Jack O'Lantern Halloween Game

     Today Amber's Craft a Week Blog turns 5!  It's been difficult at times, churning out a craft (almost) every week as I finished my Bachelor's degree, my Master's, and started in on a PhD, but I'm glad I've kept going.  Thank you to all of you out there who have been a part of this journey, whether you're a constant reader or someone who checks in every now and again.  Here's to hoping for another five years!
     Today's craft is a game that is easy to make and fun for all ages.  I got the idea from this blog post, although I've structured my game differently to make it competitive.  As far as game play goes, each player starts off with a blank pumpkin template.  Players take turns rolling a die with sides labeled eye, mouth, nose, stem, add any, and remove.  If a player rolls eye, nose, mouth, or stem, the player adds that particular body part to their pumpkin shape.  Players need to roll "eye" twice, one for each eye.  If they already have the part that they roll, then they do nothing until their next turn.  "Add any" allows the player to choose which piece to add.  "Remove" requires that players choose a piece to take away.  The first person to complete their jack o'lantern wins.
     So that's how you play, but how do you make it?

Materials:
*Cardstock in orange, yellow, and green
*Pencil
*Scissors
*Wooden block
*Halloween/fall themed patterned paper
*Printer
*All purpose adhesive
*Optional: laminator

Directions:
*Resize the below template to the desired size and print.
*Cut out the template pieces.  I thought it would be fun to have a variety of jack o'lantern faces instead of just one, so I've included extra sets of eyes and mouths that you can mix and match as you please.
*Trace the pumpkin shape onto orange cardstock and cut out.  You'll want one pumpkin shape for each intended player.
*Trace a set of eyes, nose, and mouth onto yellow cardstock and cut out, one set for each jack o'lantern.
*Trace the stem onto green cardstock and cut out, one for each jack o'lantern.
*To make the game pieces more durable, you can laminate them if you'd like.
*To make the die, type out the words for the different faces in a word document, leaving a significant amount of space between each word.
*Print the words onto a Halloween or fall themed piece of patterned paper.  It works best if the paper uses one or only a few colors which are very different from your chosen text color.
*Place the wooden block over one of the words and trace around it.  Repeat with the other words.
*Cut out the resulting squares and glue them to the faces of the wooden block.  Let dry.
*Now you have your jack o'lantern game.  Enjoy!

Getting Started on a Pokemon GO Trainer Costume

     We interrupt your regularly scheduled Facebook browsing to bring you an important announcement: Halloween is coming!  If you have not set foot inside your local crafting store lately, you may be unaware of the influx of ghoulish goodies alerting you to the fact that October 31st only about 70 days away.  No but seriously, I welcome the onslaught of Halloween crafting items and decor.  Halloween is the most fun holiday when it comes to decorating, hands down.  Plus, there are no decoration intensive holidays between now and the end of October.  This isn't like the Christmas creep, which has absorbed Thanksgiving, is making inroads against Halloween, and, with all of the Christmas in July hullabaloo, will probably soon devour Independence Day.  Without Halloween items, you'd be stuck looking at aisles of end of summer clearance stuff, thinking about all the paradise beach vacations you didn't get to go on until mid-September, and who wants that?
     Anyway, today we're talking about Halloween costumes.  Summer clothes are at steeply discounted prices right now and will soon be vanishing from stores, so if your costume calls for shorts or other summery attire, now's the time to start looking.  This year I'm planning on dressing up as a Pokemon trainer, specifically my Pokemon GO character:

Some people are making really awesome costumes that match their trainer down to the last detail.  I, however, do not have that level of ambition (nor the sewing skills), so I'm trying to approximate mine as best as I can with more common items.  Here's what I've found so far:

     As you can see, it's not a perfect match, but I think these pieces are a decent approximation of some elements of the costume.  (I'm still looking for something to use for the jacket.  I imagine that's going to be the most challenging piece to come up with.)  For me, the ideal Halloween costume is one primarily constructed from clothing items that I can wear for other occasions.  Instead of going with a romper, which is what it looks like my character is wearing, I've opted for shorts and a camisole.  The cami is one of several that I already own. The shorts came from the Macy's clearance rack and cost about $13 and the leggings also came from Macy's clearance and cost about $10.  The hat I picked up at Joann and, with a coupon, it cost about $2.50.  I intend to embellish it further and will let you know how that goes.
     So that's what I'm starting with.  Hopefully it gives you some ideas for your own costume.  Expect more to come as I continue to piece mine together.

"Magic" Wand

     Need a wand for a Halloween costume or cosplay prop?  Here's an easy and inexpensive technique.

Materials:
*Wooden chopstick or dowel
*Sandpaper (optional)
*Hot glue gun
*Hot glue sticks
*Paint
*Beads, marbles, or other embellishments.

Directions:
*If desired, sand down the end of your chopstick or dowel to give it a pointed appearance.  This is a purely aesthetic choice and if you're happy with a wider end, feel free to skip this step.

*Glue a bead or marble to the flat end of your wand.
*Layer on the hot glue to create a handle with your wand.  I went did this by creating a ring of hot glue around the end, letting it drip for a moment, and then starting another ring of glue below it, repeating the process until the handle was long enough for my liking.

*Once the glue is cool and solid, add paint.  For the black wand, I painted the handle gold and then brushed black over it.  For the purple wand, I painted the handle silver and then brushed purple over it.  I didn't like the way that looked, so I mixed in some black to get that darker silver color.

How to Design Your Own Pokemon Plushie Template

My Meowth plushie template.  For instructions on how to make a Meowth plushie, see this post.

Materials:
*Image of desired Pokemon
*Painter's tape
*White copy paper
*Pencil

Directions:
*Choose an image of the Pokemon you'd like to make a plushie of in the desired pose.  I chose one of my AR photos of Meowth and cropped it.

*Resize the photo to be approximately the size that you'd like your plushie to be and print.  It's okay if it looks a bit pixelated as long as you can distinguish the outline and the various features of your Pokemon.
*Decide what features you'd like to include in your plushie.  If your monster is rather complicated, you may want to pick specific features to concentrate on while ignoring others.  Think about whether you'd like to include the limbs (assuming it has limbs) as part of the body or separately.  If you'd like to stuff them, it's probably easier to do them separately, but otherwise you could do them together.  What facial features and markings will you use?  Are there ears?  You'll probably want to do those separately from the body.
*Tape the photo to a sunny window (the sunnier out it is, the easier it will be to see the details of your monster) using painter's tape.

*Tape a sheet of white copy paper over your picture, again using painter's tape.

*Trace the "body" piece, which should include the head and torso, plus limbs if you choose to keep them connected.  Trace the facial features you'll be using as well.  (I had to darken the photo a lot to make the pencil lines visible.)

*Move the paper and trace each of the remaining body parts separate from the body.  (You could trace it all as one piece, with e.g. the ears extending partway into the head, but that necessitates printing an extra copy or so of the template when you're done.)

*Now your template is done.  See my previous Pokemon plushie tutorials to get an idea of what supplies you'll need for your plushie (felt, stuffing, needle and thread, etc.) and how to construct it.  Also, feel free to contact me (in the comments below or at hathaway.amber@gmail,com) if you have further questions.

Felt Pokemon Meowth Plushie

     Meowth has long been my favorite Pokemon because it's catlike.  When I started making these plushies, I thought Meowth would be too complicated to make, but after making two other plushies that turned out all right, I decided to give Meowth a try.  This one took a lot more time and effort than the earlier two, but on the whole I'm pleased with my Meowth.

Materials:
*2 sheets cream colored felt
*1 sheet light brown felt
*Pink felt
*Maroon felt
*White felt
*Black felt
*Needle and thread
*Scissors
*All purpose adhesive
*Stuffing
*Gold fabric
*A metallic marker or chalk

Directions:
*Print out a copy or three (three needed if you want to reuse the template) of the below template, sized to your desired size:

*Cut out the template pieces and trace onto the sheets of felt using a metallic marker or chalk.  From the cream colored felt, you'll want two copies of the body template, four copies of the arms, four copies of the legs, two of the tail, and also one of the coin shape.  From the light brown you'll need two copies of the feet, one of the upper tail part, and two copies of the inner ears.  From the white you'll want two eyes and two teeth.  I waited to cut out the teeth until I was assembling the mouth because they're small and easy to lose, so that's why they're not pictured below,  From black you'll want two copies of the outer ears and two pupils.  Trace the mouth on the maroon felt and the tongue on the pink felt.
*Cut out the various pieces, as shown below:

*Glue the inner ears to the outer ears, the light brown foot part to the feet/legs, the light brown tail part to one of the cream colored tail parts, the pupils to the eyes, and the tongue and teeth to the mouth, as shown below:

*Place the remaining cream colored tail piece against the back of the tail piece you just glued together and stitch together.

*Place one of the remaining cream colored foot/leg pieces against the back of the one of the foot/leg pieces you just glued together and stitch together, leaving an opening for stuffing.

*Stuff and sew closed.  Repeat the process with the other foot/leg pieces.

*Place two of the arm pieces together and stitch together, leaving an opening for stuffing,

*Stuff and sew closed.  Repeat the process with the other arm pieces.

*Place together the body pieces and start sewing together, sandwiching in the ears, tail, arms, and legs when appropriate.  Note that I did not sew together Meowth's antennae/whiskers, although you could if you prefer the stitched aesthetic to glue.  Leave an opening for stuffing.

*Stuff and sew closed.

*Glue together the corresponding whiskers/antennae and then glue on Meowth's face, making sure to set the eyes far enough apart that the coin will fit.

*Glue some gold fabric to the oviod "coin" shape.

*Cut out some strips of black felt and glue to the coin.

*Glue the coin to Meowth and now you're done!