LEGO MOVIE COSTUMES FOR BABY CAT AND HUSBAND CAT

This blog post is a few months overdue but we wanted to share it with you anyway! This Halloween, Baby Cat and Husband Cat decided to go as Emmett and Wildstyle from The LEGO Movie. There were many wonderful tutorials for LEGO costumes online, but we decided to simplify things a bit.

Here are the original characters from the movie:

One of the first things we needed was paint that was just the right LEGO yellow!

Next was a big 3'x4' sheet of chip board to make the heads out of. We also used: black, white, and red acrylic paint for the faces, black and brown fabric for the hair, and blue and pink felt for Wildstyle's streaks.

After spray painting the board and letting it dry, Baby Cat measured two rectangles that were 10'' wide and the length of the board and cut them out with a box knife. 

She then formed the rectangles into tubes with a 1' diameter, trimmed off the excess, and secured them with yellow duct tape.

Using Adobe Illustrator, Baby Cat found some good close-up pictures of the characters faces, scaled them up, and printed outlines of them to use as templates. This one is Emmett:

Next Baby Cat cut out the features (eyes and mouth), set them aside for later, taped the Emmet template to one of the tubes, and traced inside the features.

 This is what Emmett looked like before his features were filled in...

 ...and with his eyes and mouth filled in with black paint:

Once the black paint was dry. Baby Cat cut the teeth and tongue out of the mouth template and taped the template over the mask's mouth. 

The tongue is then painted in red and the teeth in white. This took several coats to show up against the black, so be sure to leave plenty of time for it to dry in between coats.

Wildstyle's face had a little more detail but the overall process was the same. First Baby Cat printed the template...

 ...then cut out the major features...

...taped the template to the mask and traced around it.

The eyes and eyebrows were painted in black.

The lips can also be done in red in the same first step. The freckles and smile line are a light brown made from mixing white and red paint with just a hint of black.

Once Baby Cat had enough coats for all the colors to be dark enough, she let it dry completely. 

Next, she cut out the inner circles from the eye templates and the teeth from the mouth template and taped them to the face.

These are both painted in white.

Both faces were almost done but Baby Cat still had to make a way to see out of them so they could be worn as masks.

 Very carefully with the box knife, Baby Cat cut a large circle out of each of Emmett's eyes (in retrospect she probably didn't need to fill it all in with paint) and cut a slightly larger circle out of black swimsuit-lining fabric to cover it. This kept the eyes looking solid but made it so Husband Cat could see out a little bit.

Again, Wildstyle's eyes were a little trickier because of the white shine spots in her eyes, which Baby Cat cut around as much as she could, then covered the spaces with swimsuit liner.

Finally both faces were done and they just needed hair!

Emmett's hair was difficult to get right. Baby Cat used brown felt and layered it to give it a rounded shape on top of the head. She glued it to the head around the sides and added a few stitches here and there within the fabric to keep the shape.

Wildstyle's hair was made with a piece of black cotton and some strips of blue and pink felt. The cotton was glued to the head at the edges, then pulled up in the middle and tied with a hair tie to make her ponytail. Baby Cat just eyeballed the felt to get colorful streaks that were about the right length and thickness, then glued them to the hair.

And to finish the costumes off, Husband Cat wore a blue shirt under a construction worker's vest while Baby Cat added strips of blue and pink duct tape to her black sweatshirt to make Wildstyle's graffiti hoodie. Both wore yellow kitchen gloves for yellow LEGO hands!

We hope you like our costumes, they were fun to make and we always love impersonating some of our favorite movie characters on Halloween! 

-Baby Cat

Queen Lorena Knit Doll Pattern!

Remember her? Baby Cat's original design for a fairy-tale queen doll took a First Premium and a Best of Division ribbon at the Multnomah County fair last year. Now, you too can capture her magic with a doll of your very own! Feel free to switch up the yarn and use your favorite colors to create your own queen or princess. The pattern is available in our Etsy shop and Baby Cat's Ravelry shop. 

-Baby Cat

Blue Rose Bridesmaid Barrettes

One of my amazing bridesmaids agreed to braid everyone else' hair for the wedding, but to do so she had a very special request. The bridesmaids needed some beautiful flower clips to hold their hair in place. I tried looking at shops like Icing, and even my local pharmacy to find what we needed, but alas, I didn't find anything that fit the look I wanted and also had the kind of clip we needed to hold the hairstyle in place!

Pretty Flower Clip from Icing

I first bought these pretty off-white flowers at Icing, and considered Frankensteining (my new word for taking pieces from a couple different things to make something new) the flower with a different clip that had the right kind of backing. This probably would have worked fine, but I wanted to see if I could get the right thing with less work and less money.

As usual, JoAnn's provided the answer (I promise, they don't pay me to say this). I took a trip there with Momma Cat last week and found:

• An entire bag of the clips that I needed, with nothing attached to them, so no Frankensteining necessary!
• Some beautiful blue fabric roses that were much less expensive than the flower clips I got at Icing
• Some navy blue ribbon wide enough to cover the top of the clip and give the rose someplace to sit

Beautiful Blue Rose

I think the blue roses are even prettier than the first flowers that I liked. I glued a piece of ribbon to the top of each clip, cut the stems off the roses, and glued them on top of the ribbon. Voila! Now that's the last time I'll think it's easier to buy something in a store than make it myself!

-Baby Cat

WEDDING RING TREASURE BOX DIY- TUTORIAL WITH PICTURES

This magical fairy-tale style treasure box is just what Baby Cat and Fiancé Cat need to hold their rings at their wedding! Best of all, Baby Cat made it herself and it was super easy and inexpensive!

If you would like to make a box like this, either for wedding rings or for another special thing that you would like to keep safe, Baby Cat documented the steps she took so you can follow along!

What you need:

-A wooden box or treasure chest- I got mine at JoAnn's (no surprise there)

-Sandpaper to smooth the box and prepare it for painting

-Primer for a base coat

-Spray paint in the color you want the box to be- I used chrome because our wedding colors are silver and blue, but you could use any color.

-Stuffing

-A rectangle of fabric that is a few inches larger than the mouth of the box- I used a leftover piece of my wedding dress fabric

*Optional*-another shear layer of fabric the same size as the first- I used leftover lace from my dress

-About a foot of satin ribbon at 1/4'' wide- I used a cream color to match the fabric

-Tacky glue

-Fray Check

-A needle with an eye large enough for your ribbon

-Two colors of construction paper for making paper flowers- I used cream and naby blue

-One or two flower-shaped paper punches- you could cut the flowers out freehand if you prefer, but I liked the punches.

*Optional*-one or two ink pads in contrasting colors to the flower paper- I used royal blue on the cream colored flowers

*Optional*-any other decorative items you would like for your box- like my beaded dragonfly

For the decorations:

-A piece of lace or ribbon- Again, I used leftover lace from my dress

-Flower-shaped paper punches in two different sizes and/or shapes

-Two different colors of construction paper- I used navy blue and cream

-Ink pads in a complementary or contrasting color to the paper- I used royal blue

-Small beads for flower centers- I used silver beads leftover from the cake topper I made awhile back

-*Anything else you would like to add to your box, like the cute beaded dragon fly I bought at Hiron's months ago with no idea what I was going to use it for!

How to make it:

1. Find a cute treasure box to transform!

2. Sand the outside and inside of the box until completely smooth and ready to recieve paint. Make sure to get your engagement ring in the picture to remind everyone what this box is for, haha.

3. Now it is time to paint. Grab your primer and spread out a layer of newspaper outside or in your basement so that you can spraypaint without getting it on something you don't want to paint.

4. Lay your box open on the newspaper to expose the maximum amount of surface area and spray it with an even coat of primer. Wait for it to dry for at least and hour.

5. When your box is dry, flip it and spray the inside. Wait for this to dry for another hour.

6. When the primer is all dry, grab your main color of spray paint and repeat the same process you just did with the primer.

7. You may use multiple coats if necessary to acieve full coverage, but don't spray on too much in one coat because it might cause drips and those are hard to fix!

8. Once all of your paint it dry, it is time to create the cushion on which the rings will rest. To start, fill the boxt with stuffing.

9. Next, place your first layer of fabric in the box overtop the stuffing and tuck it in at the sides to get an idea of how much you will need. You want enough fabric that you can tuck it around the stuffing on all sides and give the impression of a pillow sitting in the box, but not a lot of excess.

9. Trim off excess fabric so you only have what you need.

10. Tuck in the edges of the fabric around the sides and use tacky glue to secure it to the sides of the box.

11. Repeat step 9 with your sheer fabric.

12. Repeat step 10 with your sheer fabric and let it dry.

13. Using your needle, thread the ribbon through two holes at the center of the fabric so that it will stay in place and both ends are available for holding the rings. If you have trouble getting the ribbon to go through, it may be necessary to cut two tiny holes in the fabric using button-hole scissors. If you do this, use Fray Check around the holes to keep them from tearing.

Tie in the rings to check the length and placement of the ribbon. Trim the ribbon as desired and use Fray Check to keep the ends from unraveling.

Don't they look cute together?

14. Now it's time to decorate the outside! Drape a piece of lace or ribbon over the box in a way that looks good to you.

I used this tutorial by Sweet Bio Designs for the paper flowers. I adapted them slightly because the paper punches I had were a little different from the ones in the video and because I like tacky glue better than hot glue. I may post a tutorial for my flowers later, but I think Sweet Bio Design's tutorial is very good and all of her work is beautiful!

15. After you have your flowers, glue small beads in the center if you would like. Then arrange your flowers and any other design elements you want on your box and glue them on.

Now you are done and have a gorgeous one-of-a-kind box to keep your treasures!

-  Baby Cat

EASY DIY TUXEDO GIFT BAGS

Baby Cat thinks sees no reason why gifts for the guys in a wedding party can't be as cute and creative as the ones for the girls. That's why she was so excited to learn how to make these adorable tuxedo gift bags! This photo tutorial is an adaptation of a tutorial I found by Nashville Wraps. You can click here to see there original tutorial.

For my version, see below!

You will need:

-Paper in white or the color of your groomsmen's shirts, if different (I made one in white and one in    navy blue, the tutorial I adapted recommended white pearl stripe paper, which looks great but I couldn't find any for my own project)
-1/2'' ribbon in black or color to contrast shirt, about 12" per bag (depending on the size of the bag)
-1/4'' diameter brads, buttons, or beads in black or color to match shirt (I used black brads)
-Paper gift bags- one for each tuxedo you want to make
 *note: If you can find black gift bags you will save yourself a few steps. If not, you will also need:
-Black acrylic craft paint (I used Martha Stewart's Multi-Surface Satin)
-A paint brush
-Newspaper to protect your work surface from paint

Let's get started!

Step 1: Paint the Bags (those of you lucky enough to find black bags, skip this step)
        Cover your work surface with newspaper, pop your bags open so that they stand up on their own.

Next spread a light layer of paint all over the outside of the bag and the top of edge of the inside.

        Wait for the paint to dry (about 1 hr) and add extra coats as needed. You don't have to paint the bottom of the bag, but if you would like to, wait until the other paint is dry so it won't smudge when you lay the bag on its side to paint the bottom.

Step 2: Put on a shirt!
      Cut an isoceles triangle out of your shirt paper. When placed on the bag with the point facing down, and short edge lined up with the top of the bag, you should have about 1'' of bag left on either side of the triangle and two inches at the bottom.

Glue the triangle in place.

Step 3: Bow Tie!
     Cut at 6'' length of ribbon and make it into a circle, overlapping ends by 1/4'' and glue. Put a spot of glue in the inside center of the loop and press together to make two loops.
     Cut a 2 1/4'' length of ribbon and wrap it around the center of the double-loop bow. Overlap the ends in the back and glue.

     Cut a length of ribbon as long as the entire width of the front of the bag and glue it across the bag, about 1'' from the top. Glue the bow tie to the center of this ribbon.

Step 4: Buttons
     Glue 4 of your buttons to the center front of the "shirt" equidistant from one another. If you are using brads, break the bendable part or cut it with a wire cutter to keep it from showing or getting in the way when you glue the round part to to the shirt.

Step 5: Fill it up!
     Fill the bag with gifts for your groomsman, best man, dad, groom, or any other guy who plays a special role on your wedding day! Then later it with black and white (or shirt color) tissue paper to finish!

Disclaimer: The actual contents and recipients of these giftbags, as well as Baby Cat's DIY bridesmaid gifts, will not be posted until Baby Cat and Fiancé Cat's Wedding day, lest someone in the wedding party accidentally glimpse something that they shouldn't and spoil the surprise. Sorry, the same goes for Baby Cat's handmade wedding dress.