Happy Halloween - Early!

Well, I really kind of out-did myself on the halloween costumes this year. It took me all of three days non-stop to make the majority of my family's costumes this year. We have voted together and everyone has agreed that they want to do "themes" as a family every year...since this year was soooooo much fun.

We dressed up for our ward trunk-or-treat night (games inside and treating outside....brrrr...in the cold mountain air!) Anyways, it was fun for the kids, fun to dress up, fun to see everyone else dressed up (except for Mike & Jaime...bah hum bug). Because we were indoors and someone else was using my camera for part of the time, the pictures aren't great (I haven't figured out flourescent lighting yet), but they work. Hopefully I can post more later!

I love that the first thing that Megan and Kimberly did when we walked in the door at the church is get their faces painted (hence - Dorothy and her lady bug face, and Glinda and her lady bug cheeks...gotta love it!) And Bryson's face was really GREY, however in this picture it is looking a little on the blue side (next time I will be helping Jason when he mixes the face paint together).

Here's the costume details...

Kimberly - Dorothy - pausing breifly for her picture to be taken in the middle of the cake walk. This costume was given to us, however, the red ruby slippers were ours. We also borrowed a "Toto" and a basket for him. Total Cost - $0.00

Megan - Glinda - Looking not so happy in this picture because I was giving her a hard time about needing to wait to get her face painted until after I had taken a picture of her in her costume. This costume is just about 90% creation.

The crown: the Costco-size Enfamil can stripped of it's label, cut out and decorated with glow-in-the-dark sparkly pink stars, tinsel, silver pom-poms, and wire flowers lined with silver stars.

The gown: a long sleeve pink leotard (from the Thrift store $2.00), more tinsel, sequin stars applied with Craft Adhesive, organza sleeves (left-over material from her baptism dress), pink binding on sleeves (just items I have had in my craft/sewing box), and beads that I spray-painted silver and hot glued on. The skirt (not-shown) was a dress that was given to us from a friend that was falling apart. I unpicked the bodice and put satin ribbon binding (more treasures from my craft box) around it with velcro to secure in back and hot glued silver stars all over it.

The wand: a pink glow-in-the dark star glued to a dowel (cheesy, since I forgot to spray paint them silver).

Total Cost of her costume - $2.00 for the leotard (the rest of it I had in my stash)

Emma - A Flower Munchkin - Every snap shot I took, she had candy stuffed in her cheeks! She's got some good-sized cheeks, but the pictures you see are filled with extra stuffing! Her costume was a throw-together and not my favorite, but it worked. The dress was a hand-me-down of a flower-girl dress at my brother, Greg's wedding. The Headdress: my personal favorite, a headband with silk flowers glued onto both sides. A small flower pot filled with a painted styrofoam ball with a green bendy strong, stuffed with a green pipe cleaner and a flower on top. Total cost: $0 (I had all of these items in my stash as well!)

Tyler - The Scarecrow - My personal favorite costume of all!!! Every picture I took of him, he was on cloud NINE (smiling or doing his "scarey scarecrow look") and was so excited to be "trick-or-treating", simply because that meant he would be getting lots of candy! (He is my treat monger!!!) This costume took the most time, but was so much fun.

The head piece: a black witches hat that I bought from the thrift store ($.50), glued some burlap a friend gave me with raffia behind it. The hat is glued onto a peice of material (I had some cream, lots of it actually, material stashed from previous intentions to make new curtains for the first camper we owned when we were first married...so it's about time I put it to good use). I sewed a basic hem around the edges and lined the burlap so it wouldn't itch him and then tied it with some rope I got from the craft store ($.50)

The shirt: one of Bryson's hand-me-downs, I lined the burlap with the cream material (similar to muslin) with raffia lined in between and made two cuffs, a patch on the tummy and a patch on the arm, and tied it off with rope again.

The pants: a pair of flannel pants a friend gave me which I made patches out of felt, glued raffia to the back and lighted stitched large stitches around the edge. He is wearing his own black church boots, lined with more raffia (this time sandwiched between two peices of khaki felt.

Total cost: $1.00

Eli - The Lion - One of the cutest little "sucker-sucking" lions you have ever seen! I'll be darned if I can get this kid to look at me when I take his picture. This costume is my sister-in-law's (it was Bailey's first Halloween Costume!) It is SOOOO cute - the mane is all colored ribbon, looped and hot glued. Total cost - $0

Jason - The "not-so-little" Lollipop kid - All I can say is...what a good sport! My husband rocks! He absolutely loved dressing up and being part of the team...for the greater good! What is quite surprising is that his costume was the most expensive of all of them!!!

The shirt: a blue sweatshirt from the thrift store $2.00, cut off in a zig-zag on the bottom and sleeves. Then I drew a line down the front with permanent marker (instead of cutting and sewing) and hot glued buttons down the front, then made4 white collars to hot glue on with felt wrapped around cotton batting for stiffness. He wore a regular t-shirt that matched his shorts underneath the short shirt.

The bottoms: I bought white long johns ($1.50) at the thrift store and a knitted, striped scarf that was double layered ($1.50) with pom-pom balls on the bottom. I cut the scarf in half, cut off the pom-pom balls, and put the scarf over the long johns and glued them at the ankle and thighs. Then I took an old pair of Jason's shorts and sheered them in a zig zag.

The shoes: I took the left-over blue peices cut from the sweatshirt, wrapped them around his crocs, and sewed them (weaving in and out of the holes, so not to ruin them) and glued the pom-pom ball on the top.

Lollipop - a white styrofoam wreath, with a window blind stick stuck through it (you could also use a dowel, but I didn't have one, but I did have a broken blind stick!) and covered on both sides with poster board, painted in a swirl, and tied off with a ribbon. $0

Total cost: $5.00

I didn't get a picture of Bryson yet... I couldn't find him all night and the ones I took, didn't take... but, he was the Tin Man. The silver pants and top were given to us. I bought him some slippers at the Thrift Store ($1.50) and a plastic funnel at Rite-Aid ($1.98) and spray painted them both silver. I cut out some cardboard for his shoulders and inside his tummy (I didn't have time to really make his costume good because he was gone those three days and I didn't have time to have him try them on). Oh, and face paint (50% off at Rite-Aid: $1.00) But we made it work. Total Cost: $4.50

And last, but not least... I was the wicked witch! I borrowed my witch costume and used the same package of face paint to paint my face green (which clearly did not have the same consistency as Bryson's paint (which turned out splotchy instead of smooth), but oh well...better luck next time, I guess. Total cost: $0.00

So... for costumes for 8 people...... I spent less that $15.00!!! How is that for frugal! Well, it helped that I have been given some craft items, and that a can of spray paint, a sewing machine, some extra fabric, and a HOT GLUE GUN can create a lot of things!!! Here's to not going broke for Halloween!!! More pictures to come.... especially the Lollipop shoes!!!