Cherry Red Popsicle Halloween Costume Tutorial

This year--way back in June--my oldest daughter told me she wanted to be an icecream cone for Halloween this year.  I was surprised because honestly, that's pretty creative for a 4 year old, no?  I asked her how she came up with that and she said that she was trying to think of something she really liked and the first thing she thought of was ice cream.  Hence, the icecream cone! (Yes, I am the kitty)

My youngest daughter was listening to the conversation (above) and piped in and said, 'Then I want to be a popsicle!'.  So, let's just say, I had been watching Joanne's for a while to make sure I got there when the felt went on sale!  

I came up with a popsicle costume on my own, and let me tell you--it's RIDICULOUSLY easy!  It's a great last minute--night before--throw together kinda costume!  I decided to make my daughter a Red popsicle because ummmm, red's my favorite color, and she said she didn't care--plus I figured it looked awesome next to her sister's costume!

Here's whatcha need:

-Enough Felt that covers your child from top of the head, to mid calf and wide enough to cover their body comfortably--give them some room to breathe!

-Scissors

-Coordinating thread

-washable marker

-pins

-measuring tape

-some kind of bowl

1.  Measure the person you are making the costume for....Start at the top of their head and down to their mid calf.  Then measure around their waist and booty(buns?)...Add approximately 4 inches to the width so they have some room to breathe.  Cut 2 a rectangle that match these measurements.  These will be the front and back pieces of your costume.

2.  Now take your mixing bowl and put it up in the top corner--trace around it to give you rounded edge.  Do the same to the other side.

 3.  Cut on the line you made and your rectangle should look like this now.

 4.  Measure where you want the arm holes to go--it'll be somewhere in the middle:)  I actually held these pieces up to my daughter and had her stick her arms straight out.  I put the pins in the felt while I was holding it up to her:)  She loved every minute of it:)--NOT!

 5.Now, fold your pieces in half so they look like this:

 You are going to draw a steeper curve and then cut it off so the top of your popsicle is more trim:)  It's cuter I swear!

 See how it is just a little skinnier on the top than it is in the bottom?  And both sides are even because you folded your pieces in half and cut them at the same time?!?

 6.  Sew around the edges, obiously leaving the bottom open for the feet to go through.  And where you put those pins in to mark the arm holes--don't sew those up!  

7.  Now, find a bowl or something round that is around the same size of your child's face.  

 Trace it and cut a hole!

Turn the costume right side out now and BAM!  You got yourself a popscile!  Now add some rosy cheeks and you've got a really cute popsicle!  Oh, and if you put your popsicle next to an ice cream cone it's even cuter!  ;)

Spider Web Resist for KIDS!!

I love when I can share my art skills with my kids! When ever I'm painting my daughter always asks if she can paint too. This is a great Halloween project!!! Take a piece of paper and draw a spider web with Elmer's glue, then wait for it to dry. This works really well if you do it on watercolor paper, but I just did it on normal copy paper. Then give your child some watery paint and they will be amazed as a SpOoKy SpIdEr WeB magically appears. 

Halloween Yarn Wreath

Becky and I have had our eye on some yarn wreaths for a while now. Here are a few blog posts that really inspired me. I like a few of these wreaths at My Hands Made It. These are beautiful at The Transforming Townhouse.  

Here is my Halloween wreath!!! I added rolled felt flowers, pom-pom felt flowers, and a burlap banner painted orange. 

There are lots of yarn wreath tutorials out there, it's pretty simple. Get a straw wreath and leave it wrapped in plastic and start wrapping it with yarn. My wreath took about 1 1/2 spools of yarn. Becky had the brilliant idea to paint the wreath black so you wont see through the yarn and wont need as much yarn. 

Once I wrapped the whole wreath in black yarn I added a few strands of white yarn. Then I got started on the flowers. I watched this fabulous video on how to make the rolled felt flowers. 

To make the pom-pom felt flowers. Take a piece of felt and fold it in half. For these flowers my piece of felt was between 2-3 inches wide. I added a little glue along the edge to keep it folded in half. 

Then cut a lot of little slits in the felt, making sure to not go all the way through. 

Then roll it up, adding glue as you go to help hold it together. 

Lastly I hot glued all my flowers onto my wreath. Then I really wanted something to show it was a Halloween wreath, so I cut a burlap banner and painted it orange with my fabulous orange paint dabber!!! Then I hot glued the burlap banner to some awesome hounds tooth ribbon. I added some great vintage buttons and VIOLA!!!! My Halloween wreath is complete. 

Happy Halloween!!!

(heart) JuJu

Halloween Quilt Tutorial & Sale

Becky and I have been working on some big fun projects lately. There is just something about cooler weather that makes me want to craft and sew and crochet. I love being inside where it's warm and working on something fun. Since Becky and I are having so much fun crafting we wanted to do a jujuB sale for our Etsy shop! 

Check out our Etsy shop here. This is a great time to get some fun Halloween items from our Halloween inspired collection. Or shop for Christmas presents. Enter the coupon code 

HALLOWEEN2 for 15% off your total purchase!!!! 

Sale ends Sunday night so get your orders in soon. 

If you've seen something on our blog that's not in our shop, or would like a custom order, please send us a convo on Etsy or send us an email at jujubstash@yahoo.com

My latest project is this Halloween quilt!!! It is so warm and comfortable. I know my family is going to love pulling it out each fall when it starts to get cold outside. The front is squares of my favorite Halloween/ Fall fabrics and the back is all black minky!!!

Now before we start, I have to clarify. This Tutorial is for BEGINNERS!!!!! In fact, I have a confession... this is the first quilt I have ever made by myself, start to finish!!!!! It is quick and easy and I was able to make it in about a week. So if I can do it, you can to!!!!! This quilt pattern can easily be duplicated with any cute fabric that you love. And the best part about this quilt is the back is covered with MINKY!!!! Our followers will know I am totally in love with MINKY right now. It is so soft and cozy and makes this blanket so much more comfortable. In my family this blanket is affectionately called the nap blanket. I swear it has special powers and when you cuddle up with it, you're bound to doze off. It's so cozy!!!!

So I had a bunch of fabric left over from my FABRIC PUMPKINS. 

I really loved the fabrics I bought and wanted to use them in another fun project. Becky and I went shopping for fabric and this blanket fell neatly into place.

SUPPLIES

1/ 2 yard of 7 different fabrics

3/4 yard of fabric for the binding

2 yards of minky for the back

batting

yarn 

yarn needle

quilting pins

basic quilting supplies 

Prep Work: To prep for making this quilt, buy and gather all your supplies, wash and iron out your fabrics. Don't iron the minky though!!

Step #1: Cut your fabric. I cut the entire 1/2 yard of each of the 7 different fabrics into 6 x 6 inch squares.  

My 2 year old was "helping."

Step #2: Lay out your pattern. Once everything was cut, I laid out my pattern and played with it until I liked how the fabrics went together. For this quit I had 9 squares across the top and 13 squares down. I decided I really liked this stair-case type pattern the best. After you lay it all out. Stack them up, so you can sew together each line of 9 first. 

Step #3: Start sewing.  Sew strips of the 9 squares together first. After I had a few strips sewn I would then sew the strips together. I was so excited at this point because my quilt was starting to come together. I learned through error, but it would have been a good idea to iron the seams all one way after sewing the strips. So then when I sewed the strips together the seams will all be going one way. This will help the quilt will lay flat and sew together better. 

Step #4: Pin and tie your quilt (or send it out to be quilted together). I was feeling so excited my quilt top was done and I loved it. Now what do you do next? I love blogs like Moda Bake Shop. But it only shows you how to do the top of the quilt. After that I was totally lost on how to put it together. So I called on my quilting friends for help. They helped me lay out my quilt. First the back, then the batting, then the top. Leave yourself a few inches of the back and the binding. 

Next I borrowed Becky's quilting pins to start pinning the quilt together. (You could also use safety pins, but you'll need a lot of them). Start in the middle and make sure to pin through all the layers (and don't pin it your carpet). Try to smooth out any wrinkles or creases as you work. You want the fabric to be tight without any bunches. Once the quilt is all pinned start tying the quilt. Now you could skip this step and have some one quilt it together. I wanted this quilt to be fairly low budget, so I decided to just tie it with yarn. Start tying in the middle and work your way out. By the way, a yarn needle makes a huge difference!!!!!!

Step #5. Bind  you quilt. Now I'm not going to lie. This was the part of making a quilt that I was pee-my-pants-scared to do. I was terrified that I was going to ruin the whole thing!!! Now if like me, you don't even know what binding is, or the very thought of it makes you hyperventilate, take a few deep breaths and follow me. You can do it, I promise!!!! I started by trimming the back and batting so they lined up with the top of my quilt. Next I studied the following tutorial for cutting and sewing the binding very carefully. 

The tutorial does a great job of showing each step. Now, my binding is not perfect, but I DID IT!!!!! I know I'll get better at binding with practice. I love my blanket and I know my family will love it for years to come. It was really fun to do and is a great project for a beginner.

(heart) JuJu

Burlap Rose Fall Wreath

Has anyone else noticed how Burlap has taken over the craft world?  Who knew right?  I mean--it is seriously the messiest thing known to man to work with.  It's difficult to cut a darn straight line with it.  It really isn't that fun to iron either.  But I guess I'm as crazy as everyone else because I am in LOVE with it!  

So, in about 3 weeks I'm helping head up this BIG Ladies Craft Night--we are calling it Friday Frenzy(Cute no?)--for about 250 women that I go to church with.  We had to come up with some cute and CHEAP ideas for the ladies to want to sign up for and make.  So one of the things I came up with is this Burlap Wreath.  Here's whatcha need to make it:

1 straw wreath with plastic cover still on--I used an 18"

1 yard burlap to cover wreath

2 inch strips of different colors of burlap for roses--# depends on how many roses you want:)

Hot glue gun and glue

Brown paint

paint brush

scissors

embellishments(optional)

1. Take your straw wreath and paint the plastic cover that's on it brown.  It doesn't need to be pretty and you don't even have to do the back of it if you don't want to because it's going to be up against a wall--no one will see it!  And it will be all wrapped in Burlap anyway so just do a 2 minute paint job and call it good:)

 2. Next, cut your base burlap into 3 inch strips...I used 8 strips--but i didn't cut it the length of the burlap--I did the short side because it was easier to get a straight line and I'm all about making life easier:)   Now hot glue your burlap to the wreath and start wrapping.  When you use up one strip of burlap--grab another one and just keep wrapping until your entire wreath is wrapped and looks pretty.  Note: I glued just the ends of my burlap to the wreath... (Wish I had a pic of the finished wreath with just burlap--but hopefully you will look at the first pic above and get an idea of what it should look like:)

 

 3.Burlap roses--Take a 2 inch strip of burlap and add a dob of glue in the middle--fold it over. 

 Like so...

 Start twisting your folded burlap strip like this. This creates a center for your rose...Make it as big or as small as you like:)  Once I have my center--I add another dab of clue to keep it in place.

 Once you have your center and after you've added your dab of glue--you can loosen up the fold--but I like mine to stay folded somewhat.  Just wrap your burlap around.... glueing as you go.  I like the scrappy look of the burlap but if you are not a fan keep your burlap folded and twist a little tighter.

 Once you get it to a size you like, cut off the tail and glue it to the back of the rose.

 Voila!  Now make as many as you want for your wreath!  

4.  I actually pinned my roses onto my wreath first, so I could get an idea of what it looked like.  I moved them around until I was sure I liked how they were positioned, and then I glued! 

 Now take some buttons, or jewels, or whatever other embellishment you want and glue it on!  I actually LOVE the look of these roses by themselves but a little embellishment/bling makes everything better right?  And....

 

BAAAAMMMM!  This project seriously took me 1 hour to make.  

 Now go buy some burlap(Hobby Lobby has GREAT color selection) and get wrapping and rolling!  I love this wreath because it looks GREAT on my front door AND/OR it looks GREAT on my mantle in my family room--it's awesomely versatile!

If you are interested in coming to our Friday Frenzy on November 4th check our Contact Us Page and email me--I'll send you our sign up sheet that has pictures of all the other fun things we are doing, including the burlap wreath.  The more the merrier!  It's in Colorado so remember to keep that in mind:)  It'll be a rockin' awesome night with a bunch of crazy women and yummy food and glue guns and sewing machines!