A Flower Crown For Any Fandom: A DIY

Today I wanted to show you how to make the flower crown I created for the Beauty and the Beast movie premiere. The awesome thing about this craft is that it can be adapted to literally ANY fandom. 

Magic Band Custom Painting - A DIY

Today I wanted to show you the method I use to decorate and customize my magic bands! 

Of course many of us have already heard that the magic bands are going to be undergoing a major change in the new year, converting to a new "puck" system with a center piece that is removable so that it can be worn in several different ways. But the primary way of wearing the magic band will still be...as a band, so even though the shape may soon differ, this painting method should still apply

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To create the designs on my bands, I downloaded a band template online, and sketched out both designs. A few things to note when creating your designs: don't forget about the Mickey head at the center of your band. There are many opportunities to get creative with how you decorate this part of the band, but it's also the area that gets the heaviest use and wear. Also, when you are designing the portion of your band with holes, don't forget that for most people, you will have overlap and not all the holes will show.

Once I was satisfied with the sketch for my bands, I used a fine-tip black Sharpie to draw out the design on the actual bands. This is a  nervewracking part of the process, but remember...if you mess up, you can cover it up with acrylic paint if the mess up is in the area you planned to paint. And even if you mess up in a spot you planned to leave blank, you can alter your design to paint in the background.

I then filled in my outline with acrylic paint and a tiny-bristle paintbrush. I generally tend to use cheap Apple Barrel-style craft acrylics for my magic bands, and they seem to work just fine.

After the acrylic paint dried thoroughly, I used DuraClear on each of them, brushing it on carefully with the bands clasped around a couple of spray paint cans that were about the size of our wrists. When I painted the gloss over the holes, some tended to seep down in. I used a straightened paper clip to keep the holes free of gloss.

I did three separate layers of the DuraClear, waiting two hours or so between coats for the previous coat to dry. But I'm an impatient person, so it might be better to wait even longer between coats if you can bring yourself to.

I find that the DuraClear works best out of all the varnishes I've tried for magic bands. You still may get a little bit of cracking by the end of your trip if your design requires you to coat your whole band with the varnish, but for most trips, after six days or so, there is still very minimal wear to the paint. 

Have fun decorating your magic bands! And here are a few extra tips:

The first time I decorated our magic bands by painting them, I dug out my husband and my bands from our first trip and do some testing on them. I am so so glad I did this, as simply reading from others that "acrylic paint sprayed with acrylic sealer works well" wasn't enough for me. I have three different kinds of acrylic paint in my crafting cabinet, and it was through doing these test bands that I discovered they all had different success rates: my large tubes of paint crack easily even with a top coat, while the smaller tubes of art paint and the craft acrylic paints held up much better.

I also discovered that Sharpie, when sprayed with Krylon Crystal Clear spray acrylic sealer, immediately runs and bleeds into a terrible mess. I can't imagine how distressed I would be if I had painted my bands and found that out the hard way. I also decided that the spray gave too uneven of coverage for my preference, although it should be said that I only did two layers of spray on my first test band. DuraClear does not smudge Sharpie, and makes the colors of the acrylics even more glossy and vibrant. You will be able to see brushstrokes in the finished design, so if you don't like that idea, Crystal Clear might give you smoother coverage (I don't know this for sure though).

And if you have smaller wrists like I do, try trimming off the excess black band rather than removing the entire thing. In other words, snip it right above the first hole on the black band area so that it appears to border the entire band, and still "frames" your art well. This is the first time I tried cutting off the excess band rather than removing the entire black frame, and I love how it looks...I wish I had done this every time!

I'll leave you with a few more examples of bands I've decorated for past trips!

Vacation Projects - Dress and Shirt

My vacation ends tonight, but we got my last project I wanted to do on vacation done....the dress I've been hoping to make with the Minnie Mouse floral fabric I bought a few months back. And I LOVE IT.

And we also finished altering my Flower Crowns & Disney Bound shirt (which btw is on sale again right now for $14)

Lengthening a Beauty and the Beast Skirt

The grand sewing and crafting extravaganza continues!

Several months ago, I ordered this Beauty and the Beast skirt, in one size fits all, which is normally not an issue. And the waist band wasn't an issue: the length was. It was so short, I couldn't even excuse wearing it anywhere. When I did wear it, I'd have to either pair it with leggings or with a longer skirt, and honestly it was so short, both of those options looked a little silly.

Well, we fixed it!!

We added a band of, of all perfect things, a William Morris fabric I had on-hand thanks to my friend Briony, to the bottom, and covered the seam between with lace. I honestly adore how it looks now.

The Morris pattern looks like roses among thorns, so it's perfect not only color-wise, but theme-wise.

Once again, a before and after:

Trip Outfit Crafting!

So as I announced yesterday, we are planning a trip back to Disney World this December! Which means...outfit planning, sewing, and ear making!

Making my Minnie Friendship Faire Flower Crown ears the other day was so fun, I decided to make a couple more the very next day.

First, a Cinderella (2015) themed pair of ears to wear with my Cinderella's castle skirt on our trip.

And I wasn't sure what ears would look good with my Flower Crowns & Disney Bound girl shirt (once I get it altered and jazzed up), but when I saw these black and white silk flowers, I knew they'd be perfect!

 

I also found this cute pair of leggings on Amazon that I think might look good with the shirt too.

And you may remember I bought a Haunted Mansion wallpaper dress off Amazon...

But I wanted to add some personality to it, so mom and I added some lace detail:

Still so much to do, but I'm excited about what I've done!

DIY: Minnie Mouse Flower Crown from Mickey's Royal Friendship Faire

Today I wanted to share with you a how-to on the flower crown mouse ears I just made, inspired by Minnie's amazing new outfit in Mickey's Royal Friendship Faire.

Supplies Needed:

Hard headband. I picked these up in a five-pack from the Dollar Tree.

Black craft foam sheets. One sheet should be enough to do your ears if you like them about the size I do, but I always pick up an extra just in case.

Pencil and whatever object you want to trace to get your ear shape. This is the third pair of ears I've made using this glass tumbler from my kitchen, so at this point I know it's a size I'm going to like.

For this particular pair of ears, you'll also want some ribbon in the colors of your flowers. Minnie's original crown has a more plummy purple, and a more teal-ish blue, but my flowers work better with these colors, so that's what I bought. I picked these up from Walmart for something like $.39 or $49 per roll.

Flowers! Also a Dollar Tree score. To be honest, I find it easier to make flower crown mouse ears when I use cheaper flowers. They're easier to pull off their stems, and "flatten" a bit more easily too to conform to the headband shape when I need them to. I took a photo of Minnie's headgear to the store so I could match the flowers as best I could.

Also needed, scissors, and a hot glue gun. I also recommend using a Quaker Oats container to actually work on when you're creating your ears. Try not to glue your ears to the container, but even if you do, the paper should tear off and you can clean up later.

(Side note: These containers also make magnificent Minnie ears storage holders)

Lay your traced object on the craft foam and create a shape similar to this...two circles of identical sizes, connected by a small strip. Cut out the shape including the center strip. 

Sandwich the two circles around the headband, hot glue in the center and along the strip. Make sure you know where you want the placement of your ears before you glue them in place. For instance, I prefer smaller ears, and wider placement instead of right on the top of my head (because I have a long face shape, and don't need any more height added)

Place your ears on the container and use your photo reference to start gluing your flowers to the headband and ears. Important note: When at all possible, try to cut off any remaining "stem" on your flowers as you can. This will make your headband more comfortable and keep plastic pieces from jabbing into your head all day when you wear them. Not fun.

 For the ribbons, I cut each color to the same length, layered them in the same order on each side, and then hot glued the living daylights out of them. I covered this hot glue mess with more flowers.

And you're done! One great thing about flower crown mouse ears is that if you have any hot glue or rough edges showing, you can add more greenery from your flowers, or a little flower piece, or whatever.

Now to wear them to Disney!

Flowers for Minnie Ears!

I bought my flowers today to make my Minnie Royal Friendship Faire flower crown ears! I hope to make them early next week!

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New Princess Toile - Couldn't Resist

I couldn't help it. Even though when I'm on vacation in a week or so,  I have many Disney fashion sewing projects to already do (sewing my Minnie floral maxi dress, altering my Flower Crowns & Disney Bound t-shirt, adding a strip of fabric for length to my Beauty and the Beast skirt, adding lace accents to my Haunted Mansion dress) I still had to buy this fabric when I saw it at JoAnns today.

And a silly picture of me holding it around my waist like a sarong. I'm thinking a knee-length full circle skirt perhaps? It's hard to tell in the first two pictures, but the texture is like a satin, which surprised me, since I assumed this fabric was only available in a quilter's cotton type fabric. I got all the store had left, which was 1 1/2 yards. Looks like I have no shortage of Disney projects coming up!