How to Make The Incredibles Halloween Costumes + Costume Contest

I've always liked Halloween and always decorated and dressed up. However, about 4 years ago I started working in an office that took Halloween to a whole new level (some might call it crazy). These people are crazy serious, not only in work on Halloween but at costume parties they throw at their own houses. Remember this post from a couple years ago? Yep, that's my office. Each year we outdo the year before. So a couple years ago the pressure was on for a full family costume so we could attend one such party and not hang our heads in shame. That year, I transformed us into The Incredibles.

Since the only part of this costume you really have to make is the logo on the shirts, I'll first show you what I gathered for us to wear. I had about half of the items already, the other stuff was purchased at Walmart, and the black work gloves are from Home Depot.

Mr. Incredible:

You'll notice Mr. Incredible is wearing a lot of women's clothing :). I could not for the life of me find men's sweat pants (because we all know he wasn't gonna wear tights) or long sleeved shirts in bright red. All the men's stuff was maroon. So, the women's section it had to be. Also, the reason he has two shirts on is because the only long sleeved bright red shirt I could find (quickly and cheaply) was women's. Women's shirts have a much larger neck hole (in general) than men's and well... Mr. Incredible was showing a little too much chest hair. I did find a men's short sleeved shirt. So he just put it on over top of the long sleeved one.

Mrs. Incredible, yep, that's me:

I had trouble finding red leggings in women's sizes so these are actually a girl's 14-16 :) Good thing they are super stretchy! They're quite the high-waters inside the boots though.

Violet and Dash:
The kid's costumes were easy since kid's clothing comes in bright colors usually anyway. "Dash" will probably have to wear girl's clothing, but he'll look really fast so it's okay. ha. They both are wearing red long sleeved t-shirts, red tights, black shoes, black gloves (I think Dash took his off), and the same orange t-shirt cut into strips for the belt. Dash has a girl's black diaper cover on over his tights and Violet has some black leggings I cut to look like small black shorts. I didn't do the mask makeup on my Dash because we were at a friend's house and I didn't want his black makeup smeared all over their furniture. I'm nice like that.

To make the Incredibles logo for the shirts:

Supplies:

• Felt - Orange, Black, Yellow, White (my black is actually an old black t-shirt)
• Scissors
• Heat-N-Bond
• Iron
• Incredibles logo template - Click here for the template!
• Printer

Step 1.
Iron Heat-N-Bond to the felt. I find cutting a rectangle of Heat-N-Bond slightly smaller than your fabric rectangle or felt works best. You want the Heat-N-Bond smaller than the fabric so you don't stick Heat-N-Bond to your ironing board. Just follow the directions on the package. You should have several pieces of felt backed with Heat-N-Bond after this step.

Step 2
Print out and cut apart the pieces of the The Incredibles logo. I have made 3 versions for you. An adult size and two smaller children's sizes.  If they don't fit the shirt you have like you want, you can scale them when you print them out or scale on a copy machine. Click here for the logos.

Step 3
Trace the pieces with the right side of them touching the Heat-N-Bond paper backing. Remember, the backing is the back of the logo that will be sticking to the shirt so you have the trace the pieces backwards in order for it to be correct when you iron it to the shirt. I forgot the backwards part and so you'll notice all of the logos on our shirts are backwards compared to the cartoon versions. No one has ever noticed so don't sweat it if you forget too. Cut them out.

Step 4
Reassemble the felt logo pieces on each shirt, peal off the backing, and iron in place. Follow the directions on the package to see how long to hold the iron down.

Now suit up and head to the party as various other motorists do triple takes of your family as you drive by. It's quite entertaining actually. I think we scared our neighbor on the way to the car.

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Tween Girl Side Table

The first project for the great tween bedroom makeover is complete! Okay, so she's almost 6... not quite a tween but it sure feels like it with every "whatever" and eye roll being flung about. Last week I gave a tour of Kaley's room in it's current "baby" state. She was itching for something a little less pastel and a whole lot brighter. Since her current "nightstand" was really a tiny round plant stand with no storage and no room for even a book, we tackled this problem first. After all, my girl is learning to read and she needs a place to put the book down at night before she dozes off, right?

And, lucky for me... the neighbors were movin' on out (not sure if it was the east side or not) and left this beauty at the curb. Score! Quite scratched but the perfect size.

Ready to go from junk to funk? (Make mental nerd comments, I'll wait)

Supplies:

• Mask - I use 3M tekk respirators made for painting and sanding 
• Medium to fine grit sand paper - I used an oribital sander but plain sand paper would work fine
• Primer - Either spray on or paint on
• Spray Paint - I used Rust-Oleum 

Time to grab the kids and suit up! I promise, they are smiling under the masks.

Step 1: 

Give the entire thing a light sanding. Remove any chipping areas and smooth out rough spots. Encourage children not to fight.

Step 2:

Prime your piece. I used a quick coat of spray primer. Doesn't have to be fully covered and you might need to give it a really light sanding again after the primer dries if it feels gritty.

Step 3:

Patch any chips or damaged spots if you have any. I used 3M Patch Plus Primer on a small chip on the top. Since it was so tiny, it dried in minutes.

Step 4:
Paint away! Paint many light coats and allow them to dry completely in between to avoid the sticky finish afterwards.

I gave this table a week in the garage before I brought it in. Time to get rid of the spray paint smell and to cure. I also find if you give your piece a coat of Pledge or furniture polish before you bring it in, it helps prevent that sticky feeling too. The knob was switched out for an antique glass one... I had extra from when I redid my dresser.

 I think it turned out so great and the finish is really nice.

Not bad for a dumpster dive and some paint! Stay tuned for more Operation Big Girl Room progress!

Apparently I have a thing for painting old tables. Here's a few more I did. :)

  

If you'd like to see where we started with Operation Big Girl Room or some other projects for this room, click below.

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3 Quick and Simple Organizing Ideas

This post brought to you by Gecko Tech. All opinions are 100% mine.

Lately I've been trying to purge, streamline, and simplify my life as much as possible. With the start of school and sports, efficiency is the key in getting my jam-packed schedule done. In order to accomplish that, I need organization. Last week I shared my weekly planner to keep my head organized, and this week I'm sharing 3 simple tips to keep the day to day stuff organized using Gecko Tech Reusable Hooks. Because they are removable, waterproof, and reusable, they're perfect for my temporary rental abode.

1. Clean up that craft area. Since part of my job is to create and share projects on a deadline, I need a space to do that. And, because I'm doing that in between working a regular 9-5 and parenting 2 little ones, I have to get my craft on quickly. It's incredibly frustrating when I only have an allocated 30 minutes to work and I spend 10 minutes of that time trying to find a supply. It only took a minute to hang up my most frequently used bobbins, but will save me lots of minutes later when I don't have to search for them in my drawer of clutter.

2. Since I cook dinner every evening (okay, almost every evening) my kitchen has to function well. Night after night, I kept finding myself crouched on the floor pulling out 5 pots and pans just to find one lid. Not only do your quads start to burn, once you find the lid, you then have to restack everything you just pulled out. The little one always seemed to get buried under whatever had come out of the dishwasher last. 

So I did something about it. Stick a couple Gecko Tech hooks to the insides of your cabinets and you'll never have to search for the little lost lids again. Remember, they're removable and reusable so you won't damage the cabinets and can always move or reposition if your needs change.

3. Conquer those bath toys. After cooking dinner each night comes bath time and the kids love to play. Thing is, they don't love to clean up and that hanging mesh bag thing was useless before. Even when they did get the toys back in there, the suction cups never held. Especially when the toys were wet and heavy. Then it became just a big bag of wet mildew toys laying in the tub all the time. Since the Gecko Tech hooks are waterproof, you can use them in the shower. Love that. Good bye suction cups and hello to toys that might actually dry before the next bath.

That's it. 3 simple, quick, and effective ways to streamline the day-to-day stuff using Gecko Tech Reusable Hooks. If you're looking for more creative inspiration, follow the makers of Gecko Tech, The Duck Brand, on Twitter and go pick up Gecko Tech hooks at Meijer stores and soon on Amazon and at Office Max. Happy organizing.

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DIY House Number Planter

This post is sponsored by Plaid Crafts but my opinions are my own.

Summer is coming to an end and my once fab landscaping is starting to look a bit tired. The porch is kinda blah and you can't see the house numbers if you're on the porch. They are way out on the garage. Time for a quick and cheap refresh to brighten things up until I get to cover it in pumpkins (squeeeel) and to help the UPS man out. For this project I used Martha Stewart Decoupage and an old unfinished wood toolbox that was collecting dust under my bathroom sink. Don't ask why it was under the sink... seemed like a good storage place at the time.

Here's the toolbox before. It was unfinished wood and quite orange.

Here is a shot of some of the new Martha Stewart Decoupage items available at Michaels. Below is a list of what I used for this project.

Supplies (Available at Michaels):

• Martha Stewart Wood Stain (both dark and white)
• Martha Stewart Decoupage (I used the matte finish)
• Martha Stewart Metallic paints
• Martha Stewart Metallic Doily Accents
• Martha Stewart Decoupage Brushes

Step 1:

Stain the box with a mix of the dark stain and white stain.

I just drizzled it on and rubbed it in with a rag. 

Same thing with the white.  It gave me a nice aged grayish color.

Step 2:

Tape of some decorative stripes and paint with the metallic paints. This part is up to you. Go crazy.

Step 3: Add the metallic doily accents using the decoupage medium. I painted some on the toolbox and on the back of the actual doilies. Then, painted a coat over top. They stuck really easily and bent around the side with no problem. I love the metallic gold against the rustic wood.

Step 4: Add your house numbers. I didn't have any stencils on hand, so I printed my numbers out, cut them out, then traced with a pencil.

Then I hand painted them with a small craft brush using a variety of paints. I also couldn't help myself and painted the handle a bright teal. :)

That's it.  A quick craft both functional and cute. Just pop your pots inside. Now the poor UPS man won't have to backtrack into the yard to make sure he has the right place.

If you're looking for more creative craft inspiration from Plaid... stalk away.

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