Crafts for Boys

Pop the Stripey Dinosaur

posted by Cara

The kids' school end of the year show is this Sunday and another mom and I made a dinosaur costume for her little boy who is in Juliet's class.  Pop was a character than followed her class throughout the year and now he'll be in their show with them :)

Here's Juliet modeling it for me :D Sorry for the terrible photos but it's been pouring down rain all day. And FYI, mathcing stripes is a pain in the butt!

Helen's picks of the year

posted by Helen

Of all the challenges I've set myself this year, I think this has been the most difficult - to choose three or four of my personal favourites from all of Cara's projects over the last twelve months...  In the end I narrowed them down to four - one costume, one item of clothing, one bag and one other, but it was tough and I may yet change my mind before I publish this!

I've had lots of fun looking back so here are my top hi-lights of our first year on-line:

In at number one - my all time favourite with top marks for originality. Tom still loves it too and takes it to school every day : Tom's shark bag

I just had to include Dean's fab transformer costume - it's ingenious: Dean's costume

Picking one item of clothing was really hard, but in the end for the shear amount of detail and just cool boyishness it had to be Anthony's robot shirt.

And last, but by no means least, although maybe slightly off topic the brilliant gift that Cara made me for Christmas - it's really cute, fits perfectly in my bag and has already proved incredibly useful - after all boy mums deserve good stuff too :o) My out and about pack.

Here's to the next twelve months :o))

 

Challenge met!

posted by Cara

I'm not one to take a challenge from a 5 year old, but Dean had such confidence in me that I couldn't resist.  Even up until the last minute I didn't really know exactly how I was going to pull it off.  I just knew that I would have to leave it until the last minute because it would get crushed in the suitcase.  I made lots of sketches and measured twice and cut once, okay, it was more like measuring 46 times and cut once ;)  And here's what I came up with!

Be warned, it's not pretty!  I was out to impress only one person.  Dean.  I wanted to make sure he was recognised as Bumblebee (the store bought mask helped) and that the costume could transform.  The back wheels turned to the outside, the hood moved from his chest to his head and the front wheels and doors/wings could be repositioned with velcro.

After a late night trip for velcro and having to cover the whole thing with packing tape because of the rain (thanks Dad for getting me more when I stole yours and then ran out), Dean was ready to trick or treat with his cousins.

 
 

just pretend that fender is not upside down ;)

 

Hectic half-term

posted by Helen

The last ten days has been more than hectic but lots of fun with holidays and birthdays and Grandma and Grandad to stay, and we managed to squeeze some crafty stuff in there too....

So here's a brief resumé of Joe's first birthday, Hallow'een and playing pirates.

Back to school tomorrow!

 

 

 

 

Quicky Costumes

posted by Cara

Hello from Canada!!  We made it to Nova Scotia!!  The kids are so excited to go trick-or-treating for the first time :D  YAY!!!

So with packing up 7 people for 2 week trip, the baby's baptism and everyday life with 5 kids, I did not have time to make elaborate costumes this year.  Juliet and Hector got hand-me-downs and the older kids got quicky costumes.  I traced sweaters, our Darth Vader cape and Daddy's t-shirts instead of using patterns (so much easier) and took as many short cuts as I could.  And this is what I got in about an hour per costume.  If you will be in Antigonish on Halloween, look away ;)

Still to come, the transformer costume...  that TRANSFORMS!

Robin Hood (he'll make his hat and bow and arrow here)

Samaurai

Woolly Super Suit

 
posted by Supergirl - okay so I'm not Supergirl but she is called Kara, close enough ;) 

Sinve Nov1 last year, Philippe has been asking to be Superman for Halloween this year.  Since we will be in Canada this year, we will actually be able to go trick-or-treating!!  YAY!  Though, anyone who's ever trick-or-treated in Canada know that more often than not the costumes go over snowsuits :D  Now since spandex doesn't really look good over a snowsuit (if you can get it to fit).  I raided my wool jersey stash and found the perfect shade of Super blue. A little bulkier than spandex, but he'll be warm.  The top is a store bought sweatshirt cut down to size (per the advice of my creative consultant ;) thanks Helen!) to fit over his winter coat.  The hood really doesn't go, but he'll need it!  I made the cape the same way as the capes for his party and last but not least the spanky pants!  Who decided that underwear on top of tights was heroic LOL!!  I just traced a pair of Jacques underwear and added a belt that I made from outdoor tablecloth fabric!

 I just want a give a shout out to a 'Super' friend!!  Happy Birthday Helen :D

 
 

 

Little Blurs

posted by Cara

So the new season of Smallville has begun and the season premiere did not disappoint! It looks like this season Clark will soon stop being the Blur and finally put on the suit his mother gave him and become Superman, Earth's hero!!  Ah, cannot wait to see Tom Welling in spandex!! Okay... wait, sorry, this is supposed to be a craft blog!!  Okay, onto this week's craft.

We are all big Superman fans in this house.  Though, I'm the only one who enjoys looking at Tom Welling and Christopher Reeve. ;)  Jacques was actually singing the Lex Luthor theme music to the baby the other day.  The Gene Hackman Lex, they are only allowed to watch the old movies.  70's and 80's violence was much calmer...   Anyway, still off topic here...

 
For the last, oh 12 months or so...  Philippe has been asking for a Superman birthday party. Saturday afternoon we had 6 little Blurs running around having a really fun time and helping Philippe celebrate.  These little capes took only about 40 minutes to make all 6 and Helen and I just safety pinned them to the kids' clothes.  I have a fear of tying things around kids' necks, especially kids that are not my own left in my care.  We played statue, but they had to freeze in a flying position and a version of musical chairs where you had to stand an superman logo and not be the one standing on the kryptonite.  (Again, off topic: do you know that spell check recognises kryptonite as a word? cool!)

 
Here's a photo of the cake as well. It turned out a bit too electric blue and pink, but, I only had regular food colouring because that's all that I can find here in my neck of the woods.  I'll have to take a trip to Michael's when we are home in Canada.

And just because...

 
 
you're welcome ;)

Dean's Thomas the Tank Engine Costume

posted by Cara

My nephew, and godson, is one of Thomas the Tank Engine's biggest fans.  I make him a Halloween costume every year and each time I wanted to make him a Thomas costume, but I usually SEW costumes and couldn't figure out a way to do it.  I ended up making a trip to Canada this past fall to visit with my mom for a week, all by myself, no kids!  So, in the evenings, while my brother (hi Keith!) painted along side me, I painted this!  Don't let the expression on his face fool you, he was pretty impressed!  It scored me some pretty big brownie points.  Now, he thinks that I can make anything, this year he wants me to make a Transformer costume...  that actually transforms!!  Thanks Buddy, for thinking that I'm creative enough to be able to do that ;)