Slacking...

The other day my husband told me I should make videos of the DIY stuff I do or when i'm creating my paintings. I then had to explain that half the time I do all this stuff by myself over time. Not like a week but sometimes i'll work on something for like a month.Yet there are some things I knock in a couple hours. I also do not own a tripod nor is my "art room" set up for me to film anything. Basically I'm just making stuff as I have time or materials and then I come back afterwards and write about it on here. 

Lately i've been slacking though. I have painting i've been working on for months. I started calling it "Black Girl Magic" and I have no idea when i'll be done with it. I just keep adding layers and staring at it for a few days. Yet this year I have given myself the goal of completing 10 paintings. 

This will be interesting. . .

The Mad Hatter

   This year for Halloween I didn't plan on doing anything aside from going trick or treating with my husband, bff, and my godchildren the Friday before actual Halloween.(We were a combinations of Avengers & Faries lol)  The week of Halloween my cousin text me to say she was having a Halloween party at her house and Casey & I should attend. I'm not gonna lie I got excited. This was a chance to make a costume that could be as creative as I wanted it to be. Then it hit me, I needed to not only come up with something for myself but one for my husband as well. I knew I wanted them to match or be related in some way and I knew I only had a couple days to pull it all off. My budget was basically $00.00 and anything I made for my husband i'd have to pray it fit him because he was away at outdoor school with our niece the whole week before Halloween. 

WHOOOOO would we be for Halloween ?

I started by looking through a million of my own boards on pintrest for all those AMAZING ideas i'd saved for myself and realized majority of them couldn't be done in such a short time. After digging through my costume trunk I got the perfect idea. My husband could be the rabbit from Alice in Wonderland and I could be Alice. The morning of the party I planned to run to the mall grab a light blue dress and use a t-shirt as an apron. I had it all planned out, or so I thought. While waiting for my husband to finish playing Playstation so we could run to the mall I got an idea. I CAN MAKE THE HAT, THE MAD HATTER HAT! It was a go BIG or go HOME kind of brain blast. I went back on pintrest and of course I had already pinned a how-to picture of the hat. After running though the apartment looking for spare cardboard I got to work.

First I cut out the necessary cardboard pieces to contruct my hat. The brim I had to cut out in 2 half circles I attached together to fit perfectly around my head.

The brim, a center piece, and a top

Next I cut out strips of cardboard to construct the sides of the hat. I attached them to the top of the hat. Then added the smaller cardboard circle halfway down the hat. Lastly I attached the bottoms of the cardboard to the brim of the hat. 

The cardboard skeleton of the hat. 

 After completing the cardboard skeleton and securing it with tape and hot glue I moved on to covering it.

I went through my bin of scrap fabrics and found a t-shirt I used for a costume in high school and a old pair of leggins. I started by covering the sides first with the t-shirt. 

Sides covered, getting ready for the brim

Next I took the leggins and and cut them into pieces to fit around the brim as well as the top. 

The first layer all glued into place.

I knew from the start (or after I saw it sitting on the floor) that I wanted to cover the hat with lace. I found a scarf I almost forgot about and used that and the band around my hat. For the 10/6 card I used a book page left over from a cut out book I made last Christmas. 

The Finished Product

For the rest of my costume I work things I already owned. A tweed blazer, long sleeve shirt, tulle skirt, tights, flats, and a scarf tied into a bow. I did my own make-up (the glitter I was still washing off a couple days after) 

Pouring some TEA

My Full Costume

For my husbands costume he wore his own clothes as well, bow tie, sweater, dress shirt, and slacks. Add bunny ears and a over sized clock and BOOM. COUPLE COSTUME! lol.

 

True Love

Princess Leia

 Last year for Halloween I knew I'd be with the kids (godkids & nieces) for the whole week of festivites and I wanted to make a kick-ass costume that I coluld match at least one of the kids and I could stay warm in while roaming the neighborhoods or the local trunk or treats. My godson was probably the last kid to pick a costume and he choose Darth Vadar. I'd been wanting to make a Princess Leia costume (the white dress and buns one) for a looooooong time so I took this as my chance, 

I attempted to take pictures of the whole process of making this costume but I did make this whole thing last minute and I aint have time for that, but I can tell you how I did it all. First I started with a pack of white full bedsheets from Family Dollar. I laid them out on my floor and drew out the basic dress parttern. A front for the top, a back for the top, the skirt, 2 sleeves, a collar, and the hood. I didn't make a liner because I planned to wear layers of clothing underneath. I sewed together the top pieces first and added the sleeves. I initally made my sleeves too tight so that took quite a bit of adjusting. After I got the top to fit just right I added the skirt pieces. Last I stitched on the collar and added the hood. I left an opening in the back of the hood so my head would fit when I pulled the dress over my head. The belt was the easy part. I used sheets of foam, cut into strips, silver duct tape and puffy paint. After soome tweaking and adjusting and fighting my braids into buns I was ready to go.

My godson was happy and I was happy. While trick or treating in my parents neighborhood and people really liked my costume. A few people even asked if they could take my picture. I have no idea what i'm going to be this year but I think i'll get started now. lol 

Star Wars Shoes !

 Anyone that knows me knows there are a few things that I can just get obsessive about and two of them are DIY and Star Wars. After looking around online at random Star Wars stuff I decided I wanted some sneakers. The prices were generally out of my budget. So as I generally do I decided to take a whack at making my own Star Wars sneakers. 

My first attempt I decided on "Droid" Slip on shoes

.

C-3PO & R2-D2

For my next pair I decided on a pair of slip on sneakers and a more complicated design 

Left Shoe=Dark Side & Right Shoe=The Good Guys

The finished product 

A friend whos getting married next year suggested that we wear shoes inspired by my first set of Star Wars shoes. These were my test run shoes. Like a 3D sketch. 

Next I though about others ways to do a C-3PO shoe possibly for my friends wedding. These were the result of that idea. 

C-3PO

DIY : Clothing and Recycling Pt.1

One Thing to Another....

Thrift shop jeans turned shorts 

T-Shirt turned Dress

T-shirt turned skirt 

Old Men's T-shirt 

Now a skirt !

Wonder Woman Part II....

One day 

while I was babysitting  my boyfriends nieces the youngest one, Aliyna, decided she wanted to play dress up. Well unlike most people my age I have a bag of dress up stuff, old costumes from halloween and things I used when I worked in retail during the Fall months. She was instanly obsessed with my old wonder woman costume I made myself a couple years ago. So we safety pinned and tie the top and the belt on her and she insisted on wearing my boots (a size 8, shes 4 years old) 

Mini Wonder Woman 

check the boots!

almost wardrobe malfunction...

handy tie work

The she took the Cleopatra dress I made and declared herself QUEEN OF THE SUPERHEROS !

So after a day of being Wonder Woman and wearing my costume to Bob Evans (including the boots) I told her if she was good i'd make her her very own Wonder Woman costume. 

Everything except the crown...

TaaDaaa! Mini Wonder Woman !

The she continued her "superhero training"

she was also hyped on cotton candy....

Me & Wonder Woman when it was cool down time.

Mini Wonder Woman and her Big Sister, Arielle attack my bf, there uncle.