Monday Matticchio

Ahoy ye landlubbers!

 Zoey was NOT happy about having to pose for pictures after school today in her pirate costume.

I just know, in that picture up top, she's picturing me walking the plank. Or worse: swabbing the deck!

Zoey's pirate costume turned out pretty easy. She already had the pants & boots. She DESPERATELY wanted a hook for her hand. So, I searched 4 shops until I landed at Target, where I spent $8 for a package that contained a hook, hat, eye patch, sword & round hoop clip-on earring. 

I had some super thick gold cording that she tied around her waist. It got lost at school today, so for the photos we raided the girls' dress-up bin & I found a sash, adorned with beads.

The only thing I DIDN'T have was the shirt. And I didn't want to spend a lot of money on costumes. So I started googling "How to make a pirate shirt" & I came across THIS ARTICLE which started me in the right direction.

I found a long sleeved {boys} shirt at Goodwill for $2. And then I gathered white thread (to use on the sewing machine & for some hand stitching), lace (mine was 1 3/4" wide, but I would say anything up to 3" wide would work well), & some black hemp cord (you could also use string or ribbon).

First you'll want to gather 18" of lace for the cuff of one sleeves.

Pin the lace onto the outside of the cuff & sew with a sewing machine.

Repeat this for the other sleeve.

Next, take a long piece of lace & form it into a "v" shape on the front of the shirt.

The lace for my cuffs was different than the lace for my shirt. I found a scrap piece in my stash that I really liked for the front of the shirt.

Pin in place & stitch on with a sewing machine.

Now you can thread your hemp cord onto a fat needle.

As you can see, I just did a VERY basic job of stitching some X's.

I decided not to have a "bow" on the front.

The bow is hidden on the inside. But you can adjust yours so the bow is on the outside. The thick needle creates little holes in the shirt, so you can actually pre-poke the holes & then just thread the cord with your fingers, in & out of the holes.

Another option is gluing ribbon/cord/string in a zig-zag pattern, instead of sewing.

And that's it.

 Once all the pieces of the costume are put together, it really looks like a pirate shirt.

Argh!

♥

Give a Hoot! Pazely's Cute!

 I did it!

This little crafty mama made her FIRST Halloween costume!

I definitely didn't come up with this idea on my own.

I found the how-to via pinterest.

The direct link is HERE. (There are other easy-peasy costumes on that site too.)

I'm all about embellishing existing clothes, which is how this costume was constructed.

Why was I ever intimidated in the past??

Pazely loves it, too!!

What follows is not a tutorial, but just photos of my work-in-progress...

I couldn't pick just ONE photo of Pazely in her costume.

So, you get several!

Today the girls get to wear their costumes at school for their Halloween party.

Tomorrow, I'll share Zoey's costume!

♥

Monday Matticchio

Sunday Safari - Arachnophobia

 M. Dobuzinskij, D'javol from Zolotoe runo, 1907


Halloween is drawing near
time to face our wildest fear 

Odilon Redon, Smiling Spider, thanks to Japonisme

Bruno Paul, Plague in South Africa, illustration from Simplicissimus, 1901.

Many thanks to ihatemusic1943 for the info! 

 A. H. Watson, illustration from The Enchanted Blanket, 1936, thanks to ElfGoblin

 Aleksandra Waliszewska, Dom Babci

Film poster by Wojciech Fangor for Les Compagnes de la Nuit, 1956

Book cover by Rein van Looij, 1940s, thanks to 50 Watts

 Walter Martin and Paloma Muñoz, Traveler at Night

Michael Sowa, Spider on the wall

Book cover by Emanuel Schongut, 1960s

Film poster by Wiktor Gorka, 1964

Film poster by Werner Klemke for The Golden Spider 

from Graphis 1959-60, thanks to Sandi Vincent

Lorenzo Mattotti, illustration from The Raven

Halloween Haunted Birdhouse Craft

This one might just be my favorite from the Show Me St.Louis crafts!

Not sure why...other then I like that it's completely changeable right back to a beautiful candle holder and yet can quickly be changed to this spooky birdhouse!!

Supplies:

Metal candleholder/birdhouse (mine was purchased at Hobby Lobby)
Halloween picks
Black Crow
Red Stickles
GlueArts Extreme Adhesive Squares
Martha Stewart Stickers
Spanish Moss (a must have item!)
Cobwebs

Instructions:

1) Super super easy.... tuck some Halloween picks into holder. I chose some black glittery leaves with bats for some fun! Then tuck some spanish moss over the picks into the bottom of the candleholder.

2) Add Red Stickles to the eyes of the crow for glitter and shimmer. Tuck crow into spanish moss.

3) Use GlueArts Adhesive Squares to adhere Martha Stewart "blood dripping" sticker to inside of glass. Add spider stickers to both sides of glass in same spot.

4) Last go to town with cobwebs!

Easy peasy and looks amazing!!!

October Show Me St.Louis Craft Ideas

Hi everyone!

Thanks so much if you tuned into today's show!

This is by far one of my favorite shows to do each year given my love for all things Halloween!

Our house is definitely a fun place to stop at Halloween. We decorate inside and out and well...it's just fun!

Here's the spotlighted craft for today...Graffiti Wall Art!

It's very easy to do...and can be made for any holiday, themes...you name it! Just have fun with it!

Halloween Graffiti Wall Art

Supplies:

GlueArts Glue Glider PRO+ PermaTac  Adhesive

GlueArts Extreme Adhesive Squares

GlueArts Accent It All Vinyl: Blackout, Whiteout,  Goin’ Green,  Plum Crazy, Pumpkin Patch 

(available online at http://www.gluearts.com/accentitall.html)

Cricut Expression2  Diecut Machine

Cricut October 31^st, Happy Haunting and Alphabet Essentials Cartridges

Martha Stewart Halloween Stickers

Canvas

Black Spray Paint

1) Select the size canvas or background for your graffiti. Mine had a background design so I simply spray - painted the front to a solid black.

2) Next list out the words or designs you would like to cut out for the word art.  Be sure to select various fonts and designs for the words so you have a variety of styles. Alphabet stickers would also work well!

3) Select your color of vinyl and cut designs using die cut machine. If you don’t have a machine, consider hand cutting, cutting designs from papers, out of magazines and more!

4) Next working from the middle of the canvas out, start placing your words and designs..filling in the spaces with bits and pieces to make a fun graffiti word art.

Tip…this craft was made to coordinate with my children’s bathroom shower curtain and accessories. You can make this type of wall art for any theme, occasion, size…the skies the limit! 

Glass Skeleton Jar

Supplies:

Spanish Moss

Glittered Skeleton (purchased at Michael's Craft Stores) 

Glass Jar (HomeGoods)

Martha Stewart Halloween Spider Sticker

Plastic roaches

Twine

Pink Paislee tag

1) This is an easy and quick decoration that looks great in a set of three. Look for unique glass jars at stores such as Home Goods, Marshall's and TJ Maxx. Try to select three different size and style jars to fill with goodies.

2) Simply add in spanish moss (please note..it's very mess so work over a surface or newspaper) Tuck in your skeleton bones and roaches. Tie a tag around jar and add a few more bones at the foot of the jar. It's just that easy.

Designer Tip...for other jars add skeleton heads, spray painted black snakes or bugs, larger bones...you name it. Want it cute versus gross...then have each jar hold pumpkins, candy, suckers, gummy eyeballs and all that fun stuff!!

    

Be sure to stop in tomorrow as I'll show more ideas from today's Show Me St.Louis craft segment!

Ghost Finger Puppets

A belated "Boo!" to you!

 I know Halloween has come & gone, but I wanted to show the pics from, like, the only Halloween craft I did this year. Honestly, Halloween is not my favorite. I just can't get into it for some reason. But I wanted something small & handmade & super easy to make that I could add to the 16 goodie bags headed to Zoey's 2nd grade class Halloween party.

I found the instructions for these adorable ghost finger puppets HERE. They are made from plaster of paris cloths, which I had purchased in the summer when the fam went on a mini vacay to Cheyenne. I had plans to do a craft with the girls, but never got around to it. I purchased it at Michael's & it is some FUN (& slightly messy) stuff!!!

This plaster stuff has so many possiblities! Can't wait to play around with it!

The only thing I did different in making these finger puppets, was to use black acrylic paint for the face instead of a permanent marker.

♥