My son is singing in a "Barnyard Moosical" for school on Monday, and has been asked to dress like a cow.  Now, I'm not about to go spend money on a cow costume that he's going to wear once, so I went to look in my craft closet to see what I had.  I found this shirt that James stained last year and isn't really wearable.  Luckily, I could never bring myself to throw it away.  I thought for sure I could think of a way to use it for something, and I was right!  Yay me!  So, I grabbed the shirt, a sharpie, some cardboard, tole paint, and a paint brush.

I stuck the cardboard inside the shirt, and drew some spots with my sharpie.

Then I filled in the spots with the black paint.  Yes, I know that's not the purpose of this paint, but it's what I had on hand, and it works!

I let it dry a few hours, then flipped it over and spotted the back.

Throw in a pair of black gloves for the hooves, and there you have it: A free cow costume that was really easy to make! 

Disclaimer:  The paint is really stiff, and it will be uncomfortable, so he will have to wear an undershirt with it.  If you are going to plan on doing this a fabric paint would probably be a lot better.

Update:  Here is a picture at the performance.  I didn't sit close enough to get a good picture during the singing, but this is him in his classroom.  What a cutie!

 

Homemade Puppet Theater

 Aren't boxes fun toys??  I remember making a whole house out of  dishwasher and refrigerator boxes one time when I was a kid.  It was complete with drapes for the windows and shelves with decorations on them.  Ah, memories!  Well, I mentioned we have moved a couple of times in the last year, and boy to we have boxes!  We had a moving company pack us up for the trip eastward, and they used some really cool wardrobe boxes for our hanging clothes.  They're big ol things and they are really sturdy, so I decided we needed to make something cool with one.  A puppet Theater!!! This is what I started with.

 Then I turned it upside down and used the flap for the door in the back, cutting off the extra piece that wraps around to the top.

Then, I cut a hole in the front of the box, leaving  a couple of inches around the top and sides and keeping the bottom attached.  I scored where the flap attaches and a line a few inches above so I could fold them to create the stage.

To keep it in place, I just used moving tape.  I'm sure someone else could have come up with an idea that would look more appealing, but this works.

The next step was to place the background.  I used some scraps from one of my fabric boxes and just used liquid stitch to finish the edges.  I used a glue gun to put it in place. After that, it seemed like a fun idea to give it a gold trim to make if fancy.

A little curtain made the same way as the background,  some black chalkboard paint, and viola!  We have a puppet theater.  The kids and their friends all have so much fun with this!