I love making costumes with felt! This candy corn costume was so quick and easy to make, and it looks so cute. I was so excited to share it with you, that I just snapped a photo of my two year-old wearing it over his jammies. He’s a huge fan of candy corn, and wanted to dress as one for his Halloween costume from the beginning. Candy corn is an adorable costume: it’s instantly recognizable and of course, it’s easy! It’s also comfortable and easy to move around in, and you can remove it in a jiffy if necessary (perfect for a school or work costume!)

I made this costume out of felt yardage (the kind you get on the bolt at the fabric store, as opposed to the small sheets of craft felt). Felt is inexpensive, easy to work with, and you don’t have to finish it by hemming. Perfect for a one-time-use costume. These instructions are for a sewn costume, but check the bottom of the post for no-sew instructions.

Project Materials:

• 1/4 yard each of white, orange, and yellow felt, $3.59 per yard
• Ribbon, on hand
• Sewing machine & thread OR Hot glue gun & glue

Total: $2.69

This costume was very simple to construct and took me less than an hour to sew. You can also construct it with a hot glue gun if you don’t like sewing. It’s basically a very simple shift dress or smock made out of felt.

I made this for my son who wears a 3T. This amount of fabric will be fine for up to a 6x. For a larger costume, get wider cuts of fabric. You might want to get a wider swath of orange, since most candy corn has a large orange section.

To Make:

1. Sew 1/4 yard strips of felt together, making sure seams are on the same side. I got the color order wrong, so if you want to be 100% authentic candy corn, sew white to orange, and orange to yellow!

Alternately, hot glue the felt strips together.

2. Cut two pieces of the striped fabric, about 24″ wide. Fold in half, and cut a diagonal. The bottom should be the full width, and the top should be about 8″ wide when folded in half (16″ wide total). Use a tape measure to keep your line straight, or eyeball it. Repeat for 2nd piece of striped fabric. You will probably have some striped fabric leftover, too.

When you unfold the fabric, it will be a trapezoid that looks like this. I cut about 4″ off the top of my trapezoid because I wanted it to be shorter on my son. Adjust the length as desired.

3. Put the trapezoids right sides together. Sew shoulder seams as shown here, leaving 6″ unsewn in the middle. This will be the neck.

Alternately, hot glue together.

4. Sew up the sides, leaving about 6-8″ at the top unsewn. This will be the sleeve.

Alternately, hot glue sides together and remember to leave sleeve holes.

5. Fold over bottom, and sew a hem. You can skip this part, but I like it because of the stiffness it gives the hem, so the corn is nice and round.

Alternately, hot glue the hem.

6. If you want, you can fold the sleeves over and hem them too, but you don’t have to.

Alternately, hot glue the hem.

7. Cut a scoop in the front for the neck. Cut a straight line down the back about 6″ to make the hole big enough for little noggins to get through.

8. Cut two pieces of ribbon, about 12″ long. Singe the ends with a flame to keep them from unraveling. Fold over top hem of back of costume. Sandwich ribbons in the end and sew or hot glue to secure.

To make a hat: Cut a rectangle of white, and wrap around head in a cone shape. Hot glue or sew seam. I didn’t like the white peaked hat look, so I folded the peak inside about 3″ to make a blunt peak.

What to wear underneath: Black, white, yellow, or orange shirt and pants, skirt, tights, or leggings.

Other Candy Corn costumes and treat bags:

• Ruffled Candy Corn Tee at Positively Splendid
• Candy Corn costume, hat, and treat bag at Chica and Jo
• Candy corn treat bags at The Purl Bee
• Oversized hands-free candy corn treat bag at A Lemon Squeezy Home by No Big Dill (who also had a candy corn week!)
• Another very cute girl’s candy corn costume at No Big Dill
• Everything candy corn (so many fun ideas) at One Pretty Thing

Other quick and easy halloween costume ideas:

• Pizza costume
• Last minute no-sew costumes
• Greatest Costume Hits
• Homemade Costume Week

The post Make a Candy Corn Costume for $2.69 appeared first on Dollar Store Crafts.

I’m in awe of those who can plan a truly fabulous party. If party-planning doesn’t come naturally to you, I’ve collected some quick tips to help you plan amazing parties (and save money doing it). But first, the inspiration for this post, Shelley’s Sweet Shoppe party over at How Does She – her adorable twins had the best.first.birthday.ever with this amazing sugary pink party. All photos by Kara Jo Photography. [check out this adorable pink party at How Does She?]

Quick Tip: Make ruffled streamers and hang them in sweet stripes as a background for your party

Choose a theme… and stick to it

One thing I’ve noticed in the party posts we all drool over is that the planners choose a theme and do not deviate. In order to make maximum impact, every detail of the party must serve the theme.

Saving Money: a theme helps you save money because it eliminates excess components that don’t fit in your theme. It gives you direction for where to spend your money, and what items to include in the party.

Now, being the social/squishy person I am, I have to remind you that the MAIN theme of any party is the person it’s being planned for. In your quest to create the perfect party, please don’t forget the guest of honor (and the rest of your guests). Make sure the experience is great for everyone by focusing on the guests, including yourself, on the day of the party. Nobody likes a partyzilla. Which brings us to my next point:

See Page 2 for more –>

The post Fabulous Sweet Shoppe Party and Tips for Cheap Party Planning appeared first on Dollar Store Crafts.

This mobile is a great way to bring some mid-century modern into your home for less than a buck. Yep! I said a buck. In fact, if you work from materials in your stash, or your recycling bin, your only expense will be the two pennies you use to weigh the mobiles down. I used two main colors for the two sides of the mobile, plus a couple accent colors , so when the mobile hangs freely in the air, the pieces rotate gently and the look of the mobile constantly changes.

I love this print by artist Jenn Ski. I am in love with her color choices, the shapes, and the way she put them all together. I bookmarked the print months ago, and recently found it again and was inspired to create a mobile for myself, using the print as inspiration. (In a separate incident last year, I bought some of Jenn’s awesome Actopus To Zelephant paper products at Michael’s. I didn’t even know they were by the same artist! I am a confirmed fan of Jenn’s now!) She’s a terrific artist, and Jenn is also a super nice person, and she graciously agreed to let me share my mobile instructions and templates with you. Because this project is based on another artist’s work, please use these instructions only for personal use (no selling mobiles based on this pattern.)

A few weeks ago I got a Cricut Expression (if you aren’t familiar with Cricuts, they look like a printer, but they cut lines instead of printing them) from another crafter, and I found out about a software called Sure Cuts-a-Lot, which allows you to cut any shape you want using the Cricut. This mobile was my first project using Sure Cuts-a-Lot. I have to use the software a little more before I review it for you, but let me just say, in a word, love.

I have been on a cut-out-paper project kick for a few months anyway, and the Cricut reduces production time (read: tracing and cutting) from hours to minutes. I was able to make this mobile in about an hour, from making the shapes on my illustration program, to cutting them on the Cricut, to assembling the mobile.

But don’t worry if you don’t have a Cricut. You can do this project without one. You can even do it without a printer. I’ll tell you how to do it no matter what tools you have at your disposal.

But first, the

Project Materials:

• 2-4 pieces of 12×12″ card stock, $.50 each
  (OR) recycled cardboard like cereal boxes, on hand
• Page of text, (like newspaper, love letter, book page, etc.) on hand
• Fishing line or thread, on hand
• 2 pennies, $.02
• Craft glue
• Clear tape
• Scissors, X-acto knife, or Cricut with Sure Cuts-A-Lot
• (optional) Computer printer
• (optional) 2 rings (like binder rings) for mounting, $1

Total: $.02 and up

Go to Page 2 for Instructions

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