A Wooly Costume

Simple Sheep Costume

So I dressed up as a sheep one Halloween. The homemade costume went down a treat. I purchased some cushion stuffing from my local fabric shop for a small price. I then stuck it in layers to a nightdress using pva glue. This took a long time and was incredibly messy. I was lucky that my friends helped out. I also stuffed some of the left over stuffing under the nightdress to give me a more rounded shape. A friend of mine lent me her hood from her wet suit and that coupled with a lot of black facepaint transformed me into a sheep. My ears suck and should of been made of fabric or black card not corrugated cardboard painted with the face paint! I also put face paint on my arms but I'd advise wearing a long sleeve black top.  

Considering the Irish weather this would of a great costume for a kid going trick or treating as they will stay warm. However, I was indoors and burning up! There wasn't a chance I was going to nightclub in it. Also the stuffing was surprisingly heavy and gave me a sore back. But overall it was a pretty practical costume. I was happy :) Also the shaply figure I had was not intentional it was simply caused by resting my arms or holding a drink.

I'd also like to mention another fine costume from the party I attended that year. One of my friends dressed up as Duff Man from the Simpsons. Why was it such a good costume? Well if I remember it correctly her purchased it all in Pennies and took the cans from the bin so it probably didn't cost more than 20 euro to make which is what I like to hear!

Sheep and Duffman Costume

Cookie Monster Cake!

Simple Cookie Monster Cake

My friends and I like making novelty cakes for eachother's birthdays that have some connection with that person. The themes can be quite obvious or totally obscure. One of my friends loves the Cookie Monster so it was easy to sort his cake out since there are plenty of examples on-line of Cookie Monster cakes and cupcakes, such as this site Coolest Birthday Cakes which has loads of examples of novelty cakes. You might see a few of mine there. The cake is simply a normal chocolate sponge which had been allowed to cool. 

Firstly, we poured melted chocolate onto the top of the cake and let it set a bit. The eyes are Jacobs Coconut Creams which are a marshmallow biscuit. They were stuck onto the cake with melted chocolate. Then to complete the eyes Cadbury's Chocolate Buttons were stuck on with a bit of melted chocolate. Note that his eyes are wonky on purpose. Then with a knife the shape of the mouth was outlined in the chocolate. 

The icing is buttercream icing with alot of blue food colouring and more icing sugar than usual to get the stiff peaks. Possibly half a bottle of colouring maybe more. In order to get the fur like texture a piping syringe with a star cap was used. I started at the bottom and worked around in layers so that the icing wouldn't slide downwards. Just after I'd squeezed the icing on I'd push the syringe into the icing and then pull away. This stopped the icing from being pulled off the cake as the syringe was pulled away. This resulted in neat peaks. 

Finally to finish it off we placed a cookie and some crumbled cookie in his mouth. Due to the large amount of food colouring in the icing no one could stomach it! The icing was very bitter so be warned sometimes it is better to buy colouring paste in order to get the right colour or it won't taste great. 

Chocolate Rose!

Bouquet of Chocolate Roses Wrappers

I had a great idea to dress up as a sweet like the purple one for a box of Quality Street for Halloween 2009. But despite finding coloured cellophane in a local florist and wrapping myself in it, the costume was a complete fail! I started to panic at this point because it lunchtime and I was having a Halloween party that night but no awesome costume. However I had a plan! 

Close-up of Costume

I rushed off to the local shop and bought 4 tins of Cadbury's Chocolate Roses! I knew I'd never get it done on my own so I roped a few of my male friends in with the promise of dinner. So while I cooked a load of spagetti bolognese the guys started unwrapping the chocolates and organising the wrappers. By the time I had served the dinner you'd think they'd be stuffed with all the chocolates they'd been sneaking but no they gobbled it up. Fortunately my housemates turned up to help with the finer details of making an outfit aka sellotaping me into it.

What was left of the 4 Tins of Roses..

We began sellotaping the wrappers together and then made them into a top and a skirt. I combined my outfit with a few silver accessories including a tiara and a sash that said 'Chocolate Rose' and off I went with my bouquet of Rose wrappers as the Chocolate Rose of Tralee. The Rose of Tralee is a beauty pageant held in Ireland each year where the contestants are known as say the Dublin Rose or the Sydney Rose. I was the Chocolate Rose in my shiny dress. I was happy! Not my best costume but my far my most colourful well maybe my Pokemon costume was more colourful but it is debatable. Least I didn't make my boyfriend wear a matching vest: Starburst Wrapper Prom Dress!

Chocolate Rose of Tralee Costume

Poker Face or Poker Fail?

My Lady Gaga Costume and my Friend's

So for my birthday I decided to have a Lady Gaga/Military fancy dress party. So that both the girls and guys would be happy. Most of the guys just came in army outfits. Some were a little be more adventurist but I have a few photos of some of the costumes from the night. Nothing crazy just a bit of fun. I thought I'd combine the theme but made a bags of it really. I wanted an angular military jacket with pointy shoulders combined with a jump suit and lace tights. I made the 'jacket' out of a green bin bag with a lace pattern spray painted on in gold.

Lady Gaga and her Granny Costumes

I made the lace stencil by printing out a lace pattern and cutting the 'holes' in the lace using a knife. Very tedious and to be honest not very successful. I also made a headpiece by bunching some lace together and pinning it to my wig. The jumpsuit, the lace tights and the wig were great though! The most successful element of the costume was by my the false eyelashes. It was my first time wearing false eyelashes so it took a bit of effort to get them on but they stayed on all night and didn't annoy me. It is worth buying a good pair instead of the cheap ones. Overall the costume didn't really capture Lady Gaga but I had fun anyway.

Lady Gaga Costume complete with Poker Face Mask and Coke Can Rollers

One of my friends decided to combine a couple of ideas Lady Gaga is known for using. Firstly, she got some corrugated card and formed a angular piece to attached to the front of her dress. She spray painted it gold and attached it with double sided tape. Then she rolled her hair up using coke cans and lots of hair spray like Gaga had while in prison at the opening of the Telephone video! They looked great and would make a simple Gaga costume on their own. Then lastly she stuck playing cards to a mask as a homage to the song Poker Face.

Lady Gaga Costumes early on it the night.

Another simple costume was the red one above which was a more classy version of Gaga's original crazy outfit: the red hooded leotard. Instead, my friend made a simple hood out of fabric and combined it with a red dress and a lightning bolt on her face. The lightning bolt could simply be drawn on with eyeliner and eye shadow. Also note the daring leopard print leotard in the background. Finally, some of the guys thought they'd give the combined costume a go too.

A Male Lady Gaga Costume

Overall no one really looked like Lady Gaga but we all had a good time dressing up and coming up with ideas before tossing aside are costumes so as to enjoy the party in comfort. Our costumes vastly improved for our Pokemon Party

A Camouflage Gilly Suit combined with Shades and a Blonde Wig Lady Gaga Military Costume