Minnie or Mickey Mouse Ears

My daughter loves Minnie Mouse, so we decided she would be Minnie for Halloween this year! After a trip to the store to look at the costumes they had available, I was a little disappointed. Cheap quality, expensive price. I decided instead to try to and make my own! The only challenge with that, for me (aside from just having time to make it) was the ears. After looking up a few tutorials and blogs on how other people did it, I decided to go with something like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrgVt1g5tJM
This link is to a tutorial video that I got the basic idea from. I changed a few things but most is the same. 

Minnie/Mickey Mouse Ears

• Black felt or fleece or similar fabric
• Foamy sheets with sticky/adhesive
• Head band, I got a thick headband already with black on it.
• Hot glue gun with glue sticks
• Scissors or cutter

This picture is of the larger of the 2 sizes of ears I made.

-I skipped the first few steps in the tutorial by just buying an already black headband. I got a thick one so the ears were more stable when worn. I also decided to try 2 different sizes of ears.
-I cut the foamy sheets into circles using the bottom of a big cup then cut the felt sheets to where it was about an inch longer across then the foam circles, leaving a half inch extra on each side for hot gluing it together. I stuck 2 foam circles together with the adhesive sides.
-The band I used was a different width then the tutorial and I didn't want to look up her pattern so I just cut the circle for one side and a small part of the line that would connect the 2 sides of the ear and fitted it around the band to figure out how far apart to cut them. Once I had one side sized right I just traced that one to make the other ear. After that I pretty much followed the tutorial with gluing it together, except that my glue was cooling faster then I wanted so I used my hair straightener on a lower temp to reheat the glue in the ears once they were together to make sure they stuck together well.



For the bow I went with this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUtqQgbPs3M
This is a link to a video tutorial for a boutique bow. I didn't need all the things in the tutorial like the hair clip and extra ribbon for the clip but I did use the 1/4 inch ribbon to tie the bow on the ears.
1 & 1/2 inch wide ribbon

• Lighter
• Scissors or cutter
• Hot glue gun with glue sticks
• 1/4 inch ribbon

-Cut the 1&1/2 inch thick ribbon to about 2 feet long, cutting the edge on a bias or pointy ends
-Use the lighter to heat the edges of the ribbon that you cut to keep it from fraying.
-Watch the tutorial to see how to shape the bow.
-Instead of sewing it I just used 1/4 inch thick ribbon tied around the middle. Then I used the same ribbon to tie it onto the headband. I put a little hot glue under the ribbon to keep everything in place.

Done!

Both sizes of ears and two different types of bows.

LIFE HAS BEEN TOO BUSY TO CRAFT!!!

A frightful statement, but my life has been too busy and hectic to do any crafts lately. I haven't been able to make time for anything outside of our household basics, some attempted self and family improvement and getting ready to move!

Once we get into a new home and settled I can get back to my previously planned crafting ideas!

Pallet Boards Upcycled into Family Rules Sign

A good use for pallet wood! I loved this idea and can't wait to do the rest of the rules.

So far I've only done a few. I used paint markers to write the words on them. I want to do some by staining and whitewashing the wood, but that'll have to wait until after payday.