Valentine's Day is just around the corner, and as a recent college grad with some serious student loans, I really have to watch how much I spend on gifts and other luxuries. Don't get me wrong; I absolutely love spoiling my boyfriend to pieces -- after all, he does the same for me all the time! But sometimes we all have to face facts, and in my case, the fact is that I simply cannot afford to shell out a lot of cash for a Valentine's Day gift.
But the thing is, you don't have to spend that much to show your loved one that you care! I don't know about you, but I don't believe that the amount of money spent equates to how much you love your significant other. So I've managed to put together a cute little Valentine's Day gift for under $20!
(Besides, Valentine's Day is pretty low on our 'holidays to celebrate love' list. Examples of days that come before V-Day are anniversaries, birthdays, and, of course, Christmas)
First place I scoured: my local Dollar Tree. They're usually pretty good about putting out stuff for every upcoming holiday (St. Patty's, Easter, etc.), and they didn't let me down: they had a whole section of Valentine's stuff! I managed to find everything I needed.
Here's my Dollar Tree haul:
- A cute Valentine's bear gift bag kit
- Those Valentines that you used to pass out to your classmates in elementary school
- A bunch of miscellaneous toys (a magnet, a jump rope, a ruler, a tea candle, among others)
- Sweetheart candies
- Valentine's Day gift bags
I'm making my s.o a bag o' puns!
I tied a cute pink/red tags to each of the toys with ribbon. Some examples of the puns I included:
- I'm so ATTRACTED to you (magnet)
- You RULE, babe! (ruler)
- You make me JUMP for joy! (jump rope)
- You are the SPARKLE I need in my life (bottle of glitter)
- I only have EYES for you (googly eyes glued to little pom poms)
Cute, cheesy, and affordable. Just my cup of tea. I'm sure the boyfriend will love it too.
X
Showing posts with label crafty. Show all posts
Showing posts with label crafty. Show all posts
Friday, February 5, 2016
Thursday, October 29, 2015
DIY Peter Pan's Escaped Shadow Costume
Hey all!
With Halloween creeping up so close and me being the world's biggest procrastinator, you can imagine how stressful it was for me to come up with a costume. Since I'm a teacher, I figured it's an unwritten requirement for me to dress up for my kiddos. I wanted something easy to put together, cost me as little as possible, and comfortable to wear (New Jersey is getting cold around this time of year, y'all). I came up with Peter Pan's escaped shadow.
I looked online for some ideas, but everything I looked for involved a morph suit, and as much fun as that would be, I feel like it's pretty important for my students to be able to see my face. So I tweaked it as I went, and I have to say, I am very happy with the final product. So here's a super easy, no sew DIY Peter Pan's shadow costume. It took me all of an hour to make, and that was at a pretty leisurely pace.
What you'll need:
- Black XL t shirt
- Black tights or leggings
- Black belt or rope (to cinch the waist)
- Black feather (or a colored feather that you'll have to paint black)
- Two sheets of black felt
- Hot glue gun (plus the glue sticks, of course)
- Scissors
Since I already had most of the materials, all I really needed to get were the pieces of felt and the feathers, which cost me a whopping $5 from Walmart. I guess my thrifty broke-college-student ways haven't quite left me yet.
Here's how to put your costume together:
1. Take your pair of scissors and cut triangle shapes on the bottom of your XL t shirt and sleeves. It's okay if the cuts aren't perfect. I think that actually gives it a more authentic feel. There's no set amount of triangles for you to cut. Cut out however many you want, but make sure the sizes of the triangles aren't too big or too small; we're trying to recreate the look of Peter Pan's tunic.
That's the bottom hem of my shirt. As you can see, my triangles were very rough and jagged, but ultimately, it gave my costume a good look.
That's one of my sleeves. Like I said, it's not really a professional-looking cut, but it gets the job done. I was a little pressed for time and didn't have time to make everything perfect.
2. Now for the hat. It's really a lot easier than I thought it would be. If you have sewing skills and can power sew in a pinch, kudos. But I chose the no-sew route, so my hot glue gun was my best friend. I found a Peter Pan hat pattern online and traced it on my pieces of felt. I taped the two pieces of felt together during this part so I wouldn't have to worry about ending up with two uneven patterns.
* Unfortunately, I didn't take pictures as I was making the hat, so I don't have any process pictures to share for this part*
3. Once I was done tracing the pattern on the felt, I cut the shapes out and hot glued the two top edges together. Make sure you don't glue the longest side together; that's the part that will go on your head. I chose to not glue the flat back part during this step; it made the next step much easier to do.
4. Once the two top sides were glued and dried, I folded the brim up and hot glued it to the body of the hat. It was almost like making those paper boats when I was a kid. When I glued the brim up, the front was too pointy for my liking, so I just folded it down and glued it in place.
5. Now for the feather. I couldn't find a black feather, so I used a purple one and painted it black with plain old acrylic paint. Once that dried, I glued the feather to the hat, tucking the "stick" end of it into the brim.
Wait for the hat to dry and you're done! Easy peasy lemon squeezy!
I wore my t shirt over a pair of fleece-lined leggings (which were seriously the most comfortable things I have ever worn). Because it's getting a little chilly out, I wore a long sleeve black shirt under my t shirt. The hat didn't fit in a way that would stay on my head without me constantly holding onto it, so I bobby pinned it on the sides and I was good to go. I also added a dagger to my costume by cutting it out of a cardboard and painting it black.
And there you have it! An easy, cheap, and totally comfortable way to go out for Halloween this year!
With Halloween creeping up so close and me being the world's biggest procrastinator, you can imagine how stressful it was for me to come up with a costume. Since I'm a teacher, I figured it's an unwritten requirement for me to dress up for my kiddos. I wanted something easy to put together, cost me as little as possible, and comfortable to wear (New Jersey is getting cold around this time of year, y'all). I came up with Peter Pan's escaped shadow.
I looked online for some ideas, but everything I looked for involved a morph suit, and as much fun as that would be, I feel like it's pretty important for my students to be able to see my face. So I tweaked it as I went, and I have to say, I am very happy with the final product. So here's a super easy, no sew DIY Peter Pan's shadow costume. It took me all of an hour to make, and that was at a pretty leisurely pace.
What you'll need:
- Black XL t shirt
- Black tights or leggings
- Black belt or rope (to cinch the waist)
- Black feather (or a colored feather that you'll have to paint black)
- Two sheets of black felt
- Hot glue gun (plus the glue sticks, of course)
- Scissors
Since I already had most of the materials, all I really needed to get were the pieces of felt and the feathers, which cost me a whopping $5 from Walmart. I guess my thrifty broke-college-student ways haven't quite left me yet.
Here's how to put your costume together:
1. Take your pair of scissors and cut triangle shapes on the bottom of your XL t shirt and sleeves. It's okay if the cuts aren't perfect. I think that actually gives it a more authentic feel. There's no set amount of triangles for you to cut. Cut out however many you want, but make sure the sizes of the triangles aren't too big or too small; we're trying to recreate the look of Peter Pan's tunic.
That's the bottom hem of my shirt. As you can see, my triangles were very rough and jagged, but ultimately, it gave my costume a good look.
That's one of my sleeves. Like I said, it's not really a professional-looking cut, but it gets the job done. I was a little pressed for time and didn't have time to make everything perfect.
2. Now for the hat. It's really a lot easier than I thought it would be. If you have sewing skills and can power sew in a pinch, kudos. But I chose the no-sew route, so my hot glue gun was my best friend. I found a Peter Pan hat pattern online and traced it on my pieces of felt. I taped the two pieces of felt together during this part so I wouldn't have to worry about ending up with two uneven patterns.
* Unfortunately, I didn't take pictures as I was making the hat, so I don't have any process pictures to share for this part*
3. Once I was done tracing the pattern on the felt, I cut the shapes out and hot glued the two top edges together. Make sure you don't glue the longest side together; that's the part that will go on your head. I chose to not glue the flat back part during this step; it made the next step much easier to do.
4. Once the two top sides were glued and dried, I folded the brim up and hot glued it to the body of the hat. It was almost like making those paper boats when I was a kid. When I glued the brim up, the front was too pointy for my liking, so I just folded it down and glued it in place.
5. Now for the feather. I couldn't find a black feather, so I used a purple one and painted it black with plain old acrylic paint. Once that dried, I glued the feather to the hat, tucking the "stick" end of it into the brim.
Wait for the hat to dry and you're done! Easy peasy lemon squeezy!
I wore my t shirt over a pair of fleece-lined leggings (which were seriously the most comfortable things I have ever worn). Because it's getting a little chilly out, I wore a long sleeve black shirt under my t shirt. The hat didn't fit in a way that would stay on my head without me constantly holding onto it, so I bobby pinned it on the sides and I was good to go. I also added a dagger to my costume by cutting it out of a cardboard and painting it black.
And there you have it! An easy, cheap, and totally comfortable way to go out for Halloween this year!
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