My husband was a chick magnet.

Here’s what you need:

• Black shirt and pants
• Plastic Barbie dolls from the Dollar Tree or 99 cent store
• Magazine cut outs of hot chicks (from Maxim/Stuff)
• Safety pins

Here’s what you do:

Use safety pins to attach barbies and magazine cut-outs to your man, who is dressed in black.  Voila!  Easiest costume ever! In addition, you could spray paint a shoe box black and attach it to his back so the magnet concept is more obvious, but most everyone understood and loved his costume without it!

Cost: $8 for 7 barbies and a box of safety pins at the 99 cent store

I was a deviled egg.

Here’s what you need:

• white strapless dress (I used a white terry cloth beach cover-up I already had)
• large piece of yellow fabric (I used leftover felt)
• devil’s horns and tail (and a pitchfork, if you have one)
• safety pins

Here’s what you do:

1. Cut out a large oval shape from your piece of yellow felt to represent an egg yolk and use safety pins to attach to the front of your dress.
2. Wear devil’s horns, pin a tail on, wear some red patent heels and go wild with your hair.  Voila! Still kinda sexy and clever…a powerful combo!

Cost: Free! (because I used leftover scrap fabric from making my dog’s costume)

Note:  If you don’t already have devil’s horns or tail, but have red scrap fabric, pillow stuffing and a headband like I did, you can very easily fashion these items on your own.  Here’s how:

1. Draw out a horn shape on a piece of paper first, then copy to your fabric (I used leftover red felt – something less stiff would be easier to turn out but might not stand up as well) .  Cut out two. Then, flip your original shape horizontally to mirror your design, trace and cut out two more.
2. Stitch each horn along outside edge, leaving bottom portion open.  Turn out and stuff with pillow stuffing.
3. Hand sew the base of each horn closed, then spot tack one horn to your elastic headband.  Look in a mirror to check spacing and angulation, then sew the second one on.
4. For the tail, fold your fabric in half and draw a tail shape onto your fabric.  Pin and cut out two tail shapes.  Stitch tail along outside edge, leaving base open.  Turn out and stuff with pillow stuffing.
5. Hand sew the base of the tail closed and use a couple of safety pins to attach to the back of your dress.

These costumes are only two ideas, but the opportunities are endless!  Time to get creative!

When I saw a fantastic stenciling tutorial using fabric paint and freezer paper on MADE, I had to come up with a project using this method.  After finding some kraft colored flour sack towels at Tuesday Morning,  I decided to make holiday-inspired kitchen towels.  Great thing about these towels is that they are oversized, so I cut them in half to create eight different towels (or enough for 4 different holidays if you do 2 per holiday). While I focused on the 4th of July since that holiday is soon upon us, I plan to make some for the other holidays throughout the year, just to add a touch of festivity to the room where the entertaining magic happens – the kitchen.

Here’s what you need:

• Tulip brand matte fabric paint
• paint brush
• plain cotton kitchen towels
• Freezer Paper (not wax or parchment)
• Exacto knife
• cutting mat
• clip art printout or design for tracing
• iron and ironing board
• hair dryer (optional)

Here’s what you do (for a wonderful step-by-step tutorial with pictures, please visit MADE):

1. If starting with oversized flour sack kitchen towels, cut in half, iron and sew cut edge.

   

2. Enlarge and print a clip art image or draw one out on a piece of regular paper.  I used a star from Microsoft Word (free!).
3. Trace your image onto the freezer paper, matte side up, shiny side down.

   

4. Tape your freezer paper tracing to your cutting mat and very deliberately use your exactoknife to cut out your tracing.  Be very careful not to make any extra cuts, as these will allow paint to seep through later.
5. Iron your “stencil” onto your fabric where you want it, being careful to make sure the edges of your drawing are sealed.
6. Paint onto the fabric with your chosen color, extending onto the freezer paper stencil.  Take care to not get any paint on the fabric surrounding the stencil.
7. Let the paint dry for an hour, using a hair dryer (optional) to speed up the process if you are impatient, like me.  Do multiple coats as necessary to get the color/brightness you want.
8. Carefully peel back the freezer paper and admire your craftiness!
9. Lastly, be sure to seal your finished artwork by covering it with a piece of cloth and ironing over it.

For this project, I decided to make my life difficult and use two different colors.  If you choose to do this, start by painting the outer portion of the star first (in this case, white area).  After that portion has dried and you have removed the freezer paper stencil, re-cut a second stencil to block out that layer (and yes, you can iron the freezer paper onto a painted portion, just make sure the paint is dry!) and paint the middle.  I did mine the opposite way and some of the white paint ended up on my colored centers, which made for an unhappy crafter!

Cost-Saving Tips: I found the Tulip Matte fabric paint at Tuesday Morning for $2.99 for the 6 tube starter kit – these go for about $1.69 each at Michael’s, so I was stoked on this find!

I found a pretty, though maybe slightly garish, vintage print fabric while perusing my local Salvation Army one day.  While I always thought the material would create nice decorative throw pillows for either indoor or outdoor use,  using the underside of the print, à la classic Reyn Spooner Hawaiian shirts, gives it a whole different feel. Here’s a super easy and inexpensive way to add some vintage style to your home decor.

Here’s what you need:

• two 14-inch square pillow inserts
• about a yard of vintage print fabric
• ruler & scissors
• pen
• sewing machine & thread

Here’s what you do:

1. Cut two 15 x 15 inch squares from your fabric
2. Cut two 15 x 18 inch rectangles from your fabric
3. Cut each 15 x 18 inch rectangle in half to create two pieces measuring 15 x 9.
4. Fold over one long edge of the 15 x 9 piece twice and pin to create 1/4 inch seam.  Sew.

   

5. With underside facing in, pin pieces together, starting at the edges.  The two 15 x 9 pieces should overlap and the sewn edges should be pointed in to create the envelope opening.
6. Sew the two squares together, starting with the edges that parallel the opening.

   

7. Finish edges (optional) and turn out.  Insert pillow form and fluff. Picture below shows finished backside where pillow is inserted (right).

Tips: I purchased my pillow forms from Joann’s on a buy-one-get-one-free sale for $4.49 each.  The fabric was a whopping $1 from the Salvation Army.

Cost: $10 for two unique pillows!