Halloween DIY Costumes Part 6: Bill and Ted

Hello and welcome to Part 6 of my Halloween DIY Costumes Tutorial!
These were our costumes for this year! Bill and Ted from Bill and Ted'a Excellent Adventure/Bogus Journey!
I based our costumes off of the second movie as they are definitely more fun and people recognize who we are.

First let`s start with Bill.
I knew these costumes would be easy to make as they mainly consist of regular clothes, with a bit of DIY to make them as screen accurate as possible.

I picked up the brown pants and plaid shirt from Talize in two separate visits.
You can never find an entire costume in one visit from my experience.
I bought the red hat from Michael`s Arts and Crafts and used a 50% coupon.
The yellow shirt luckily enough my husband Cory, already had as he`s part of a dodge ball team dubbed The Wyld Stallyns! (from the movie)
After that all that was necessary to do was carefully copy the logo from bill`s hat onto my red hat using fabric paint and some markers.
I also had to purchase a curly blonde wig from a local pop up Halloween shop.

Breakdown of cost:
Blonde Wig- $12.99- Halloween Pop up Shop
Brown pants- $5.99- Talize
Yellow shirt- FREE
Plaid Shirt- $6.99- Talize
Red Hat- $4.99- 50% coupon= $2.50- Michaels

Total Cost: Approx $30

Now onto Ted,
Ted`s costume was fun but challenging to put together.
Mainly because for the life of my I could NOT find a jean red vest anywhere!
Every day I had off work I was scourging the second hand shops trying to find one.
Finally on my last possible day to find it, I found something that would definitely work.
I came across a long sleeve jean jacket looking long sleeve shirt at The Salvation Army.
This shirt was definitely not an actual jean shirt, but it looked very similar.
I was able to cut off the arms and colour in the white strip along the front and back to make the entire shirt red.
I then drew on the yellow smiley face on the back of his jacket using fabric paint and some markers.
Next I purchased a orange pullover hoodie that was supposed to be a zip up, so making a quick cut up the front turned it into a faux zip up sweater.
I also couldn't find a suitable red tank top so I was able to purchase a red t-shirt and cut the sleeves off as well.We already had the blue jeans to go with the costume at home.
Lastly I purchased a shaggy black wig from a local pop up Halloween shop.

Breakdown of cost:
Shaggy wig- $14.99- Halloween Pop up Shop
Long sleeve shirt- $6.99- Salvation Army
Orange Hoodie- $3.99- Salvation Army
Red t-shirt- $5.99- Talize
Jeans- FREE

Total Cost: Approx $32

I`m Bill S Preston Esquire, and This is Ted Theodore Logan, and Together we are WYLD STALLYNS!

And That`s a wrap for 2014!

How to create your own Band Shirt! DIY

Hey everyone!
So if you are a fan of any type of music, I'm sure you've purchased band t-shirts over the years.
That being said, being female, I find that there is a LACK of  'good' band t-shirts that actually suit and fit the female body.
A friend of mine loves to convert men's band t-shirts into fitted girls shirts, which she is awesome at.
Another great way to show off your favourite band is to create your own shirt via stenciling or iron on images.
Today I'm going to show you just how easy it is to stencil on an image on a t-shirt.

Step one: Purchase/Use a blank shirt from home.
Step two: Decide on which image you want.
Step three: Print out your image on stiff paper, I find card stock works the best.
Since we're only doing a simple stencil, be sure to not find a crazy detailed image, as the more detailed it is, the more difficult it is to stencil on.
Step four: Using an Xacto knife, cut around your image, if you need to cut out any detail, ie eyes or mouth, make sure to pin those pieces on the shirt so you can trace them properly.
Step five: Trace your image on your t-shirt, I recommend using a marking pencil/pen (usually sold with sewing supplies)
Step six: Using Fabric Paint/markers fill in your image as desired. (I usually lay some newspaper inside of the shirt to prevent any leaks. Let dry for a few hours, apply more coats as needed.
Step seven: Show off your new shirt!

If you like these DIY posts, comment below or share with your friends! :)

How to: Create fun Tye Dye Shirts! Rainbow edition

Hey everyone!
One of my passions is tye dying clothing, as it's always so much fun to turn a blank white slate into something fun and colourful.

Tye Dying is a lot of fun, but also VERY messy, so make sure to wear gloves and old towels for cleanup.

• Find yourself some white shirts

• Purchase a Tye dye kit, I usually use Tulip as they are a quality brand.
• Separate your shirt into as many sections as you would like, if you want solid colours throughout the shirt or if you want a different look, add bands throughout the whole shirt.
• Carefully lay your shirt into a stainless steel sink/tub and coat with as much tye dye as you'd like. 
• Remember the heavier your shirt, the more dye you will need.
• Once your shirt is fully coated with as much colours as you'd like, pull out some saran wrap and lay it on top of your old towel, lay your shirt on top of the wrap and roll together.

• Let your shirt soak for 8-12 hours (I usually leave mine overnight, the longer you leave the dye, the brighter it will become)
• After your 12 hours is up, rinse out your shirt with cold water, you can also do a rinse cycle on your washing machine.
• Hang to dry/use a dryer and your shirt is done!

How to create a DIY Fun 60th birthday hat!

Hey everyone!
So for my father's 60th birthday, I was searching for ideas for a silly funny hat.
After coming across a few I liked, I decided to take a few different ones and make 1 unique hat!

All I used for this project was the following:

• Halloween Top Hat - Walmart $4
• Blue/Red/Yellow felt- Michaels $1.47- 30% discount= $0.44
• Row of pompoms - Michaels $1- 30% discount= $0.70
• Numbered Ribbon- Michaels $1- 30% discount= $0.70
• Hot Glue Gun

1. I first wrapped the ribbon around the bottom of the hat near the lip and hot glued it in place.
2. Next I traced out the number 60 that I printed from Microsoft Word onto blue felt.
3. Outlined the numbers in black and hot glued in place on front of hat.
4. I then cut the felt down into small rectangles, wrapped them around a marker and hot glued them together.
5. Once it was dried I slipped the marker out, and hot glued the bottle of the cylinder of felt on another felt square.
6. Next, I hot glued all the ''candles'' onto the top of the hat.
7. Grabbed a few of the pompoms off the string and hot glued them onto the ''candles''.
8. I then strung the rest of the pompoms around the ribbon on the hat.

That's about it! My Dad loved it and wore it all day!

Halloween DIY Costumes Part 5: Carrie and Waldo

Hello! and welcome to part 5 of Halloween DIY Costumes: Carrie and Waldo!

This will be our last post on Halloween DIY Costumes until our costumes for 2014 are done, we are going as Bill and Ted this Halloween, so stay tuned for that tutorial!

Ahhh I've always wanted to dress up as Carrie as it is one of my favourite stories/movies by Stephen King, and of course my willing husband is always up for a new challenge, last year was Waldo!

Carrie:
I purchased a dirty pinkish dress from Value Village, I'm assuming it was used as a zombie costume the year before because it was already kind of dirty and would be perfect for my Carrie costume.
I purchased a container of blood to drench my dress, and a plastic crown from Michaels.
I also decided to get a black carnation for my wrist and a blonde/brown wig from The Amazing Party Store.
I probably coated my dress in blood 5 times using a squeeze bottle and let it hang in my shower for a few days. The blood dried up nicely, I only wish it turned out a bit brighter.
Add in a deer in headlights look on my face and voila! Carrie!

Breakdown of cost:
Pink dress- $8.99
Pint of blood $6.99- 20% coupon= $5.60
Wig- $18
Carnation $1
Plastic Crown $1.50

Total Cost:
Approx $35

Waldo:
I searched everywhere for a white and red striped shirt but came up empty, so next best thing, IMPROVISE!
I purchased a white turtleneck from Talize, a white winter hat from Dollarama, a pair of plastic x-ray vision glasses and popped out the x-ray plastic, and a roll of red duck tape from Michaels.
I was able to use some old yarn I had already to add a bobby at the tip of the hat.
I then wrapped red duck tape around the entire shirt and hat.
He threw on some blue jeans to complete the look.

Breakdown of cost:
Turtleneck: $5.99
White hat: $1
Glasses: $1
Duck Tape: $5.99- 50% coupon= $3

Total Cost:
Approx $12

These 2 costumes were a great hit, my Husband got so many compliments on his costume and everyone loved my version of Carrie.

Stay Tuned for our Halloween Costumes for 2014- Bill & Ted!

Halloween DIY Costumes Part 4: Chucky and Tiffany

If you have been following my Halloween series so far, you've seen that I've shown you just how easy it is to create your own awesome Halloween costume using thrift stores, a little creativity and DIY!

For a Refresher, we've seen, The Riddler and Poison Ivy, Roger and Jessica Rabbit, and Wayne and Garth. 

Now onto Part 4 of my Halloween DIY Costumes: Chucky and Tiffany. 
If you aren't familiar with the Chucky movies I highly recommend them as they are definitely more satire than horror. Especially Bride of Chucky and Seed of Chucky.

Chucky:
Chucky's costume was pretty simple to make, I picked up a red and blue striped sweater and a pair of overalls from Value Village. I did however cave and purchase a pricey head mask for chucky's face,(Spirit Halloween) since i'm not a very talented makeup artist... yet :P

Here is a breakdown of the cost:
Striped sweater: $6.99
Overalls $9.99
Chucky Mask: $30

Total Cost: 
Approx $47

Chucky's Bride Tiffany;
Tiffany's costume was super fun to make as she's supposed to be a bad*** girl!
I purchased a long white dress from Value Village and chopped about 3/4 of it off.
I also purchased a Pleather jacket and a pair of black boots from Value Village.
I then picked up a pair of spiderweb tights from Spirit Halloween.
Added some lipstick and voila!

White Dress- $5.99
Pleather jacket $4.99
Spidewed tights $6.99 - 20% off coupon = $5.60
Black Boots $5.99

Total spent:
Approx $23

This probably was one of my favourite pairings thus far for Halloween!

Check out part 5 of my Halloween DIY Costumes: Carrie and Waldo 

Halloween DIY Costumes Part 3: Wayne and Garth

Hello and welcome to Part 3 of Halloween DIY Costumes: Wayne and Garth.

For anyone who`s seen the awesome 90s flick, Wayne`s World, you are familiar with the characters Wayne and Garth.
About 5 years ago we decided to dress up as Wayne and Garth from the famous movie, he`s a breakdown of how our costumes turned out.

Garth:
This costume was almost too easy to create.
I picked up a graphic tee and plaid shirt from Value Village, a wig from Party Mart (local party store), a pair of cheapy glasses from Dollarama (I popped out the glass) and a pair of old baggie jeans from my husband.
I took a cheese grater to make the ripped knee effect on the jeans.

Here is a breakdown of the cost:
Plaid shirt- $4
Graphic tee- $1.99
Old Baggie Jeans from bf - FREE
Wig- $8
Glasses- $1

Total spent:
approx $15

Wayne:
This costume was also very easy to make.
All I had to purchase for this costume was a hat and a black mullet wig.
I purchased the hat from Michaels and the Wig from The Amazing Party Store.
My Husband already had a pair of baggy jeans that we used the cheese grater on again for the knee effect.
He also already had a black shirt to wear.
I stenciled on the Wayne`s World Logo on the hat using white fabric paint.

Here is a breakdown of the cost:
Black shirt: FREE from home
Jeans: FREE from home
Black Hat: $4.99- 50% coupon= $2.50
Black Wig: $8

Total Cost: 
Approx $13

These costumes were also a great hit, although I did look alot more like Garth`s Girlfriend from the second Waynes World...

Up Next:
Halloween DIY Costumes Part 4: Chucky and Tiffany

Halloween DIY Costumes Part 2: Roger and Jessica Rabbit

Here is part two of my Halloween DIY Costumes series : Roger and Jessica Rabbit.

Growing up my family has always been a fan of the Roger Rabbit movie and we can easily quote phrases from it all the time.
So 2 years ago my husband and I decided to dress as Roger and Jessica rabbit for Halloween.
We based our costumes on the movie while trying to maintain as much screen accuracy as possible.

Roger Rabbit:
I purchased the white turtleneck and red pants from Talize and Value Village.
I could not find a pair of red overalls so we had to compromise and do red suspenders, which I purchased along with the Bunny Ears from The Amazing Party Store.
I purchased white furry gloves from Dollarama when I could not find any yellow gloves.
I then made the bow tie using a bit of creativity with blue felt and yellow fabric pant from Michaels.

Breakdown of Cost:
Bunny Ears $2.99- Amazing Party Store
Red Suspenders $5.99- Amazing Party Store
White Tutleneck $2.99- Talize
Red Pants $5.99- Value Village
Bow Tie- Made from Blue Felt and yellow fabric paint- $0.50- Michaels
White Furry Gloves $1.25- Dollarama

Total:
Approx $20

Jessica Rabbit:
For the Jessica costume, I purchased a (tight-fitting) red dress from Talize, Purple elbow length gloves from The Amazing Party Store, and a red wig from Spirit Halloween.
I also was able to borrow some red pumps from a good friend of mine, so score on that!
If I could change anything, I would have gotten a longer red wig.

Breakdown of cost:
Red Dress $9.99- Talize
Purple Gloves $5.99- Amazing Party Store
Red Wig $18 (YIKES! That was even after the 20% Coupon)- Spirit Halloween
Red Pump Heels- FREE (Borrowed from a friend)

Total:
Approx $34

Our costumes were a hit, and we looked great!

Up Next:
Halloween DIY Costumes Part 3: Wayne and Garth

Halloween DIY Costumes- Part 1 Poison Ivy and The Riddler

Hey everyone,
With Halloween coming up thought I'd post a how-to collection for DIY Halloween Costumes!
Every year I look forward to creating something different for Halloween, with of course not spending an arm and a leg.
So without further ado, here is part 1 of Halloween DIY Costumes: Poison Ivy and The Riddler

Now most of you know, I'm a very frugal person, I like to save as much as possible when creating but also try to maintain screen accuracy as much as possible.
Screen Accuracy is important if you are recreating a costume from a movie, television show, figure in history, etc etc.

Poison Ivy Costume:
This costume was very easy to put together and I didn't have to stick to one particular image of Poison Ivy as there are many in books, movies and tv versions of batman.

I picked up both my top and skirt from Talize (local second hand store) and some strands of Ivy from Dollarama. I had tights already at home so bonus for that.

Here is a breakdown of the cost:

Green Skirt- $4.99 (talize)
Green top - $4.99 (talize)
4 strands of ivy (dollarama) $4
Tights from home= FREE

Total cost: approx $14

This costume was pretty easy as all I had to do was drape the garland around me and form a ''crown'' of ivy for my head.


The Riddler Costume:
With the Riddler costume, I based it off the original Riddler in the comic book series as I knew my husband wouldn't want to wear tights. (ie batman movie)

I picked up the Green suit (pants and jacket) at Talize, and the hat and tie from Value Village (local second hand stores.) I picked up the spray paint at Michaels and was able to use a black t-shirt from home.

Here is a breakdown of the cost:

Green suit(pants and jacket) - Reg 19.99- on sale $9.99 (talize)
Hat- $4.99 (value village)
Tie $2.99 (value village)
Spray paint for hat reg $9.99- 50% off coupon (michaels) = $4.99
Black shirt from home= FREE

Total Cos: approx $23

I then put about 3 coats of green spray paint on the black bowler hat and let dry.
Then I stenciled about 25 question marks all over the suit.
This probably took me about 4 hours all together, not in one sitting of course but with small breaks.

The finished products were fantastic and the compliments from people were completely worth it!


Next: Halloween DIY Costumes Part 2: Roger and Jessica Rabbit

Introduction

Hello Internet!
So I figured I should write a little introduction.
My name is Chrissy and I love to create and craft.
I work in the creative industry so it helps inspire me to want to craft and create all the time.

On this blog you will get an insight on my crafting expeditions as well as some how tos.

If you love crafting, you are in the right place! Stay tuned....