Mardi Gras Mask

A few years ago I was in a bit of a funk around Mardi Gras and decided to go to a blowout Masquerade Mask competition by myself. It was very last minute, so I headed to Joanne's and essentially made my mask in my car with some super glue.

The headpiece I had already made (I added the peacock feathers last minute), but the base mask is just one of the nicer ones from the masquerade section at Joanne's with some stick on jewels and a short piece of home decor trim that I super-glued on the underside.

I ended up winning 1st prize! For anyone else looking for last minute Mardi Gras ideas, don't skip the kids' sections - they have lots of stick on jewels, stickers, feathers, and bows that are very easy to add to base creations and kick them up a notch.

Pride, Prejudice, & Zombies

Every year around Halloween, the Lansing Schuler's Bookstore puts on a fabulous Zombie Party. This year, I decided to go as the cover from Pride, Prejudice,and Zombies. 

Close up of makeup - not too shabby for a $3 kit at Meijer. I was featured in the State News and won 6th place overall. Photo courtesy of Angeli Wright, State News.

Applying blood to the dress. In hindsight, I would have made my own blood - cheapo costume blood from Joanne's just didn't give the darkness I wanted. 

I made the base dress from a couple of old t-shirts - I cut out a square neckline in one, and sewed together the "body" of a few others to make a skirt. I draped chiffon over these and sewed on some lace. It's actually a two part dress - the skirt portion ties on like a very large apron.

Posing with the cover of the book. Whee dorm room!

Considering I made this in about a day and a half, I'm pretty happy with the results. Hindsight being 20/20, I would have done better makeup, used better blood, and oh, maybe used a pattern to make the dress instead of fudging it, but as you can see, I made a pretty good attempt at the cover. People knew who I was, and that's all that mattered. :)