DIY Hill Billy Halloween Costume

Halloween is the one of the most fun events that I look forward to every year. Being an expat in the Middle East, I just appreciate people who still make their Halloween as fun, colourful, and interesting as others all over the world would do with theirs. And since it is fast approaching, party goers and Trick or Treaters are scrambling for the perfect Halloween costume to wear.

For some, the scarier their costumes are, the better. Others prefer the common ones like dressing up as royalties, superheroes and superheroines, cartoon characters, sports jocks and cheer leaders, celebrities, political figures, villains, monsters, vampires, zombies, cowboys and cowgirls, and as professionals in the corporate world or society like doctors, teachers, nurses, to name a few. Others come as novelty objects like kitchenwares, money bill, food, and gadgets. While these costumes I have mentioned are interesting and utterly colourful and fun, buying them may cost you an arm and a leg!

The whole intention of doing your own costume is to cut on cost, and explore your creative streak. Your Halloween costume need not break your bank too. It should be cost savvy, easy to put together, and something you may already have in your closet.

One of the many DIY Halloween costume I can think of is the Hill Billy fellow. It is such an interesting character with lots of personality to boast!

All you need are the following and of course, you can simply change the style a bit depending on your preference.

Checkered of plaid shirt
Loose jeans or overalls
Suspenders if you have no overalls
Tattered or old boots
Straw hat or even fedora!
A pipe or a hay straw to chew on
A bandana or scarf if you have one
Fake buck teeth you can buy for less than a $
A banjo or big jug for added effect

And when you are all dressed up, you can now practice your hee haw!

Beautiful DIY Flowers From Bloominous

I have recently come across a great website that provides easy DIY floral arrangements kits for weddings and events. I wish I had seen this site sooner when my husband's niece got married last July. This site would have been very helpful for the newlyweds and they could have saved some money if I had known this.

It was a different story when I was getting married many years ago. Ideas such as DIY flowers are not known of.  Florists abound and ready-made wedding bouquets were the in-thing. Modern times and the emerging creativity of many young florists gave way to making wedding and events floral arrangements a good learning and also saving experience.

There are plenty of young and artistic brides who turn to DIY to save costs, but the process of researching, purchasing, and arranging the flowers are often the reason to cause stress and more expense for the them. It is a great thing that there are sites like Bloominous that can help brides-to-be and event organizers and planners an alternative option for making the flower arrangements or even their very own DIY wedding flowers.

Hiring the services of these DIY flower shops have great advantages. For example, if one hires the services of Bloominous for any wedding or event, you can expect to find these aspects beneficial: 

1. Big savings

• Event organizers, planners and brides will be able to save from 30% to 50% off their original floral budget 
• The flowers are not marked-up from wedding florists so there is a huge cut on the costs

2. Easy to do

• Most DIY floral services do not send flowers that are already "ready to be put together", but Bloominous' flowers come cut-to-order, de-thorned, and trimmed
• Each kit comes with step-by-step photo instructions for easy assembling within 10 to 20 minutes per piece, as well as flower care products and design tips

3. High quality and very professional looking designs

• All collections featuring specialty flowers are designed by florist with 10+ years of experience in event and floral design
• Bloominuous takes charge in their own designs from the floral arrangements to their site's designs too

This 'DIY flowers from Bloominous experience is something that needs to be noted by people who are tying the knot or event organizers who are planning fabulous events.  Bloominous is making DIY fun, easy, and affordable for anyone who wants to avail their service and product offerings. 

Check out their products/services at http://bloominous.com

4 Easy Easter Crafts For Kids

Easter is one of my favorite occasions while growing up. I love coloring and decorating eggs. I love making baskets out of used newspapers which my siblings and I would paint in cute, pastel colors.

Easter is a great time for kids to let their artistic and creativity come alive through their lovely Easter creations. Here are some easy-to-make crafts for kids to enjoy. Just make sure you are there to supervise for the cutting. Have fun and decorate your place with these awesome kids' creations!

Bunny Envelopes

(From MarthaStewart.com)

What you'll need:
Envelopes (you can choose pastel colored ones too!)
Pink construction paper
Glue
Colored Pencil
Pom-poms
Bunny Ears template (you can get it here)


Steps:
1. Seal the flap on the envelope and draw bunny ears on the sealed side. You can follow the template from Marthastewart.com.

2. Cut along the lines through both layers of the envelope.

3. Flip the envelope over. The side of the envelope becomes the bottom of the treat holder.

4. Then cut out some pink construction paper and paste on the ears. You can draw eyes and mouth using the colored pencil. Stick a pom-pom for the nose.

5. Fill with Easter sweets and treats!

Peep Show

(From Delish.com/photo from Michael Partenio)

What you'll need:

Lots of pastel colored jelly beans candy
Several Peeps Bunny or Chicks snacks
Egg holder or small glass or tea cup
Small flowers or blooms (optional)

Steps:

1. Make sure that the egg holders are clean.

2. Fill with colorful jelly beans

3. Put Peeps on top as decor

4. Decorate with small spring blooms to add pizzazz!

5. Place on tables or window sill for effect

Muffin Cup Flowers

(From DIY-enthusiasts.com)

What you'll need:

Muffin liners with patterns/decors (the colorful, the better!)
Scissor
Glue
Button

Steps:

1. Cut the edges of the muffin liners in various shapes like scallops or zigzag.

2. Layer several muffin liners and glue together.

3. Glue button on the middle.

4. Paste on blank stock cards or tie on a string like banners and hang.

Tiered Egg Stand

(From Spoonful.com)

What you'll need:

2 pcs. Tissue roll cardboard tube
Disposable plate, saucer and bowl (for the tier stand)
Glue
Shredded papers
Eggs
Water color paint

Steps:

1. Glue the bottom of the disposable bowl to the bottom of the big plate, then glue the tube on the middle of the plate.

2. Glue the saucer on top of the tube and glue the remaining half tube on top of the saucer.

3. Paint some eggs with fancy designs and colors.

4. Put some shredded papers on the two plates.

5. Once the paint on the eggs are dry, arrange them on the tier and place in the dining table for decor.

Simple Felt Crafts To Do

Felt is one of my daughter's favorite craft material to work on. She loves stitching chibi dolls and keychains. So, there are plenty of felt materials in our craft stash that can be made to more beautiful crafty projects.

Here are some photos I got from BHG.com which are great felt projects you can make. They are simple and yet colorful and easy to make. You can hand stitch them or sew by machine. It does not matter how you tackle the project because the result will be fabulous!

pin cushion

framed felt leaves

owl pen holder

felt coasters

tablet case

(all photos from bhg.com)

MyMemories Suite Project - Spring Flowers

Check out these great freebies courtesy of MyMemories.com!
They make great Party Favors! Easy and fun to make!

Use these to decorate your lawn or string them together and hang them.
Perfect for spring birthday parties or anything else you can think of!

Available free until May 5th. You may download the free template from my blog. Please check the right side under the FREEBIE header. Please do not sell or re-distribute. This is for your personal use only. Thanks!

If you don't have MyMemories Suite Software yet, you may purchase it from http://www.mymemories.com/digital_scrapbooking_software and use my 10% discount code for your purchase: STMMMS30652

Have fun!

(Photo credit: MyMemories.com)