinkets.  But I just didn't love it.  I felt like the kids were getting plenty of sweets and gifts during this time of year, so I didn't feel like we needed to add to all of that by giving them more each day.  So, this year, instead of treats, I filled our advent calendar with Christmastime activities!  And, so far, I love it so much more!  Plus, I think the kids enjoy it more as well.  It makes each day's surprise last longer and is more meaningful.

If you're interested in creating a Christmas activity advent calendar, or if you're just looking for some new ideas of things to do over the next week to get into the Christmas spirit, here's the list of activities that we've been doing!  (There's not quite 24 on this list because a few, like "reading Christmas books" and "Christmas movie night" were repeated a couple of times!)

Christmas Activities

-Read a Christmas book

-Have a Christmas movie night

-Decorate Daddy's office

-Make a Christmas ornament

-Make gingerbread houses

-Drive around looking at Christmas lights

-Go see the lights at Temple Square

-Make gingerbread nativity scenes

-Do a service project 

-Make cookies and deliver them to neighbors

-Visit Santa Claus

-Make a Christmas scene out of Legos

-Light candles, drink hot chocolate, and sing Christmas songs

-String popcorn garland for the tree
-Make Christmas aprons

-Light candles, drink hot chocolate, and read a Christmas book

-Build a snowman (and if there's no snow, build it out of marshmallows or cotton balls!)

-Dress up in Santa hats and go take pictures in a photo booth at the mall (or on your computer!)
-Make Christmas cards to send to grandmas and cousins
-Deliver neighbor gifts
-Wear Santa hats and go bowling

-Read the account from Luke 2 in the Bible (save this one for Christmas Eve!)

Have a fun and very merry Christmas season!

Happy Halloween from a Galaxy Far, Far Away!

Happy Halloween!!!  Yes, we are Star Wars nerds!  And, we love to do family-themed Halloween costumes.  Double nerds!  So, for Halloween, Peter was Han Solo, Clara: Princess Leia (of course), I was Luke (from The Empire Strikes Back when he's training with Yoda), Bennett: Yoda, and William: Wicket the Ewok.

We had been planning to do Star Wars costumes for months and months, but as the time got closer, we got busier and busier.  We went to Kyoto, then there was Will's birthday and then Peter's birthday, then we went to Bali, and all of a sudden we got home and we had less than 48 hours to make our costumes!  So, I kicked it into high gear and pretty much spent the next day and a half sewing.  But, we got it done and our costumes were ready in time to debut at our church Halloween party last Saturday night.  

For anyone that's interested, here's a breakdown of how I made our costumes . . . 

Wicket the Ewok:

I didn't know where to find fake fur on short notice out here, and to be honest, I wasn't that amped about sewing an entire outfit out of fake fur; it just didn't sound very easy or forgiving.  But, then as we were at the store looking for yarn for Leia's hat, my husband genuisly (my computer is telling me that's not a word, but I think it is, so I'm keeping it!) picked up a giant brown, fuzzy towel and asked, "Would this work for Wicket's fur?"  Yes, yes it would.  And it was perfect.  It looked great and was sooooo much easier to work with than fake fur!  

So . . . for his costume, I took two giant towels and pretty much made a sweatsuit.  I used this raglan tee pattern for the top, with a few changes.  Or shortcuts really.  I sized up 2 sizes since I wasn't using knit fabric and I knew that it wouldn't stretch or give once it was made.  And, since I didn't have good ribbing and towels are so thick, I chose to not add the waist band, wrist bands, or even the ribbing around the neckline.  This saved me a lot of time and headache!  And, it still turned out perfectly enough.  

For his pants, I just used a pair of Will's pajama pants and drafted a pattern.  Then, I just added elastic to the ankles to make them into sweat pants.  Easy!

And the hood was even easier to make!  I happened to have this orangish/red knit fabric in my stash, so I threw it over Will's head, cut out a hole for his face, cut the bottom off on an angle, and marked two spots for the ears.  Then, I made two little ears out of the towel, cut slits in the two spots I'd marked, and stuffed the ears through and stitched them down.  And then to finish the outfit off, Peter made his spear with just a long stick and cardboard.

Princess Leia:

For Leia's dress, I used an old white sheet that we had and drafted my own pattern, loosely off of this cute cowl shirt pattern that I've used before.  Again, I sized up a couple of sizes since I wasn't using knit fabric, and also because I wanted it to be much looser.  I used the pattern for the neck, and then I just extended the sleeves out to be loose and bell-shaped and extended down from the bodice so that it would be floor length dress.

To make Leia's hair, I crocheted a basic beanie and then made little crocheted buns for the sides. 

Han Solo: 

Han's outfit is only half homemade.  For his tan shirt, we took one of Peter's long-sleeved military undershirts and cut the neck.  His vest took just a little more work; we took an old, black button-down shirt that Peter doesn't wear anymore and I cut the collar, sleeves, and buttons off.  Then I shortened and hemmed it and used some of the fabric I'd cut off to make extra pockets on the front of the shirt.  We got an extra pair of blue Air Force pants and I hand stitched strips of red felt down the legs, and then he just put on one of his utility belts and tucked his pants into some borrowed black boots and Han's costume was complete!  Oh yea, except for his blaster, which Peter created by simply cutting out cardboard, covering it in duct tape, and then coloring it with Sharpies. 

Luke Skywalker and Yoda:

These two costumes were the easiest because I didn't have to make anything!  We bought the Yoda hat a few months ago at the Disney Store in Texas, and then Bennett just wore some brown pants and a green hoodie that we already owned.  Then, I stuck him in our Ergo and wore him on my back just like Luke does with Yoda when he's training with him.  

To be Luke, I wore another one of Peter's military uniform undershirts, these cargo pants from The Gap, and some brown boots that I already had.  Add Will's light saber and boom!  Done.  

And that's it!  We had a great time dressing as our favorite Star Wars characters and stuffing our faces with candy!  So, with that, have a Happy Halloween and may the Force be with you!

Stained Glass Paper Valentine Hearts

I have a fun and easy Valentine's Day project for you today: easy, kid-craftable stained glass hearts!  This is such a fun project, and can really be used any time throughout the year for a fun craft or to make holiday decorations.

I think these turn out better with the more color you put into them, but William was determined to make spiderman's web on one and Wall-E on the other (his Wall-E and spiderman obsession continues).  And, since this project was really just about having fun with him, we went with it . . . I also like his heart shape the best as well :)

Here's how to make your very own stained glass decoration . . .

1.  Draw a picture on plain white paper with crayons.  (The darker you color with the crayons, the better it will look.)

2.  After you're done coloring, brush vegetable oil over the entire picture so that it's completely covered.

3.  While the picture is drying, wipe off any excess oil.

4.  Punch a hole at the top of your decoration and tie yarn or string through it so that you can hang it in front of a window.  Or . . . just tape it directly to the window and let the light shine through!

This was fun and Will loves to see his hearts hanging from the window, but I'm excited to give this stained glass paper craft a try next time!

I linked up to Make It and Love It's link party!  Click here to see it on Make It and Love It.

Merry Christmas!

From our family to yours, we wish you a Merry Christmas! I hope that you all had a wonderful day with your family and friends! 

Our Family's WALL-E Themed Halloween Costumes

WALL-E, Eve, John and Mary Halloween Costumes!

These pictures were taken at our Church Halloween party last weekend.

Will loves the movie WALL-E, so this year, we decided to continue with our family-themed Halloween costumes (pictured at the bottom of the linked post) and all be characters from WALL-E! Will is WALL-E, of course, little Clara is Eve, and Peter and I are dressing up as John and Mary. 

We had a lot of fun making these costumes; Peter took the lead on WALL-E, while I put together the Eve, John, and Mary costumes. Here's a quick explanation of how we made our costumes.

For WALL-E: 

First take a square box and cut holes for the head and arms.

Spray paint the box yellow. (Peter also wrapped duck tape around the hole's cut edges so they wouldn't be so rough against Will's skin.)

Cut two long strips of cardboard (these will become the wheels) and spray paint them black.

Bend them into the shape of the wheels and glue them to the sides of the box.

Finish the WALL-E box by using duck tape and printing out/drawing on WALL-E's solar panel charger, battery light, and insignia.

For the arm bands, Peter just took two small pieces of cardboard and alternated white and black tape to make the reflective looking stripes. Then he attached two hair elastics to the back so that Will could slip them onto his arms.

The eye pieces were created by bending cardboard into the desired shapes and then covering them with duck tape and drawing the eyes onto the front. Then, Peter cut two small holes in the back and strung an elastic band through them.

Will could then just wear the eyes over one of his hats by just putting the elastic around his head and letting the eyes rest on the brim.

And WALL-E is done!

For Eve:

I just took a piece of cardboard and cut it into an oval and then cut a hole in the middle for her head.

Then I just took fabric and wrapped it around the cardboard so that it was completely covered. After that I stitched a long piece of fabric around the edge so that it hung down. I sewed elastic to the bottom so that it would gather and then just cut arm holes on the sides for her arms.

For the headpiece, we just covered her bike helmet with fabric and tucked it inside. Then I cut out a piece of cardboard, covered it in black duck tape and drew eyes and stuck them on. Then I safety pinned the eyes to the fabric on the outside of the helmet.

John and Mary:

These were definitely the easiest and quickest costumes to make! We bought cheap, red sweats and cut them off to make short sleeves and shorts on bottom. I hemmed them up and then used white athletic tape for the stripes by just taping them right to the sweatshirt tops. For both Eve's plant symbol and John and Mary's BNL symbols, we found the images online and then just printed them onto iron-on transfer paper that I found at Target. So easy!

And there you have it! Our family WALL-E costumes!

Be sure to check out some other costume ideas here! And for other Halloween inspiration, here's a DIY spooky wreath and DIY Halloween freezer paper stencil shirt!