I’m the QUEEN of the last-minute costume

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OK, I admit that’s a BIG statement to be making.  But it is kinda true…as much as I love Halloween, I’ve never been a big “Let’s plan for this costume” kinda girl.  I’m more of a “Holy heck, Halloween is tomorrow!  I better get my look together!” gal. A perfect example of this is the Mona Lisa costume I painted the night before a Halloween party as you see above. I wore a black piece of fabric over jeans as a robe to complete the look.

Not to say, I don’t totally rock my costume.  I always try to put together a look that is either punny or celebrity-inspired that includes a quick visit to the Dollar Tree or craft store.  These 8 babies were Dollar Tree finds and so were the lips.  The hair was a stop at the Spirit Halloween store.

Here’s another last minute look. I paired my Casper the friendly ghost robe with a mat board egg. I found a random stick and headband to attach my foam cutout pitchfork and horns.  And it was a pretty sad devil makeup job. Thank goodness I don’t have an up close version for you to see.

My Britney Spears (back when Britney was a pregnant Cheeto-eating fool) was pulled from my closet and childhood toy bin. Come on, you totally had one of those fake fat Cabbage Patch dolls too growing up!  Put on a store-bought wig and add some chunky wedges and pickle-dipped ice cream, and you have a look to remember, y’all.

I always try to come up with a costume most everyone at my work immediately gets, so a couple years ago, I went as the Stan Bitters sculpture out front of my work’s building.  Yes, I printed this out the day of and no, I didn’t win anything!! Boo!

So there you have it…my last minute Halloween costumes.  What great costume did you come up with on the fly?  I really need to know, cause I totally don’t have a costume for the Halloween party at my work in 2 days. LOL!!!

Until next time Swellions!

Alexa

Pin It

My Halloween Costume

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229/365

Yeah, I went there. I dressed up as Octomom today for Halloween! I taped them all over my shirt and leg and in my back pocket. I even carried one on a ribbon on the ground. It’s a pretty silly costume (and impersonation), but I had fun with it. I handed the babies off and said, “Here, you take care of it, you’re the taxpayer.” I also said wistfully, “I’m just waiting for my Jon Gosselin to come.”

Anytime I dress up as an actual person, I really like to go all out and overexaggerate them. Pretty silly, but that’s me after all.

Until next time Swellions!

Alexa

Costume Fun with Sharron!

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my mom's entry for Terrorific Tuesday!

This is my mom’s entry for this week’s Terrorific Tuesday. Here’s what she had to say about making these costumes…

“One of my favorite things about sewing is being able to make most any my grand children ask for. Often there is not a pattern for things they dream up and I have to wing it. Last year Taylor had her heart set on being a pink bunny for Halloween, fortunately McCalls pattern #8593 made my job easy.”

Mom, you always make the best costumes. I know that it will be something they look back on that will make them smile!

Alexa

A Halloween Costume Masterpiece

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me in my mona lisa canvas

I’m here again with an inspiring canvas costume idea that you can do if you are in a jam to get a costume together. This is a fun and very simple project and something you can take in a variety of directions…you could place yourself into a variety of famous paintings. At the bottom of this post, I’ve expanded upon some ideas you can do. I think I completed it in an hour or so, but I ended up walking away with 2nd place overall for my effort at my work’s contest. Halloween costumes aren’t always about the expensive stuff you by at your local costume shop, they are about infusing your own creativity and personality into them (or lack of personality if you are referring to the Mona Lisa!).

What you need:
– Various acrylic paints and paintbrushes
– scissors/exacto knife
– 16×20 white canvas
– pencil
– photo of a famous masterpiece to go by

What you do:
1. Draw out your general design, and draw an oval a little bit smaller than your head onto the canvas. Using an exacto knife, punch through the canvas. Use scissors to cut around the drawn oval. Look into a mirror and determine if it needs to be large. Continue cutting oval shape until your head fits comfortably in place. In general, it’s better to start out small with your cut out shape so that you don’t make the hole too large. I wanted the hole for my head to only fit in part of my face…I didn’t want to make it so big that I could fit my whole head through.

2. Continue drawing/modifying your design to fit the oval cut out. Paint your canvas to look like painting. Let dry.

3. In my case, I ended up wearing a long black dress with long sleeves to match the look of the mona lisa robe/dress. This helps add to the illusion.

4. Now go out there and win that contest!!!

I actually got this idea from a version I had seen of of someone putting their head into the Marilyn Monroe Andy Warhol painting. For the life of me, I can’t find a pic, but her head was stuck through this image:

images

You could do other classic masterpieces as well. Try one of these on for size:

Vermeer’s “Girl with the Pearl Earring” (Bonus points if you’re Scarlett Johanssen)
300px-Johannes_Vermeer_(1632-1675)_-_The_Girl_With_The_Pearl_Earring_(1665)

A Frida Kahlo self-portrait
frida-kahlo-self-protrait-1940

Munch’s “The Scream”
scream

And if you are looking for a couples costume, you could go as this:
Wood’s “American Gothic”
10032250

If you are around more arty types of people, I’m sure you could do something a little less mainstream, but I think these images are pretty iconic that most people from all walks of life have seen.

In honor of my 24 Halloween crafts in 24 hours, I’m giving away a Swell & Spooktastic Halloween prize pack. Click here to check it out and enter!

Check back next hour for another spooktastic Halloween craft!

Alexa

Deviled Egg Halloween Costume

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me-as-deviled-egg-(last-year)

Here’s a pretty clever costume that will grab you by the horns! Hee hee! I wore this a couple of years ago to my company Halloween party and I snagged second place. In general, I’m so busy throughout the Halloween season, that I rarely have time to devote to a major costume effort, so my costumes usually end up being a last minute/night before kinda deal. This is exactly what happened with this costume and it turned out really funny and cute!

Deviled Egg Halloween Costume

What you need:
– foam core
– red and black facepaint
– cutting knife
– pencil
– blank headband (I bought a wide ready-made one at a dollar store for a dollar)
– white or clear string
– glue gun with glue sticks
– yellow paint
– red paint
– red craft foam
– red seed beads
– white or red outfit
– long dowel rod painted black (optional)
– red glitter paint (optional)

What you do:
1. On a piece of foam core, draw out an egg shape. It doesn’t have to be perfect. Even if it’s a little off, people will get the idea.
2. Using cutting knife, cut around shape. Seriously, I think I used scissors for this. I know that’s not good for foam core, but I’m a down and dirty kinda crafter and I’m terrible with an Exacto. If you do this, just don’t be too aggressive with your scissors and end up breaking them!
2. In the center of the egg shape, use a foam brush to create the yolk part of the egg. While paint is still wet, sprinkle on the red seed beads (It will resemble paprika). Let dry.
3. Attach a string at the tops of egg and hold in place with hot glue so that you can wear it around your neck.
4. Paint a plain headband red (for me, the craft paint held surprisingly well). Cut out little horns from craft foam. Spread with red glitter glue or Tulip Glitter paint if you like. Once dry, use hot glue to attach them to headband. Ha! Or better yet, go to the Dollar Store and buy a pair for a dollar.
5. If you want a pitchfork, simply cut the design out of foam core (I referenced a photo on the internet for the shape). I then used red glitter paint on top to further accent. I glued the foam shape design to the end of a dowel that was painted black.
6. Dress up in all white or red and make your face in the styling of a devil (refer to an internet photo for pointers).

Now that you look the part, act it! I’m sure I had some pretty “hellish” one liners like “Don’t bother me, I’m in a rotten mood today!” or “Sure, you want to eat me now, but they’ll be hell to pay later. Mwahaha.”

In honor of my 24 Halloween crafts in 24 hours, I’m giving away a Swell & Spooktastic Halloween prize pack. Click here to check it out and enter!

Check back next hour for another spooktacular Halloween craft idea!

Alexa

I won 2 contests today!!!

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I won two contests today. It’s not everyday that I win something, so I’m really excited…

me as a California Raisin

I was a winner in both contests for my costumes..first up, at my work contest I was a California Raisin! My friend Donna helped me construct it…everything but the sunglasses pretty much. She’s fab like that! I made it come to life, though (oh and added the gloves and tights and hot pinky purple Reebok kicks). I danced to the song “I heard it through the grapevine” and Flo Rida’s “Low” (the Apple Bottom jeans song). I shook my booty, did the Roger Rabbit the best I could and the Brady Bunch thumb dance. I couldn’t really roll my arms. My arms would reach together. Ha ha. I think it turned out funny and cute! I ended up splitting my winnings with her. That was our deal. I was really happy with how it turned out and everyone got a big kick outta it!

Next up, I won the costume contest on Amy at her Living Locurto Halloween blog party. I won for my canvas masterpiece canvas. She’s mailing me out a prize (Not sure yet what it is, but I’m super excited). Go over there and check out her other cool entries. I’m fond of the stick figure man myself! Oh, and she featured my friend Chris Garris’s awesome photo of me jumping. I’m thinking about making it my new fall/Thanksgiving banner, so stay tuned! On a very random note, everytime I have been typing jumping, I’ve been typing jumpking! Ugh!

It makes me really sad that the Halloween season is over, but I’m going to still try to stay in spirit and focus on some cool Thanksgiving crafts and Christmas crafts. I stayed so busy this year with Terrorific Tuesdays and my friend’s wedding festivities that I didn’t get to properly put out all my décor or have at least a Halloween pumpkin painting/carving party. There’s always next year!

Hope you Swellions have a super swell weekend!

Alexa

A Costume Masterpiece

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me in my mona lisa canvas

Hello all! 3 weeks to the big day and I’m here again with an inspiring canvas costume idea that you can do if you are in a jam to get a costume together. This is a fun and very simple project and something you can take in a variety of directions…you could place yourself into a variety of famous paintings. At the bottom of this post, I’ve expanded upon some ideas you can do. I think I completed it in an hour or so, but I ended up walking away with 2nd place overall for my effort at my work’s contest. Halloween costumes aren’t always about the expensive stuff you by at your local costume shot, they are about infusing your own creativity and personality into them. I plan on sharing a few of my other past costume ideas in the weeks to come.

Supplies:
– Various paints and paintbrushes
– scissors/exacto knife
– 16×20 white canvas
– pencil
– photo of a famous masterpiece to go by

Instructions:
1. Draw out your general design, and draw an oval a little bit smaller than your head onto the canvas. Using an exacto knife, punch through the canvas. Use scissors to cut around the drawn oval. Look into a mirror and determine if it needs to be large. Continue cutting oval shape until your head fits comfortably in place. In general, it’s better to start out small with your cut out shape so that you don’t make the hole too large. I wanted the hole for my head to only fit in part of my face…I didn’t want to make it so big that I could fit my whole head through.

2. Continue drawing/modifying your design to fit the oval cut out. Paint your canvas to look like painting. Let dry.

3. In my case, I ended up wearing a long black dress with long sleeves to match the look of the mona lisa robe/dress. This helps add to the illusion.

4. Now go out there and win that contest!!!

I actually got this idea from a version I had seen of of someone putting their head into the Marilyn Monroe Andy Warhol painting. For the life of me, I can’t find a pic, but her head was stuck through this image:

images

You could do other classic masterpieces as well. Try one of these on for size:

Vermeer’s “Girl with the Pearl Earring” (Bonus points if you’re Scarlett Johanssen)
300px-Johannes_Vermeer_(1632-1675)_-_The_Girl_With_The_Pearl_Earring_(1665)

A Frida Kahlo self-portrait
frida-kahlo-self-protrait-1940

Munch’s “The Scream”
scream

And if you are looking for a couples costume, you could go as this:
Wood’s “American Gothic”
10032250

If you are around more arty types of people, I’m sure you could do something a little less mainstream, but I think these images are pretty iconic that most people from all walks of life have seen.

Well, gotta get back to it! Until next time Swellions!

Alexa

All content/photos copyright, © Alexa L. Westerfield, 2008.