When Life Happens {Halloween}

Life has been insane. Not just crazy. INSANE. And I could probably go on and on and list a million things to complain about, I'll spare you. We've all got plenty of stuff...it's just meant that keeping up with getting things done AND writing about it on a blog has been a very low priority. But I'm really hoping to share more--there have been a bunch of things that have happened that I want to share...so I do hope I'll be better (but won't hold my breath, because I've been wanting to share more for easily two years!)

Anyway, I was recently contacted by the creator of Make-Do because apparently Pinterest is linking to my blog, and my blog post from Halloween of 2013 links back to Make Do...so I started thinking about my construction Halloween costumes and realized I never shared my costumes from LAST year. In 2014, I was 9 months pregnant and my boys decided to wear their crane + excavator costumes a SECOND time. I wasn't going to fight them...

So last year, I had an almost one year old on the verge of walking...the perfect time for some projects...

When I started looking back at my pictures, I came across these pictures from last year and realized I had never shared them here.

My crew:

Here is a Halloween outfit (skirt and appliquéd shirt + hair bow) that I made, it's the cutest, now I have to look and see if that skirt might still fit! (fingers crossed!)

A year later, holy moly--the sass of this child. It's so much worse now that she can climb, and knows what she wants. She is INTENSE. I think this is the hardest season of my life...and she's not even a teenager yet!

Onto the Halloween costumes: 

My boys have been OBSESSED with farming--it's a little ironic because we live in Oklahoma, but we live in the suburbs...we end up going to NY to get to the country!  So because of the farming obsession, we decided to go with it--the boys were farmers, my husband even agreed to put on a plaid shirt and work boots...I made all of the boys matching "Bartran Family Farm" hats. I was a cow. After breastfeeding three children, I certainly feel like it! And Delaney was a baby chick, we used some flannel to make her stroller into a barn.

The kicker, I spent so much time on all of these projects--my children did ONE street, and barely trick or treated for an hour!

Cow:
-headband with with white flannel ears, pink inners, with little beige horns
-white shirt, black fleece pieces cut irregularly glued onto the shirt, pink belly with ACTUAL bottle nipples--I used hot glue but it was REALLY hard to get them to stay on, so I'd do a little more research and try stronger glue!

Chick: 

-used white felt, cut into feather shapes 3-4" long, hot glue in rows from the belly up, and on the arms

-cut an old-t-shirt into 3" strip, used red felt to create headpiece, I sewed the seam together. 

-hot glue orange construction paper onto pacifier. Surprisingly she did not mind--but the hot glue NEVER came off the pacifier!

Stroller cover Barn:
I used pieces of felt, I cut a lower section that I tied onto the stroller with 1" wide pieces of felt that I cut--adding ties with hot glue. Then I cut a middle section, again tied that onto the front piece of the stroller, THEN I added a larger back piece--I put the baby in the stroller with the red barn behind her.

The white felt was glued on with hot glue, square first, then added the X; the same behind the baby on the back piece. I used iron on vinyl to add a sign "the Bartran Family Farm" and glued that onto the middle section. And I added a "roof" upside down V along the top part of the stroller. 

Farmer:
-Used jeans, plaid shirt, vest we already had
-Cut cardboard box into rectangle, added a shorter piece for the top, added cardboard cut into circles; hot glue, I think the exhaust pipe was a toilet paper roll. I used twine, knotted onto grommets (not necessary but I had the grommets) to from the two front corners into one grommet in the back like a v. I glued push to turn on closet lights--the kids LOVED this feature! We added a golf ball covered in tin foil as the tow hitch.

Please feel free to email me if you have questions about how to make these costumes. They are pretty simple, cardboard, paint and TONS of hot glue!

I'm generally pretty busy and do not plan on making these for sale (but hey if you are interested shoot me an email, I'll answer honestly if I don't think I'll have time!)

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Happy Hallween + Construction Equipment Costume Tutorial {DIY}

Happy {day after} Halloween! I hope you have enjoyed a few sweet treats today! 

Confession: my sweet neighbor always gives us these amazing sugar cookies. I've gotten into the habit of eating ALL of them before my children/husband have a chance. I do sometimes have my husband taste (a bite!) so that I don't feel bad for not sharing. They are just so good. I need to get the recipe. Or actually maybe I don't...

Anyway, back to Halloween. 

My boys dressed as {super fancy, cardboard} a scooper/excavator + a crane. 

To preface: while I am crafty, I am not above buying Halloween costumes. Generally, buying a costume is much easier and, in the end, costs less once you factor in time + materials. But, I'm also a sucker for a cute face. My little guy is obsessed with any kind of construction equipment. In particular, this boy is in love with scoopers {excavators, for those of you not up on your construction lingo!} 

My little guy inspired the idea of a wearable scooper. I could find zero costumes to purchase, so I decided to start cutting some cardboard boxes to fit him. Keep scrolling to find out how I made this costume. 

Here is my big guy enjoying his crane costume.

I used a variety of rope/binder hooks/pulley's and even wanted to use a metal hook, but it ended up being too heavy. My big guy kept asking how to make the hook go up and down....needless to say, no dice. Next year he can engineer his own costume. 

The costume was slightly cumbersome, sometimes making it difficult to ring doorbells and occassionally turn around without hitting into someone else.

These boys absolutely loved Halloween. They had the greatest time and didn't want to stop trick or treating. 

Unfortunately, I did not take any pictures, please feel free to email me (danielle bartran at gmail.com) if you have any specific or urgent questions. I made the two costumes simultaneously, so the instructions are mixed in about how I constructed both vehicles. 

You will need: 

• hot glue gun + glue 
• optional: make do digger kit with cardboard screws
• cardboard boxes (2 per costume)
• box cutter
• acrylic quilting ruler (this one would be perfect)
• self healing cutting mat
• paint (yellow + black)
• matching spray paint (yellow + black) I also used some gray for the hook
• stick on reflectors (I used two packages)
• black duct tape

For crane costume:

• 1" metal binder clips
• metal pulley (Walmart)
• hook (I originally purchased the only one I could find at Walmart, it ended up being too heavy so I made one quickly out of cardboard and painted it silver)
• rope
• round cardboard tube (like a paper towel roll)

Additional/Optional: 

• construction hats (dollar tree) and construction vests (from Amazon)

The cardboard boxes were new/fresh unused boxes that I purchased at Walmart. I used two boxes per costume. I used a 6" wide x 18" long acrylic sewing ruler and penciled the design onto the cardboard based on a miniature toy scooper that is my son's favorite. 

The costume is held together with hot glue and special cardboard screws (and some of the pieces from the digger kit) from the {awesome!} company Make-Do. The box is held on the children's shoulders with duct tape. 

Once I drew the designs, and was happy with the overall appearance, I trimmed the cardboard using a box cutter/utility knife and the acrylic ruler. I measured how wide the children's backs are. I didn't want the costume to be too wide, but also didn't want the box to be to small for him to fit inside (for example, for a back that is 12" wide add 2" and construct the box to be 14" wide. I cut all of the main pieces first, then assembled the pieces before cutting the secondary pieces (the crane supports + the scooper tires and the actual scooper.) 

The arms of the scooper are made from multiple pieces using the cardboard screws. I then glued the main braces onto the box. I found it necessary to score pieces, which means you use the utility knife to cut halfway through (just gently across the surface without cutting all the way through.) 

For the straps, I measured the distance from the front of the box, over the shoulders and to the back of box. I then cut two pieces of tape to that exact measurement. THEN, I cut two pieces with an additional 8 inches. I centered the shorter tape on top of the longer tape. The excess 4" + 4" longer tape then sticks to the inside front + back of the box. 

I painted the single color parts with spray paint first and then with acrylic paint (the black was high gloss which I really liked!) The main boxes that had more than one color I only painted with acrylic paint. I also used google to find images for the logos, I printed them out onto card stock and glued them on strategically. 

The tires for the scooper are a small plate and a tea-cup plate. I actually trimmed along the edges with the utility knife directly on the cardboard. They were painted and then glued on at the last minute--I didn't want the tires to have to hold up the entire costume for an extended period of time. On the crane,  the "make-do" wheels were colored with a crayon, and then screwed onto the boxes. 

I did not attach the hook to the crane until the last minute because I was concerned about the weight of the hook on the supports. Ultimately the metal hook I purchased was too heavy, so I quickly cut one out of cardboard and spray painted it gray before attaching it to the rope. 

The downside {and extremely exhausting side} is that it was difficult {actually impossible} for my little guy to see his feet. That made walking almost unbearably slow...in the end we carried him most of the way, putting him down at each door step. 

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Project: COMPLETE

*If you are my mother, father, mother in law, or father in law, stop reading unless you want a surprise ruined!

After my son freaked out over having his feet painted, I gave up the idea of the Christmas Trees (using his hands) I figured it was a safe bet that it was a lost cause. I did force him to paint his feet, which he cried and ultimately hated, but put up with, and an hour later I DID in fact find him playing with all my bottles of acrylic paint (and yes, I was scared about the potential mess.) But, I think the project turned out pretty nicely.

I ended up painting on little snowman features. They're cute enough if you ask me.

Once everything was dry, I took my original (8 by 10" fabric) and scanned it into my computer. Using Picasa, I added my son's name & Christmas 2010 and then printed out 2 5"x7" copies onto cardstock. I trimmed them down and framed them and I think they turned out pretty darn cute. What do you think!?

I'm thinking that maybe this will be a yearly tradition as a way of tracking how big the snowmen get through the years?! Maybe next year we might even have a few trees?!

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