❈Sac Thrift Chick❈

DIY Snow White Family Costume Mirror, mirror on the wall who's the fairest of them all? Snow White was the fairest of them all in the original 1937 movie that my daughter loves, and she was the fairest of us all in our Snow White family costume. Still, our DIY Evil Queen costume and DIY Hunstman costume weren't too shabby, either.  Family Snow White Costumes for Halloween For our family Snow White costumes for Halloween, my 4-year-old daughter already had a second-hand Disney store Snow White costume. I added the sparkly cape from my Little Red Riding costume and made her red bow headband to complete the look. My husband had a Peter Pan costume, and I had some weird purple alien/choir robe and a vampire cape. Starting with those pieces, I knew I could assemble a DIY Evil Queen costume and DIY Hunstman costume, thrifty style. DIY Evil Queen Costume For my DIY Evil Queen costume, I started with this random purple robe and cut off the silver pieces that were not part of the old ha...

For Halloween, some little girls want to be princesses, fairies or the ultimate girly combination -- the princess fairy. My little girl wanted to be Casper the Ghost. At age 3, my daughter had a dress-up closet full of princess costumes, and she loved them all. But she was adamant, for the first Halloween she was old enough to have a say, she was going to be a ghost, the friendly one. Now if this was 30 years ago, I might have been able to find her a Casper costume in a store. In the year 2022, the closest thing I could find was vintage Casper masks. That wouldn't do. Mamma had to DIY a Casper the Friendly Ghost costume. Making a Kid's Casper Costume for Halloween To make my kid's Casper costume, I started where I always start for Halloween costumes when I don't have anything on hand: the thrift store, namely a wonderful hole-in-the-wall gem in Citrus Heights called Mary's Thrift Store. Mary's has routinely delivered at Halloween time, and this year was no excep...

Ah! It's the most wonderful time of the year. The time when the leaves change color, the air gets crisper, and I make spooky DIY Halloween decorations with items I find around my house.  OK, actually, I live in California where it's mostly been warm and sunny, and everything is still green outside. But I did use my free (read: sick all the time because my daughter started preschool and brought home all the viruses) time to make a DIY Halloween wreath with a bicycle wheel rim.  Why use a bicycle rim for a wreath? Well, in my case it's because my husband is an avid bicyclist. At any given time, I have no idea how many bikes he owns; all I know is that bikes and their parts are all over our garage. At some point, I kept seeing his stripped down bicycle rims lying around and thought, I bet those would work for wreaths! Personally, I like that a bicycle rim is larger than your standard wreath. I place the wreath on a stucco wall above my porch bench, so the larger size does a gr...

When you love Halloween, but you also want to keep your family safe during a deadly pandemic, what do you do? This was our dilemma Halloween 2020. We always pass out candy, but there was no way we were opening our door to a crowd of germy trick-or-treaters on our cramped porch. And with a house known for its Halloween decorations, not passing out candy wasn't really an option. Plus, I wanted to see kids in costumes. I wanted to have some lighthearted Halloween fun after such a dark year.  The solution: Make a DIY candy shoot for a COVID-safe Halloween. I'll admit our DIY candy shoot was created at the very last minute, and it could have been flashier. But it did its job: It delivered candy and fun from a safe distance, and it was super simple. Hot to Make a Candy Shoot Really, all you need for your DIY candy shoot is a delivery system that starts high, slopes down to a kid's reach, and, ideally, is at least 6-feet long for social distancing safety. Working in a custom sunsc...

To all the superheroes in the Justice League and all the supervillains in the Suicide Squad, Happy Batman Day! In anticipation of Batman Day 2018 on September 15 , here's a look back at my DIY Joker and Harley Quinn costumes from Halloweens 2014 and 2015. DIY Joker and Harley Quinn Couple's Costume Inspiration  Why so serious?  Our costumes came pre- Suicide Squad and Justice League movies, meaning before Joker and Harley Quinn were reduced to Hot Topic cosplay characters. Instead, our DIY Joker and Harley Quinn couple's costume inspiration came from sources including Tim Burton's Batman movie, Christopher Nolan's  The Dark Knight movie,  the original Batman TV series   and the  Batman Arkham Asylum video game, among others. Thrifting and Crafting Batman Character Costumes We used second-hand clothes and basic craft materials to create our Joker and Harley Quinn couple's costume. By thrifting and crafting our Batman character costumes, we spent u...

This is DIY Halloween ! This is DIY Halloween! Our DIY scary movie themed Halloween decorations will make you scream! At this house of crafty Halloween. I am the vampire bat born of poster board and felt perching on a rectangular board nailed to a 2x4 and secured to the bench. Cover me in garbage bags and webs to decorate a stucco wall. I am the spider with my black widow markings. Garbage bags and felt make me large and in charge of the patio bench. We are the floating ghouls of 99 Cent Store masks and fabric scraps. Red tape makes my eyes shine and my mouth slither like a snake. We are the tombstones of political signs of old . Upcycling is the name of our game. And I, Michael Myers, am the costume that keeps on giving. Watch how I come to life with furniture foam and pool noodles . I ain't afraid of no Ghostbusters 3D ghost with furniture foam and Duck Tape . I am the fully poseable skeleton someone put out on the curb. One man's tr...

Ever since I created Jack Skellington on my garage three Halloweens ago , I felt he was missing something. And that something was the happy, floating ghost dog with the light-up pumpkin nose named Zero. I wanted to make a floating Zero the dog from Nightmare Before Christmas, but I kept procrastinating on doing it because procrastination is my M.O. Well, I'm happy to report that this Halloween (and come Christmas, but of course) Jack has been reunited with Pumpkin King's best friend. Now Zero the dog from Nightmare before Christmas is one of my favorite Halloween decorations. I would like to tell you that making Zero was a piece of cake. That I didn't repeatedly burn myself with hot glue. That I got his ears right the first time, when I tried to make them the plastic from a soda bottle. That I didn't curse and repeatedly knock over the head while I added the finishing touches. But crafter to crafter, for a male dog, Zero was kind of a bitch. But many aloe treatm...

Our 2016 Halloween costumes were political, DIY and free -- three of my favorite things. We put a current events twist on the Big Bad Wolf and Little Red Riding Hood Halloween costumes. Remember, this was right before the 2016 Presidential Election between Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton and reality TV star Donald Trump. Our political Halloween costumes were takes on comments made during the presidential campaign by both candidates. Aaron became the Big Bad Hombre Wolf reusing his wolf mask and gloves from our first Halloween together in 2004. He used fabric paint to write Bad Hombre on a black t-shirt, added a leather motorcycle jacket (or as we call it, Ramones jacket), a dog chain and furry wolf legs under his ripped jeans. For the fur, Aaron used leftover fabric from his DIY Super Mario 3 raccoon tail . I repurposed the cape from my Little Riding Hood Halloween costume but opted for a black dress over the shiny red costume dress. I dug into my craft supply and found my...

It's the most wonderful time of the year -- Halloween! For 2016, our outside Halloween decor covers more ground, literally. Over the summer, my front lawn got a DIY drought tolerance makeover; we ripped out much of the grass and replaced it with bark. The new drought-friendly bark allowed us to turn the entire yard into a cemetery; two cemeteries to be exact. Take a tour of a haunted Halloween decor. I did a twist on my popular Nightmare Before Christmas Jack Skellington garage . He's feeling a little red this year. I used Duck Tape and poster board (99 Cent Store FTW) that I had on hand. I plan on leaving him up through Christmas. Our pet sematary is a nod to the Ramones and Stephen King, naturally.  The flying Halloween monster is always a hit with the trick-or-treaters. The pet sematary is across from the larger, human cemetery. 

Things I learned this holiday season: People hang onto their Scrabble games and get rid of brand new, unopened Glee and Twilight games. At least that's what I found to be true at multiple thrift stores in Sacramento. When I decided to make Scrabble crafts for Christmas presents, I figured it would be easy to find an old Scrabble game at one of the many thrift stores I frequent. How wrong I was. I found lots of sad looking Scrabble Jr. games, but no actual Scrabble. In the end, I bought a new Scrabble game, paid for mainly with Shop Your Way points, so I still got a good deal. For my first Christmas craft, I made my mom a decorative picture, turning the Scrabble tiles into crosses. I used Super Glue to secure the letters into the cross shape. I immediately discovered that the glue bled onto front of the tiles, darkening parts of the light wood color. To remedy this, after gluing, I used a light peach nail polish to coat the tiles for a more uniform color. For the pic...

Every Halloween I get a little more crafty and the house looks just a bit more awesome as my outdoor Halloween decorations grow in number and size. This year, I added the Nightmare Before Christmas Jack Skellington garage, a large garbage bag spider for the porch, new garbage bag ghosts, a duct tape Ghostbusters logo ghost, a garbage bag grim reaper silhouette and tombstones made from political yard signs. The only outdoor Halloween decorations actually purchased this year included two packs of candy corn lights from Home Depot and a foam skull from the 99 Cent Store at half off for about $9 total. Here's the rundown of my decorations: Michael Myers: Old Halloween costume stuffed with furniture foam . Grim Reaper Silhouette : Black garbage bags. I looked at pictures and then free-handed it with scissors. Ghostbusters Logo: Duck Tape, cardboard and furniture foam . Window Lights: Repurposed Christmas lights passed down from Aaron's childhood...