Zombie Candy Corn Earrings

Looking for a spooky accessory that's almost good enough to eat?  Why not try these zombie candy corn earrings?

Here's a comparison of the clay earrings with a variation I made using actual candy corn.  The candy corn was a bit harder to work with, but I was ultimately pretty pleased with how both versions came out.

Materials

*White oven bake clay

*Sculpting tools, e.g., toothpick, nail art dotting tool

*Orange acrylic paint

*Yellow acrylic paint

*Red acrylic paint

*White acrylic paint

*Black acrylic paint

*Brown acrylic paint

*Ultra fine nail art brush

*Ear wires

*Jump rings (I used head pins and bent them into a loop, but jump rings would probably be easier) 

*Pliers

Directions:

*Shape white clay into two candy corn shapes.

*Insert a jump ring into the top of each candy corn.  Use a toothpick or a similar implement to smooth clay over the top of it, so that the jump ring is buried about halfway in the  clay.

*Use a nail art dotting tool to create eye sockets in the candy corn pieces.

*Use a toothpick or similar implement to carve mouths into the candy corn shapes.

*Create two eyes for each candy corn by rolling little spheres of white clay.

*Place one eye into an eye socket on each candy corn piece.

*For the other eye, take a little piece of white clay and roll it into a long, thin line.  Attach one end to the eye socket and the other to the end of the eyeball so that the eye is dangling out of its socket.

*Bake clay in the oven following the directions on the packaging.  When you're finished, the candy corn should look something like the upper candy corn shapes in this photo:

*From here, it's a matter of painting.  Use an ultra fine nail art brush to paint candy corn, following the colors shown in the picture at the top of the page.  Let dry.

*Use pliers to open up the bottoms of the ear wires and loop them through the jump rings.  Now your earrings should be finished.

Our Vow Renewal

When Brian and I got married in May of 2020, we had to significantly change our plans due to the pandemic.  We initially hoped to have a small ceremony in 2020 and then a bigger event in 2021, but with the pandemic still an active threat, we had to scale back our plans for the vow renewal too.  However, we still had a lovely day, and I wanted to take a moment to share it with you.

Thanks so much to Corey Butler of Revolution Summer Photography for these lovely photos.  If you're in northern New England and are looking for a wedding or engagement photographer, I highly recommend checking him out.  Click here to go straight to his site.  You can also find him on Facebook at Revolution Summer Photography and on Insta @rsummerphoto.

My sis Katie and Brian had to put on my heel covers for me because they have more muscles than I do.  You can see the card soldiers I made for my wedding in the backgroun.  There was a very strong chance of rain this time around, so I kept the card soldiers at home, but I made sure they still had a part in the day.

Putting the finishing touches on my makeup.

Katie fastening my belt.  My wedding dress was a DIY project that I threw together.  Basically, I took an old romper of mine and created a belt and a tulle overskirt to make it more gown-like.  You can learn more about it in this post.  I had made the belt with snap closures, but on the wedding day, the snaps popped open any time a bent down or moved in just the wrong way.  I ended up making a new belt for the vow renewal by sewing hook and bar closures to a piece of ribbon, and that worked really well.  The belt stayed closed this time.

Entering the gardens.

Now that we're vaccinated, dad was able to walk me down the "aisle."  Also, here you can see my DIY bouquet, which you can learn more about in this post.

Brian winging his vows.

Me reading my vows.

Yay, we're still married.

Chatting with grammie.  This ended up being one of my favorite pictures of the day.  Grammie couldn't be there in person for our wedding, but I was glad she could be there for the vow renewal.

For health and safety reasons, as well as to comply with our venue's policies, we had to severely restrict the guest list, inviting only in state family members.  But we were able to include a few people who couldn't be there in person for the wedding, which was nice.

This is another one of my favorite pictures.

The flowering trees are one of my favorite things about the gardens.  I love when they are in full bloom, so it was nice to be able to snag some pictures with them.

If I had to pick a favorite picture from the day, this one is probably it.  It looks like we're in an enchanted forest.

And one more picture with flowers.

We had Subway for dinner with Little Debbie Birthday Cakes for dessert.

One of our friendly neighborhood squirrels, Chip, decided to stop by for a treat.

A close up of Chip.

And that's it.  I hope you enjoyed this peek into our vow renewal.

While this wasn't the wedding I had envisioned when I first started wedding planning in 2019, it was actually preferable in a lot of ways.  The only thing I would have changed would have been the guest count.  I wish we could have had more friends and family members there to celebrate with us.  But everything else about the day was just right.

Is there anything else you want to know about our wedding and vow renewal?  The pandemic has made wedding planning even more challenging, so if there are any insights you'd like from my experiences, I'd be happy to share.  Drop your questions in the comments, and I'll address them if I can, either in a reply to your comment or in a follow up post.

Next week, we'll be switching gears completely and diving into Halloween season.  I'm close to having four months of spooky crafts planned out for you all (but not all of them made yet, of course), and I can't wait to share them with you.

Alice in Wonderland Disneybound Ideas

As you may have noticed if you've been following my blog for any length of time, I love Alice in Wonderland.  In fact, my wedding was Alice in Wonderland themed, and my bridal look was inspired by Alice.  I thought it would thus be fitting to close out my Disneybounding series with a peek at some of the Alice Disneybounds I've put together this past year.

Classic Alice

This one is more of a costume/cosplay than a bound, but I've used for bounding challenges and it's one of the more crafty looks I've put together.  You can find a tutorial for crafting the pinafore apron here and one for assembling a hair bow here.  For accessories, I went with pearl earrings and a key-shaped pendant.  This pendant was a gift from my Aunt Cheryl, but I made my sister a similar necklace as her MOH gift.  You can find that tutorial here.

Puff Sleeved Alice Bound

Here's a look that is close to my classic Alice look, except it's more of a true bound because it doesn't use more costume-like elements, such as the pinafore.  You'll notice that my DIY hair bow makes an appearance here too.  It's my signature Alice piece, and it makes an appearance in almost all of my Alice looks.

Bridal Alice Look

This is an Alice look more fitting for a fancy occasion, such as a wedding or prom.  This is not the exact look I wore on my wedding day (I didn't have the bow because it broke on me, and I wore a different pair of heels), but it does use my wedding dress and bouquet.  If you want to learn more about how I transformed one of my favorite rompers into my wedding dress, check out this post.

Poolside Alice Bound

This one is a super casual bound.  Even though Alice's main colors are blue and white, I tend to use blue and black more often, in part because I have lots of black garments but few white ones.  However, a pair of white shorts paired with black sandals would make this look more recognizably Alice.

I have in some flamingo earrings and I added a flamingo straw to my drink, which has a "drink me" tag wrapped around the neck.  You can find a tutorial for the "drink me" bottle here.  In the beginning of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Alice wonders to herself what good a book without pictures is.  I thought a grown up Alice might thus appreciate a graphic novel, hence my choice of "beach" read.

Keyhole Blouse Alice Look

If you've been following my craft blog for a very long time, you may recognize this top from my Alice in Wonderland birthday party years ago.  I didn't yet know that Disneybounding was a thing, but that look was probably my first Disneybound.  The structure of the top has sort of Victorian vibes, which I thought was fitting for Alice, and the keyhole cutout seemed like the perfect nod to Wonderland.  It's hard to see in this picture, but inside the keyhole I have that same key shaped pendant as in the first picture.  I also am wearing key shaped earrings.  That white rabbit is actually a purse, sort of.  The pocket in its back is too small to hold even my phone, so it's not the most functional, but it's a cute prop.

Tim Burton's Alice

There are many different representations of Alice.  This look I put together based on some of the promotional images for Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland which showed Alice holding a white rabbit.

Artistic Alice

This rendition of Alice is based on a gorgeous drawing by Deanna Davoli.  You can see my inspiration piece here.  I matched the items pretty well, the tutu, the corset, the "drink me" vial, etc., but I didn't really capture the Gothic vibes of the original.  I'd like to redo this look sometime to better match the aesthetic of the artwork.

Steampunk Alice

Alice in Wonderland was written during the Victorian era, so a steampunk inspired Alice look seemed like a natural choice.  I'm accessorizing with a prop pocket watch and key earrings.

Goth Alice

I participated in a series of aesthetic challenges back in January, and one of the prompts was goth.  If you've seen my Alice in Halloweenland/dark Alice look, this is a slight variation on that basic idea.

Dark Academia Alice

Another of the aesthetic prompts was dark academia.  I used a navy plaid skort with light blue accents and a black sweater as the base of this look.  To make it more recognizably Alice, I added my Alice bow.  I also have on a cat pearl necklace to represent Dinah and the Cheshire Cat.  My book stack consists of Alice in Zombieland, two different editions of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, and Alice in Wonderland and Philosophy.

Soft Girl Alice

The soft girl aesthetic is laden with pastels, especially pink.  While I could have tried to piece together a soft girl look using light blue, I decided instead to envision Alice in pink.  I swapped out the black bow for a pink one, added a pink belt with hearts (for the Queen of Hearts), and used a cameo necklace with a heart charm, a black bow, and a pink rose.

This concludes my Disneybounding series.  I hope you enjoyed it.  Would you like to see more Disneybounding?  Bounding that's not Disney?  I have a bunch of spooky and bookish looks I've put together for my book reviews (which you cann find on my writing Insta, @amber_hathaway_writes) and various spooky challenges.  Maybe I'll do a round up of those ideas as we move into Halloween season.

An Introduction to Disneybounding

One of my many Alice in Wonderland Disneybounds.

This month I want to shift gears a bit and tell you about my new pandemic hobby: Disneybounding.  If you’ve been following this blog for a while, you may have picked up on the fact that I love dressing up.  Disneybounding is another avenue I’ve found that lets me play around with my outfits.  It’s less over-the-top than costuming and cosplay, so it works better for everyday wear.  In today’s post, I’ll give you a brief introduction to Disneybounding, using some of my own Disneybounds as examples.  Later on in this series, we’ll explore specific bounds and crafty accessories you can make for them.

What is Disneybounding?

Disneybounding is like cosplaying, but less elaborate.  Instead of trying to replicate a character’s look exactly, Disneybounding uses a character’s color scheme and symbolic accessories to try to capture and convey the character’s essence.  You don't need bulky cosplaying accessories, like swords, or character masks, or anything elaborate.  All you need are some solid-colored clothes (there's definitely room for some patterns and prints too), maybe a few accessories, and a little imagination.

Is Disneybounding Limited to Disney Characters?

No.  Disneybounding extends to anything Disney, including things like rides and food.  It also extends to franchises that did not originate as Disney, but that Disney now owns and operates, such as Star Wars and Marvel.  You can apply the principles of Disneybounding to media that has nothing to do with Disney as well.  These are often referred to as bounds or rulebreaker bounds since they’re not Disney, but it’s the same basic idea.  There are also mashups, where you take elements of different characters and combine them in a cohesive look.  These mashups often combine Disney characters with non-Disney characters, such as Disney x Clueless or Disney x Mean Girls.  When it comes to bounding, the sky is the limit.

How Do I Disneybound?

What makes a Disneybound is open to interpretation.  In this section, I'll go through my main considerations when putting together a Disneybound, but this is intended to give you ideas, not to give you hard and fast rules.  If you want to learn more about getting started with Disneybounding, you may want to check out the book Disneybound: Dress Disney and Make It Fashion by Leslie Kay.  She's the person who coined the term "Disneybound" and she runs the Disneybounding website, so she's way more of an authority than me.

As I go through my Disneybounding process, I'll be using these two Disneybounds as examples:

Ariel from The Little Mermaid in her classic mermaid color scheme.

Ursula from The Little Mermaid.  This look was for a villains masquerade challenge, hence the last minute mask.

I'll divide my Disneybounding process into four categories: color blocking, silhouette and style, accessories, and makeup.

Color Blocking

Disneybounding relies heavily on color blocking.  Let’s say you want to bound as Ariel and are using her mermaid look for inspiration.  Her main colors are purple and green, so a purple top and green bottoms would provide the perfect base for your outfit.  Or maybe Disney villains are more your jam, and you want to go for an Ursula look.  Her main colors are black and purple, so a black dress with purple tights would work well as an outfit base.

Silhouette and Style

Consider also whether the silhouette and style of the clothes you’re working with can express anything about your character.  For example, Ariel is a mermaid.  I thought this sequined top was reminiscent of scales.  Now, Ariel’s purple shell top isn’t scaly, but we’re not trying to match her look exactly, so it doesn’t matter if the “scales” are on top or on bottom.  Having some sort of sequined garment can add to the mermaid vibes.  Her clothes are fitted, so choosing tighter-fitting garments made sense to me.  Ursula's dress is fitted on top, but she has all those tentacles on bottom that kind of flare out away from her body.  I chose a dress with a fitted top and puffier skirt to reflect that.

Accessories

Accessories can really help bring your character to life.  For Ariel, I opted for pearl accessories, since pearls come from the ocean.  I didn’t use anything unique to Ariel or ultra creative there.  However, my Ursula accessories were more specific to her character.  She takes Ariel’s voice and keeps it inside a shell necklace, so I used some clay to recreate her shell necklace.  Likewise, she has tentacles, and I decided to make some tentacle earrings as a nod to this.

A word of caution: there are tons of cute Disney-themed accessories available.  If you’re planning on buying some or investing money into supplies to create some, keep versatility in mind.  Is this an item you can use for multiple bounds?  A pink hair bow might be a good accessory choice because there are a number of Disney characters who wear pink bows (e.g., Marie, Minnie Mouse, Daisy Duck, and Georgette).  There are also lots of Disney characters with pink as part of their color scheme, for whom a pink bow might fit perfectly with their vibe.  A pink bow has a lot of versatility, whereas something more character-specific may not.

If it’s specific to a particular character, is this a character you could see yourself bounding as often?  I love Alice in Wonderland (we’ll have a whole post devoted to her later in this series) and bound as her frequently, so it seems reasonable to me to invest in Alice-specific accessories.  Ursula is probably my favorite Disney villain, and since I already had clay on hand, it made sense to put together a couple of accessories that would suit her.  However, there are lots of other characters that I don’t really bound as frequently enough to justify buying a character-specific item, regardless of how cute it is.

Makeup

Makeup can be another great tool to help you with your bound.  Bounding as a character with purple skin, such as Ursula?  Add some purple eyeshadow.  I don't usually do anything too elaborate with my makeup, but if you love creating makeup looks, this can be a great avenue for enhancing your bounds.

Disneybounding Inspiration

Looking for some ideas to help you get started?  I’ve included some of my bounds below, and will be featuring more as the series progresses.  Need even more inspiration?  The internet is full of bounding ideas.  Pinterest and Instagram are two great resources for bounding inspiration.  There’s also the official Disneybounding website.

Milo Thatch from Atlantis: The Lost Empire

I put together this look for a “character crush” challenge.  It should probably come as no surprise that I went with the bookish, slightly awkward Milo for this one.  I don’t have a lot of neutrals in my wardrobe, so I couldn’t match Milo’s color scheme exactly, but I thought the brown dress and white sweater came close enough for an outfit base.  Adding a red bowtie and a pair of Brian’s old glasses really helped pull the look together.

Ariel's "Kiss the Girl" Look

Ariel has three main colors in this outfit: white, black, and light blue.  I started with a light blue romper and then layered a white shirt and black corset over top.  Ariel is wearing a blue bow in her hair in this look, so I added a blue bow in my hair.  I also added some pearl earrings as a reminder of Ariel’s connection to the ocean.

Cinderella from Cinderella

Cinderella’s ball gown is light blue, so I used my DIY wedding dress, which is light blue, as the base of this look.  Cinderella has a blue headband, so I added a blue headband.  I used a high heel necklace to symbolize her glass slippers.

Magic 8 Ball from Toy Story

The theme for this challenge was 90s Pixar, as in choose a Pixar character and make it 90s.  I thought the dress and headband had 90s vibes, and fit well with the Magic 8 Ball’s color scheme.  I designed a magic 8 ball window and printed it, and then held it in front of my stomach to finish off the magic 8 ball effect.

Jenny Foxworth from Oliver and Company

This was my look for an 80s Disney challenge.  Jenny has a few different outfits in the film, but one is a seafoam green dress and blue leggings.  I used a seafoam green sweater and blue skirt to approximate the colors of her outfit.  She has her hair partially up in a scrunchie, so I added a scrunchie to my look.  I also wore a cat necklace and socks with cat silhouettes on them to represent Oliver.

Alice in Wonderland x Clueless

This was a look I put together for a Disney x Clueless challenge.  I thought the plaid skort had strong Clueless vibes, and the light blue accents in the skirt also kind of matched Alice.  Alice’s other main color is white, so I paired it with a white blouse and white tights.  Headbands were big in Clueless, but instead of a plain headband, I went with Alice’s signature bow.

This is just a small sampling of the looks I’ve done.  If you’d like to see more of my Disneybounds, I post them to my Insta account @all_of_my_outfits.  I also post a lot of spooky/horror looks as well as some general outfit pictures. 

Next week we'll continue our exploration of Disneybounding, so stay tuned!

Halloween Costumes from My Closet: 15 Ideas

One of my favorite aspects of Halloween season is dressing up.  As part of my #31DaysofHalloweenOutfitChallenge, I decided to challenge myself to wear a Halloween costume, cosplay, or bound each day of October.  Since getting to stores isn't safe for a lot of us this year, I figured I'd share some of the looks I came up with which use either items that I think many people are likely to have around the house or which should be DIYable with common household supplies.  Hopefully these can give you some ideas for costumes you can piece together with materials you already own.

A lot of the costumes do include rompers or dresses, because I have those in my closet, but I know not everyone will have these types of items.  However, just because I use an item doesn't mean that's the only way to orchestrate the costume.  Matching a character's color scheme or vibe goes a long way, and there are no rules requiring you to style your look around the gender that these characters had in their source materials.

For more inspiration, check out my Three Cheap and Easy Halloween Costume Ideas and More Cheap and Easy Halloween Costume Ideas posts, and follow along on Instagram either through my account, @amberscraftaweekblog, or using #31DaysofHalloweenOutfitChallenge.  For even more DIY costume ideas, check out these Meowth, Magikarp, and Vaporeon looks, these Pikachu ears, this paper doll costume, this Astrophysicist Barbie look, this Ricky's Girlfriend (from The 'Burbs) costume, these Dana Scully and Fox Mulder looks, this Yellow Ribbon scary story costume, and these Daphne Blake and Shaggy Rogers looks.

Tiffany Valentine (aka the Bride of Chucky)

Items I used:

*White dress or romper (could be a wedding dress)
*Black faux leather or leather jacket
*Carving knife
*Dark eyeshadow
*Black lipstick
*Fishnets
*Combat boots

Putting the look together:

Looking for a way to re-use your wedding dress?  If you got married in white, then this may be the perfect costume for you.  My wedding dress is blue, so I couldn't use it for this look, but luckily I had a white romper on hand that I thought had the right vibe.  To finish this look, you really just need a (faux) leather jacket and some dark makeup, although the carving knife is a nice touch.

Alice in Wonderland

Items I used:

*Blue dress or romper
*Black bow headband
*Key shaped locket necklace
*Pearl jewelry
*Black shoes

Putting the look together:

Speaking of wedding dresses, here's me repurposing mine for this Alice in Wonderland look.  I have done a ton of Alice bounds (bounds are similar to costumes, but they tend to be more about matching the character's vibe than replicating their look exactly) and would love someday to write a post on all of them.  This is my "fancy Alice" look, but when I wear just the romper without the overskirt, I have a look that's closer to the classic Disney Alice.

With Alice, since there are so many variations on her, you have a lot of leeway.  Pick the items that you think best represent her.  For me, it's the black bow and the blue dress.  If you don't have a black hair bow of your own, here's how you can make one using black ribbon and a headband.  From there, I'd recommend trying to add a few jewelry items or accessories which you feel give off Alice's vibe or have a Wonderland feel.  I have some key shaped jewelry items, a cat pearl ring, white tights, black and white striped knee socks, and a "drink me" vial pendant necklace that I'll alternate using to switch up my Alice look so I'm not always wearing the same thing.  I also have a pinafore apron that I sewed that I'll add for a more classic Alice look, and if you have a plain white apron, that could be a nice addition to your costume.

Frances "Baby" Houseman from Dirty Dancing

Shorts and Bodysuit Look:

Items I used:

*Coral colored bodysuit
*Light wash denim shorts
*Brown belt
*White shoes

Putting the look together:

My key objective here was finding items in the right color palette that resembled the ones Jennifer Grey wears in the film.  I didn't have her iconic white Keds (or any white sneakers), so I opted for a pair of white heels instead.  Since these are regular clothes, and this outfit isn't as recognizable as Baby's pink dress look, be prepared to explain it to people.  Unless perhaps your pals on the Halloween Zoom party are all die hard Dirty Dancing fans.

Pink Dress Look:

Items I used:

*Pink romper and pink tulle skirt (or you could use a pink dress instead)
*Pink heels
*Bobby pins

Putting the look together:

Okay, I've done Baby's pink dress look before on this blog, so maybe this one's cheating.  But I had a flouncy skirt and better heels this time around, so I couldn't help but share.  Got a flouncy pink dress?  Then you're good to go.  If you have long hair, you can always put it in a faux bob to better match Jennifer Grey's hair in the film.  Here's a faux bob tutorial that I've worked from before. 

Cracked Porcelain Doll

Items I used:

*Doll-like dress or romper
*Tights
*Heels
*Bow
*DIY wind up key
*Black liquid eyeliner
*Black eyeliner pencil
*Setting spray
*Pearl jewelry

Putting the look together:

For this cracked doll costume, all you need are clothes that look doll-like to you and some eyeliner to draw on the cracks.  I like to draw the cracks with an eyeliner pencil first, so it's easier to clean up if I mess up, and then go over them with liquid eyeliner to make them darker.  Setting spray is optional, but it can help make the cracks last longer, especially if you have oily skin.

You can add all sorts of embellishments, such as a wind up key (see this tutorial) or ball joint tights.  Or stitched tights if you're going for a doll with a cloth body but porcelain head.  I wore a similar look last year for Halloween, so if you want to see a slight variation on this look, check out this post (the costume is about midway through the post).

Scarecrow

Items I used:

*Plaid shirt
*Tan jumper
*Brown belt
*Brown shoes
*Scarecrow hat
*Scarecrow gloves
*Stitched tights
*Orange eyeshadow
*Gold eyeshadow
*Red lipstick
*Black pencil eyeliner
*Setting spray

Putting the look together:

The scarecrow is a fantastic costume option for many reasons.  The makeup is what makes the look, so as long as you have the right makeup on hand, you have the main tools you'll need.  I, as usual, didn't work from a tutorial and winged it, but if you're looking for a scarecrow makeup video tutorial, this one looks good.

For clothes, you've got a lot of options.  A plaid shirt and denim jeans or overalls are classic, but scarecrows can wear all sorts of clothes.  This look is also great if you live in a cooler climate, since you can bundle up and add layers without it looking awkward.  You can also add fun scarecrow accessories if you'd like, but you don't have to.  Here's my look minus the hat and gloves, and I'd say it still gives off strong scarecrow vibes:

Bonus: Scarecrow and Scared Crow Couples' Costume

Items we used for the crow:

*Black cardstock or construction paper
*Scissors
*Tape
*Black clothes

Putting the look together:

Need a match for a scarecrow costume?  Enter the crow.  Construct a beak shape from black paper and pair it with black clothes and you're good to go.  You could add some elastic to hold it to your head, but Brian ended up taping his to his nose.  It's not the most elaborate costume, and there are nicer ones you can make if you have more time, but it should work in a pinch.

Little Red Riding Hood

Items I used:

*Red cloak
*Red liquid lipstick for scratches
*Dark eyeshadow for scratches
*Plastic axe

Putting the look together:

If you have a red cloak or cape, that's basically all you need for Little Red Riding Hood.  Accessorize with a basket or a fake axe, if you'd like, and use liquid lipstick and a little eyeshadow for some scratches from your confrontation with the wolf (here are seven tutorials for making fake cuts without using special sfx products, including the all makeup one I loosely followed).  But all that's the cherry on top.  If you have the cloak, people will probably recognize you.

Princess Leia

Items I used:

*Bobby pins.  ALL the bobby pins
*White romper
*White leggings
*White shoes

Putting the look together:

Princess Leia's cinnamon bun hairstyle is so iconic that if you pair it with an all white ensemble (or another look she wears in the films), people will know who you are.  Brian was in a virtual meeting at work, and I had to walk past his desk, where his low resolution webcam was, and someone said to Brian something along the lines of, "I see Princess Leia walking around in the background."  So even though I didn't feel like it was the greatest match for Leia, it was super recognizable (and also my most liked look on my @all_of_my_outfits Insta).  Here's the tutorial I tried to follow for the hair.

Belle from Beauty and the Beast

Blue Dress Look:

Items I used:

*Blue romper or dress
*White long sleeved shirt
*Brown shoes
*Book bag/book
*Book pendant

Putting the look together:

Instead of trying to match characters exactly as they were depicted in film, why not give them a modern upgrade?  For me, the key elements I wanted to incorporate to make this feel Belle-like were the blue and white combo and books.  It's not a replica of Belle's look, but I think it still has strong Belle vibes, especially with all the book elements.

Yellow Dress Look:

Items I used:

*Yellow romper or dress
*Book pendant

*Artificial red roses

Putting the look together:

Here's another modern spin on one of Disney's beloved princesses.  I opted for a yellow romper instead of Belle's classic ballgown, mainly because I don't have a yellow ballgown, or the room in my house to store a ballgown.  With the book pendant and red roses, I think this look still gives off Belle vibes, but a more modern, semiformal Belle style.

Daphne Blake (featuring Shaggy Rogers)

Items I used:

*Purple romper or dress

*Lavender headband

*Purple shoes

*Green scarf

*Lighter purple removable vinyl

*Colorista hair makeup in bronze-auburn

*Magnifying glass

Putting the look together:

I've put together a Daphne Blake look before on this blog (see this post), but this updated look has some details that the previous one didn't, so I figured I'd include it.  First of all, notice that stripe at the bottom of my romper?  That's removable vinyl.  If you need to add details to a costume, but don't want to permanently alter your costume, then removable vinyl is your friend.  To give this romper a little more of a Daphne vibe, I just cut off a few strips of removable vinyl, stuck them to the bottom of the romper, and when I was done, peeled them off.  I wouldn't recommend using it on delicate fabrics necessarily, but I've used it on sequined materials and cotton/polyester without issue.

Instead of hair chalking, I've shifted over to using hair makeup, which is less mess and less hassle.  Unfortunately, Colorista doesn't have a color yet that's a perfect match for Daphne (or other fictional redheads), but if I apply the bronze-auburn very lightly, brushing out most of the color as I go, I can get something that kind of works.

Queen of Hearts

Items I used:

*DIY crown

*Red romper or dress

*Heart belt

*Heart scepter

Putting the look together:

The Queen of Hearts is another character who has been depicted in many different ways over the years, so you have quite a lot of freedom when it comes to your look.  I opted for lots of red and heart details to convey my Queen of Hearts vibe.  I threw together a quick crown from gold cardstock and added glittery red hearts, but if you don't have cardstock, yellow and red construction paper should work.  Your crown will just be a little flimsier.  Also, I like to cut tiny slits toward the bottom of my crowns so that I can slide bobby pins through to hold them on my head.

Witch

Items I used:

*Paper witch hat

*Black romper

*Velvet bell sleeved top

*Bat belt

*Spellbook necklace

*Buckle booties

I have done so many witchy looks over the years (see, eg., me in 2016 and me in 2017).  In fact, my witch costume was the first costume I featured on my blog, and the hat and cape I sewed for it were some of my first machine sewing projects.  The version I have pictured above isn't the most elaborate witch look I've put together, but it's one of the more accessible ones because you don't have to sew anything.  If you don't already have a witch hat, you can throw one together from cardstock or construction paper and glue it to a headband.  Or you can go without a hat, because plenty of witches don't wear hats.

Cat

Items I used:

*DIY cat ears

*Black clothes

*Red ribbon

Putting the look together

The cat is probably one of the most universal Halloween costumes there is.  It makes sense; cats are adorable, and cat costumes are fairly easy to assemble.  All you need are a set of ears and some clothes in a color scheme that matches your vision for your cat look.  I went with all black, because black cats are awesome.  Don't have a pair of cat ears?  Cut ear shapes out of felt and glue them to a headband.  Seriously, if you're looking for one crafting material to invest in, make it felt.  It is relatively inexpensive and oh so versatile.  But if you don't have any felt on hand, you could use colored paper or painted cardboard in a pinch.  Try adding some ribbon or a choker for a collar.

Prom Queen

Items I used:

*Party dress

*DIY bouquet

*Tiara

*Sash

Putting the look together:

Some of the best horror movies happen at the prom, so why not throw together your own prom royalty look?  I bought a tiara for this, but you can always throw together a paper crown (see Queen of Hearts above for an example).  I cut out one face of a paper bag and used some ribbon to tie it around my DIY wedding bouquet to make it look more prom and less wedding.  I also bought the sash, but I think with the crown and flowers, people will get prom or pageant vibes even without a sash.

Bonus: Zom(bie Prom) Queen

Items I used:

*Prom Queen outfit (see above)

*Crimson paint for fake blood spatters for sash

*Red food coloring + caramel sauce for fake blood

*Black, purple, and gray eyeshadow for bruising effect

*Brown eyeshadow for contouring

Putting the look together:

The zombie bride has been done to death (pun absolutely intended).  If you're looking for a glam zombie transformation, why not try prom royalty?  Just take your prom look and add some fake blood and makeup to make your face look bruised and sunken in, and you're good to go.  If you have a prom sash you don't mind messing up, you could also splatter some crimson paint on it for fake blood spatter.  Muss up your hair a little and place your crown off center because the living dead aren't too concerned about appearances.  They're just looking for their next meal.

I hope this post gave you some ideas for your future costumes.  If you end up using any of them, I'd love to see what you come up with.  Tag me with #31DaysofHalloweenOutfitChallenge or @amberscraftaweekblog on Instagram, add pictures to my Amber's Craft a Week blog Facebook page, or shoot me an email at hathaway.amber@gmail.com.  I can't wait to see what you come up with!