Sunday 28 October 2012

Halloween Fun!!!

So I got ridiculously ambitious this year....
I made my costume.....that's right.....you read correctly.  I MADE my costume........
I was in Dollarama and saw peacock feathers, and that's when I instantly knew what I had to be!

Luckily I had some royal and sapphire shaded blue clothing....so I didn't have to buy anything like that. Although, I have to admit, I was sorta torn between bright green clothing as well......But...now you know why I did the bright blue clothing......(one less thing to buy!).

For my costume I clearly needed to make a fan tail of feathers, and I also decided to make a tutu to go with it (why not?!).

Here are the materials you need to make my costume:
-A hand fan (mine was made of a light wood)
-LOTS of feathers (Dollarama is the way to go)
-Hot glue gun & glue sticks
-Fabric
-Thick cardboard
-Elastic
-Scissors
-Tulle (I used blue, a green, black, and a blueish-green)
-Needle
-Thread

The tutu was the easiest thing to make....but it definitely took about 6 hours to make.  You need patience (which I clearly lack.....) to make this......

First, you need to measure the elastic against your waist and cut any excess off (make sure you leave extra though because you do need to carefully sew the ends together).  Next, cut your tulle into long strips.  You will want to measure one strip first.  It really depends if you want a short tutu or a long tutu.  If you have your main portion of tulle measured to the correct length, there is a shortcut to cutting it.  If you youtube it, you should be able to find a cutting tulle tutorial.  It involves rolling it and then cutting it.  That way cutting all of your tulle will only take about 5 minutes.  I decided on a mid-length tutu (I'm wearing it Wednesday for the kids at work).  Next, start taking 1-2 strips at a time (depends if you want it a bit thicker), and knot the end of the tulle strip around the elastic.  Continue doing this with your strips of tulle until the waist is full.  Like so:

*In progress

*Done!

*This was with green leggings...which I woulda done if they weren't so see through......Oops!


Now the fan was my biggest challenge.  I went to Dollarama and bought a wack of feathers. Luckily I had a friend who had a spare hand fan for the main base of my fan tail. Then, I also bought some green fabric, found some thick cardboard, and then wound up requiring some elastic to attach my fan tail to my arms.  

So, here we go:
First I took my fan and started to glue feathers all the way around it.  You may need to trim some feathers.  So your fan should look like this:


Next, I took two pieces of thick cardboard and traced a rough outline of the fan shape.  Then, I cut both pieces of cardboard out.  Then, I took the fabric and cut it.  After that, I glued the fabric to the cardboard.  Once that was set, I glued one piece of cardboard (and fabric) on the one side of the fan, and the other piece to the other side of the fan, so that the actual fan tail itself was sandwiched in the middle.  Once that was done I had to measure the elastic around my arms, and I glued the elastic to the fan.  Like so:


Now, here's the final result (which I'm sooooo happy with!!! I can't wait to wear it again!):

*The full costume

*Me again

*Close-up of my fan tail!

Have a Safe & Happy Halloween!

A.A.



Saturday 13 October 2012

Woodland Creations

I know it's been a while.  I still haven't had a chance to get out with my D-SLR to get some good fall shots.  I'm hoping to do that before it's too late!

It was my niece's 2nd birthday party, and my best friend agreed to a woodland themed party (yay!).  I'm so glad she did because it turned out so cute and absolutely perfect! :).  I decided to help create some of the decor.

I got a couple of small bird houses to hang around the kitchen.  They were plain wooden birdhouses when I bought them.  I coated them in gesso and busted out some brown, white, and green acrylic paint (I mixed a tiny spot of green paint with white to give it a light mint green hue).  Once they were dry, I decided to use my glue gun and glue some little clumps of moss to them.


I knew I needed some toadstools.  I was also going to cut and sew some toadstools from felt, but I didn't quite get that far.....So I got some red and white fimo and carefully used my fingers to create these little guys.  I created them in a couple of different sizes.  My words of wisdom when using fimo: Make sure you cut your finger nails before you dig in!  Trust me.....First I shaped all the stumps and caps separately, then carefully pieced them together.  Lastly, I added the little white polka dots.  Once they were ready, I threw them into the oven to cook for about 15 minutes.  Overall, they really didn't take very long to shape.


As you can see I did mount 2 of the birdhouses onto dowels.  I ended up having to glue the dowels to the glass to keep them upright.  Once I put the birdhouses in the vases, I then filled the bottom with white rocks, placed some little ferns in the back ground, placed some moss on top of the rocks, and placed a toadstool in each.  Like so:


Here are some of my creations all together.  I ended up doing a similar type centrepiece with a round glass bowl.  But with these toadstools, I did end up gluing them to some river rocks.  I also added some ivy leaves to the top of the moss.


All in all, I would say the party was a success!

A.A.



Tuesday 9 October 2012

I'm sorry for the lack of updates!

I will have something up by the beginning of next week!

But....because it's autumn and the colours are so pretty I thought I'd throw in some of my photography!
Here are some autumn photos from the past few years.  I need to get out this year!  And I also want to go camping in Algonquin one fall to get some good shots as well.








Enjoy!

A.A.