halloween

September 16, 2015

DIY HALLOWEEN COSTUMES FOR LITTLES

Update! I luckily had a third son so baby Harry Potter, here we are again!

Monthly pic… platform 9 3/4 never looked so cute!

Lightening bolt tattoo (and other super awesome HP tats) HERE.

His cardi and pants are from June & January in onyx.

Lightening bolt rattle HERE

Same scarf and glasses as below.

Here are some of my kids’ past Halloween costumes that are easy to DIY!

DIY HALLOWEEN COSTUMES

1. HARRY POTTER

This one is my absolute favorite! You know what a Harry Potter nerd I am. We tell Ari Harry Potter stories (the non-scary ones) now, so he loves looking at this picture of himself!

Last year, he decided to be Harry Potter again! Needless to say, we were thrilled!

OUTFIT: khaki or black pants, white button down shirt, black or gray vest or v-neck sweater. Cloak purchased here.

SCARF: I knit this using this pattern

GLASSES: here. I popped the plastic lenses out

SCAR: Purchase our lightening bolt tattoos HERE for the whole family!

2. MARTY MCFLY

I still giggle at this one. Ari obviously didn’t get who he was but people loved it! The Back to the Future Trilogy is one of Jeffrey and my favorite movies (next to HP obvs).

OUTFIT: jean jacket, white button down with blue/red plaid, maroon t-shirt, red suspenders, red puffy vest, tight light wash jeans, white Nike high tops

“Look at them moccasins!”

3. SADNESS

New fav!!! Link to the DIY HERE

4. AC SLATER

He has the curly hair, so why not? Links HERE

5. THE ORKIN MAN

Ari is obsessed with our Orkin man, George. I think he thinks of George as a grandpa?? George retired that year, so it was only fitting to pay homage to him.

Outfit: white button down, pleated khakis, red hat

Details: I made the epaulets out of red felt with a white button sewed on. I just winged it whip stitched them on the shoulders BUT I did it backwards. The button side is supposed to point towards the neck of the shirt.

You can download the Orkin logo I made here.

Stick on eyebrows/mustache found at a costume shop.

I covered Max in little plastic spiders to make it more Halloween-y!

Tutorial for the spray can is below. There was probably a way easier way like using a silver coffee can, but I used what I had!

Punch a hole through the oatmeal can top for the rubber tube (bought at a hardware store)

Tape the tube inside and on the top of the can

Punch holes for the string before you tape the top on

Wrap can and hose with duct tape

6. CARDINAL

I made this for Ari’s preschool costume, but count it anyway as a great Halloween DIY.

Outfit: red turtleneck, yellow leggings

Tack/sew red boa around the turtleneck. I used yellow felt for the feet and attached it to Ari’s crocs. For the hat, I glued felt on top of a foam visor from the craft store. You could always just stick feathers on a red hat and call it a day!

7. BABY NERD

This was my laziest costume but effective. Max already had the white onesie, cardi, and bowtie. I just put masking tape on Ari’s Harry Potter glasses (above)!

8. HASHTAG THE PANDA

Our love for Jimmy Fallon is STRONG.

Similar panda costume HERE.

You can download the name tag I made HERE, but you could easily buy the name tag stickers and write “Hashtag”. If you don’t get it, you don’t get it. If you do, it’s pretty hilarious.

9. TINKER BELL

Ari adores Tinker Bell! His preschool had costume day, so we went with his hero!

Tutorial for the costume and educational art HERE.

This year is most likely directed by Ari who is now 5! Sad! So far, he wants to be Sadness from Inside Out. I’ll update you with the progress! Good luck, mamas!

ALL COSTUMES LINKED HERE

-L

March 8, 2015

DIY FAIRY COSTUME + EDUCATIONAL ART PROJECT

It’s always nice to sneak in some educational concepts when you’re playing with your littles! My 4.5-year-old, Ari, needed a costume for a school carnival this weekend and beeeeeeegged me to buy a Tinker Bell costume. I did NOT want to go out in traffic to buy one and spend the money. I thought it would be much more fun to make it! But wait… we’re out of green paper. That’s okay, we’ll use paint! Oh **** we’re out of green paint. Ummm….

Ari’s really into experiments and potions and magic, so we refreshed our color theory lessons and made all different shades and tints of green.

Just blue, yellow, and white!

I put blobs of blue, yellow, and white all over a piece of butcher paper and let the kids go to town. They came up with the most beautiful colors! And Max had a nice snack of paint (OMG that kid!!).

When the paper was dry, I drew leaf shapes with a thick sharpie and cut them out. Just freehand it, really anything will look good outlined in black!

I used safety pins to attach to a green sweater and baseball hat. We borrowed fairy wings from our friend, and voila! Tink!

Yep… those are jammie pants.

Max went as Danny Zuko at the end of Grease 🙂

Love your children every minute of every day!

-L

October 29, 2014

LAST MINUTE DIY HALLOWEEN COSTUMES

Tired? Check. Lazy? Check. Not about to go to a Halloween store 3 days before Halloween? Check. Here are two costumes you probably have in your closet for two of my favorite fictional women!

I designed some free printables HERE for you to add to your easy costume! Yooooouuu’re welcome.

Happy Halloween, nerds.

Oh, and this is my baby Max in tribute to the one and only Jimmy Fallon- my husband and I are giant fans of him and The Tonight Show! Can’t you just hear the dancing Hashtag music?

Download Hashtag the Panda’s name tag HERE.

For more ridiculous DIY Halloween costumes for littles, click HERE!

-L

October 20, 2014

SIMPLE PUMPKIN DECOR DIY

Contrary to popular belief, I’m extremely lazy. I could sit on the couch in my jams all day watching movies, eating snacks, and trolling around on Pinterest. Maybe squeeze in a couple hours of reading. That’s actually my dream day. When it comes to decor in my own house (not for a client and not for one of my kid’s birthdays) I’m just like… no. Too tired.

So here’s the easiest possible one step above nothing fall decor for you!

CHALKBOARD PUMPKIN

1. Sketch a circle/oval/fancy shape on your pumpkin.

2. Paint in the shape with chalkboard paint. The bottle I bought said to paint 2 coats. You can see the first coat below left a few bald spots. Two or three coats is perfect.

3. Um… that’s it.

We’ve been using this as a countdown to Halloween for the kids!

The only thing I’d say about this is that if you use this over and over, the paint starts to chip. Just paint another quick coat of chalkboard paint and you’re done.

I brought the pumpkin inside and used it as a centerpiece when we had friends over for dinner this weekend (with takeout…like I said- lazy!). Ari collected pretty leaves for the table. It made our dinner a little fancier.

I bet you could take this idea and run with it!

Tag us on your instagram photos @loveandlion, so we can see!

-L

September 10, 2014

HOMEMADE HALLOWEEN COSTUMES FOR LITTLES

UPDATE: MORE COSTUMES HERE and HERE!

Well it’s not even mid-September… so naturally it’s time to post about Halloween. I was in Hobby Lobby today and was like…crap! Already? I wanted to share Ari’s past Halloween costumes with you if you’re into DIY’ing it. I totally got away with my choices when he was too little to come up with something himself, but this year it’s his choice. Whomp whomp. Wild Kratts it is!

DIY HALLOWEEN COSTUMES

1. HARRY POTTER

This one is my absolute favorite! You know what a Harry Potter nerd I am. We tell Ari Harry Potter stories (the non-scary ones) now, so he loves looking at this picture of himself!

Outfit: khaki or black pants, white button down shirt, black or gray vest or v-neck sweater

Scarf: I knit this using this pattern

Glasses: here. I popped the plastic lenses out

I used an eye liner pencil for the lightening shaped scar 🙂

2. MARTY MCFLY

I still giggle at this one. Ari still doesn’t really get who he was but people loved it! The Back to the Future Trilogy is one of Jeffrey and my favorite movies (next to HP obvs).

Outfit: jean jacket, white button down with blue/red plaid, maroon t-shirt, red suspenders, red puffy vest, tight light wash jeans, white Nike high tops

“Look at them moccasins!”

3. THE ORKIN MAN

Ari is obsessed with our Orkin man, George. I think he thinks of George as a grandpa?? George retired last year, so it was only fitting to pay homage to him.

Outfit: white button down, pleated khakis, red hat

Details: I made the epaulets out of red felt with a white button sewed on. I just ~~winged it~~ whip stitched them on the shoulders BUT I did it backwards. The button side is supposed to point towards the neck of the shirt.