Baby Sock Monkey Costume

For Halloween last year, Hero wanted to be a Power Ranger. I borrowed that costume from my mom's old stash. Easy!

Pretty didn't have a strong opinion, so I just asked my sister what she had in Pretty's size and borrowed that. Pretty was excited about getting to wear "red sparkle shoes" as Dorothy. Easy #2!

The only thing I didn't have was a good costume for Dragon. At first I was going to add some diamonds and cuffs to a sleeper and make him a Power Ranger, too. But then I saw this idea for a sock monkey costume. I loved it and thought, I can do that! So I did.

Kathleen at Grosgrain didn't give any sort of tutorial, other than to say that she used thrifted sweaters and a pajama pattern to make up her costume. So I had a lot of wiggle room.

I also used thrifted sweaters. I had these baby pants pinned FOR-E-VER, and thought they would be perfect! I only made a little change to the way I sewed them, to make it easier. I never could figure out the stuff-one-leg-into-the-other way of sewing pants...

I extended the length and rounded the bottom of the legs, so they would look like a sock monkey. Then I made the back panel the way the tutorial on Sew a Straight Line describes, putting the red in the place of a design on the bum. The changes I made was to sew the "J" shape on the front panel.

You'll have the front and back panel like this:

Now, just lay one on top of the other, right sides facing and sew all the way around! Since I was making a closed bottom for the sock monkey, this could be done in one continuous seam. But if you were making real pants, with openings for the feet, you would just sew the side seams first, then do the inseam (inside/crotch seam).

Finish it up with an elastic waistband, and you have pants!

For the shirt, I used a pattern for a knit shirt from my mom. But if you want a tutorial, Dana's 90 Minute Shirt would be super cute! But I wanted the option of tucking Dragon's little fingers inside. Halloween can include snow some years in Utah...

To add a pocket that I could tuck over, I cut out a rectangle, hemmed one side, and placed it on the edge of the sleeve. I sewed around the three sides shown in the picture.

Then hem the sleeve and finish sewing the shirt. Attach the sleeve to the shirt,

and sew under the sleeve and down the side seam in one long line.

Now you have a sleeve where you can fold over the hands to keep them warm.

To make the hat, I used this Upcycled Boy Hats tutorial from I Am Momma - Hear Me Roar. I lined it with an old white t-shirt and added little monkey ears on the side, the same way I would for an actual sock monkey. Last, but not least, I made a tail, stuffed it and sewed it into place. Voila! Sock Monkey Baby!!

Hands out:

Hands in:

Cute monkey bum!

I may be biased, but I think he's the cutest sock monkey I've ever made...and I've made a lot of sock monkeys!

A Good Book Quote Art Tutorial

Part two of the Mod Podge book pages fun was the "A Good Book" quote art. 

A few years ago, when I made some nursery art for my SIL, the canvases were on sale at 2 for 1! So I bought a few extras, of course! And when I had a lot of ripped book pages left, I decided to make the art piece for the shower. This tutorial is a little light on specific pictures, so if there is any confusion, email me!

What you need is an 8 x 8 canvas, an old book, Mod Podge, a foam brush, black craft paint, small paint brush, a small amount of black lace, a button and hot glue.

I started with covering the canvas in book pages the same way I did the serving tray. It's pretty simple; rip pages, then use Mod Podge to stick them on. I searched online and found this quote, "A good book has no ending." by R.D. Cumming. I like the suggestion that a book you love with live on by becoming a part of you.

Now, some day, I might actually own some sort of cutting machine (my dream is a Silhouette!). But for this, I just used black craft paint and a little brush. 

 I like how bold the letters are, and also how there is a little drag from the brush around the edges.

Once the paint is dry, brush on a layer of Mod Podge over the entire surface of the canvas.

To create the flower in the center, I cut out 4 circles from the same book I was using. They can be any size you want, and they don't need to be perfectly round. I free handed mine and they were roughly 3 1/4 in in diameter.

Crumple them up to add some texture.

Smooth them out enough to fold them in half.

Then weave the four folded circles in to one circle.

Use hot glue to secure them together where one folded circle overlaps another.

To help set off the book pages flower from the book pages background, cut two circles from some black lace. The larger circle should be about 5 1/2 inches in diameter, and the smaller circle about 3 1/4 inches in diameter. I know that makes the smaller circle of lace the same size as the paper flower, but we are going to melt it, and that makes it shrink up a bit.

I didn't take any pictures of this next part because I was using both hands to burn stuff, so fire safety took priority over pictures! It's pretty simple, though. Use a lighter or a candle to melt the edges of both lace circles. I also burned the edges of my paper flower. Be VERY CAREFUL during this part. The pages DO CATCH ON FIRE and you need to blow it out so the whole thing doesn't burn away. Again. please be careful!

Now we are to the final assembly! Use hot glue to secure the flower to the center of the canvas. Remember that lace has holes, so put down the glue, then place both the larger lace and the paper flower down over that glob of glue. (Don't try to push down the lace on it's own, like I did... oops.)

Then lay the smaller lace down, add the glue and push the button in the center. And you are done!

I love how this piece turned out! A constant reminder that reading is important,

and the things we read stay with us.

And that's just awesome.

Book Pages Tray Tutorial

I'm sure I'm not the first person to Mod Podge old book pages to stuff, but this was a really fun and small way to bring even more themed decor to the Library baby shower. Today I'll share how I made the tray.

The supplies are pretty simple. You will need a tray to cover. I found this plastic "Merry Christmas" one at a thrift store for $0.50! You also need an old book. Try to find one that has yellowed edges from age if you can, it just adds more dimension. You need Mod Podge, a foam brush, and (not pictured) black craft paint, little paint brush, and sealer.

Rip pages out of the book at the spine, then rip the pages at random places.

Use a sponge brush to apply Mod Podge to one side of the page.

(if you follow me on FB, this is why my daughter got the stuff in her hair)

Then stick the page glue side down on the tray at random. I did try to make sure the pages were going at different angles and the text at different directions from the ones immediate to it. Also, don't go from one side the tray to the other, because then all the pages will be on top of each other on the same sides. (does that even make sense?)

I covered over the handle openings completely, then waited for it to mostly dry. Cut a line in the paper covering the hole.

Then use more Mod Podge to wrap the cut pages around the opening.

This is how it will look when you've covered the whole top side. I stopped here, but I think it would be a good idea to cover the sides as well.

The next step is to add an image. This draws attention away from what could be awkward page placement, and just adds a bit of fun.

I used this bird image from picnik.com, printed it out in a 4x6 size, and cut out the bird.

I traced around the bird on to the paper tray with a pencil.

Fill in the outline with black craft paint (or any color you wish).

The last two steps are to finish it off. First, after letting the bird image dry, use your sponge brush to apply Mod Podge over the entire surface of the book pages. This is harden it and add a great finish. Don't do it too thick that the pages wrinkle. Allow it to dry.

 The final step is to apply a sealer. Even after it has dried, Mod Podge can be tacky and if you leave things resting on the surface for very long, they can stick. Sealer will prevent that from happening. And since it is a serving tray, you most likely will have things resting on it!

 And there you have it, an awesome Book Pages Tray.

Then you can add stuff, like these party favors:

And that's just awesome!

The Book Garland

I am in no way saying that this garland was an original idea by me. I got the idea, supply list and how to from Martha Stewart. But for as awesome as Martha Stewart is, her online how-to's are not always very clear. I like a lot of pictures, and she has more text instructions. So this here is how I made my version of her book garland.

First, I'll show you how we made the books. Instead of going out to buy various shades of pink, we decided to just use the scrap-booking paper I had on hand in a variety of colors. We kept them all soft colors of pink, green, purple and brown so they went well together.

I cut the scrap-book paper the dimensions Martha suggested of 4" x 7". 

The description of how to fold the spine confused me, so here is how I did it. Place the paper wrong side up, fold over the right half of the paper so the right edge is 1/2" inside the left edge. Press the fold firmly. Open it up, and fold the it mirror image. (So the left edge is 1/2" inside the right edge.)

Now you should have a 1/2" spine, like this:

The next step is to glue in the book pages. We used an old book of mine. We found that the pages weren't quite wide enough for the 7 inches, so we cut a bit into the text on the left side of a page, and then glued two pages together with a glue stick. Cut the page to just under 4 inches tall.

To glue the pages in, I found it easiest to apply glue from the glue stick right into the 1/2" spine, and attach the pages there. For ease of folding, I made sure that the page seam was inside the spine.

I trimmed off the over hang on either side.

This last step is optional. We left half alone, with just the two folds. The other half, I folded the book into the center to meet and make a more prominent spine. It also holds the book open more. It was nice to have half this way and half without the extra folds, because it gave it more variety of both open and closed books.

And there you are. Make a bunch! Overall I think we used just under 50 for our garland.

Now, for the flowers. I went to the dollar store to find inexpensive flowers for this. I was just about to give up and walk out when I saw the "Luao Party" section, and these leis.

I brought them home, cut the string and pulled off the flowers!

This one lei got me about 70 flowers and a handful of leaves. I threw away the plastic spacers.

Here's the result of tearing apart 6 leis. Over 400 flowers!!

I used some left over black nylon twine I had from crocheting a purse a few years ago for the string. I used a yarn needle and threaded right through the center of the flowers onto the string. Despite my plethora of flowers, I only ended up using about 60 or 70 flowers and a few of the leaves.

Lena tied the string to the curtain rods on one side and we taped the string with masking tape on the other wall. See the flowers all bunched up? We just spaced them out after the string was secure.

The last step we took was to add the books by hanging them with little clothespins. Martha Stewart also had ribbon flags and star shaped cut-outs glued to her string; but we thought that would be overkill, especially with how densely we packed in the books and flowers.

Here's the end result! It was a huge hit.