Duct Tape Astronaut + Front Porch Halloween Decor

Sick of Halloween yet? Well this post will surely renew your love of it... In an attempt to save money, I decided to "make" my childrens' costumes this year. My son just adores space shuttles, lives for space shuttles, worships space shuttles! (Is this kid really mine? Who cares, he's mine now.) Did I mention he wants to be Neil Armstrong for Halloween? Well, N. A. costumes pretty much don't exist, but not to worry. I came up with a fairly convincing astronaut get-up even though I spent twice a much as I normally would have. Memories. Creating memories. Small price to pay. So here it is, my duct tape work of art and how I did it:

In right hand: Apollo 11 rocket.

 I started off by using items I all ready had: old coat & snow suit. I purchased three rolls of white duct tape and one roll of silver. Then the taping frenzy began.

 Here is the snow suite & jacket all covered. I used the silver for the collar, and stripes on arms and legs after I covered the whole thing with white tape. The whole process took about 3-4 hours. It went be really fast. Really! 

Here are his last year's school shoes covered in duct tape.

I tried to make the helmet with this odd wrestling thingy from the DI. It didn't work out so well, but next year I'm going to try using one of those half sphere trash can lids with the other thingy that comes up. I didn't have time to come up with a helmet, so I just put a NASA patch over his Pirates hat. The last finishing touches were of course NASA patches that I aquired from the Clark's Planetarium in SLC. These I just duct taped to the suit in keeping with the duct tape theme. Next time I would have hot glued or sewed these on. They stayed on fine, but the edges are starting to come off a little. And here is the finished product! Isn't he handsome? I would do it all over again to see his smiling face. Love him. One giant step for man, one giant leap for ME finding new and useful purposes for duct tape.



@School, an astronaut and a pirate. Brothers at last!

Trunk-or-treat



                                                                                          Lovin' me some pirate face!

Halloween Front porch/yard decor

I'm an easy-way-out, simple kind of gal. I am not able or willing to spend time and money on Halloween decorations. Less is more, less is more. I love the texture of the orange garland paired with bats paper bats and pumpkins from our local pumpkin patch "Jakers." Can I just give a quick shout out to Jakers http://harwardfarms.com/jakers/ Pumpkin Patch in Springville, UT? All activities are 100% free! They have hay rides, a ginormous corn pit where-in kids roll around like pigs, hay mazes, a petting zoo, and towers of hay to climb. Huge thanks for entertaining my kids for free. Anyway, back to decorations. Here is what I'm going on about: 



When I say simple, I mean simple! Tiny pumpkins on each fence post and let this gorgeous maple tree do the rest of the decorating!

The garland is made out of orange felt. To make, cut your fabric into 3 inch strips. Take a long needle and thread it with heavy duty string. (I used left over kite string.) Gather the strips as you would if you're folding a paper fan. Thread the needle through a small "stack" of folds. Repeat!! The wreath is an old one I spray painted black.

And one adorable lawn gnome. To make this...
To be continued...

No Sew Roman Shades Using Blinds



No Sew Roman Shade

My kitchen window has had a nappy treatment for some time now, so I guess it's time I did something about it. I have always loved the look of the roman shade but are expensive and daunting to make. I thought I could just buy a cheap-o blind at Wal-mart and somehow sew some fabric to the blind... (I often have these great ideas without thinking them though.) Of course I turned to the internets for some kind of tutorial on how to make a roman shade from blinds. I found this nifty tutorial on exactly what I was looking for! How to make roman shades from blinds:

http://365days2simplicity.blogspot.com/2011/04/easy-no-sew-roman-shades.html. This site has step by step instructions to make all your roman shade dreams come true. And in true blog fashion, I have added my own pics, tips, and suggestions on how go about turning a plain, old, boring blind into a fabulous, fashionable, and functional roman shade!

First things first, shop for some totally awesome fabric. I found a great print at Hobby Lobby for a steal, for like $6 for duck cotton or some such nonsense. Apparently the thicker the better. Whatevs, any fabric will do. If you want to filter more light, I would get a darker color, or double up on the fabric. If you want a print on both sides of the fabric, IKEA has a good selection. Pick out some ribbon as well if you want. A tip for easier measuring is to get a print with a pattern to use as your guide.

You will need some fabric glue, which can be purchased at Wal-mart or any craft store, and your blinds. Again I got mine at wallies for $4.00. Other things you will need is an iron, glue gun, scissors, measuring instruments, and iron-on "no sew" tape. (Sorry I can't remember the official name.)

I started out by measuring the window and cutting my fabric. Next, I hemmed the edges with iron-on tape. (I did not need to hem the top and bottom. I hot glued them to the top and bottom rail at the end.) I then used the iron-on tape to attach the ribbon to the fabric.

Now for the fun part: taking apart the blind. (Refer to instructional tutorial on how to do this. Don't worry, it's easy as pie.) http://365days2simplicity.blogspot.com/2011/04/easy-no-sew-roman-shades.html

After taking apart the blind, I was ready to glue my fabric to it. I placed the fabric face down, and placed the blinds on top. Just like starting a wood floor, the first line is the most important in making sure  subsequent lines are level. Making sure my top rail was totally straight, I used the fabric pattern as my guide for straight lines, placing a blind every 5" or so. An easy way to begin gluing was to flip the blind over to the surface that I was gluing to the fabric (convex.) It was easier to place glue on the blind than the fabric. I used a foam brush to smooth the glue. I felt this is a very important step because it looked "globby" otherwise and did not adhere as well. I then flipped the blind back over and pressed down the length of the fabric making sure the two sides weren't crooked. I was careful not to glue the drawstrings to the fabric. You're supposed to let this set over night, but mine was perfectly dried in 3-4 hours. I adhered my top and bottom rails with hot glue taking care not to glue the top corners  because I needed to be able to slide the "locks" into my blind brackets. After installing the blind, I later hot glued the corners to their holders. And that there's how you turn a blind into a work of art!

*Note: if you have problems with your fabric bunching up as you pull the drawstring, don't panic. You may need to crease the folds with you hands and straighten it a little for it to start working properly. I had to do this with mine as I had thick fabric and thick ribbon.