An Ol' Pair of Shoes and Some Glitter

I love being able to resuse items I already have laying around or can easily find at a local thrift store. Finishing up Sofie's costume over the weekend gave me a great opportunity to use an old pair of  her faux crocs. I thought the crocs had a similar round bulky shape as the new version of  Strawberry's shoes.
Very easy and another quick project any little girl will love.

Do It Yourself: 

You will need - An old pair of shoes. These crocs still fit Sofie but she barely wore them. Something scruffed up would be great too.  Acrylic paint, glitter glue/paint and polyurethane. I used Anitas semi gloss varnish, which is good for decopage and is easy to brush on. Only use this if you are using shoes with a surface like the crocs, this finishing coat is not needed on fabric shoes.

It took a three layers of acrylic paint, which I mixed to match the pink in her outfit. Depending on fabric you are dealing with and base color, it will vary. I do suggest that if you are working with canvas shoes you add a fabric medium which could be bought at any art supply store. The one I use is Liquitex. Remember if you are using fabric shoes you do not need the polyurethane. Add the fabric medium to the paint at 1:1 ratio.

I made sure each layer dried thoroughly in between to prevent lumping and visible brush strokes.
Once the paint was dry I added the glitter glue (its just what I happened to have but of course any kind of glitter medium is fine). Start off little by little to and add on to your liking. Let this layer dry as well.
If working with shoes like mine you would add a thin layer of polyurethane at this point, just to ensure paint and glitter does not peel.

I thought they would dry and stiffen but they came out great.
Now you have another costume piece to play with, enjoy!

Halloween- Tis the Time for Wigs

When my daughter decided on Strawberry Shortcake as her costume this year I never anticipated people asking me, "Which version?". Strawberry Shortcake was one of my favorites growing up and I guess it had slipped my mind that she had "evolved" over the last 20 years. I didn't know which version she should be. And since I was making her costume I thought I would mash up all the ideas and images of this character that were important to a little girl. One of the most important features I had to consider was her red hair.
I didn't want to buy a wig, so when my neighbor suggested I try working with red yarn, all sorts of light bulbs went off in my head. I went with the longer hair modern version of Strawberry Shortcake, mainly because I knew my daughter would love the idea of flipping her faux hair.
Two hours, $1.00 of red yarn and a stretch headband later I came up with this... and my daughter loves it! I kinda thought it looked weird but it does the trick. And with the pink hat (also made myself with fleece fabric- very easy) I think it could work.  She tried it on and kept it on the rest of the night.
 Thanks to KiwiJane for the awesome suggestion!

Do It Yourself

Need : One Stretch Headband and Yarn (Have Fun Make it in Different Colors)

I cut 10 pieces of yarn at 10 inches - for the bangs I cut once I saw how short I would need them on my daughter
Layer the pieces to make it fuller
I placed the first layer of five pieces on a small section -about 2" across- and then second on top
Run through sewing machine (I used zigzag stitch)
Repeat these steps until you have sewn yarn all around the headband
Cut as desired

Enjoy!