Halloween 2015 : Once Upon A Dream

This wouldn't be my blog without a Halloween post in December. You all should know me by now!
Let's jump in!

We really struggled this year with our costumes! Craig was having a hard time thinking of ideas and I wanted to head the villain direction, but most villains have silly and somewhat boring counterparts (robbers, animals, etc.). Truly, it was frustrating trying to think of a good combo. Because I couldn't shake the villain idea, we decided to go with a villain/hero theme. Whatever works, right?

I found myself gravitating more towards the revamped 2014 Maleficent as opposed to the green-skinned Maleficent from the 1959 Disney movie. Craig would be the heroic Prince Phillip, but we decided that he would be more recognizable coming from the 1959 classic. And that's how we became the "old school" and "new school" Sleeping Beauty characters! 

The following images served as our reference photos:

Have it be known that not only do I love Jennifer Lopez movies, but I LOVE movies featuring Angelina Jolie! Yes, she's a pretty face, but I absolutely adore her style of acting (and directing!)--even in sad movies like Changeling (it's a must see AND directed by Clint Eastwood)! That being said, I naturally fell in love with the Maleficent movie and the new take on Sleeping Beauty. I won't ruin the story line, but you'll just have to fall in love with it like I did. Be sure to listen to the hauntingly beautiful song "Once Upon A Dream" sung by Lana del Rey!


-2015-
Maleficent and Prince Phillip

 

OUTFIT DETAILS

I was initially so excited for these costumes! Craig's costume required a few simple DIY projects, and I figured that mine would be so easy to put together with eBay being my best friend! I was SO determined not to procrastinate this year that I ordered my dress, gloves, and my horns way ahead of time! I was so proud of myself! All of my excitement came crashing down when my horns came in the mail. Let's just say they reeked of latex, they would not fit my head and kept sliding off, and the horns themselves looked absolutely ridiculous and NOTHING like the eBay picture. I was screwed and I was not about to purchase anything else. Or send them back to China. So began my research to create the horns myself. If only I had been aware of what a RIDICULOUS undertaking that was going to be. I ended up watching multiple videos on YouTube and finally found a couple of tutorials that I felt I could merge together to create the perfect set of horns. You can find them here and here. The first link is what I used for the structure and detailing of the headpiece and the second link is for creating the actual horns themselves. I did tailor them to how I wanted them to look so I used a lot more black electrical tape and elongated and shaped the horns to look more like Maleficent's. Good LUCK.

 My dress didn't need much doctoring, but the winged shoulder pieces were a bit floppy so I hot glued thick pipe cleaners (found at Hobby Lobby or Michaels) underneath to be able to manipulate the height and volume. Jo-Ann Fabric also became my best friend. Sorry obsessed fabric people, I took the last of the pleather and probably bought way more material than I actually needed. Remember, I don't sew and I don't know what I'm doing! Using a small amount of the pleather and a couple of button snaps, I created my neck piece. I used the rest of the pleather to wrap around my headpiece, folding the layers as I went and folding the end pieces around the base of the horns. And yes, I used a ton of hot glue to do that. After SO much time on those horns, I am pretty proud of my efforts!

I was a little worried that I wouldn't find a crow to sit atop my "staff", but I found one At Home--the store! ;) He looked a little strange with some feathers missing and his skeleton showing, but I bought him anyway, spray painted him black, and added more black feathers. For my staff, I bought a dowel rod at Home Depot and spray painted it black as well. Using a deep turquoise craft paint, I painted a styrofoam ball and then used black electrical tape to cover half of it. I hot glued the ball to one end of the dowel rod and used a combo of hot glue and wire to attach the crow.
 
Before we dive into my makeup look, I did take a detour away from the nails that Angelina wore. I hate wearing fake nails and I had to do makeup for a wedding the next day and I simply didn't want to deal with nails. So I whipped out my trusty black polish and that was that. Dismissing the nails and the green contacts, I had so much fun with my makeup! Again, I watched multiple YouTube videos on how to achieve Angelina's look. I decided that I didn't want to spend the time applying cheek prosthetics and would spend the time contouring my face for the chiseled look. So far, you know I love Jennifer Lopez and Angelina Jolie, but I also LOVE Kat von D (and her beauty products....and LA Ink....and her tattooing skills)! Her Shade + Light Eye Contour Palette is an amazing palette to have in your arsenal and well worth every penny! It held the best matte shades for my eye look and was absolutely perfect for contouring my face for this particular look! I applied the finishing touches to my lips using her Everlasting Liquid Lipstick in "Underage Red". Hey, it's unfortunate that Makeup Forever has removed their Aqua Rouge lip stains from stores, but KvD liquid lipsticks are the next best thing!

On to Prince Phillip!

The main part of Craig's costume came together with tan pants from Forever 21 and a black dress shirt from Kohl's--he didn't own either of those items so we didn't feel bad buying both knowing that he'd wear them again! I researched an easy no-sew tutorial for his hat (found here) and it was seriously the easiest thing to make! I bought feathers from Michaels and a button from Jo-Ann's to complete it. It wasn't exactly like Prince Phillip's, but it was close enough!
 
I put off making his cape because I thought it would take forever--plus, the amount of fabric I had bought looked intimidating, but once I got started, I was done in about 20-25 minutes! Super easy. You can research YouTube tutorials, but I used this blog tutorial and adjusted the measurements to fit Craig!

 I think the worst thing to make was his tan tunic. It was quite hilarious--again, because I don't sew! I just laid out the fabric, guessed at the measurements, and created a sleeveless "poncho" with a cutout for his head to pop through! Haha! I tried it on him and then used Heat Bond strips and ironed the material to them to close the gaps on either side. He used one of his own belts to finish off the look.

 His only accessory was his sword which came from a Halloween party shop and I used chrome tape (found at automotive stores) to make the blade look more realistic.

It's so funny that we pour so much time into these costumes, but like I've said before, we love doing it! We never go to Halloween parties, and sure, a few friends may stop over, but we love dressing up for the kids. Their comments and questions are hilarious! I also think the parents get as much of a kick out of us as the kids do....and I like that. Maybe we'll be "that" house every year. Sadly, we ran out of candy after an hour, but that's a good thing, right? I purposely didn't buy bags of the full size Reeses for a reason...

Even after so much fun, I was SO glad to be done with Halloween this year! Not only did I stress out over our costumes, but I was also creating makeup looks every week for my stylist profile on Instagram! The month of October was chock full of creativity, but I think I'll jump on that wagon even earlier next year!

As always, if you happen to need any inspiration for next year or simply want to check out how crazy and weird we are, be sure to check out my previous Halloween posts here (and here)! If you love makeup and want to dive in deeper to create makeup looks for yourself, check out my Tumblr page or my stylist profile on Instagram @wren_thestylist!

Unlock your own creativity in 2016!

Real Men Play Dress Up: Part 2

I know Halloween is over and Thanksgiving is TOMORROW and sadly becoming lost in the race for Christmas.

I don't mean to prolong Halloween, but we've had many people comment on and ask about Craig's costume that I figured I would add a "Part 2" to my last post. :)

The following images were our reference photos:

Before Halloween, Craig surprised me with tickets to see Alice in Wonderland, the ballet, held at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts. The ballet was absolutely beautiful and I loved the creativity they put into the production! The music was captivating and the dancers' movements were so fluid, making their careers seem so effortless! The hooka smoking caterpillar was my most favorite! Gosh, she was beautiful, and the music and her dancing were truly hypnotizing. I always walk away from seeing a ballet or musical production thinking I should've joined a company like that! The world is a stage.

Anyways, I've also seen random parts of Disney's 1951 Alice in Wonderland and I've seen Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland once. Both are very fun, however, my most FAVORITE version of Alice in Wonderland is this one! It is a made for TV movie musical made in 1985, and it is amAzing! The Jabberwocky is creepy, it's the right amount of cheesy, the songs are fun, and come on...Ringo Starr, Scott Baio, and John Stamos (Uncle Jesse, anyone?) are part of the cast! Put the tea on and choose your favorite tea cup because you must sit and enjoy one of my favorite childhood memories! It's like ABC's Once Upon A Time...just not.


-2014-
Alice and The Mad Hatter

OUTFIT DETAILS

Like I stated previously in my last post, you can find costumes that look incredibly similar to what a character wore, but more often than not, they can be pricey and take forever to arrive at your doorstep! I found my dress (apron included) for a cheap price on eBay, and I was extremely lucky that the seller was located within the United States--which meant that the dress would arrive well before Halloween. Although the dress emulated the 1950s Alice, I bought a curly wig made by Disney to look like Tim Burton's version of Alice. To complete my outfit, I bought white tights from Target and found the perfect black shoes at a thrift store--complete with a strap across the foot and 2 sizes too small. ;) Oh, and I bleached my eyebrows. ;) 

Craig's costume was an entirely different story! Due to his work and school schedule, it left him with zero time to search for costume items. Lucky for him, I always try to be a wife to the rescue! I had already bought his hat (with wig attached) and his eyebrows from eBay, but the rest of his outfit was pretty much a hodge podge of thrift store, closet, and creativity. I hit the thrift store on my own, all the while referencing the picture of Johnny Depp! I knew I wouldn't find a jacket completely like his, but I still wanted something with a weird pattern that could still come off Mad Hatter-esque. We're almost the same size so I tried the jacket on myself. It was extremely tight in the arms, but I figured Craig could shove his muscles through and deal with any lack of circulation. ;) The only other items I found to be useful from the thrift store were a polka dotted scarf and some scrap material I could use to make his hand wraps. I didn't want to waste time running to a ton of other thrift stores so I came home and searched through his closet hoping to find the rest of the clothing items he needed! The Mad Hatter is all about being mixing prints and being unmatched--remember what I said in my previous post: use your own flair and creativity! I found a teal colored striped shirt (nixing the pink dress shirt Johnny Depp wore), black wool striped dress pants, a striped black vest, and brown dress shoes. Perfect. The Mad Hatter would not be running around naked.

Unfortunately, it was then that I realized that maybe our idea was too crazy. This costume had too many details--the ribbons, the hat pins, the sash of thread, the lace cuffs, not to mention the makeup! For just staying home and handing out candy, this was getting a bit ridiculous! But it would be ridiculously fun. So I went to Walmart and found some wide, colorful ribbon on clearance, striped socks (2 different pairs), Heat Bond and safety pins (because I don't sew), 5 twelve-packs of cheap spools of thread, and a peacock feather, long needles, and a button to finish off the hat from eBay. My last stop was Hobby Lobby where I bought some lace for the cuffs of the jacket and two more buttons to use as hat pins. I was FINALLY done gathering items for the details of the costume, but it was far from complete. Be sure to read the captions below for how the rest of his costume came together!

The Disney hat was very similar to the one Johnny Depp wore, but the attachments it came with were a bit cheesy. I kept the 10/6 card, pinned a more realistic peacock feather on the right side and made hat pins out of random buttons hot glued to long needles.

Because I don't sew, I used Heat Bond and an iron to secure two layers of lace together under each cuff and safety pinned the ends in place. I then used the 3 pack of gold buttons (shown above) and hot glued them to the outside of the cuffs. Remember, hot glue is to no-sew crafty people like duct tape is to MacGyver.

Johnny Depp did not wear fingerless gloves, but instead wrapped his hands below his knuckles with fabric. We secured the scrap material (found at the thrift store) around Craig's hands and pinned it in place with safety pins. We ran out of time to rough his hands up with white paint, but he kept to the details by wearing a couple of my rings, a thimble, and bandaging his thumb. I know you see the spools of thread! To see how to create your own sash using spools of thread click here! :)

I bought three different colors of ribbon and cut them the same length. I then attached them with safety pins under the flaps of the pockets. To create the capri pants, I rolled the hems up inwardly and safety pinned them into place.

In order to create this Mad Hatter look, my handsome husband shaved and lightly moisturized his face. I then applied Ben Nye's cream makeup in white all over his face and lightly down his neck (I left his ears alone since his wig would be covering his ears). Referencing a picture of Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter, I used colorful eyeshadows and applied it accordingly onto the eyelids, down the sides of the nose, and blended it in and around the hollows of the cheeks. For the lashes, a white primer mascara would work perfectly for this look, but unfortunately, the one I had bought looked a little sketchy when I took it out of its box. Sad day! I had to resort to using a Q-Tip dipped in the white cream makeup from Ben Nye and gently apply that to the lashes. We opted not to do contacts since he isn't fond of them, so to finish off his eye area, I applied Spirit Gum (also from Ben Nye) to his natural eyebrows in order to secure the Mad Hatter eyebrows in place (I would've trimmed the eyebrows first, but we ran out of time). For his lips, I outlined his natural shape using a lip pencil from Essence in Red Blush, blended that into the lip, and then used a lip stain from NYC in Champagne Stain to fill in the entire lip giving it a natural and matte look. Lastly, we used a black wax from the Halloween store called Tooth Out to create his tooth gap. And there you have it!

 

 Guys. We love Halloween more and more each year. Putting our costumes together may seem like a lot to go through, but we seriously have so much fun. We love seeing each and every kid come to our door and their reactions crack us up (although these batch of kids STILL need a brush up on their classics). Their parents may look at us weird for dressing up with no party to go to and happily handing out candy to their kids, but that's what we love to do. Parties mean nothing when there are cowboys, a vending machine (seriously, best costume), Elsas, and zombies to tend to. :)

As always, we hope we can at least inspire you for next year! It's never too early to think about your costumes--seriously, that procrastination is killer. Thank you all for the sweet comments and questions about our 2014 costumes! We're just happy that we could bring so many smiles to your sweet faces! We can't stop now! :)

See you in 2015...

 And now, you may continue preparing your tables and your hearts for Thanksgiving. :) 

Real Men Play Dress Up

Well, my husband plays dress up. Willingly, I should add. In fact, a lot of our Halloween costumes have been his idea. He is just cool like that and my habit of procrastination thanks him. :)

Neither of us love the guts and gore of Halloween, but we definitely love to dress up and love figuring out the details of our costumes each year. Halloween is just around the corner so I thought it would be fun to create a post featuring our costumes ideas from 2009-2013. Bear with me, it's a long post, but full of fun pictures and helpful tips! We hope to inspire your own creativity!

Our Halloween tale begins with one of our first phone call conversations prior to our first date in August of 2009. During our random "friend" phone call, he asked if I knew what I was going to be for our church's college group costume party. Please. He was talking to someone who has the best intentions to think of her costume ahead of time, but then procrastinates until the morning of October 31st and winds up dressing up like some weird little lollipop person that doesn't even exist! Great makeup, though. Anyways, I had no idea. It wasn't even September yet! Knowing that I liked Johnny Cash and the movie Walk the Line, he randomly mentioned that he was thinking about dressing up as Johnny Cash. OMG, my heart skipped a beat--he needed a June Carter Cash! But I kept my cool and tried to respond nonchalantly. I mean, please. His idea wasn't amazing or anything. ;) He then proceeded to ask if I would like to be June. Agh! I knew he liked me! What a friend. How could I say no?

Knowing what I did about June Carter Cash, I was going to need a dress, voluminous hair, and a guitar-strapped man who liked to wear black. Even though I knew some about June Carter, I find that when dressing up like a character or icon of any sort, it's helpful to have a reference photo. I like to pay attention to every detail of what they look like, how they're dressed, etc.

The following images were our reference photos for Johnny and June. :)

 So on the hunt I went! 

When needing a costume, take inventory of anything you might already have and make a list of items you will need to complete your look. More than likely, you probably won't be able to 100% replicate the outfit/look unless you want to spend a ton of money! No worries! This is where you get to use your own flair and creativity! :) When I don't have the right items, I love to borrow from a friend or hit up thrift stores and take my time to search through the variety! You may not always hit the jackpot, but even finding that one particular item for your outfit can be helpful--and even if it's not an exact match, it will be more authentic looking than a tacky, cheaply made item from those Halloween City stores that randomly pop up this time of year!


-2009-
Johnny and June

Don't mind the cat. It was our prize--and lovingly donated to a white elephant exchange. :)
 
OUTFIT DETAILS

I found my dress and short cardigan at a thrift store and paired it with a necklace and black slingback heels that I already owned.

Craig created his suit from black items he already had hanging in his closet and paired it with a plastic guitar he retrieved from his parents' home. His hair was a bit shorter than Johnny's, but we did our best to slick it back with a Dapper Dan like substance (I truly don't even remember, I just know we used a lot of it).



The following year was another college costume party complete with a bonfire! At this point, Craig and I were dating, but I was still set in my ways of procrastination so I was fully relying on him to figure out our 2010 costumes! ;) He randomly suggested that we should be Bonnie and Clyde. Those names were very familiar, but I didn't know too much about them at the time, so we decided to do our research together.

The image below is a photo of the real Bonnie and Clyde

 Cute, right?
Without reading about them first, we continued our research by watching the movie Bonnie and Clyde starring Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway.

The photo below was used as a film poster and also served as our reference for our costumes.

Wow.

This couple had issues.

Well, technically, they weren't even a couple. Just very interesting friends. Apparently, our research provided us with the information that they traveled through the Midwest during the Great Depression, robbing various places and leaving killed police officers and civilians in their wake. They continued their rampage until they were ambushed and killed by law officers in Louisiana.

 Seriously, just watch the end of the movie. It was morbid.

Despite the images we still can't get out of our head, we proceeded with our plans!


-2010-
Bonnie and Clyde

 Before you continue reading, PLEASE take note of the ironically giant oompa loompa in the background and the most hilarious Randy Savage Slim Jim guy. Those two make this picture so fantastic and I laugh every time I see it! It's great to have fun and funny friends! 

OUTFIT DETAILS

Finding items that resembled Faye Dunaway's outfit was harder than I thought! Everything except my beret (which I already owned) came from the thrift store, but as you can tell from the picture above, I'm sure Bonnie did not wear leg warmers and boots. ;) My hair was longer at the time, and I didn't have time to buy a wig, so I pinned the nape of my hair under, letting the top layers spill over to achieve a bob-like effect. 

 Craig's entire costume came from his closet (once again) with his hat being his grandpa's. The only thing that needed attention were the bottom of his pant legs which my mom was sweet enough to hem for him!

 His gun was a pellet gun that he already owned (with which he may or may not have killed a varmint) and my gun came from Walmart's toy department and was spray painted black. And yes, as you can tell, we're expert gun holders.

 -2011-
Epic Fail
2011 was our first Halloween being married. I was SO excited to dress up again, but to our dismay, Halloween fell on a Monday which happened to be a school night for Craig. what.A.bummer. So unfortunately, there was no dress up involved, but I invited a friend over and we carved minion pumpkins...and I'm pretty sure we ate brownies.



The following year rolled around and I was determined to not let another year go by without dressing up! Craig came up with such a fun idea to be Mary Poppins and her trusty, loveable sidekick, Bert! Now that Pinterest was in full swing, we found excellent inspiration!

The following images were our reference photos

Thank you, cute Pinterest couple!

 I'm sure most everyone has seen the movie, Mary Poppins, starring Dick Van Dyke and Julie Andrews, but if you haven't, I don't even want to hear it--just go watch it. It is magical and will make you want to eat sugar.


-2012-
Mary Poppins and Bert

OUTFIT DETAILS

By the way, we're all about the Halloween bathroom selfies. It's kinda our thing now.

We definitely hit up the thrift stores for these costume looks! As you can tell, not everything is a perfect match to the reference photos (ex: no flowers on my hat, boots instead of heels, etc.), but that's ok! Like I said before, make your costume your own!

Everything except my hat, red belt, white gloves, and the umbrella were found at a thrift store. And darn it, that white collared shirt was hard to find! Thank the Lord for thrift stores that cater towards the elderly. ;) There were also touches of red that were important for this look: the bow and the lips.

For my bow, I used a cool Painters pen from Walmart.

For my red lips, I used NYC's Smooch Proof Lip Stain in Rock on Ruby.
 
Craig went all out for his costume!
He went to the same "elderly" thrift store and found his pants, shirt, ascot, and beret. He then used a few of my dark eyeshadows to create the ash on his face and arms. He fashioned his broomstick/chimney sweep out of a broom, dowel rods, electrical tape, and black spray paint, using hot glue to hold everything together! He's so crafty. I think he was very proud of that! ;)



2013 was my favorite year by far! I mean, Mary Poppins and Bert were fun, but the tables turned! Despite my continued procrastination, I was the one who decided our costumes--can you believe it?! The Little Mermaid and Prince Eric were to make their debut!

Because there are multiple ways you can dress up as Ariel (ex: purple shells and green fins, shipwreck dress, pink princess dress, blue date dress, wedding dress), I wanted to pick one outfit that was modest but not overly intricate.

The following were our reference photos

Thank you, cute Pinterest couple!

As with Mary Poppins, if you haven't seen The Little Mermaid...well, I have no words. Actually, I do. Ariel is the best Disney princess EVER and this classic movie was and still is my absolute FAVORITE! When I was little, I watched it 65 times before I lost count. My obsession is real.

-2013-
The Little Mermaid (Ariel) and Prince Eric

And one last reference picture for kicks

OUTFIT DETAILS

 Like the year of Bonnie and Clyde, my outfit was a little tricky to put together! Pinterest was my huge inspiration, but everyone was either making their blue dresses or buying them! I love to be creative, but sadly, sewing is not in my crafty category. Because there are cool people in the world, there are ways of getting very realistic princess costumes (or any costume for that matter) via Etsy or Ebay, but you will pay money for it! Dresses like Ariel's blue dress were easily $75 and up!

I instead opted to try and recreate the look piece by piece. I had nothing I could use from my closet and my thrift store adventures were coming up empty. I still needed a skirt, a top, a dark midsection, and a wig with a bow! Ebay (and Hobby Lobby for my blue bow) turned out to be my best friend for all of it! It was definitely cheaper to purchase each item individually, but it was tasking trying to search through all of the listings! I won't bore you with all of the details, but if you decide to use Ebay, keep in mind when you're ordering (don't procrastinate!), the location from where your item is shipping, and the time frame it may take to arrive. My white shirt arrived the evening of Halloween! Eeek!

On the flipside, Craig's outfit was very simple. His jeans and white shirt came from his closet, he borrowed black combat boots from a friend, and the red material for his belt came from Hobby Lobby. I'm pretty sure Eric did not have facial scruff, but that's ok. He should've. ;)



So there you have it!
We always have so much fun dressing up as a couple! We pop in a cute Halloween movie, take bathroom selfies, and love to see the reactions and the costumes of the kids who come to our door! Although some of them need a brush up on their classic Disney characters...
 
I hope this post helps to inspire you this Halloween!
Costumes can be anything you want them to be, but it is fun to put a little thought, time, and creativity into them! Always take advantage of pinterest, blogs, and your friend's closet! And if you're reading this thinking all of this is stupid because you're dressing up solo and have no need for a couples costume--no problem! There are quite a few couples costume ideas that can be hacked in half and rocked out in a single fashion. Make it your own and act like Prince Eric never existed!

 You have ONE WEEK left to let your creativity out of the box! Have FUN.

As far as 2014 goes...
What shall we be for this Hallow's Eve?
Come get a treat and you shall see!

Seriously, I don't want to eat the leftover Reeses.