New Year's Eve Party Masks

 I love DIY party accessories. It's great to see what each child creates. For New Year's Eve you can't go wrong with some fun masks.

 I grabbed these basic eye mask cut-outs for our New Year's Eve party (you could also cut a simple eyes mask from card stock or a paper plate) and I will provide the kids with dot paints, glue sticks, sequins, feathers and confetti to decorate. They can add a simple craft stick to the back with masking tape to hold over their eyes.

 There is so much that can be done with these. It would be fun to challenge the grown-ups as well!

 This one is just dot paints with confetti on top. So colorful!

 You could use the craft stick or even an elastic band.

I might have to pull these back out for Mardi Gras.

Happy New Year! See you in 2014!!

8 Easy Costume Accessories

 Here are 8 simple ways to create a costume at home with things you most likely already have around the house. Best part is children can be involved in making their costumes! Have to love that!

 I love the delicate vintage look of this lace crown. When we first made it I imagined it being perfect for a newborn photo shoot. There are so many options for this one to become the perfect crown for any princess desired costume.

 To make a lace crown all you need is glue, lace, a stapler and optional gems. Emma painted a strip of lace with glue and let it dry. Once dry she stapled it together to form a crown and added gems to the top. There are so many options when it comes to lace ribbon. You can make this as extravagant as you like. Check out my full tutorial at Kiwi Crate for more details.

 The royal pipe cleaner crown is so easy for kids to make and can be embellished with beads or left simple. This is a fun costume accessory for Halloween, a birthday or any ordinary day.

 Just twist and sculpt the crown the way you like. Check out my full details at Kiwi Crate.

 We made this bonnet for Easter last spring, but we have continued to use this technique for many different hats. It can easily become a pirate or witch hat with a little black paint and felt details. Check out details here, Easter Bonnet.

 Do you have a Rapunzel on your hands? Or maybe a clown or Raggedy Anne? This is another accessory that is very versatile and yarn hair is much sweeter than those plastic hair wigs you find in the stores. To see full instructions head to my DIY Crazy Hair Wig post.

 These unicorn headbands were originally made for Emma's Unicorn birthday party, but have become a favorite in our dress-up box. Add a tutu and tail and you got a great unicorn halloween costume. See more details here, Unicorn Birthday Party.

 Wands are good for many costumes. These were specific to fairies, but can easily be changed to any sort of wand you need. They start out with a stick found in the yard, pretty easy to do. My full instructions are at my Nature Fairy Wand post.

Have a rock star in your life? Well, you will definitely need a microphone! A paper roll and balloon make this rock star ready to perform. Details are over on my DIY Music post.

 Another wand completes this list. This has been used for the princess, fairy and magician in my house.

We made this with a styro ball, chopstick and some ribbon. Details on Kiwi Crate.

What are you creating this Halloween? So far I have had requests for a princess leopard, spider-man, super hero pirate and a mermaid. I wonder what the final call will be.
Happy costume crafting, friends!

DIY Costumes--Bird Wings

 Over the next few weeks I want to share a few simple ways to make DIY Halloween costumes with simple materials around the house.
I think my daughter wears some sort of costume accessory every single day. I am guessing most 6-year-olds are this way and I don't know about you, but it gets me having to think outside of the box in order to fulfill her daily requirement for changing character!

 These bird wings were created when Emma assumed that a feather boa was for a really fancy bird (because why would anyone wear feathers unless they could fly, of course.) Made sense to me and with a few safety pins we figured out just how a really fancy bird would use a bright blue feather boa.

 I pinned each end of the boa to each wrist of the shirt.

 Another two pins were used to attach to the upper back and THAT IS IT!

This was not on Halloween, but it was on a very fantastically ordinary day that we all dressed liked fancy birds and flew through the yard doing what fancy birds do (building fancy nests, of course.)

I wanted to share this because it is very simple and made for a beautiful day full of beautiful little imaginations at work. There is not much better than that. I can see this becoming a great costume paired with a simple feather mask and blue leggings.

I also shared this craft over at Kiwi Crate. Happy Halloween crafting!!