DIY Halloween Costume - Potato Bug and Gingerbread Cookie

Trick or Treat! Would you dare open your door to two such nefarious characters? Take a second look at the smaller mug:

Well, don't let this delectable looking Gingerbread Cookie fool you. I used to call her "the Brute" back then. She was nearly kicked out of her Montessori school a year later and there are dents around the house from the ferocity of her tantrums.

This costume also proves that I always seem to have food on my mind. For my son's first Halloween, he was a Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich, which was rather ironic as he soon developed a bad peanut allergy. He used to go ring each doorbell and say, "Trick or Treat I can't have any candy with nuts or eggs." The conversations that ensued made for slow going on Halloween night. I made my daughter into a Gingerbread Cookie for her first Halloween, and showing she knew a good thing when she saw it, she asked to be a Cookie again for her second turn at trick or treating.

I used a store bought generic clown/bodysuit pattern, light brown heavy fleece, 4.5 yards of thick cream rickrack, 24" of pink satin ribbon, elastic for the wrists and ankles, velcro for the hood, a zipper for the back, and some deep purple fabric for the raisins. Follow the directions on the package but attach the rickrack before sewing front and back together. I made the raisins by taking a circle of fabric and just scrunching it into a wrinkly oval and sewing it together before attaching it to the costume.

I was so worried about my little morsel getting cold that I made this outfit as warm as a woolly coat. Of course my daughter had a metabolism like a furnace and she got rather sweaty inside it. But she looked good, and as she in her present incarnation would opine, that is all that matters.

Where's that can of Raid when you need it? We really thought our son would turn out to be an entomologist at this time, as there was nothing he loved so much as insects. So it was no surprise when he asked to be a potato bug for Halloween. I bought a black turtle neck at the consignment shop, and used material scraps I had already for the rest of the costume. I basically sewed a pillow in the oval shape of a potato bug, glued on strips of black for the stripes, and time always being short, simply pinned it to the back of his shirt. He was of course adamant that an insect had six legs, so I sewed two tubes of black fabric, stuffed them and pinned them to the back of his shirt as well. I also put a loop on the ends to slip over his wrists so he could wave all four arms at once. I attached some pipe cleaners to a headband for his antennae.

"This is good stuff. How 'bout we slip out and do a few more blocks while Mom's asleep?"

Happy Halloween!

Jody







www.astudiobythesea.etsy.com

Recipe - Vegan Chocolate Cake


I'd done a decent amount of baking in my life before I was blessed with two children with food allergies to eggs and nuts. Thanks to the internet I've been able to find and modify some recipes so they wouldn't be deprived of childhood's staple goodies. This is a fast and simple recipe for egg-free chocolate cake.

Vegan Chocolate Cake

3 cups all purpose flour
2 cups granulated sugar
1 cup cocoa powder
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons vinegar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups water

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Stir together all the dry ingredients in a mixing bowl. Add the oil, vanilla, vinegar and water. Mix together until smooth.

Pour into baking cups for cupcakes or greased cake pans. Cook 15 minutes for the former and around 45 minutes for the latter. Remove from oven when a toothpick goes in and comes out clean, and allow to cool. Makes 24 cupcakes , two 9x5 inch loaf pans or two large round cake layers.


Not being dietary vegans, we frost with chocolate ganache.

Cocolat's Ganache

1 quart heavy whipping cream
1 lb. dark chocolate

Grind up the dark chocolate very fine in the food processor.

Heat cream over medium heat in metal mixing bowl on top of the stove. Watch carefully or it will boil over.

Stir in ground chocolate, and continue to heat over lowest heat setting and stir occasionally until bits of chocolate are really melted in.

Chill mixture in the refrigerator for several hours. Take out and whip with a mixer until just stiff enough to hold it's shape. Use for frosting cakes or just enjoying by itself. YUM!


Jody



astudiobythesea.etsy.com

DIY Halloween Costume: The Black Knight

"T'is but a scratch"

Having shown his warlike tastes by spending his previous Halloweens as a ninja, a War of 1812 ship captain and a Revolutionary War drummer boy, my son decided he would be something humorous last year - the black knight from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. That was the character in the rather bloody scene where King Arthur discovers his path blocked by a knight who refuses to stop fighting even after all his limbs are cut off. I figured with black jeans, a belt, and a black hooded sweatshirt, this wouldn't take too long to make. I already had a nice big Lord of the Rings plastic greatsword for him to use while he still had his arms, so all he was really going to need was a surcote and a helm after I convinced him he was not going wear one of my real helms from my days in the Society for Creative Anachronism.

Materials for costume for 10 to 12 yr old
Two 22"x40" rectangles of black fabric
9" square of red fabric
3 black craft foam sheets
red and white acrylic paint (acrylic gloss is optional)
x-acto blade
glue gun
masking tape
fabric adhesive spray
sewing machine
ruler

Sew the shoulders of the black fabric together, leaving a nice wide openning for the head and neck. I also sewed a pleat on either shoulder, so the surcote wouldn't hang over my son's arms too much. I cut out two triangular flaps and my son painted the bloody stumps, which turned out well and as his friends remarked admiringly, "Really gross." It took a day to dry, and then I also brushed it with some acrylic gloss. These flaps I sewed underneath the shoulders, so my son could tuck them in or out, depending on when he wished to be armless.
I screen captured the boar on the chest of the black knight's surcote and hand drew it onto the red fabric. Any one could enlarge the picture below instead. I then cut it out, sprayed the back with the fabric adhesive and machine appliqued it to the front.
The helm was made with 3 pieces of black craft foam. The back piece measured 12" wide by 8.5" high. The front piece was 14" wide and came to a point below the chin at 10.25", while it was 8.5 at the sides. I marked the eye and air slits from the back and cut them out with the x-acto blade and a ruler.
The top was an 9" by 7"oval.
I used masking tape to hold the parts together and then made things a lot more permanent with a glue gun. I also cut little circles of foam to be the rivets. I was going to spray it silver but my son liked it the way it was, & so it was done. A nice light helm, good for running about in at school and while trick or treating.
"NONE SHALL PASS!"

Jody



Craft in Bermuda

This summer, I decided to do something for vacation that I've never done before. Ok, so it's not terribly uncommon on the whole, but for me, it is absolutely uncommon. You see I'm a fly by the seat of my pants kind of gal - don't like being cooped up in any one place on a trip. I'd rather explore on land, and see and meet the locals, than be on an invisible leash. But not this time. This time I went on a cruise.

4 days out to sea, and 3 days in Bermuda. I won't bore you with the details because all I really want you to know about is this:

A little shop called Dockyard Glassworks. The shop is conveniently located within walking distance of where the cruise ships dock (I know what you're thinking: "tourist trap"!)

Ten years ago, the owners of Dockyard Glassworks decided to collaborate in order to open their art glass business. Since then, they have been producing art glass for sale locally and to export.

Perhaps the best thing about Dockyard Glassworks is not only the unique items for sale, but rather that you can watch the glass artisans at work! For more info, visit http://www.dockglass.com/



by Lorina Pellach-Ladrillono of The Original Beadscarf and beadscarf.etsy.com

Crafts and Craft Selling for Kids




Crafts & Craft Selling for Kids

If you are a crafter parent it won’t be long before one of your children asks, “Can I make things to sell too?” Then your quandary is, what can a child make that actually looks good enough to go in your shop or display? Fine craftsmanship is not exactly something your average ten year old is capable of. My daughter tried making pins in felt, which were adorable but were too much work for the price point they would sell at. She tried crochet, but couldn’t master anything beyond a chain. Finally what worked was “Jessamyn’s Button Hairbands,” which consisted of large cloth covered buttons (re-using fabrics from thrift shops) with elastics tied to the shanks on the back. Moreover, making them was a process she could do virtually by herself. I bought the supplies, designed her card, and she pays me back 50 cents for every button she sells. And she does very well--selling them at fairs at a low price point, yet earning enough to be the envy of all her friends.




Here is another idea for kids wanting to earn their keep, or like mine, to sustain their addiction to Pokemon cards.

Recycled Bag Tags & Bookmarks

Supplies & Tools:
Old Magazines
Scissors
Glue Stick
Paper Cutter
Mylar or Acetate sheets or any kind of flat, clear plastic
Colored paper (if for business it should be non-fading)
Laminating Sheets
Hole Punch
Plastic Lanyard or other string or yarn


Let the kids go through the old magazines cutting out all the headlines that are over 3/8” tall. Remember the letters must fit comfortably on a 1.25” strip of paper. If this will be for a “business” they can cut out all the letters individually and put them in marked envelopes for each letter, number, and one for symbols. Some of these headlines were funny enough to use all by themselves, come to think of it.





Using the paper cutter, cut 1.25” wide strips of colored paper (I had old scrapbooking paper the kids had been cutting up inefficiently for the last 6 years) or magazine pages with great color or texture for the background. If you don’t have a paper cutter you can use a scissor but the rolling cutter is more efficient and far safer than things like x-acto blades.



Now they can choose the letters they will use. Names are good, as are cool phrases and sports. Run the glue stick along the length of the strip of colored paper. Arrange the letters and press into the glue. Leave room on one end for a hole if a lanyard will be attached.




Cut a larger strip of acetate and glue the back of the colored paper onto it, so the tag will have some firmness. (We actually used the heavy plastic from a box of Pokemon cards for the strips, so we felt very virtuous and green.) Cut a strip of laminating paper and use it to carefully seal the front of the tag to the acetate, leaving at least 3/16” extra space all around the colored paper. This is undoubtedly the trickiest part of the whole process and your kids will need some practice to master it. You need to fold back just a corner of the laminating paper and then position it atop the tag. Then you slowly peel off the backing while smoothing it down at the same time, starting from that first corner. With the paper cutter trim the sealed edges. Punch a hole (you will need a good quality hole puncher, like McGill or Fiskars, available at craft stores) in the tag and add a lanyard or string.


The fun, hip, professional looking results can be used as a bag tag, a book mark, a backpack decoration, a necklace, a party favor, a seating tag, and I've even been thinking, earrings, if you want to work really, really small. The process can be used for children’s parties, school fair fundraisers, for starting your child’s own Etsy Shop, and of course, a few hasty Father’s Day gifts.



Jody Lee