Thomas & Friends Costumes

I actually wanted the boys to be dinosaurs for Halloween this year but the boys aren't interested in dinosaurs yet, I don't even think they know what they are yet. So I looked to see if there any Thomas the train costumes. There were & there were actually 3 different trains but I wasn't crazy about the look of them. Also since the boys weren't crazy about wearing costumes last year I wasn't crazy about spending $100 on them. So I decided that I would attempt to make their costumes & since several of our friends & family have asked how I made them, I've decided to post a tutorial of sorts.

I didn't plan on writing a tutorial so I don't have many pictures of the costumes in process but its pretty straight forward & I think easily understood without photos of every step.

 

This is the photo I used as inspiration for the faces

Supplies needed:

• 3 boxes - I used diaper boxes just slightly wider than he boys but not so wide that they couldn't put their arms down. 
• Felt - I bought 1/3 yard of red, blue & green & 1/4 yard of black
• Glue - lots & lots of glue! Hot glue (& gun), mod podge, fabric glue & optional spray adhesive.
• Paper and/or printer
• 3 paper plates
• Black, white & peach or flesh colored paint - I used acrylic
• Paint brush
• Pencil

Instructions:

1. Fold all flaps of the cardboard boxes in, this just made the box more sturdy. I hot glued some of my flaps down, some stayed put on their own so I didn't bother with them.
2. Spread mod podge or spray adhesive on the box. I used mod podge to attach the felt, so I spread it on one side at a time & wrapped the felt around the box as I went. If you use spray adhesive I think you'd have to spray the while thing at once.
3. Attach your felt. I wrapped one continuous piece all the way around.
4. Fold the edge of the felt into the box & hot glue down.
5. Cut the pieces you need for the stripes of each train (*note - I started with making Thomas first, then Percy, then James. This was so that I could cut the stripes from the red felt before using the remainder of the red to make James) I'm not very precise or patient so I just cut a piece, sized it up against the box & then cut duplicates for each side of the train. I don't measure but I did mark the felt with chalk to cut a straight-ish line :)
6. Use fabric glue to adhere the stripes to the trains.
7. For the numbers I just printed them out from for the computer. The numbers were all yellow but that & Percy's were outlined in red & James' was outlined in black. Try to print them on card stock so they stay rigid when you apply the mod podge. I coated tha back of the numbers first & applied them o the trains. I them coated the top of the numbers with mod podge.
8. Now for the hard part... Sketch the faces of each character onto the back of a paper plate. When you are happy with your sketch use a black marker to outline the face. I painted the trim of the plate black first & then painted the face & lastly the white areas of the eyes & mouth. I think I would recommend doing all that in reverse. After I painted everything & it dried I went around the black outline again touching up any areas that may have gotten paint on them.
9. Hot glue the face/plate onto the front of the box.
10. Last thing to do is cut out & attach shoulder straps so the trains can be worn :) Again I don't measure, I needed 6 straps so I just divided the felt into even pieces (by folding) & cut it into strips. I hot glued the straps right in the center of the inside of the front & back of the boxes. I did a trial fitting at this point to see if the straps were long enough or too long & then took up the straps to the right length for each of my boys.

The finished product

 

In action :)

Feel free to let me know if I missed any details or if you have any questions.

I was nervous about making these at first but I loved the process. I kind of felt like I was back in college working late at night to finish a project. I am very pleased with how they turned out & of all the lovely compliments I received on them, the best compliment was when the boys saw them for the first time & called them each by name :)

Stained 'Glass' Pumpkins

I've been searching Pinterest for the perfect mess-less arts & crafts projects... By mess-less I just mean baths aren't necessary afterwards, I'm aware that there is no such thing as a mess free project of any kind! :)

Anyways, I did come up with the perfect project by combining a couple of projects I found & the boys had a great time!

Supplies needed:

• Orange &/or yellow Tissue paper
• Construction or other scrap paper
• Clear contact paper
• Scissors
• Masking or painters tape

Instructions:

1. Cut tissue paper into 1" (ish) squares.
2. If you'd like a face, cut the shapes in the colors you'd like out of scrap construction or scrapbook paper.
3. I free hand drew a pumpkin shape on the paper side on my contact paper.
4. Next I cut a slit from the bottom edge of my contact paper to the edge of my pumpkin & then lifted the corner of the paper layer from the sticky part, just enough to get the tip of my scissors between the 2 layers.
5. I was then able to cut around the outline of my drawing with just the end of my scissors.
6. I then taped the contact paper to the table & peeled off the paper layer exposing the sticky side of the contact paper.
7. Sit the kids at the table with small amounts of the paper & let then stick it to the sticky contact paper.

If your children are anything like mine, they will most likely throw the little bits of paper in the air & all over the place, meanwhile actually sticking very few pieces to the contact paper. I just circled the table "helping" them get it on the contact paper.

We had a couple of goes at this project, the first time I let the boys rip the tissue paper, which they enjoyed & we colored on the finished products. They liked the cut pieces as well but spent more time throwing paper that time. We also did not do faces since the boys did a lot of sticking down & peeling up of the paper.

Once the boys were done, I finished covering any exposed areas of stickiness, peeled the rest of the paper layer off & stuck it to the windows in the play area :) when we are done with them in the windows I'm going to go ahead & cover the backside with contact paper & trim around the pumpkins to keep. I think it will be fun to see how these projects change or improve over the years & you could use a hole punch in the stem & hang it from a hook instead of sticking it directly to the window :)

The boys did have fun with this project & love looking at their "umpkins" in the windows & since we did some in yellow & some in orange hear them say "ellow umpkin," "orange umpkin" & since we are still working on speech hearing these words is music to my ears! :)