Well I was right! We totally looked great in our costumes!! Amber and Aaron’s make up really completed their costumes. Jack and I got off the easiest, he didn’t wear any make up and I only wore a darker version of what I normally wear. Amber and Aaron’s were a little more than that!

To create the Two-Face make, I first used a small lipstick brush (clean) and brushed a line down Aaron’s face. I then used a round sponge and using a bright pink brush I covered one half of Aaron’s face. 

I added a little blush and she did heavy black eyeliner. I used white, silver, and black eyeshadow to create the black circles around her eyes. 

I used a red lip liner to create the Joker smile and went over it with the red from her costume make up kit she bought using a q-tip. At this point it was getting harder for her to do her make up because she kept making this creepy look freaking me totally out.

I couldn’t me more excited to be home and working on Comic Con costumes! Tomorrow is our local comic con and as the nerds that we are we are dressing up! Amber and I decided since last year we were Batman and Robin that this year we were going to be the villains and we were getting Aaron and Jack to join in!

​Since I was going as the Penguin my costume was the easiest; all I needed was a tuxedo jacket and a top hat. The jacket I found on eBay and the mini top hat at the Halloween store; I already had the grey skirt, white gloves, and white collared top and bought the black pin striped vest at a thrift store. 

​Aaron’s was the second easiest, he was going as Two-Faced. We bought a white suit on eBay and I cut in right down the middle and colored half of it with black fabric dye. I knew that since the fabric was polyester that it wasn’t going to come out black, but as long as it took any color we would be okay. However, I wasn’t expecting it to be so purple; thankfully next to a black polo he had and the grey tie he borrowed from Jack it didn’t look as purple. After the dyed half was washed and dried, I sewed the two pieces back together.

Jack’s costume was the Riddler and for his we also found a white suit on eBay and dyed it green. This time though his was green and we used three boxes of Kelly green dye and it still came out much lighter than hoped for.  I used the same method as I did making my Sally costume to make the question marks on the jacket; I squeezed black fabric paint in a paper bowl and used a paint brush. I used the squeeze bottle to add a few smaller questions marks before setting to the side to dry. Jack already had a black collared shirt and purple tie the mask I also bought at the Halloween store. ​

The last costume was Amber’s; she was going at the Joker and wanted it to be crazy. We found the purple blazer on eBay and bought matching fabric at the craft store. I added the lime green trim along the panel, sleeves and bottom of the blazer. ​

Time for more costumes! Last year I went to the Danny Elfman Tim Burton Movie concert and dressed up like Jack Skellington buy wearing a striped dress and jacket. This year’s concert is only going to be Nightmare Before Christmas, my all-time favorite Tim Burton/Danny Elfman movie and Amber is coming with me! She wanted to be Jack, so I will be dressing up like Sally. I’ve made a Sally costume before so I wanted to try do something some different.

​I bought these two dresses on clearance at Walmart and only wore the burgundy one once so I thought they would be a perfect start for our costumes. I needed to be easy and fast because I only had two nights to work on them.  I started with the Jack costume since it was going to be the easiest, or so I thought. I bought white fabric paint in a squeezable bottle and started painting on stripes. I did a little of each stripe at a time and I didn’t want them to be a perfect straight line. By the time I reached the bottom of the dress my hand was hurting from squeezing the bottle and the dress form wasn’t there causing the line to fade as it got lower. Several hours or a few Halloween movies later it was complete and set aside to dry. 

Now time to work on the Sally costume; this was a little more difficult because I wanted to create the patch look of her dress using scraps of fabric. I started with the largest piece on the top and used quilt binding spray to tack it on, then sewed it in place. I repeated the process until all of the dress was patched together. 

After all of the sewing on the Sally dress was completed I washed and dried to remove the quilt binding spray before I started recreating the patterns using black fabric paint in a squeezable bottle. For the bigger patterns, like the stripes and circles, I squeezed some of the fabric paint in a bowl and using a paint brush created the patterns. Once complete I set aside to drive overnight. Something to note before I began using the fabric paints I covered my dress from with a trash bag to prevent it any damage. ​

This is my second Halloween costume for this year. We dressed up like Ghostbusters for our annual Halloween party and Glenda is for our work Halloween party. My whole team is going to be dressing up as the Wizard of Oz and I am really excited. I made my coworkers Dorothy ruby slippers the other day and now I am finishing up my Glenda dress.

I found an old prom or bridesmaid dress at my favorite thrift store for only a few dollars and found the white with silver stars tulle at craft store. After I sized the dress to me I started adding the tulle to the pink dress. I started with the bodice, pinning the tulle in place and then going over it with the sewing machine. I then moved onto the sleeves leaving them poufy and only sewing them on the shoulder. The last think I did was the skirt. I pinned the center of the dress to the center of the tulle and pinned the sides and back.  I then pinned the pleats along the skirt and sewed into place. I had the perfect Glenda costume for under $10 (dress $4, tulle $6)!!

To make the crown I used pink scrapbook paper, cutting out the shape of the crown. I then glued remaining silver star tulle to the paper crown. To hold up each point I used toothpicks on the inside and painted them pink. Lastly I added a ribbon from one side to the other so I would have a place to hold it into place with bobby-pins.
​
To finish my look I had a silver star wand and wore my redone wedding shoes that I made into glass slippers last year when we went to see Cinderella on Broadway on our New York visit.
My costume was such a huge hit and there was glitter everywhere! ​

A few weeks ago I asked my team if they would be interested in dressing up as the Wizard of Oz movie; and much to my surprise most of the said yes. One of my team members wanted to be Dorothy and I told her that I knew how to make the ruby slippers since I have made several pair over the years. This is a really super easy process and if you’re lucky should cost you under $10, much cheaper than you could buy them for in the costume stores. Oh and an added bonus you won’t leave red glitter everywhere you walk!

When brushing on square glitter it tends to build up and not lay as flat. Starting at the heel, brush on thick brush fulls of the glitter mixture. Be careful not to brush spaces in the mixture. Repeat until the entire shoe is covered and set aside to dry.

By the time you finish the second shoe, the first shoe should be ready for the second coat of the glitter mixture. Repeat until you have the desired look and set aside overnight to fully dry. ​

Halloween time means costumes and every year I get to wear a couple of different ones! For our annual Halloween party we wanted to do something comfortable and easy since it is still in the 90’s here! We decided on doing an adaptation of the classic Ghostbusters uniforms. Instead of doing full jumpsuits we wore shirts and shorts/capris, again it is in the high 90’s here! I found khaki shirts at my favorite thrift store and used some iron on transfer paper that I printed out our names and the Ghostbuster logo on. Our costumes were done in no time, but we still needed proton pack! These were going to be a little more challenging since we wanted to keep it simple and we were short on time. Instead of creating an actual proton pack we decided on doing a simplistic box version. I picked up some priority boxes from the nearby post office and printed out four copies of an oversize picture of a proton pack. 

I had the best time last night! The Nightmare before Christmas is one of my favorite movies all time...come on its about my two favorite holidays: Halloween and Christmas! I also really LOVE Danny Elfman, the composer of the movie and almost all of Tim Burton's movies (Batman, Pee Wee's Big Adventure, Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands, and so on).  I heard about this event for the first time last year on one of my favorite podcast and was so sad I couldn't go because the event was on Halloween night. When I heard he was doing the event twice this year I jumped at the chance to go! Thankfully I have a few friends that love his work as much as I do and was willing to dress up with me. The whole concert was mesmerizing, from the orchersta, the artwork on the screen, and Danny signing I couldn't get enough! This event does travel so if you a huge Danny Elfman and Tim Burton fan this is a must see!

Costumes:
Alice - Caroline's Mom
  Black and White Polka Dot Dress
  Red Heels and Pearls

Serenity - Sally
  Dress purchased from Hot Topic
  Black and White Striped Socks
  Black Laced Heels

Me - Jack Skellington
  Black and White Striped Jacket from Jack's Halloween costume a few years ago
  Black and White Striped dress bought from Ebay (originally from Target)
  Bat Bow purchased from Hot Topic
  Black Tights
  Black Mary Janes

As you know by now Amber and I love costumes. A few years ago we started going to our local Comic Con and last year they started doing a cosplay contest. So this year we decided we needed to dress up. We had no desire to compete with some of the amazing costumes we were seeing but felt we needed to dress up and sport our nerdy personalities and support this local event. We were overwhelmed with all of the amazing costumes we got to see this year! Our costumes were simple in comparison but I'm sure they were a lot more comfortable!! We decided to go as the dramatic duo Batman and Robin! The plan was to have the hubbies be Two Face and the Riddler, but since Jack had to leave early he didn't want to be in costume and Aaron didn't want to be the only guy costume. Oh well Amber and I had a blast!

Batman:
 Batman shirt with cape
 Black faux leather skirt
 Black tights
 Black knee high boots
 Mask bought at the Halloween store

Robin:
 Robin shirt with cape
 Green skirt made from a simple circle pattern and stretchy green fabric
 Black boots
 Mask bought at the Halloween store

I am a thrift store addict when it comes to costumes. I love going into one in search for the perfect thing that I can turn into an amazing costume. Amber's, Jack's, my mom's, and many other's costumes were great thrift store finds. My dress came from a clearance sale at JC Penny's way before I started the thrift store searches. I knew when I say it, it would be perfect for the look that I was going for, but it just needed a little sparkle! Some of the dresses already had a great 20's look to them so all I needed to do was fit them. A few others needed a little something something to make them really pop. For Amber's costume I added black fringe to the top and the bottom and added a satin ribbon around her waist. Jack's suit as a great find at a thrift store in Phoenix when I was there for a work conference and had time to kill in the evening, it fit great once I took it in a little on the sides. A lot of the accessories I was able to find on eBay like the hats, spenders, and ties. Party City also had some great hats and long strands of pearls. The headpieces I made were really easy, look for instructions on my earlier post. I used a lot of websites as a reference for the costumes, here are a few of my favorite links:  A lot of the girls used theses links to get hair and make up ideas. Since it was my birthday I had my friend do my hair and make up, it came out so perfect for the theme. I was really happy with how much everyone got into the spirit of the party and got all glammed up! Even Duffey had a little extra bling that night.

Just kidding. I don't actually think 30 is that old and I didn't mind turning 30. Unlike Amber who was dreading turning 30 back in March, but ended up having a blast at her orange themed birthday bash. If you know me, you know that I love parties and I love costumes even more. I thought a perfect way to honor turning 30 was to have a HUGE 1920's themed birthday party. I have been planning it for months and this week has been crazy since the party is this Saturday! There is still so much to do, but for now I leave you with this sneak peak at some of the items I made for it.






















Menu & Table Materials:
Small Art Deco inspired frames 2in x 2in, I found these in the $2 bin at Michaels
Guest Check Font, downloaded free at www.azfonts.net
Paper

Mini Whiskey Favors:
30 10ml bottles with corks, found on eBay
Labels, I used Avery 5160 and cut in half
Font of your choice, I used Playbill I found in Word

Feather Headband:
1/4 yard of trim that matched Amber's costume
4 inches of Elastic
Needle & Thread
Felt
Black Feathers
Button
Hair Clip
Hot Glue Gun

I hand sewed the elastic to the trim after I sized it. I glue the feathers on the felt in the shape that I wanted. Once cooled I glue the button to the point where the feathers came together. I then glued the hair clip to the back of the felt which allowed Amber to put the Feather Clip where she wanted on the Headband.


Happy Birthday to me!!! I can't wait for Saturday!