Holidays

Pirate Princess Halloween Costume from Oriental Trading Company

Halloween is such a fun time of the year. Kids, and some grown ups, get to dress up and be someone they aren’t in real life and have always dreamed of being. Everyone likes to play dress-up and pretend, I know I do. Ava figured out what she want to be for Halloween and Oriental Trading helped us by letting her choose a costume.

We received a complimentary Pirate Princess Costume from Oriental Trading Company. Oriental Trading Company has all kinds of unique costumes for women, men, boys, girls, babies, toddlers, teens, couples and even groups.

If you’r wondering what all of the gold tattoos and mock jewelry are from, well they are gold and silver temporary tattoos. We got them off of Amazon. The are the perfect accent for a Pirate Princess and you don’t have to worry about losing them. These tattoos are great because they stay on at least a week, if not longer. They are super easy to put on too. Ava accented her Halloween costume with a gold necklace tattoo, tattoo bracelets, stars for her face, ankle bracelets, feathers for her hands, and the tattoos even work on her fingernails.

Ava wanted to be a pirate princess and we found just what she was looking for on the Oriental Trading Company website. They had two options, one with gold embroidery on the front and one without. She opted for the more detailed dress and we are so glad she did because it makes it much prettier and fancy looking.

The sleeves are capped and have elastic just above the elbows. There is a gold elastic trim accent on the arms and sheer fabric to cover her forearms. An attached belt is tied in the back. The dress comes down to her ankles.

One thing I really liked about this Pirate Princess dress from Oriental Trading is that is has a slip sewn inside of the skirt. The slip is a thick type of fabric that gives the dress body. It will also help to keep her warm when she is walking outside on Halloween night gathering her treasures and candy. The skirt is wide and it helps when you are spinning and twirling.

The detail on the front of the dress is great. It is actually a panel of machine embroidered gold fabric and the dress is trimmed with whte and gold lace. Ava is 9 years old and we ordered the size 10 to 12 dress and it fits her perfectly.

The only thing I don’t like about Halloween costumes is that while they sewn together just like any piece of clothing, the fabric isn’t as good quality so this Pirate Princess Halloween costume won’t last for years like a real satin dress would. Ava is definitely loving her fancy dress though.

Easy DIY Kids Halloween Costume Instructions

Here are some Easy DIY Halloween Kids Costumes you can make with complete instructions. For him, a scary Frankenstein costume and for her, a pretty princess.

Frankenstein Costume Instructions

Supplies Needed:

1-gallon milk jug
scissors
primer
green and black acrylic paint
paintbrush
white felt
adhesive-backed Velcro
aluminum foil
2 bottle tops
2 wine bottle corks
an old pair of black pants
an old brown long-sleeve shirt
strip of burlap

How to Make the Frankenstein Costume:

To Make the Head:

Cut off the top of gallon milk jug so base is 5″ tall.
Coat the milk jug base with primer to prevent the acrylic paint from flaking off.
Let it dry completely.
Apply green paint and let dry completely.
Paint the bottom of milk jug base with black paint to cover it completely. Paint long paint brush stroke from the base upwards to create a jagged pattern.

Make Frankenstein Neck Nodes

Cut a 1-1/2″ wide strip of white felt that measures slightly larger than child’s neck.
Adhere Velcro tabs to each end. Hot-glue wine cork to inside of bottle cap and cover completely in foil. Hot-glue the nodes you just made about 4″ apart on felt strip.

Make Frankenstein Clothes:

You can get old pants and a shirt at a Goodwill store to save yourself some money.
Cut zigzags into bottom of brown pants and sleeves of shirt.
Tie a ragged strip of burlap around child’s waist as a belt.

Princess Costume Instructions

Supplies Needed:

Stiff red felt
scissors
hot-glue gun
organza ribbon
1 large gold pompom
yellow and pink pompoms
pink tights
pink long-sleeve shirt
jumper dress (no sleeves)
Download the Princess Hat Template

How to Make the Princess Costume

Make the Princess Hat:

Trace the template onto stiff red felt and cut out.
Hot-glue cut the felt into a cone shape to fit child’s head.
Hot-glue two 8″ pieces of ribbon to inside bottom edge of hat and use to tie under chin.
Cut several 36″ pieces of ribbon and pull through top hole of the hat and knot the ends together inside.
Hot-glue a large sparkly pompom to pointGlue pompoms around base of hat.

Make the Princess Dress:

Glue pompoms around collar of dress.
Put the pink shirt underneath.

Make the Princess Belt:

Cut a piece of ribbon that measures 20″ longer than your child’s waist size.
Hot-glue pompoms and pieces of ribbon (long enough to reach hem of dress) around belt.

Click here for Halloween treats and part snack recipes

These instructions were modified from the originally DIY Halloween costume instructions at Parenting.com

Halloween Decor, Snacks and Costume Ideas from Joann Crafts

Do you need a little inspiration for Halloween decorations, party snacks and Costumes ideas? JoAnn Crafts shared some of their fun Halloween ideas with us and we think you will find inspiration for your Halloween party or trick or treating adventures too.

Halloween Decoration & Food Ideas

Trick-or-Treat Tablescape – No scary bash is complete without the right decorations. Follow this project for an impressive partyscape and add “bloody” cupcakes to make it complete. No need to hire out; make everything you need with the help of Jo-Ann Stores.

Bloody Cupcakes Recipe:

Use any cake mix recipe or box cake mix and make into cupcakes.

Bake cupcakes. Bake and cool cupcakes.
Ice cupcakes. Use tip 1M and white icing to pipe a swirl on top of cupcakes.
Tint piping gel red. Place in uncut decorating bag. Cut tip off bag; pipe tinted gel on cupcakes for a splatter effect.
Top Cupcakes. Insert icing decorations in top of cupcakes.

Halloween Fairy Garden – The great thing about fairy gardens is their versatility to be tailored to any holiday and season. This Halloween fairy garden has a host of frightening figurines and is great for indoors or perched on a porch.

Teal Pumpkin – Many people correlate candy with Halloween, but allergies prevent lots of children from partaking in sweets. To accommodate all kiddies, participate in the FARE Teal Pumpkin Project^™. Place a teal-colored pumpkin on your porch, signifying parents that you have non-food and allergy-free treats available.

Halloween DIY Costume Ideas

Mermaid Costume – Mermaids are on trend right now, and expected to be a popular costume this Halloween. Your audience can craft their own getup for their little girl with this mermaid costume project from Jo-Ann complete with instructions and patterns. Add a DIY crown to make it complete.

Spider Dog – Who says Halloween is just for humans? Disguise your dog in a spider costume that is sure to impress.

Adults – For adults looking to put finishing touches on costumes, Jo-Ann has a host of tutus, hats, gloves and much more to complete looks, as well as fabrics to create any costume.

Article information and photos provided courtesy of JoAnn Fabric.

Free PAJANIMALS Printable Valentine’s Day Cards

In the new Jim Henson DVD, “Pajanimals Playdate”, the Pajanimals love to play games, sing songs and go on great adventures to meet new friends.

February is the month of love with Valentine’s Day and Pajanimals want to help you celebrate by offering new FREE PAJANIMALS-themed Valentine’s Day printable cards

The PAJANIMALS include Cowbella, Apollo, Sweetpea Sue and Squacky and they have quickly become popular with children and parents alike! The Pajanimals television series airs nightly on 24-hour preschool television channel Sprout® during its The Good Night Show and also airs on NBC on Saturday mornings as part of the NBC Kids programming block. Find the Pajanimals TV Episodes are Scheduled and see if you can get the Sprout network in your area.

The Pajanimals will be coming to a town near you this Spring. Find out the tour date and town nearest you.

How to Make an Easy Paper Plate Cookie or Favor Boxes

If you run out of ideas for gifting a box of cookies, try making a cookie box out of paper plates. You can use cheap white paper plates or more expensive, fancy paper plates with festive designs. These fun and festive little boxes are a great way to present cookies, candy and other treats for a party or even wrap them up and give as a gift. If you use small lunch-size paper plates you can even make them up as party favor boxes. They are a super easy, super cheap, affordable party and gift giving presentation idea.

Photo from Art Craft Crazy’s video

Instructions for Making Paper Plate Cookies Boxes

Print out and cut out the paper plate template.
Turn the plate over and lay the square part of the template on top (see below)
Mark the center with a pencil.
Mark the corners of the square on all four sizes.
Using a ruler, mark a line from one corner to the edge of the plate.
Using scissors, cut from the corner to the point where you marked the corner of the square.
Using the ruler, flatten the plate down and score the paper plate from corner to corner (of the square) using the edge of your scissors
Fold each flap inside and use your ruler to flatten. Continue until all 4 side are done.
Open the plate back up.
Fold the corners in.
Glue the corners into place (or use double-back tape or glue dots to stick the corners together).
If you glue your corners together, use paperclips to hold the corners into place while they dry overnight.

Donna from Art Craft Crazy Australia shows you how to make paper plate cookie boxes in her video

Supplies Needed to Make Paper Plate Cookie Boxes

Small, medium and large paper plates
colorful napkins
Tacky craft glue, glue dots, or double-back tape
paper clips
craft scissors

Click here to download the free paper plate cookie box template. If you are looking for a larger size paper plate template just cut out a larger square. I couldn’t find the larger size template when I wrote up this article