Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle DIY Halloween Costumes

 

Jumanji Welcome to the Jungle DIY Halloween CostumesOne of our kids favorite movies for the past couple of years is Jumanji. We love the Robin Williams original version, so it was a hard one to beat, but the new versions of the cursed game did not disappoint. Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, and Jumaji: The Next Level feature a new cast of characters that get sucked into a video game where they transform into their avatar characters (with different strengths and weaknesses); as opposed to Williams movie where the game came to life on a board game with the roll of a dice. If you haven’t seen the movies, we highly recommend them! Our kids love them, and we laugh every.single.time we watch them. Since we have nothing but love for the jungle adventure movie, our kids jumped with excitement when we mentioned DIY Jumanji halloween costumes for 2020.

As you know, we love costumes that have items of normal clothing that can be re-worn (even better when we already own it), and Jessica always has to have a DIY element. Groups costumes are getting harder and harder with our kids getting older and more opinionated, but we would love for the tradition to continue as long as our kids will go for it. In the past, we dove under the sea with a DIY diver costume, DIY jellyfish (one of our all-time faves) and Deadliest Catch fisherman. Next, we ventured into the magical world of Harry Potter. And, who can forget the colorful world of the Dreamworks DIY Troll costume. Last year, we went a little dark with our glorious DIY Maleficent.

This year, welcome to the jungle! You have plenty of time to get this costume together – it can totally be done now, or last-minute is more your thing. Here’s how we did it…

Jumanji Welcome To the Jungle DIY Halloween Costumes for kidsFINAL

Ruby Roundhouse
Army cargo pants: Walmart $12
Gloves: $1 Walmart gloves, and cut tips
Maroon top: Target $8
Combat boots: Target $24 (we had these already)
Old school boombox: We made this with a recycled shoe box, black paint, clay buttons, and chair floor protectors
Harness: DIY, folded black duct tape
Utility belt: Amazon, $13 (you can use one or two of the pockets for the other costumes)
Red hair wax: Amazon, $10

Dr. Shelly Oberon
Safari hat: Amazon for $17
Safari jacket: Amazon for $29
Shorts: already owned
Bogs boots: already owned, but these are great winter boots that last forever
Round circle frame glasses: Amazon, $9
Button up shirt: already owned, and most any would work
Green bowtie: Amazon, $9 (comes with suspenders, and you’ll be all set for St. Patrick’s day)
Vest: Thrift store score from my mother-in-law but Amazon has one for $30 if your thrift store doesn’t have one

“Mouse” Finbar
Green backpack: Waterproof Utility Bag (rave reviews for this bag outdoors) This is a big part of the movie because he’s backpack guy
Cargo shorts: Gap, $13
Polo shirt: already owned it
Vest: already owned, but this one or this one would work too (both under $15)
Bucket hat: Amazon for $12
Red bandana: already owned it
Binoculars: already owned, but this $9 pair works, or this pair if you want it to last awhile longer
Boots: already had, but this pair of black boots from Target work
Camo socks: Old Navy, $10 for 3 pairs

Smolder Bravestone
Utility shirt: already owned it, but here’s one
Green pants: already owned it, but here’s one
Military belt with holster: Amazon, $20
Boots: Walmart, $16

Accessories/DIY Costume Props
Boombox: DIY
Jumanji game: DIY with boxes. We used brown and copper paint to paint the box, the texture on the box is made with a hot glue gun – we traced the name of the game and the design on front from an online print out and then painted the glue copper. The handle is made with black folded duct tape. If you need a tutorial, email us at hello@jsorelle.com. We can send them to you.
Printables of character strengths and weaknesses: free printable from Handmade Charlotte

jumanji game pieces

jumanji game pieces diy halloween costume jumanji props

DIY group halloween costume for kids - jumanji welcome to the jungle

Happy Halloween from our jungle crew! Our other adorable crew is dressing as a family, and they are traveling along the yellow brick road. Check in to our instagram to see the looks on Halloween!

diy jumanji halloween costumes - group costume idea

Halloween Crafts and Decor For Kids & Adults

cactus pumpkins_diy no carve pumpkin

It’s October, which means the leaves begin to fall, pumpkins adorn our porches, and the witches, ghosts, goblins and googly eye everything come out to play. We have a somewhat hard time in fall…it’s a bittersweet season for us. We are sad to say goodbye to summer, the pool and warm weather, yet we enjoy the vibrant colors on the trees, sipping hot tea (or coffee) and cooler days. But, we know fall is short-lived, and soon Colorado will be covered in white with cold temps. While we enjoy the stillness and beauty of the cold days with falling snow, it’s a long, cold and dark winter ahead. The changing seasons bring so many emotions, but as we get older, I think we see what season we would like to spend 90% of our time in. And, for us, it’s not the winter. 🙂

For now, we will embrace the fall season. We’ve created a few scary, but mostly sweet, fall and Halloween DIY’s over the years. We’re sharing some of our favorite fall DIY’s below, and there’s truly something for every age. Plus, they all are totally doable Halloween crafts, for those of us who have DIY in us, and those who don’t!

halloween and fall DIY crafts-pumpkin wine dispenser

1. Halloween Candle with DIY Googly Eyes: This is a new Halloween DIY, and we are obsessed. The DIY wax eyeballs create such a chic Halloween touch to any party or table setting. Find all the details here. We’ll give you a clue, you can break into your kids crayon box for this one.

2. Pumpkin Wine Dispenser: This is one of our all-time favorites. It’s a pumpkin wine dispenser!! Best part is the wine, of course, but also the fact that you can use it year and after! The wine will flow for all who desire. This is just too good (and easy) not to make!

3. Chocolate Cupcake Toppers: We love our chocolate. This fun cupcake topper looks super fancy, and like your an expert pastry chef, but the only skill set you truly need is the ability to trace. You just need to swap a pencil in for melted chocolate. See how to do it here.

4. Faux Floral Arrangement: Fall doesn’t mean all leaves and branches. You can create a pretty floral masterpiece with just a few stems, and skeleton props. See how we did it here.

diy halloween crafts and googly eye monster DIY for kids

1. Sticker Halloween Jokes: We love a good laugh, and our kids love ALL the cheesy jokes, so we made a FREE Halloween jokes printable for you. All you need to do is print it on sticker paper (Astrobrights in our favorite), and attach it to any snack, treat or gift you want. Due to all the COVID restrictions this year, kids are only allowed to bring pre-packaged items to school, so you can dress them up with Halloween stickers to get the kids laughing! Download the free printable here.

2. Furry Monster Pillows: You don’t need a sewing machine for this one (and barely any sewing kids), and the kids will love the cuddle session with an adorable, cute monster.

3. Blow Art with a Straw: Your kids will love this one, and it will keep them entertained for hours on those cold days when you are reaching your sanity limits inside.

4. Fingerprint Monster Pumpkins: We created 7 no-carve pumpkin ideas for Real Simple a few years ago, and this was a favorite. Paint your kids fingertips with paint, press tips on the pumpkin, then transform them into adorable monsters. You can avoid the whole sticky, gooey mess of carving pumpkins! You can this tutorial, plus 20 awesome other ideas, here.

Halloween Decor: DIY Googly Eye Wax Candles

DIY eyeball candles

We’ve got major heart eyes for these DIY eyeball candles. It’s subtle, but an amazing DIY candle upgrade for Halloween. The candle is store-bought, but the DIY eyeballs take less then 30 minutes to add, and the supplies needed are minimal. These are not traditional plastic eyeballs, because that would be a fire hazard…instead, these googly eyes are made from wax.

Once Halloween is over, you can store the candles as-is, or scrape off the eyes, and you have your standard black candles back!

DIY Eyeball Candles for Halloween 

Materials:

  • Soy candle wax, white
  • Crayon, black
  • Black taper candles
  • Heat-safe glass with spout (glass measuring cup works great)
  • Pot with about 2 cups water on the stove
  • Bamboo skewer, 2 for each color wax

Directions:

Step 1: Pour about 2 tablespoons candle wax flakes in the glass measuring cup. Set the cup in a pot with water on the stove. Set heat to high and watch it melt. You will not even use it all the wax for these DIY eyeballs, but you can add more if needed. We didn’t use a white crayon with this project because we couldn’t find one. We have 5 of every other crayon, but not white. You can try to use a crayon instead of the soy wax. The black crayon we used for the eyeball was easy to melt and use; however it was somewhat fickle attaching to the white eyeball. By fickle, we mean, the wax had to be very hot and sometimes it would take a second try to stick to the white eyeball (so not THAT fickle). So, we are not sure if this was due to the fact that they are two different kinds of wax, or if the crayons are slightly different to work with.

halloween candles

Step 2: Use the end of the bamboo skewer (the round, flat end, NOT the pointy end) to dab into the hot white wax, and then dab onto the candlestick. You can let the wax cool a bit, so it hardens faster on the candle. As you know a candlestick is round, so if you tilt, the eyeball will be a little deformed. We dabbed a couple drops of wax along one “side” of the candle, and once they turned white and hardened, we would rotate the candle and dab along another edge. The wax takes about 30 seconds to harden, so this is not too time consuming.

diy googly eye halloween candles-halloween crafts

diy googly eye halloween candles-halloween crafts

Step 3: Once you have all the white eyeballs, now it’s time to melt the black crayon. It’s easier to melt the black crayon if you use a knife to cut it into little shavings. When it’s melted, time to dip the skewer (you can try either end of the skewer, depending on the size of the white eye) and dab gently on each eye. If the black doesn’t attach right away, like we mentioned above, dip it into the melted crayon wax again (make sure it’s hot) and try again. It should work, even if it takes a try or two.

diy googly eye halloween candles-halloween crafts

diy googly eye halloween candles-halloween crafts

 

Step 4: Step them in a safe taper candle holder, and watch them glow as Halloween nears. As always, with any kind of candle or candle-related project, please be careful. Don’t ever leave candles unattended, or within close reach of children. Keep flammables away from open flames. Be smart.

diy googly eye halloween candles-halloween crafts

diy googly eye halloween candles-halloween crafts

diy googly eye halloween candles-halloween crafts

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Make Blow Paint Art With A Straw With Kids

DIY blow art with a straw-googly eye monsters art for kids

Well, we love straws in our drinks, but we never knew we would like them so much for art. We recently blew our way to colorful art with paint and, yes, a straw. Our kids loved this project. It’s fun year-round; on sunny days, and on cold days too, when the kids need to get creative, and off the screens. Since Halloween is around the corner, we made the colorful blown art into cute, adorable monsters. Get those straws out, and those lungs ready to blow.

Blow Art With A Straw

Materials:

  • Watercolor paper
  • Crayola washable paint (watered down with drops of water)
  • Straws (we used paper, but plastic would work, too)
  • Dropper
  • Sharpie
  • Googly Eyes

Directions:

Step 1: Get a paint tray, or tiny cups. Pour about 1/2 tablespoon paint into a cup, along with 1/2 tsp – 1 tsp water. If it’s too watery, the paint will run off the pages too quickly. If it’s too thick, it will not move much at all. Try to find the right consistency that makes drops when placed on paper, and moves well with some wind.

DIY blow art with a straw-googly eye monsters art for kids

Step 2: Use the dropper to drop “blobs” or dots of paint onto the paper. You can place them wherever you want – some close, some far, some big, some little, etc.

DIY blow art with a straw-googly eye monsters art for kids

Step 3: Now, it’s time to blow. Use the straw to create one-of-a-kind art. As you will discover, the art changes with the direction of the straw and wind. If you blow from the top, it’s a different effect if you blow from the side. We made tiny dots of color, big blended works of art, and medium sized ones, too! It was a lot of fun.

DIY blow art with a straw-googly eye monsters art for kids

DIY blow art with a straw-googly eye monsters art for kids

 

Step 4: Add googly eyes, and use a Sharpie to draw arms, legs and any monster-like accessory or body part you want. How cute are they?

DIY blow art with a straw-googly eye monsters art for kids

DIY blow art with a straw-googly eye monsters art for kids

 

DIY blow art with a straw-googly eye monsters art for kids

DIY blow art with a straw-googly eye monsters art for kids

 

 

Stock Up On Pool Noodles Now To Make These DIY Giant Flowers

DIY giant pool noodle flower

We know school is in limbo, and our world has been rocked with the arrival and contagion of COVID-19. Spring plays were cancelled, graduations were virtual, and birthday parties became drive-by, honking car parades. Although you may not have a large school play or birthday party in the very near future, it will happen again. In fact, small, safer gatherings are happening now. When the time is right (even if it’s next spring) we have the cutest decoration, DIY giant flowers, that costs less than $5 each. We are sharing this spring and summer DIY craft now, so you remember to stock up while they are “in season,” (and store the ones you have) to make these large DIY flowers. It’s easy to do, and adds a dose of sunshine to any space, or party.

Sorry about the ‘non-professional’ photos. This was a quick project in spring 2019, and didn’t think it would be such a hit, so cell phone photos have to do.

DIY Giant Flowers Made With Pool Noodles

Materials:

  • Giant tissue paper flowers
  • Pool noodles, green
  • Industrial buckets, Walmart (they were about $2.97)
  • Cardboard
  • X-acto knife
  • Acrylic paint, green
  • Rock
  • Card stock, green
  • Wood skewer, thin
  • Glue, glue stick works fine
  • Packaging tape

walmart buckets

walmart pool noodles

Step 1: Buy stems, or the pool noodles, from Walmart. Also at Walmart, find the colors buckets that will serve as the “pots” or “planter” for the flowers.

cardboard cut out and pool noodle stem

Step 2: Cut left over cardboard packages from all those Amazon packages you’ve been buying. Trace the opening of the bucket on the cardboard, and cut it slightly inside the pencil outline. I find that an X-acto knife works better than scissors when working with cardboard. Also, trace the outline of the noodle in the center of the cardboard circle. This will be where the stems fits inside, so cut it slightly inside the pencil outline as well, so the pool noodle fits nice and snug.

green cardboard cut out

Step 3: Paint the cardboard with acrylic green paint.

diy pool noodle flower

Step 4: Add heavy rocks to the bottom of the buckets. We know it’s just a pool noodle and a tissue flower, but it’s somewhat heavy, so you will need something to stabilize them so they are not top-heavy.

diy pool noodle flowers

 

giant DIY flower

Step 5: Cut leaves from green paper (we love Astrobrights Paper), and glue two stems with a large thin wood skewer in the middle. This will look like a “leaf vein”, and also makes it easy to just stick inside the noodle so it will stay in place.

diy pool noodle flowers

Step 6: Insert the stems inside cardboard cut-outs, and then insert it inside the buckets. They fit nice and snug in the buckets. Fluff some pre-made tissue flowers from Amazon. They come with a string attached, so I wrapped it around the top of the noodle and also secured it with a piece of packaging tape.

Here are a couple flowers “on set” for a spring singing pageant.
spring school play DIY decor