By now you know that I am on bed rest, which kind of just means to not leave my house unless I have to do and not do anything strenuous or unnecessary. While I am not confined to a “bed” all day, I do go stir crazy and long for my past life of activity and fun.
Siiiigh.
However, one blessing has been all the time it has allowed me to get projects completed for the baby’s room and for my other two girls. I have enjoyed working on items for my Etsy shop, Opal and Aqua, and attempting crafts that I normally wouldn’t try due to lack of time or motivation.
I put together a little project yesterday to go with my girls’ Halloween costumes. I recently wrote this regarding the fact that we were going store-bought all the way with costumes this year, and that Noelle would be Anna from Frozen and Charlotte would be a ladybug. The only problem was that when Charlotte tried on her ladybug costume, she flopped around in revolt and screamed her head off.
I am picking my battles, so I immediately ordered her the Elsa costume that goes with Noelle’s, and it is perfect! I can’t believe they even make these dresses this small, but it is the cutest thing I have seen. I’m telling you, JCPenney dress up outfits are where it’s at!
So, on one of my outings to Target (don’t get excited…30 minutes or less with a chaperone is hardly a Target trip), I noticed this* Olaf trick or treat bag. I thought it was cute enough, but when I looked at it up close, I realized that not only was it overpriced, but it was also barely big enough to hold a Kit Kat. What the heck is that? My kids trick or treat for the single purpose of bringing home a crap ton of candy for their mama, and this year it is more important than ever that they collect an impressive haul. Once this diabeetus is out of my system, I plan to go NUTS with the fun size chocolate bars. This bag simply wasn’t going to cut it.
*P.S. I couldn’t find a link on Target’s website. As you can see, people are already selling these on eBay. I wish I would have bought one to mark up and sell on eBay, too…but that would just make me heartless and disgusting.
I liked the idea of the Olaf bag, though, so I got to looking in my craft closet and found all the supplies I would need to make two bags, one for each of my girls. I didn’t spend any money on this, and it took about an hour to do. If you don’t have a ready stash of felt and hot glue gun sticks, I bet you could make one bag for less than $5 total.
The best part is that I didn’t measure or sew anything, so if you are not into those types of crafts, you can still do this!
This is what you’ll need:
2 copies of an Olaf face that is roughly the size of a piece of computer paper
At least a 1/2 yard of white felt for one bag or a whole yard for two bags
Individual sheets of felt in white, black, brown, and orange (just one sheet per color will be fine)
Sharp scissors
A good glue gun that gets nice and hot with the appropriate glue sticks
Screaming children running in and out of your work space — optional, not recommended, but whatevs
First, I needed an Olaf face to use as a pattern, and I came across this from Catching Up with Kate. I printed it at 250%, black and white, and made two copies. I didn’t want to print all the pages of his body (once enlarged, it is about 9 pages), so I just selected the page with the face on it and printed that one.
Prior to cutting anything, I laid my large piece of felt out, folded it in half, and placed one of the printouts on the fold. This was going to be the template for the size of the bag. The fold of the fabric made the bottom of the bag, so I just needed to cut around the other three edges. I widened the bag just a little, so I cut a little more than inch around the sides of the paper to make the bag slightly larger than the piece of paper. Remember, I want lots of candy!
I did this twice (along with everything) because I made one for each of my daughters.
Next, I began cutting out the features of Olaf’s face. These next pictures are disturbing and not recommended for children under age 12.
I have two copies of the face so that I can cut out not only the whites of Olaf’s eyes, but also the dark shadow around the eyes to make them stand out. I also did this with the mouth and teeth. One copy was used for the mouth, and the other was used for the teeth.
After cutting out his eyes, mouth, nose, and eyebrows, I then held each piece up to the corresponding color of felt and began cutting around them. There is no exact science to this. I just held the pattern steady against the felt and trimmed around each piece. I doubled my felt because I was making two bags.
I began laying out my felt pieces on my bags, using Olaf’s (butchered) face as my guide to placement. I had to play with it a little before I found an arrangement that looked right to me. The good thing is that Olaf makes lots of fun expressions throughout the movie, so you can’t really mess it up.
I decided he needed some hair, so I simply cut some random brown hair (they kind of looked like tree branches) and placed them behind the top piece of felt of my bag so they would look like they were coming out of the top.
The next step was to glue! Hot glue works really well on felt and melts all the fibers together very nicely for a strong bond. You don’t need to sew or secure anything!
Once I had the face pieces where I wanted them, I simply lifted them up a corner at a time (so I wouldn’t lose my placement) and started gluing. Of course I had to burn my fingers a few times, but what project is complete without some burnt skin?
After the faces were glued, I opened the bag and placed a strip of glue along the edges of the bag, one edge at a time. I pressed the edges together firmly and they were sealed! No need to glue the bottom since I used the fold, and if I were to glue the top…well…that would be stupid.
All that was needed were some handles! I cut two strips of felt for each bag that were about the length of the bag itself. I placed the first handle behind the top piece of felt and glued the edges in place. I then flipped the bag over and did the same thing for the second handle.
Ta da! The finished product!
Are they perfect? No. Do they have hot glue snot strings? Yeah, you’ll find a few. But…will they hold lots and lots of candy for this starving-for-sugar mama? YOU BET…and that’s all that matters!
