Toddler Craft - Ghost Foot Prints

I have a fetish for foot print and hand print stuff. Any time I could figure out how to put my footprint in an art project growing up.. I did. Weird I know.  ANYways. I saw this cute craft somewhere online and I had to try it out with my own toddlywink.

Supplies:

Black Paper

White Paint

Black Sharpie

Glue Dots

Other stuff you might want:

Drop Cloth

Third hand to handle painted child

Paper Plate

It isn't that difficult of a concept. Paint on paper plate, dip child's foot in, press to paper (or I sat my child on the sink and pressed the paper to his foot, much less messy). I wanted six ghosts front and back for my front door, so I did six left feet and six right feet. Dry. Then draw all the little spooky faces you want.

Cut them out. I liked a straight line across the toe area, it looked like a ghost silhouette. Then I taped two back to back, not caring at all about if they matched up or not. Which is weird for me.

 

FINALLY- and this is my tricky Stephy trick, I put scrap booking glue dots on the ghost mouth to attach them to the window! You don't even notice it from the front side. Brilliant!

Now go rush to your windows and put them up!!!

However, when I went rushing to my front door (because I really was so excited!) I fount this little guy waiting for me. Not frightening in any way right? Yea well you wouldn't have known that from my reaction.

Naturally after I was done screaming in surprise, I logically- quickly stuck all my ghosties to the windows and ran back to the kitchen for a cup and a piece of junk mail. I came back just in time to see it scamper under a nearby toy. I opened the door and waited. Nothing happened.
So I moved the toy. AAANd the thing came running at me. So what does a grown woman who thinks lizards are really cute do? Scream, uncontrollably, like a girl, and run away.

After I stopped laughing at myself I herded the little guy out the front door and proceeded to photograph my cute little ghosts.

My toddlywink LOVED this monday night activity, and still shows me the foot prints in the window and asks to paint his feet. (not with words mind you, but with emphatic gestures.)

Toddler Halloween Banner

Bradley and I have been working on our Halloween banner for about a week now, and we are so proud to share it with you!
We found a pack of pre-cut shapes at Michaels for $2 and have been practicing coloring on the front and back of each shape. Then I punched holes in the tops or sides of each shape and ran a black cord through it all! A most festive decoration. Bradley was so proud that when daddy came home he kept pointing to it and babbling in toddler language and pointing to the banner. Smart boy.

We originally tried putting it on the fireplace, but quickly figured out that toddler hands were magically attracted to the banner any time they were near each other.

Toy Story Costumes cont: Jessie Chaps & Woody Vest

Supplies:
White Vinyl
Black Felt
Black Piping
Fabric glue - I used Fabri-Tac by Beacon
Sewing stuff.
Jeans you don't want (or that have huge holes in the knees even though they are really nice jeans)

I wanted to use a really heavy fabric for the chaps and vest so they would hang like real leather. luckily the craft store had two large fabric remnants of white vinyl. Nice.

I searched the Internet for Jessie pics and Jessie costumes to find ones that were close to the character. I used this inspiration pic to get a feel for what the chaps should look like>>

Then I just started cutting. I pinned one chap to the pair of pants I was going to donate to this costume, refined the shape a little more, and then cut another one for the other leg.
It is very helpful to have a toddler help you practice being "scary" while you ponder upon the shape of the chaps.
Then using tracing paper, or tissue paper, I cut out some cow print spots that resembled the cow spots on the actual Jessie character's pants.

You can guess the next part. Cut, place, glue.
Finally I sewed the black pipping around the outside edge, and added a few white frills off either chap.

Then, well, this is the part I hadn't thought of till it was upon me. I had to hand sew each chap onto my jeans. I don't know what else I was thinking, but I really thought this step would be easier. It wasn't bad, I'm just not very talented at sewing so it was slow.

Buuut:

wala! Jessie cow chaps!

Honestly the vest is exactly the same process just no black piping.

Using a vest we already had, I just traced the outlines onto the vinyl, cut it out, and sewed the ends together. Poof. Vest!

 Then again with the analyzing Woody's cow print on his vest and making my own similar cow prints.

Lots of glue later...

OH yea. I added a Styrofoam ring and some rope on a safety pin to make pull strings for us both.

How to make a Woody Costume

Woody is actually not too hard of a costume- especially for a guy. Blue jeans, boots, a hat, a red scarf, a sheriff's badge- are all things you either already have or you can get a dollar type store. We actually are not cow people and didn't have boots and couldn't find them for cheap, but the costume turned out just fine anyway. Woody's yellow shirt and cow vest are another story...
Ya see, these two items and the hat, are what make up the Woody caricature. With out them you are just a cowboy, so it is important to make them look as proportionately close as possible.
Okay done lecturing.

I found my yellow shirt at a thrift store. It was actually a challenge to find a "yellow" collared shirt.

The stripes...
How do you think you would put stripes on a shirt??
Yes that is exactly how you do it.
Red fabric marker and a ruler.

Tip: Start with the back so you can get the hang of it on the side that will be covered up by the vest!
I slipped my fabric cutting board under the shirt and could see the grid lines through it! So I just used those as my guides rather than measuring each line!

Tip: For the sleeves, create parallel lines using the top of the sleeve as a guide for the horizontal lines. It doesn't matter where they begin or end really, just keep everything at 90 degree angles. The same goes for the vertical lines. Just as long as they are square to the horizontal lines. (the top of the sleeve in the photo is the part by the horizontal ruler. sorry it looks confusing)

What! It already looks like Woody! In the end I used 7 fabric markers and took 3 trips to Joannes.  You probably could use a sharpie, but they bleed a bit.

Wondering about the vest? We'll get there. Check back soon!

New Halloween Treats!

I just posted some new halloween designs!! They are buy 2 get 1 free!!
Thanks for all the inspiration!!

Enjoy!