Reversible Hulk Feet

Incredible Hulk Feet Shoe Covers. Sew Easy!

I made mine with a sleeping bag I found at a thrift store for $4, but you don't have to use a sleeping bag. Just make sure you have green fabric and tan fabric. Or two colors of your choice if you're not doing hulk. I started with a sleeping bag because I had already made pants and a hulk shirt from this same fabric.

Start by cutting out two "feet"shapes slightly bigger than your child's shoes. It's basically a square but the top of the feet are angled up toward the middle so where the big to will be is higher than where the pinky toe will be. Then cut a tear shape up the middle from the back. (note mine doesn't look like a tear shape because I was cutting through 4 layers of fabric at a time. This might have been easier if I would have not kept the seam from the sleeping bag, but I'm lazy and like having pre-made seams. It also helped hold my fabrics together.

Flip your fabric so you outsides are facing each other and your inside is facing out (or as anyone else but apparently me would call it, inside out). Those of you not making this out of a sleeping bag, just make sure you have your batting on the "outside" and your two different "feet" touching. In my case it was Hulk feet, big foot feet, and batting. Then pin your edges together.

Now, you need something to hold the hulk foot on your shoe. I used elastic from an old fitted sheet. (yay up cycling!) If you don't care about it being reversible, you can add it last. But it looks way nicer and you get two costumes for one if you add the elastic now. When it's stretched cut the elastic the same length as your feet are wide. Have your pieces pinned together, and between your two different colored feet, pin in your strip of elastic. (like my Halloween nails? Orange nail polish and after it dried I drew on the faces with permanent marker.)

The elastic will make your fabric pucker in the middle but that's not a problem because we're sewing the edges. Take your sewing machine and sew around the edges starting from the middle on the bottom, all the way around (making sure you get the elastic).

Turn your foot inside out so elastic is on the outside. See how nice the elastic looks! Now you need to hem up the middle of the foot where your "leg hole" will be. Turn your raw edges in and then pin them together. This was the hardest thing for me because the batting was really thick and I couldn't hardly get my presser foot to stay on the fabric. It might look better if you hand sew it...then again, it's probably just going to be under some pants. **Be careful to not sew your elastic into your leg hole hem.** Once you have the middle hemmed you should have kind of an upside down u shape.

Now take the bottom hems of your U shape (the red line) and put them flat together to make a foot hole. Sew together, being careful not to sew any other part of your foot.

Now it's time for the fun part. Stitching the toes. First mark where you want your stitches with straight pins. This way if you get the spacing off you can re mark them without having to take out a stitch. At the "joint" of where you toe and foot connect make a knot.

Then take your needle and thread and go around the outside of the foot and up through the underside back in the same spot where you put your first knot. This is a line that will separate your toes. Make it tight to give your toes a curved look on the front.

Once you finish threading your toes, you now have a completed pair of Hulk feet!

or big foot feet, or if you add some hair they could even be hobbit feet!

Props!

Doing costumes and need some neat props? Don't worry, you've got everything you need right at your fingertips. So get out those old soda bottles, sponge curlers, foam letters and any other kind of thing you can think of. I'm sure most of you have see the Soda bottle rocket pack. They take to soda bottles, paint them black or silver, and glue red and orange party paper to the openings. Glue the bottles together side by side, turn them upside down and attach strings for should straps. TADA! You now have a jet pack! But what else can you do with all that "junk?" Here's one thing I found I can make with random stuff in my house, prop guns!

looks like something I bought at the store? Nope this is a high fashion piece made out of an old food masher, foam blocks, mardi gras beads, a bottle cap, 2 clothes pins, sponge curlers, and a small thing of pvc pipe.

Now do you see it? Just make sure you use a very strong glue, HOT GLUE ISN'T GOOD ENOUGH. Epoxy and super glue work pretty well. I started with a plastic food masher, that I never used, and then cut out a handle shape from those foam letter mats  (my boys had destroyed it so I figured I might as well use that) and glue them both together. Give the glue time to dry, then you can add some embellishments, that's what makes the gun look neat. I added a dissected clothes pin to the handle to give it more shape and the plastic part of sponge curlers to give some depth to the barrel of the gun. Glue on some mardi gras beads to the back to accent the but of the gun, and add a pvc pipe for a scope. My scope was kinda off so I used a piece of foam to lift it so it was level. Then I added as an after thought a sprite bottle cap to the back with super glue. Once the glue is dry, spray paint and enjoy! A water bottle/soda bottle would be a fun barrel to a gun as well. Just start with your barrel and then your handle then find random stuff in your house to accent it. twisty ties, broken toy pieces, the list goes on forever. Happy prop making!

Ariel yarn wig DIY

I just made this Ariel (<I don't know why that's a link...) wig for my Etsy shop. It was a custom order from someone who bought a Rapunzel wig last year. She didn't want it tied down so I had to do layers of hair instead of putting it all at the top. I was kind of making it up as I went. It was relatively easy, but kind of time consuming. I will see if I can come up with a faster way.

I bought a $1 beanie from wal mart that was red with blue stripes. I turned it inside out and it was solid red. I put it on the nearest child and with a red permanent marker I marked out where I wanted the layers of hair to go. Important step. Even if you don't mark them, make a mental note of how to put them on. 

Wrap the yarn around something close to the length or slightly longer then the total length you want the wig.

 Cut one side

 line up several strands

 Tape them together

 pin the tape to the hat where you want it. Start with the bottom layers and work your way up. 

 I used a zig zag stitch so it would have some flex to it and move better with the hat. 

 Then I trimmed the loops off, not a necessary step though

 I have gotten several rows on, I'm almost to the top. (I think I did 3 or 4 rows on each side. 

 Top view (you can see the red lines I drew)

 Before you add the top, make sure there are no bare spots. You may need to add more to cover the back.

Now for the top, after I cut the strands I laid them directly over the top straddling the hat. I worked them around till I got even coverage of the top then taped and pined them in place on either side of the part. Then just stitch down the middle

 Check and double check for pins before you put it on any ones head!
Then trim it up.

In retrospect I think I should have sewn the hook side of velcro to the had in various places and only done the top layer and then press it into the Velcro to hold it in place. That would have been SUPER fast. If  I try I will show you how it turns out. Cause I now have a little girl who thinks she needs an Ariel wig too. :)

Finished wig

 And back view

Total cost about $5 I used a little more than 2 skeins of yarn (which I think was a little much, I coudl have slimmed it down to 1)

Fixing broken mini blinds

In our housing community we HAVE to have mini blind on all the windows, and they CAN'T be broken. If they are broken they want you to replace them immediately. Well guess what... I have 3 YOUNG kids. They like to look out their windows, and they can't pull the strings to open the blinds so what do they do? They BEND them. You can only bend mini blinds so much before they break, thus resulting in an almost constant need to replace mini blinds in the house. 

So instead of buying a new set of blinds every 2 weeks, I kept one set of old broken ones and I just replace the slats when needed. Here, let me show you how. 

These are the broken blinds

There are little plastic buttons on the bottom of the blinds 

Use a flat head screw driver, or butter knife to pop out the one on either end. You can leave the one in the middle. 

Now pull out the string that runs through the middle, and untie the knot. If you can't untie the knot cut it as close as you can to the knot and burn the end so it doesn't unravel.

 Pull the string up through the blinds till you get to the top of the broken ones.

 Now pull the broken slats out the side

 Now just slide the new ones in, feed the string back through each slat down to the plastic bar on the bottom.  Tie a slip knot so the NEXT time you have to do this it will save you some time, and shove all the string back in the hole and snap the button back in. 

NOTE: mini blinds are not universal, make sure you get the same kind so the hols line up. Another option is to take the extra slats off the bottom  of the blinds, since they usually extend several inches below the window. 

Reader Photos!

Have you tried one of my projects? Or used some of my tips/advice? Send me a pic of your finished project and I'll post it on my blog. A friend just used my Rapunzel Wig pattern and sent me a pic, she did a GREAT job, and has the most adorable Rapunzel. :)

Mirror Etching/Engraving.

I just did this mirror as a wedding gift for one of my best friends. I told her I wanted to make them a wedding gift and not buy it, but I needed some suggestions. 

I ALSO told her that I like a challenge, so not to be afraid to suggest anything.  She said she loves Tuscan landscapes and off to google image search I went. 

Now before I scare you off with my very detailed etching, let me just say YOU CAN DO THIS! I counted up, and this is only my 10th glass etching project. 2 sets of duplicate projects, a couple that were just writing, and the others were not very detailed at all. 

Finding the right picture is usually the HARDEST part of an etching for me. There is almost never just ONE picture that is exactly what I want. So I have to use elements from several different pictures to get the effect I'm looking for. 

I spend HOURS finding the right ones and deciding how I wanted the finished product to look. 

This time I used these 5 as a template for the finished project.

Once I found the right pictures I had to make them the right size and style. My preference is to use a sketch cause it gives clear lines. To get the sketch look I zoomed in on the pic on the computer to about the size I wanted it for the mirror, placed my white tissue paper over the computer screen and traced the basic image. I had to fill in the gaps and draw a few things on my own to make the proportions right.

Once I got it the way I wanted taped it where I wanted over the mirror, but only taped the top 1/2 in place so I could slip the carbon paper under.

This is carbon paper, or transfer paper. You can get it at any hobby store. I got a package of 3 sheets for $2 or $3 about 6 years ago, and just started on my last sheet for this project. "shiny" side up, dull side down. You can reuse it multiple times. I use it on wood, and glass, but it will transfer to most surfaces. GREAT tool to have!

 When etching glass the MOST important rule to remember is SHADE THE LIGHT. Anything you want white you etch, anything you want "black" you leave unetched. Since I had a VERY large portion of area that I wanted etched I decided to try a new technique. I bought some etching creme

I got a 10 oz jar at the local Hobby Lobby for about $20. Kinda pricey, BUT what they don't tell you is you can SCRAPE IT BACK INTO THE JAR!!! 

So since I only wanted a certain area etched with creme and the rest to actually be hand engraved I took some fabric paint that I had and painted the lines that were drawn on with the carbon paper

 Any lines that crossed over other lines I waited to paint till the first ones dried. other wise you get big smudges

Now once you put the creme on you have to rinse it off, so to avoid rinsing off the carbon transfer of what I wanted engraved I did the engraving first.

I have a set exactly like this that you can get a Harbor Freight for $10. I use the rotary tool and the diamond point tips. . (The only tips I really use look like they have a ball on the end, they give me the cleanest smoothest lines out of all of them, I only used 3 different tips)

Now for that hard part, PERMANENTLY etching the glass. There is no eraser folks, so this first step can be kind of scary. Just close your eyes and JUMP ...ok, actually don't close you eyes, and no jumping with power tools and GLASS. Just be brave and BELIEVE in your self. 

You can see I basically engrave AROUND the transfer lines, then fill in the blank space

 Now I'm ready to use the creme! New experience for me. Since I was covering such a BIG surface it didn't give me a smooth even finish, which happened to be perfect for this project. 

Use in a well ventilated area and always Always ALWAYS use safety protection! In this case rubber gloves and eye protection.

I poured it on a small section and spread it with my finger. Let it sit for 2 mins then rinse off. I had to do this in about 3 different segments. 

NOTE: Do you see the dirty smudges on the mirror? Guess what? They are now PERMANENT dirty smudges. As I was rinsing I got some over spray on the middle of the mirror and didn't realize it, so the creme sat there. When rinsing off your piece RINSE THE ENTIRE THING, even if you didn't put etching creme on it. Then wipe it dry with a clean cloth.

Now I took a plastic scraper and easily scraped the paint lines off  (some small particles of the paint remained and I later had to go over it with a sharp exacto knife to clean it up)

 You can see the difference of detail with the hand engraving and the etching creme. Also an effect I wanted. 

 Now I took the different pieces of my landscape picture, taped them where I wanted them and slid the carbon paper under them to trace it on the glass. The carbon paper doesn't have to be taped down. 

 you can see the transferred image

 Now fill in the white. Again using the proper safety equipment. I highly recommend safety glasses and a facial mask, you don't want to breathe in glass dust. 

 Finished the landscape! YAY! I also went back over some of the creme etched portion to heighten the detail, like the crack in the wall and the wood grain. (But I did that after I took this picture, but you can kind of see it in the picture of it framed) (I know I"m probably the only one who will ever know the difference though :) )

 Now to attach the hardware.

I used hot glue to glue the mirror in the frame, covering every inch for the edge of the mirror, then glues the card board in, this protects the back of the mirror from getting scratched. 

 You want it 1/3 the total height of the mirror down(does that make sense?) The frame was 24 in tall so I put the hooks 8 in from the top. Then I attached the picture wire to the hooks. 

I'm VERY happy with the way it turned out (and so is my friend, which matters more than my opinion) Except for those darn permanent dirty spots :S

Don't ever be afraid to do something that is hard, because you will never know what you can accomplish. You just may surprise your self. And if it doesn't turn out, well I bet you learn a lot that will help you in the future. Win-Win