Paper Costume: Tutorial

Maben's school does a vocabulary parade.  It's really fun as each grade level is given different parameters of how they need to choose their word and dress up as it.  For Kindergarten it's pretty easy, their word needed to start with a consonant.  Maben's first idea was to dress as the word, "was."  Yeah, not happening, so he chose, "is."  I explained that he should pick a noun, like paper.  "Okay mom, I want to be paper."  (face palm) 

Since it was my awesome idea, I needed to deliver.  I decided to transform a plain white t-shirt into a piece of notebook paper with a doodle on it.  It's fairly simple and I had all things on hand.

You will need a t-shirt, a ruler and a red, blue and black fabric marker.

I used the ruler to draw a straight line and use as a spacer for the lines on the paper.

Seriously a very easy project.  The most difficult part was to freehand the paper airplane doodle.  I actually made a paper airplane as a reference for my doodle.

Tip that I learned, it's easier to use a soft touch when drawing with the markers to prevent the marker from catching and dragging since the shirt is stretchy.  So, I drew lightly and just went over it a few times.

I heat set the fabric markers in the dryer for 30 minutes on high.  You could do that or run an iron over each spot for 4 minutes.  The dryer was easier.

Maben loves his paper shirt.  He was so incredibly excited to see it for the first time and was probably the most originally dressed up kindergartener.

Most of the kids recycled their Halloween costumes, which I can't blame the parents since our district does not allow dressing up for Halloween.  So, lots of princesses, firefighters, fairies and super heroes, but only one kid dressed as paper.  I couldn't be prouder!

Linking this up at:
Tatertots and Jello: Weekend Wrap Up Party
Sew Many Ways: Sew Darn Crafty Linky Party 
So I Married A Craft Blogger: Man Up Link Up

Photo 366 #46

Better late than never in posting right?  I am ready for Christmas break and some relaxation.  Too much going on and just not enough hours in the day to deal with them all.

November 6 - Election night I hit up the liquor store for some beer and this culprit started hooting and hollering at me when I got out of my car.  Very surprised to see a Great Horned Owl staring down at me from the roof.  I'm so happy that I carry my tripod with me everywhere. 

November 7 - This cute little Carolina Wren likes to remind me when the bird feeder need some refilling.  He will come to my kitchen window and sing until I come out.  I find it really cute.

November 8 - A glimpse of a project I completed last week.  Post to come soon.  Hopefully tomorrow if I have enough juice in me to write it.

November 9 - The kids look so tiny on the honeycomb climbing play structure at school.  Neither one of them has fear when it comes to this.  Their favorite way to get down is to dangle from the top and drop down.  I must say, it's a pretty far drop for a 3 year old, but it doesn't stop from doing it over and over again.

November 10 - The whole family went to watch a Native American Pow Wow.  I love the traditional dress and all the feathers.

November 11 - My public way of saying, "Thanks," to all the veterans out there.

November 12 - One of my plants is still blooming and looking oh so pretty.  I have no idea what it's called.  I can't remember and I can't find the tag that came with it.

Photo 366 #45

Injury, Halloween and sickness, oh my!  What a week and I am still recovering. 

October 30 - I took the kids to family night at Chick-fil-a for Superhero night.  Colton was dressed as Captain America and Maben as Ironman.  There were two guys dressed up as both of them.  Maben was ridiculously excited to get his picture taken with Ironman.  To him, this guy was the real deal.

October 31 - Colton fell at preschool the day before Halloween and split his forehead open.  We managed to barely miss getting stitches, but steristrips are definitely in place.  This worked well for his pirate costume.

November 1 - I took a day trip up to Austin to not only see my best friend Sabrina, but to also watch the movie, "Temple Grandin," and see Dr. Temple Grandin herself speak.  It was awesome!

November 2 - We had a few mornings that were densely foggy.  This is the flag pole at my son's school with the sun trying very hard to burn off the fog.

November 3 - I finally finished a picture I had been working on while sick.  We have had some intense sunsets this fall that have been spectacular.  I wanted to capture that in my drawing.

November 4 - I missed the intensity of this sunset by about 2 minutes.  By the time I saw it in my rear view mirror and got pulled over, it was pretty much gone.  But YAY, they are working hard on the new highway.  Lots of improvements.

November 5 - It's not only bird migration time, but butterfly migration too.  I don't title most of my photographs, but the ones that I think are really special I do.  I call this, "Red, White and Blue."  This is a Red Admiral butterfly hanging out on my American Fence Picket Flag.  This is easily in the top 10 of my favorite photographs taken this year.

Character Pumpkin and Happy Halloween!

I showed a bit of our family's character pumpkin in the Photo 366.  Well, I'm here to wish you a very Happy Halloween and unveil the whole pumpkin.

Maben chose to do, "The Very Hungry Caterpillar," again.  You can see where we have done this theme before here. 

The character pumpkins are something our school district challenges the families to do.  Each pumpkin gets put on display for a week in the library at school.  It was a lot of fun and I foresee us doing this every year.  If you want to do it, it's easy.  Let your child pick out a book or character, then paint your pumpkin up with what was chosen.  Everyone in the family has to help! 

Maben and I did the majority of the painting.  I drew out the shapes in pencil, then gave Maben (and a few times Colton) a loaded up paint brush and showed them where to paint.  I came in and did the detail work.  My husband painted one small spot, he's not so artsy and didn't want to ruin it.

Have you ever painted a character pumpkin?  If so, I would love to hear/see what you have done.

I hope you all have a safe and wonderful Halloween.

Photo 366 #44

It's fall.  It's finally fall in Texas!  I've enjoyed my first cup of hot chocolate and excited.  I am finally getting into the fall spirit, too bad it takes almost all of October to get there.  I haven't even decorated for Halloween. 

October 23 - Colton didn't scowl on stage at Preschool today.  We are making progress!  He didn't sing or dance, but he didn't scowl!

October 24 - Maben got to dress up like what he wants to be when he grows up.  They did this for Red Ribbon week and probably since they can't dress up for Halloween at school.  This was the first time Maben deviated from wanting to be a sheriff.  This morning Maben decided he wanted to be a tank commander.  Dad and Grandpa are so proud!  (Both former tank commanders in the Army)  With very little time to throw something together, camo pants, a tank shirt and the kevlar cover taped down with army issue 100 mile hour tape to Maben's bicycle helmet is how I pulled it off.  He was so proud and loved all the positive attention from the 5th graders.

October 25 - I have tomatoes in my garden!  19 and counting.  Of course, after I discover this, it's suppose to get cold.  So far they are holding out, even after reaching frost level cold at night.

October 26 - Date night with hubby.  Had to rock the self photo again, until Maben's skills get better.

October 27 - We went to a demonstration put on by the Houston Audubon Society.  Maben was very intrigued and engaged, especially when they pulled out a red-tailed hawk and great horned owl.  Meet Tskili. 

October 28 - Colton in the back of my husband's truck sporting daddy's hard hat.

October 29 - Jumping on the fall season bandwagon very late.  Hit the pumpkin patch this morning to get at least Colton's photo in the pumpkin patch.