It’s December 1st, and although stores have been in Christmas mode since even before (American) Thanksgiving, we’re now “officially” close to the holidays. Here’s a quick holiday project that’s easy enough for kids to make (with minor supervision). These easy photo ornaments are a great way to share cute images and make great gifts for grandparents. They can even be used as gift tags!
I used extras of my kids’ Santa’s lap pictures, but you can use school photos, family portraits, even pet pics!
All materials as shown were found at my local Dollarama, though I’ve linked Amazon’s versions for delivery convenience.
For an ornament style, have draw or trace a circle around the desired part of your image. You aren’t limited to circles, of course, and can draw any shape you like. Cut out your shape and outline it with your choice of glitter glue. You can add other embellishments if desired, can trace only the outline as above or a later pic below, or fill in a part of the image as seen in the following images. Set aside to dry fully – at least a few hours, or overnight.
Prepare your tulle or ribbon as follows: make one large bow, one small one, and then tie two bells onto a 10″ length of tulle/ribbon, leaving about 3.5″ between them. You can trim the tail ends later. If unable to thread the tulle/ribbon through the bell’s loop, a yarn needle can help. You can also use the yarn needle (or the scissors or a hole punch) to make a small hole in the top center of the image.
Stack the small bow on top of the large bow and use the tulle/ribbon with the bells to tie them together, allowing the bells to dangle below. Cut all tails to desired length.
To assemble: Cut a 10″-12″ length of yarn. Loop through the hole in the ornament. You can use the yarn needle to thread the yarn ends through the knot of the large bow, or tie the yarn directly around the center of the bow bundle, between the two bells. Knot the two ends of the yarn together to create a hanging loop.
These hold up pretty well! While the step-by-step images were taken in 2017, the photos from here onward were taken in November 2021. This is an early, more simple version I’d made in about 2015.
The example ornament has the center spot in our wreath and it’s lasted quite well. I’ve written the date and kids’ ages on the back, and they create a nice memory during the holiday season.
Happy holidays!
This post may contain affiliate links. This means I might make a small commission on purchases made through the links, at no cost to you.
Halloween is in two weeks, so you know what that means- time to start scrambling for (not quite) last-minute costume ideas! To help out, here are some costume-related projects from my archives that are short enough to get done before the 31st. 🙂
All month Henri has been telling me he planned to wear his Creeper costume for Halloween this year. He’s brought it up many times and even pulled the head out of the dress-up bin in our den to try it on and be sure it still fit. And then this past Friday his class went to circus school for the day and he came home like this:
and then told me he wanted to be Pikachu for Halloween.
This guy:
Um. Okay. We had nothing at home I could use to make a physical costume, but I knew we’d be going to Walmart the next day so I told him if we found a set of face paint, I’d buy it and would paint his face like Pikachu.
Saturday we were at Walmart and found some inexpensive face paint, but then he started complaining that he didn’t have Pikachu’s ears. I thought about it a little and told him we’d be going to the dollar store next; if he found a headband that fit him I’d buy some yellow felt and make him some ears. He found a girl’s one with a plastic bow attached, but it was yellow and fit him, and they had a pack of felt with yellow in it so we brought it home and I set it aside.
Yesterday I was at my parents’ house for dinner and Henri made a comment about being excited to wear his Pikachu costume to school the next day and I realized – oh crap, Halloween is tomorrow!
Ahem. Forgive me, my brain has been a little foggy lately.
We got the kids home and to bed and then I sat down and made Henri’s costume. It was quick, and it was easy, and it used either dollar store supplies or things you may already have on hand, so if you’re stuck for a last-minute costume, here’s how you can whip this up in plenty of time to go trick or treating tonight. Grab a friend who’s dressed like a Pokemon Trainer and you can be your very own live Pokemon Go team. 🙂
The first thing I did was carefully cut off the plastic flower on the head band, then I put it on Henri’s head and marked off where the ears should sit. As it happens we have a large Pikachu doll that was the right size to trace for the ear shape, but you can just freehand it.
After the ear shape was drawn, I drew a second line about a quarter inch outside it, for a seam allowance. Then I cut out the shape through all 4 layers of yellow felt.
The next step is to sew the ears together. I used yellow thread and a simple running stitch since the ears wouldn’t really be under any tension. I left the open end edges unsewn for about a quarter inch so I had enough fabric open to gather over the heandband. If you don’t want to sew, you could also glue the sides shut, but if you do make sure to put the ear side that you drew on on the inside to hide the pen markings.
Next I colored the ear tips with a black sharpie. The mess you see on the right is the transfer of ink from one side when I flipped it over to color the other side. I’m showing you this so you can be prepared and cover your work surface.
Once the tips were colored I stuffed each ear with some loose batting then sewed them over the sides of the headband where I’d previously marked. I used a blanket stitch to close the open edge but you can use any stitch you like, or glue them shut as well.
Here are the finished ears. They look silly off but are kind of cute on.
(Yes I had to try them).
While I was working on the ears I kept glancing over at the tail on our stuffed Pikachu and realized it wouldn’t take that much more effort to make one too, and surprise Henri.
To start I took some cardboard from our recycling bin and sandwiched it between two sheets of white cardstock with a regular glue stick. To make sure it dried well I placed it flat on the table and set some heavy books on it. Once the ears were done the cardboard had fully dried and I was able to trace Pikachu’s tail onto it.
Then I cut out the tail. I brainstormed a few different ways to attach it to Henri. I don’t like the idea of sending a 7yo to school with a safety pin on his butt, so I came up with a belt method. To make it work I carefully pried back about an inch of the tail section and folded the cardstock on each side outwards.
I used my Spectrum Noir markers to color the yellow of the tail and then colored the lower edge with a black Sharpie, completely overlooking the fact that it’s supposed to be brown, because I was working in dim lighting. D’oh. You can use any permanent markers, and do the proper colors. 🙂
To make the belt section, I first cut two holes into each side flap. I then threaded three strands of yellow yarn through each side, made a knot to secure them near the top, and then braided them into belts which I could then slide through the belt loops on his jeans and tie at the front. I made them longer than needed because I didn’t have his waist with me to try them on, and had planned to cut the excess this morning but we ended up just tucking the ends into his jeans.
And there you have it! Add in some yellow face paint, bright red cheek circles and a black triangular nose and poof-
You’ve got one happy Pikachu.
Have a happy and safe Halloween!
—-
Looking for more Halloween costume ideas? Check out here.
This post may contain affiliate links. This means I might make a small commission on purchases made through the links, at no cost to you.
When my boys were little, they wanted to be pirates. Henri especially – it was either a Viking or a pirate, depending on the day. Inspired by Jake & the Neverland Pirates they drew treasure maps with large scrawled Xs and hid their toys and told me it was their secret booty.
I wanted to give them some real toys to play with, but all the pirate-themed sets I could find weren’t safe for my rambunctious 3-year-old. I needed something childproof, and ideally inexpensive. Finally, after catching him trying to use his sippy cup as a spyglass just like the Backyardigans had on one of their pirate-themed adventures, I had an idea. One trip to the dollar store and some recycling-bin scrounging later, these fast, easy, and inexpensive toys were born.
I used items found locally, but the links above would work just as well 🙂
First up – the binoculars. (Btw…yes I know pirates didn’t use binoculars. But I couldn’t be certain my kids would use the spyglass as such, and not a makeshift sword, so I wanted to give them another sight-related option. Feel free to leave this one out, or use it for a different play idea. Perhaps an adventurer, bird-watcher or a fun game of I-spy?) For the binoculars you will need 2 clean toilet paper rolls, one cube from a dollar store packet of wooden craft shapes (about the size of a sugar cube), and a roll of electrical tape. At my dollar store this tape comes in a set of 4 colors all packaged together. You can use Washi or other decorative tapes on the outside, but I would not use them for the support structure. If you want to use them, apply them at the end, for decoration.
Step one is to cover the tubes in tape. I had done these first, and only later realized I should have covered the exposed edges FIRST, THEN wrapped the sides. When I get to the spyglass you’ll see I fixed that. If you want to be smarter than me, fold little pieces of tape over the exposed edges first. Be careful to not place the inside edge deeper than the width of the tape itself so you can cover it later. I have enough tubes for 3 sets shown because my neighbor’s young son was also really into pirates and I wanted to surprise him with a set of his own.
Step two is to cover 4 of the sides of the cube in tape. Place the tape on one edge of the cube and just keep wrapping around the other 3 sides until you reach the beginning again. You’ll be left with 2 exposed edges that are opposite of each other. Don’t worry about covering them, as they will be against the tube rolls and won’t show.
Step three is to connect the rolls to the cube. Place it a bit in from one edge so it looks like the bridge on a pair of binoculars. Be sure to place the raw, exposed edge against the tape so the covered sides are what is shown. Secure well with more tape.
This is what it looks like when you have three rolls done. I’d run out of tape, and had to go buy more to get more blue… d’oh.
This is when I covered the edges and realized I should have done it first. Oh well. If you’re like me, and goofed, place short strips around the exposed edges. This is for aesthetics as well as durability – no open edges means it’s less likely the toy will tear or fray after some hard toddler use. Be sure to not place the inside edge deeper than the width of the tape itself (see: left roll). Once you’ve covered the edge completely, cut a length of tape to fit on the INSIDE of the roll, and place it around, as close to the edge as possible, to cover and secure all the short edges (see: right roll).
Then you can use another length to go around the outside, covering those short pieces too. (This step is unnecessary if you covered the edges first).
Here’s a completed pair of binoculars. The new blue tape I’d bought was darker than the original, so it gave a nice finished look, almost like adjustable lenses. Even though they’re ‘only’ toilet paper rolls, the rubbery tape gives them a surprising amount of durability. Don’t get them wet, however, as the inside paper is still exposed.
Next I made the spyglasses out of paper towel rolls (though you can cut down wrapping paper tubes too). As you can see, for these I was smart enough to cover the ends FIRST, THEN wrapped the tubes. It’s easier to see on the white than the blue, but when you wrap, ease the tape slightly sideways so you can move along the tube/roll. Because the tapes are rubbery, they’ll stretch to where you want them to go, instead of tearing.
Finish covering the tubes by wrapping a piece of tape around the inside of the open edges to cover the short pieces. Because you did them first here, you won’t have to add more tape on the outside.
(This picture makes me laugh because it’s such a typical scene in my house – the dining room table covered with mom’s crafty projects, the kids’ placemats and a bag from the latest dollar store run for supplies. *chuckles* Plus seeing the boys’ bibs reminds me just how long ago I’d made these. Those are their “I ❤ Dic Ann’s” bibs. *grins*)
Once the spyglasses have been covered with tape, use glitter glue (from the dollar store) to paint on whatever decorative touches you’d like. I went with gold grip handles on mine. Set them aside to dry overnight, using drinking glasses or other supports to avoid messing up the wet glue.
For the treasure chests you’ll need some kind of chest-like container. I was lucky that my dollar store had these little wooden chests, but you can use any container or box you have on-hand, even an old Tupperware. I bought strips of glitter gem tape to decorate mine, but you can use sticker letters, nail gems, paint, or anything you like. (Oooh they would look INCREDIBLE painted to look like real, aged chests!)
Finally, you’ll need some pirate booty. I got these acrylic diamonds from my dollar store, as well as the strands of ‘Mardi Gras’ beads. I would have loved to include gold coins, but couldn’t find any on that visit. This set I found on Amazon has both gems and gold coins together, and would have been a great addition.
Decorate the chests. My kids picked their favorite colors of these jewel strips and I cut them to fit along the top edges, but you can do whatever you like to the outside of the chests.
To secure the booty inside, we’ll be using a high-tack craft glue. If you have older kids you can omit this step and leave the treasures removable, but since two of my recipients were 3 years old and some of the jeweled edges were sharp or choking hazards, I elected to make my treasures permanent. Plus this would ensure there was always booty ready to be discovered. Place a thick layer of glue in the bottom of the case, a little more than you think you’ll need because the wood absorbs some. Begin placing your chains and jewels down into the glue so that they look like they were piled in haphazardly. Use more glue as needed to secure any loose bits. Feel around to make sure any sharp edges are embedded in the glue vs sticking out. Every now and then hold up or shake the box to see if any bits move or shift, and keep adding glue into every nook and cranny. I went crazy on the glue because I know my toddler will find any loose edge to play with. Don’t worry about the white glue showing as it will dry clear. Finally, once you think your treasures are secure, set it aside to dry at least overnight. I dried mine overnight then held it upside down and shook it around, then added more glue to any of the bits that moved. One of the chests was going to be a gift for a toddler and I didn’t want to worry about any accidents on account of it.
Here’s how my collection turned out. They made fun play accessories for around the house and costume day at school, and were surprisingly long-lasting. The boys didn’t manage to get the gems and beads out of the boxes for at least a year and a half, and the chests, the spyglasses and even the binoculars are all still intact in our dress-up bin all these years later.
If you make any of these I hope they give your toddler/child just as much fun as my kids had with them. 🙂
This post may contain affiliate links. This means I might make a small commission on purchases made through the links, at no cost to you.
Update: This tutorial is now also available as a downloadable PDF here. More details at bottom of this post.
Some of you may, like me, be suddenly realizing there are only ten days left until Halloween. No stress – there’s still plenty of time to make a Minecraft Enderman costume, complete with a matching diamond block trick-or-treat basket!
For Halloween last year Jakob wanted to be a Minecraft Enderman. For reference, these are the tall, spindly black figures who appear out of nowhere to steal your blocks. They’re neutral mobs who can teleport and will only attack when provoked by looking them in the eyes (which, to be honest, is kind of hard to avoid, seeing as how they’re the most vivid part of the things!).
In the game Enderman can’t actually pick up diamond blocks, but that’s what Jakob wanted anyways. To be an Enderman carrying a diamond block.
I was fresh off my “Skylanders Sprocket wrench pulling double-duty as secret purse” achievement so I thought if he’s gonna be schlepping a box around anyways… why not make it useful and turn it into his trick-or-treat basket? So that’s what I did. 🙂
The first thing to do was assemble all materials. In total the two parts of the costume required the following:
2 boxes (one large enough to fit over the wearer’s head, & a second box to be the treat basket)
Everything but the boxes and scissors came from my local dollar store, making this not only an easy costume to make, but a really inexpensive one too.
ENDERMAN HEAD
Top row:
Assemble all materials
Cut off the flaps on the side of the box you want for the opening. Tape down all other flaps securely, cover all seams and use tape to cover the cut edges at the bottom.
Measure out your grid on all 5 remaining sides of the box.
Middle row:
Cut out the eye holes.
Cover the cut edges of the eye holes with masking tape, then paint the Enderman’s eyes with two different shades of purple.
Paint the rest of the Enderman’s head. I followed a actual chart pattern using shades of charcoal and black but you can just as easily paint the whole rest of the head solid black.
Bottom row:
Optional: tape a piece of sheer black fabric over the eye holes so they don’t show from the outside but can still be seen through on the inside
Enjoy your new Enderman head!
Wear with black sweatpants, a black sweatshirt, and black stretchy gloves. Add a diamond block trick-or-treat basket for a complete Halloween costume!
(optional- seal the paint with spray sealant, more on that below)
DIAMOND BLOCK TRICK-OR-TREAT BASKET
Top row:
Assemble all materials
Cut off the flaps on the side of the box you want for the opening. Tape down all other flaps securely, cover all seams on the outside and cover the cut edges at the bottom.
Mix aqua and white together to get a few different light aqua shades.
Middle row:
Following an in-game image of a diamond block, paint one side in shades of aqua, making one lower corner darker for shading. Repeat on the other 4 sides.
Add a border to all 5 sides using the aqua paint at its full strength.
Paint the inside of the box black.
If you prefer a more accurate version, I have compiled this tutorial into a downloadable PDF (linked at the bottom of the post) which includes full-color screen-accurate charts for both the Enderman and the 16×16 grid of the diamond block, including the hex codes for each color so you can color-match accurately.
Bottom row:
Make 2 holes in 2 opposing sides. Knot ribbon through the holes to act as handles.
Enjoy your diamond block trick-or-treat basket!
Add to the Enderman head for a complete Halloween costume.
One optional step that I did but is not obligatory at all is to spray the painted sides with a sealant. I didn’t know what the weather would be like on Halloween and didn’t want to worry about rain causing the paint to run.
*Update in 2020: the heads are still going strong! The boys outgrew them of course, but we keep them as nerdy shelf displays and they look exactly the same as they did back when I made them.
And that’s it! The longest part in making these costume pieces is waiting for the paint to dry. 🙂
(PS: Looking for the big guy’s little buddies? Check out my tutorial for Minecraft Steve and Creeper heads here!)
I hope this post shows you how easy and fast it can be to make your own Minecraft Steve and Creeper heads!
You can adapt the tutorial to make any Minecraft mob, and I’ve got an assortment compiled for you here.
As mentioned above, if you’d like an easy-to-print-and-save PDF version of this tutorial, I have made it available on Etsy here. The 12-page PDF includes full instructions with additional details, clear photographs, as well as game-accurate full-color numbered charts for all 5 sides of both the Enderman’s head and the diamond block, along with their hex codes for perfect color matching.
Update: This tutorial is now also available as a downloadable PDF here. More details at bottom of this post.
It’s October! That means it’s okay to start talking about Halloween, right?
It is according to Henri- when I woke him up for school this morning he gazed up at me sleepily and grinned “It’s October 1st.” When I asked why that mattered he smiled even more adorably and said “Because now it’s almost Halloween.”
‘Almost’ is relative. (He clearly gets his awareness of time from his father). However his mention of it reminded me that I never showed last year’s costume. So. Now, with plenty of time to get ready for this year’s holiday… here’s how I made the boys Minecraft Steve and creeper heads, and how you can too!
The boys decided for Halloween they wanted to dress up as their favorite Minecraft characters. They do sell ready-made cardboard heads in stores but they are expensive, and there are a ton of tutorials online. I looked at a few, then worked things out with what I had on hand, and what I was able to find at the dollar store.
What you’ll need:
square boxes (large enough to fit over the wearer’s head)
1. Yannick came home with 2 small boxes he’d found somewhere. Grocery stores often have ones you can ask for, or as a last resort you can buy boxes.
2. I used two-sided tape to tape the outer flaps to the inner ones (not shown) so the inner flaps wouldn’t drop down onto the kids’ heads. Then I used masking tape to fully tape over the top seam, both to securely close one end of the box, and to make the seams less visible once they were painted.
3. I cut the lower flaps off the boxes and then used the same masking tape to cover the exposed edges. It would gave a cleaner look, vs the rough look of cut corrugated cardboard, plus was less likely to catch and tear, which could potentially pull off the paint.
4. I divided the 4 sides and top into even grids. I looked at pictures of the characters online and mapped out roughly how many squares per color/face, and then used a ruler to divide the front (face side) into the grid. Once the face was set, I carried the markings around the sides of the boxes, and finally the top. Because the boxes are taller than wide, the top has fewer squares than the sides do. That’s not what the characters SHOULD look like, but I didn’t think the kids would mind.
5. Once the boxes were plotted I used a cutting blade (also from the dollar store) to slice out the eyehole sections. For Steve, only the dark pupil area was cut out. For the creeper it made more sense with where Henri’s face was to cut out the larger nose/mouth section. After removing those areas I covered the exposed edges with masking tape.
6. Finally it was time to start painting. The paints and brushes were from – you guessed it – the dollar store. The advantage with the Minecraft characters is that if you have to custom mix your paints to get the right colors, it doesn’t matter as much as it would in most projects if you have enough to complete your painting or if you need to mix more and risk not matching quite right. The goal is to have an assortment of shades, so blending colors works perfectly.
That said, if you prefer a more accurate version, I have compiled this tutorial into a downloadable PDF (linked at the bottom of the post) which includes full-color screen-accurate charts for both characters, including the hex codes for each color so you can color-match accurately.
Here’s the four sides of the painted creeper head. I set the boxes to dry on a paper towel roll to hold them off my counter until the lower edge was dry. (I held them up the same way while painting too).
Same goes for our buddy Steve here. I’d only had three shades of brown paint on-hand to work with, so I blended them together with some black for the hair, and then lightened with some white and a touch of red for the face. (I’d actually done the face/neck/ears first, so then I could re-use the same paints but darken them for the hair. That avoided any waste and kept the same unifying overall color tone for the head.)
I had them both on the counter while I cleaned up the dining room table of all my painting gear. Couldn’t resist this dramatic shot. Look out! He’s behind you!
7. The next step was to seal the heads with an aerosol can of clear sealant. I didn’t know what the weather would be like on Halloween and didn’t relish the idea of my hard work being ruined by a few drops of rain or thick snow settling on the kids’ heads. I moved the heads into the garage and set them on some newspaper to protect the floor as I sprayed, and did a few coats, allowing each one to dry for about 20 minutes in between. If you have a dry, open area outside or good, even weather you could do this next step outside, but here there was nowhere I could leave them unattended, so I had my garage door open the entire time I sprayed, and then left it about a foot open during the drying time between coats. Once they were properly sealed and dry to the touch I brought them inside and allowed them to dry for a full day before the final steps.
The last bit in getting the masks ready to wear was to block out the open areas. I bought a gauzy sheer black scarf (also at the dollar store!) and cut off squares large enough to fully cover the open areas.
8. Using the same double-sided tape I secured the black fabric down around the cut areas.
9. Finally I covered all the exposed edges of the cloth with masking tape, making it doubly secure and hiding any rough, cut edges so they wouldn’t catch or fray.
With that, the masks were complete! The black gauzy fabric looks opaque from the outside but from the inside it’s so sheer that it’s quite easy to see through it, making it perfect for this project.
From idea to finished product this project took about 4 days. Halloween was on a Friday last year and Yannick brought me home the boxes on Monday night. Tuesday I did everything up to/including painting. On Wednesday night I sprayed the clear coat, and then on Thursday night I stuck the black fabric in.
They were pretty darn excited!
Halloween night they posed for a quick picture inside…
…then it was time to go trick-or-treating.
Can’t you almost hear the tick…tick…tick…BOOM? The heads held up beautifully and the boys felt like mini celebrities as they walked down the street and people from all over, even in passing cars, yelled out “Steve!” and “Creeper!” and gave them high-fives. The heads have now become part of our dress-up box and are still in great condition, and they wore them for ‘Halloween Day’ at their camp this summer.
*Update in 2020: the heads are still going strong! The boys outgrew them of course, but we keep them as nerdy shelf displays and they look exactly the same as they did back when I made them.
I hope this post shows you how easy and fast it can be to make your own Minecraft Steve and Creeper heads!
You can adapt the tutorial to make any Minecraft mob, and I’ve got an assortment compiled for you here.
As mentioned above, if you’d like an easy-to-print-and-save PDF version of this tutorial, I have made it available on Etsy here. The 9-page PDF includes full instructions with additional details, clear photographs, as well as game-accurate full-color numbered charts for all 5 sides of both character’s heads along with their hex codes for perfect color matching.
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