Halloween 2013: How to Train your Dragon

*this "bunker" is in our town and there are one on each side of the road.*

Emily & Ava as Hiccup and Astrid of How to Train your Dragon.

These were so much fun to make and then photograph! Jon is my right hand man when I do these Halloween shoots with the girls. He helps me keep them in line other wise it's like herding cats.

I have made a separate page of what I used to make the costumes and some pictures of how, here. 

Bunny Baseball Shirt

ring ring, pretzel phone!

Not this bunny tee but the one below! This shirt is H&M.

Fabric is from Girl Charlie (both stripe and bunny) and shirt pattern is the Tee for Two from Figgy's.

I have since used my serger for knits and can't believe I hadn't been using it this whole time! See the hem? See the pucker in the back by the shoulders? blech. I think the puckers and mangled hem are a combination of my sewing machine and that the sleeves and body of the shirt are two different knits. Not one of my best creations but she loves it:) 

Paper Monster Window Silhouettes

Zombie hands and fun monsters. The inspiration for the monsters is from here. The Zombie hands are from the Silhouette Store and cut out using the Silhouette. The monsters are all cut by looking at the inspiration picture and hoping for the best (Yesenia helped me with 2 of them since I'm such a crap draw-er). I used big pieces of black construction paper and colored tissue paper.

Below is the back windows.

And what it looks like from inside when we actually get sunshine! Put together with tape:)

This is what it looks like below during the day.

Wood Halloween Silhouetes

*directions and template from Marthastewart.com*

My two friends and I borrowed a jigsaw from self-help and made some Halloween decorations! I have had this project saved for a couple of years now with the files already downloaded on my computer, just waiting for me to do it. The problem was...I had never used a jigsaw and didn't own one. My neighbor Yesenia suggested we borrow one from self-help (I love the military) uh, genius! We bought wood and paint at the local hardware store and got to it! It was really really easy. What I mean is, I watched Yesenia do half the witch and then I took over. It was much easier than I thought it would be. The hardest part is the tight curves and as you can see from the close up of the witch, it's a bit jaggedy. 

This project cost me: 

21 euro for wood

11.99 euro for paint.

So about 45 USD. 

(it will be more if you add supports or other stuff on the back. I didn't because this is our last Halloween in this house and I didn't want to commit the witch to only being able to pose her one way) 

The directions call for an 8x4 feet piece of wood for the witch and 4x4 feet for 3 cats. Do not buy two pieces! The 8x4 piece is big enough to do the witch and the three cats if you cut just right.

Cat #1 (he is slightly different than the one below)

Cat #2

And cat #3

Close up of the witch. I'm not sure what the wood is that we bought. It was perfect for this though. It was not solid wood and sort of frayed like torn cardboard on some of the edges. The directions call for 3/4" wood but this is about 1/4" thick. We used outdoor deck paint.

She is supposed to have hooks on the back of her hands to hold the broom and lantern but again I didn't want to commit her to only been one way. I might need to turn her the other way at the next house!

And here is Yesenia! She's posing for me. Yesenia is one of the coolest people I know. She is from New York and just moved here about 4 months ago. 

I only took these two pictures while they were being built. 

Next post will be the paper monsters and zombie hands silhouettes we made!!