coming through... it's-a mario & luigi!

Halloween is over and done with and no doubt everyone is now looking forward to Thanksgiving, but I wanted to come in and finally do my post-Halloween blog about the boys costumes. To have spent so little money and not very much time on them, we were all so proud of how they turned out so I'm also sharing some tidbits for anyone who may be interested in putting together their own Mario and/or Luigi costumes for next Halloween, costume play, a themed birthday party, or whatever.  

Once the boys had decided they wanted to dress up as Mario and Luigi, the first thing we did was to make a trip to Goodwill. Within a minute (!!!) of walking in the door I'd found the first pair of overalls. A few more minutes of browsing through the racks I had found another pair. I took my harder to fit child to the dressing room to try them on, and there was yet another pair of overalls hanging up right there in the room that we ended up buying. Since I have never, ever, in my life had so much luck finding what I need at Goodwill, I knew it must be fate. Haha.

 


We were all excited about our great Goodwill finds! The kids know me and my frugal ways and kept going on about how awesome it was to spend less than $10 for two pairs of overalls. Jace even asked if he could wear his everyday after Halloween. However, my excitement over the fab find did not last long. I was on a mission and was soon feeling a little weary about putting together the rest of the costumes. We'd found a very crucial part on the cheap, but in my opinion, the most important part of the whole look ... is the hat! No problem finding Mario and Luigi hats online in costume shops and on ebay, but at about $15-$25 a pop, there was no way I wanted to pay that much for something they would only wear out of the house two or three times at the most.

So, I started looking around for ideas on how to make the hats myself, and came across a few ideas involving a baseball cap but still wasn't thrilled with the look. Not authentic enough, in my opinion. After more extensive searching (looking for anything for over 10 minutes feels extensive to me, so this may be an exaggeration), I finally came across this tutorial, How to Make Mario or Luigi Hats by Helen, on the Groovy Kids Stuff Blog. This was the perfect starting point! I was lucky in that the next week, fleece was 30% off at Hobby Lobby so I ended up paying around $4.50 for 2 yards of the most basic cheap fleece I could find, which was more than enough (what am I going to do with all this extra fleece??? Christmas crafts, anyone?).

I read through many of the comments left on the How to Make Mario or Luigi Hats blog post and suited the instructions to what I was visualizing... for the bill I traced the bill of a baseball cap onto a thin piece of cardboard (I used a cereal box) and used that as a template to cut out the felt. Then, after trimming it down a bit, inserted it into the bill for stability before sewing the pieces up. Also, instead of using sticky foam for the circle, I used sticky-backed felt for the white circle as well as the letters. Since I have very little skill in hand drawing anything, I used this Mario & Luigi font by the Super Mario Bros Club as a tracing guide for the "M" and "L" on the hats. I also used sticky-backed felt for the yellow buttons on their overalls.



 

And finally.... the moustaches. They were a labor of love! Who doesn't love a sweet moustache? On a 7 and 8 year old? Too funny. Once again, because I don't possess the ability to draw or cut anything freehand, I first created the moustaches in Photoshop, printed on brown cardstock, applied a thick layer of glue stick on the backside, layered a sheet of brown felt on top, allowed to dry, and then cut out. You could also use sticky-backed felt, but Hobby Lobby was out of stock. Fake fur may be an interesting look to try (not for my sensitive kids though!) for the most realism, aside from actual fake moustaches. I tried attaching the moustaches with double sided tape, but it lasted about as long as it took me to take the above pictures. Eventually I settled on threading fishing line through the moustaches and making loops to go around their ears, in addition to the double sided tape, which worked pretty well.

If anyone can use them, below are the moustache templates. Please keep in mind that these were very rough sketches that I created in Photoshop using the pen tool. The edges are obviously a little "rough" and are simply intended to be used as a guide in helping you create your own fake moustaches. They are NOT up to the standard set for digital scrapbooking use.

Click the image to download.
(link updated Nov. 10, 2010 it should work fine now. thanks!)





The boys' looks were completed with cheap knit gloves and long sleeved red/green t-shirts, which I did end up purchasing new, but because red and kelly green are two of their "school colors" they will be able to wear them to school, under their polos and button-up shirts.

Dressing up as Mario and Luigi was so much fun for them. They got a lot of attention and compliments, which they loved of course!

I've even done a couple of layout for them already. I saw these cool KGU Famous Frames in Berna's shop and knew they'd be a perfect match for my famous pair! For a full credit list, just click on the layouts to see them in my SBG gallery.  



 

And with that, I am officially done with Halloween until 2011! Thanks for reading :)

the pumpkin patch

I have been so very busy the past few weeks, so I am relieved that Halloween is over and done with. Costumes were made (more on that later) and trick-or-treating has been done. Now I really don't have too much to stress out about, other than the general day to day stuff, until it's time to think about Christmas gifts. And since we only have one more weekend of Fall Ball, I'm looking forward to sleeping in on Saturdays again. Now to enjoy the remainder of fall with no more stress... I hope!

Sadly, we only made one trip to the pumpkin patch this year. It is one of my favorite fall activities and at least two trips are usually necessary for me to feel content. For this trip, originally I was just going to take the boys by myself and had been trying to talk my oldest into going along, as well, without much luck. But the day got away from us so I ended up calling Jason/Daddy to see if he wanted to go along, too. Fortunately, he was up for it and was planning on closing up the shop an hour early. We still had to wait a while for him to get home, showered, and dressed so by the time we got to the pumpkin patch, the sun was starting to set and my photo op options were few. It doesn't help that my boys don't have a lot of patience for my picture taking like they used to, so calling them back to pose by a scarecrow or a pile of pumpkins just doesn't work like it did several years ago. It really makes me sad that they're growing up so fast. Time to have another baby I guess! (hahaha....NOT!)

Here they are looking ever so excited in front of a field of cotton. This was taken as they were running to climb aboard the hay ride that was about to take off. I literally had to yell "STOP!!!" to get their attention and take a picture. 

 

Joey has his wallet. I just noticed that. If I had to guess, I'd say that he wanted to purchase a pumpkin as soon as we walked through the gate. He's been intent on spending his birthday money and is always offering to give it to me or Jason/Daddy or to buy one of us something or to give it to us for groceries or gas (LOL), but we refuse. Despite trying to rid himself of the huge responsibility of saving money he has been very responsible. He's kept up with his $55 for over a month now.

By the time the hay ride was over the sun had set and my photo op's were just about nil - sometimes I forget that my camera even has a flash, I use it so rarely... but even then, in low light, the camera (maybe it's a lens issues) has a hard time focusing - so even with the flash up, I hardly captured any usable shots. I can't believe I was ever worried that the younger two boys would be scared to be at the pumpkin patch at night. They had so much fun climbing up the tower of tractor tires, as well as sliding down the huge slide on potato sacks. The photo used in the layout below was the best shot I could get of them all after dark.  

 
Everything used is by Dianne Rigdon at TwoPeas. Click the layout for full credits.

That's all for now. After three days without a drop of coffee - the first two days I was too busy to notice, but today I found myself stranded at home with a sick kiddo (yes...again with the germs!) and then almost passed out when I went to make myself a pot and realized I'd never replenished my supply - needless to say, I am in somewhat of a forced caffeine-withdrawal-mode with the aches and pounding headache, so putting together anymore coherent thoughts in one day may cause my head to explode.  

I will be back soon with another post-Halloween blog post.

scary stuff: impressions of fright

This kit contains some frightening stuff, but this is one sweet deal! (click image to see bigger previews in the shop).

 

I used this freaky, fun kit to create this layout...

Everything used is from Impressions of Fright, except for the vortex, which I created (download at the end of post).

Journaling
Halloween 2008: This was the last year that Jace and Joey dressed up as something “safe”. Both were too freaked  out by the idea of being some kind of scary character so after a lot of brainstorming, Jace decided that he wanted to be a boxer and Joey was Alvin the Chipmunk. So, I lovingly created both costumes for them, and they were just as cute as could be! Unfortunately, we couldn’t keep the goblins from coming to our door, so by the time we left for a Halloween bon-fire they were both frightened and on edge, but at the same time a little excited about what kind of monsters they’d see next! 

I have always loved making the kids costumes, even if I am not technically making them, but pulling random things together to create some kind of character. I have always felt like we were cheating when we used a store bought costume. They always seem so expensive for what you get. Plus, who wants to be one of one thousand Spongebob's roaming the streets on Halloween night? 

Last year, Halloween of 2009... we didn't have any room in our budget to spend on Halloween costumes. Fortunately, with only two that really wanted to dress up, it wasn't quite as stressful as having to outfit all four boys. The morning of Halloween we started weighing our options, which were very few because everything the boys thought up... would have required a trip to the store. Ahhhhh! Eventually I raided the bathroom closet and found an unused package of Halloween make-up and one white sheet. I came out and said "OK, you two are going to have to decide who wants to be a ghost and who wants to be a zombie-slash-ghoul-slash-something that has a painted face." They both sort of whined and moaned and acted like the very idea of dressing up as a ghost or zombie was actually going to turn them into a monster. I gave them some time to think about it, and eventually they gave in to the idea. After all, they weren't going to go trick-or-treating without being dressed up as something. So I cut up my favorite white sheet and made a ghost costume for Joey. And then we found some old clothes for Jace to wear and ripped them up to shreds, dripped fake blood all over his clothes, and applied the make-up to make him look like "the walking dead". They were a pretty hilarious sight by the time we were done, but I was a proud Mama for having dressed them up without spending a dime. Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures of them in their costumes last year. I can't remember why. I assume either my camera battery was dead or it was one of those times that I decided to stay completely in the moment. Nevertheless, it was a fun Halloween for them and one I will always remember.

It's October 5th as I am writing this, and still no word of what anyone wants to be for Halloween this year. Bless their hearts, I think maybe they're afraid to bring the topic up!

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In my last post, I said that my next post would be something besides layouts. Because I try to be a woman of my word,  I want to give you the vortex that I used in the layout above.  Play with blending modes to get different effects.  I know.... I know. It's pretty simple, but I'm working my way up (maybe) to sharing more freebies from my blog. But anyway, I think this would look neat with some words or rambling thoughts being sucked into the center of the vortex... if you do something like that with this or a vortex of your own creation, I'd love to see how you worked it into a layout!
FYI: created @ 300dpi & overall size is under 2000px X 2000px
Download HERE (link updated Nov. 10, 2010)

pumpkin guts

Never fails, when we're carving our jack-O-lanterns, as soon as the top comes off the pumpkin every boy is scrambling to be the first to get their hands in to see who can pull out the most disgusting glob of pumpkin guts. Joey's expression in the framed photo below cracks me up. He was four at the time, and had just put his hands in a bowl of pumpkin guts. Can't you just hear the  "ewwwwww, slimy!!!" ;) 

 
This page uses PixelWorks new BYOC goodies for October (click layout for full credits)

I'm really looking forward to our annual pumpkin carving night this year, as are the boys. I'm already hearing about what kind of faces they're going to carve, more so than I'm hearing about Halloween costumes. We aren't fancy about it - normally we create our jack-O-lanterns' faces from drawing/cutting them freehandedly, but last year we finally tried some templates (from a book that came in a kit I bought on clearance years ago). And then Jason usually roasts some of the pumpkin seeds. So, see... nothing fancy, just a simple family night at home with all of my guys. Most definitely always fun (although messy) times!  If it weren't for the clean-up, this would be my favorite fall activity.

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No work on the blog yet...

Yesterday morning, Joey woke up and said "I feel great!", and it seemed to be true so he went to school yesterday. He was sick again last night, and again this morning. Ugghhh. Bad Mama moment. Totally gave me déjà vu. To the other Moms out there - I'm sorry for contributing to the spreading of germs. Then to add to my fun... Jared vomited in the bus room when he got to school this morning so they called for me and asked if someone could please come pick him up. I was like... "do I have to?" LOL. Poor kid. He's sleeping peacefully at the moment. Two kids down, two to go. Jason and I are holding out so far. I've been feeling a little funky since yesterday afternoon, so I'm trying to take it easy and NOT GET SICK. Ugh. Mostly I'm just tired. Now I wish I hadn't procrastinated and got some work done on my blog makeover because now I have two sick ones at home, which means having to stop what I'm doing every five minutes for one reason or another, and I would really love to just go lay down... if I wasn't scared of falling asleep and sleeping the entire day, I would do that. Fingers crossed they get over it quickly. Not a good way to start not only the weekend, but the beginning of their two week fall break.

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Thanks for reading. Have a great weekend!