Adopt a Moster!

We had a great time at Peanut's 2nd birthday party and I'll be sorting through the 200 pictures I took (half of which are blurs of children running by) to show you the party.
The MONSTER CUPCAKES turned out great as well.

It wasn't enough that the party is a Halloween costume party.

We decided that we were going to run a monster theme through the party as well.

I'll be totally honest with you.

We decided this year's theme before Peanut's first birthday party.

I think originally I was looking at Ugly Dolls and decided I could make them myself.

You see, this picture was taken August 12, 2011.

2011.

We were going to do monsters for his first birthday so I started drawing out some monster shapes.

My dad cut out all the monster shapes on various pieces of felt I purchased.

The day after he finished cutting them all out, my mom suggested that we do pumpkins instead.

It was going to be faster to sew a bunch of pumpkins for Peanut's Pumpkin Patch

and let the kids take one home as a favor so we went with that idea.

Meanwhile, I got this one monster's face finished and packed it all away.

My mom reminded me that I would have the entire year to finish the monsters!

A whole year to work on this project so that I wouldn't be rushed.

And then life happened.

And then it was 3 weeks until the party and I procrastinated some more.

And then it was 2 weeks before the party.

Even though my mom reminded me weekly for months.

And then we spent 2 weeks feverishly sewing up monsters.

I did all the faces and mom helped me stitch and stuff.

The result was 22 completely individual monsters!

To be completely honest I had a lot of fun doing these.

I tend to get hung up on the details and I could have worked on these forever.

The hand stitching around the edge was a bit tedious at first because you can only do so many in a sitting but my mom was powering right through them.

I got these awesome Monster Adoption Certificates on Etsy (Here) so all the kids could pick out there new monster and fill out their certificate.

I've been told that some of them are taking their adoption very seriously.

One little girl was overheard whispering to her monster that she'll be taking good care of him.

Of course, one little boy was seen using his monster to play zombie and eat the other stuffed animals.

I hope his monster is carnivorous.... and well stitched.

We displayed the monsters on a table for the kids to pick from.

So here are the details.

We used felt from the fabric store (not the crafters felt you buy in squares) and after buying some for super cheap from Joann's, I'm realizing my original stuff is much softer.

Anyhow, I used a standard size piece of paper and folded it in half (going either direction) to draw half a monster with the fold in the middle.  Remember doing hearts like that in school?

It's a monster so it doesn't really have to be symmetrical but I like them that way. 

I cut the paper monster out and my dad used it as a template on the felt.

You can draw it directly onto the felt, just make sure you turn them so the marked part will be sewed onto the inside.

He cut 2 pieces of felt at a time to make sure that the front and back were even.

I then started to make the faces.  For the eyes I traced a water bottle cap and gift tag for different sizes, hot glued them on, leaving a space of no glue in the center so I could sew on a black button.

The mouths are sewn with embroidery floss (same as the button) and the teeth were made from the scrap pieces left when cutting out circles.  Some of the monsters have additional felt pieces like a mustache or lone eyebrow that are adhered with hot glue.

The possibilities are endless!  Just think about all the cute things you could do!

They were sealed up by hand stitching them along the edge with a running stitch, that looks like dashes, or a whip stitch that loops around the edge.  They are stuffed with basic polyester stuffing.

It went pretty smoothly.

I found that the dark material needs to have a light background for the face as the black doesn't stand out and that some extremities are hard to stuff without the aid of a chopstick. 

I think you have to do these things to learn the easiest way.

 I will definitely be doing more of these types of projects.

I'm thinking maybe some Christmas plushies next.

Stay tuned for a post on Monster cupcakes and more on the party!