Discover the expert in you.
Discover the expert in you.
After you have purchased the sunblock, umbrellas and volleyball net for your teen's beach-themed party, it is time to focus on an aspect that will be on the mind of many of the youthful and seemingly perpetually hungry invitees: what to eat. Whether land-locked or 20 feet away from some gnarly waves, well-planned food can elevate your teen's sandy soiree from OK to radical.
Doing makeup for a 1980s party girl requires you to pay very close attention to the color palette that you will use. Do makeup for a 1980s party girl with help from a leading make-up artist for the fashion and advertising industries in this free video clip.
No Mardi Gras party is complete without some delicious Mardi Gras appetizers to go with it. Make Mardi Gras party appetizers with help from one of New York’s premier caterers in this free video clip.
Throwing a black and white themed anniversary party is easy, so long as you always remember a few basic tips. Learn how to throw a black and white themed anniversary party with help from an event planner in this free video clip.
A jungle theme can be a really fun way to decorate your baby's room. Get jungle theme ideas for a baby room with home from a flower and nursery specialist in this free video clip.
Your little one craves the attention of being center stage in a pretty pageant dress but you don’t want the drama of "Toddlers & Tiaras." Why not put together a Honey Boo Boo costume for Halloween and get the best of both worlds? Although it would be challenging to copy the pint-sized star's big bubbly personality, you can still steal her style with a fabulous pink pageant dress, matching shoes, some blonde curls and lots of makeup. Looking to enjoy some of the pageant goodness yourself? There are definitely adult-friendly Honey Boo Boo threads out there!
Scarlett Johansson cut an impressive figure as Black Widow in "The Avengers" movie, and if you fancy yourself as a comic book hero for Halloween, you could be suited and booted and ready for your mission in no time. Transform some ordinary clothes into an impressive S.H.I.E.L.D. uniform and be battle-ready with a replica utility belt and the props to save the day.
While some ladies like to dress up as their favorite princess for Halloween, others prefer the butt-kicking heroine. For those that fall in the latter category, consider your favorite bow and arrow-toting gal, Katniss Everdeen from the popular "The Hunger Games" series. With a few staples, most likely found in your closet, and a couple of simple DIY crafts, you can quickly become this District 12 Hunger Games victor.
Bane, the villain of the 2012 summer Batman blockbuster "The Dark Knight Rises," disrupts the peace of Gotham City with his elaborately planned terrorist attacks. This Halloween, borrow the look of this hardened criminal to create a terrifying costume. With a few simple articles of clothing and a little time for some crafting, it is not difficult to put together a film-inspired Bane costume.
Putting together a great costume doesn't have to cost a proverbial arm and a leg, even at Halloween. Get great Halloween costume ideas on a budget with help from this free, spooky video.
Nothing says "boo" like a delightfully spooky center table for a Halloween party. Create a great spooky cenetr table for a Halloween party with help from this free, spooky video clip.
As the leaves turn colors and the winds pick up, the timing is right for a special night filled with ghosts and goblins. With some Halloween sorcery in the air and minimal planning, pull off the party of the century with out-of-the-ordinary ideas to frighten and delight children, families and adults.
Return to childhood themed parties is a great way to get your guests to unlock their inner kid. Learn about return to childhood themed parties with help from an experienced event planner in this free video clip.
Any awesome Mardi Gras party is going to have a few key elements. Learn about what you need to throw an awesome Mardi Gras party with help from an experienced event planner in this free video clip.
Kooky party themes are a great way to get your guests to loosen up and have a little fun. Get kooky party theme ideas with help from an experienced event planner in this free video clip.
If you're throwing a disco party, you'll soon find out that one of the most fun parts is putting together the fun costumes. Learn about costume ideas for disco parties with help from a professional event planner in this free video clip.
Willie Wonka is a character made popular by the classic book and film version starring the character. Throw a Willie Wonka themed party with help from a professional party planner in this free video clip.
Dressing as a home appliance for Halloween may not sound very exciting, but a refrigerator costume is unique, attention-grabbing and versatile. Making a refrigerator costume is cost effective, as you can use items you already have at home, and it does not require any sewing. This costume is sure to attract recognition in costume contests.
A general understanding of musical themes and motifs is very important to your music career. Learn about musical themes and motifs with help from a professional singer and violinist in this free video clip.
Just because you're making a costume at home doesn't mean it won't be creepy. Make creepy homemade costumes with help from a professional costumer and tailor in this free video clip.
Homemade Marilyn Monroe and JFK costumes are easier to put together than one might think. Learn about homemade Marilyn Monroe and JFK costumes with help from a professional costumer and tailor in this free video clip.
Many countries and communities with a large Roman Catholic population celebrate the period between Epiphany, on Jan. 6, until Fat Tuesday, before lent begins. Carnivals in Brazil, Trinidad, Ecuador, Martinique, Venice and Haiti, and the New Orleans Mardi Gras celebration feature colorful costumes adorned with feathers, bright fabrics and beads. Participants can make part or all of the carnival costume. You can make attractive headpieces and collars for your costume for less money than buying a commercially produced piece.
Whether you want to dress classy or crazy, a purse-and-pearls-themed party can bring your fashionable friends together. Typical purse parties involve getting together with friends and a purse consultant to buy purses, but another take on this is to clean out your closet and showcase an overabundance of bags, especially bags you no longer use. Inviting your friends to do the same can create a bag-swapping bonanza.
Pop culture is a theme that means something different from one person to the next. While some people include past pop culture icons like Marilyn Monroe, Elvis and hula hoops, others are much more comfortable with current trends like Lady Gaga, Facebook and the Twilight series. With such a broad base, there are some important steps to take to make sure your pop culture theme party is tucked snugly into a niche that everyone will be able to easily understand.
Costumes can be expensive to purchase in stores. Depending on what you want to dress up as, affixing a decorated Styrofoam shell to your back can create many different types of homemade costume ideas, including turtles, ladybugs, crabs and bumblebees. To create a Styrofoam shell costume, first decide what you want to dress up as.
October is the time of year when many people think about dressing up in a costume such as a plug and socket. These two costumes can also be used for electrical exhibitions, such as for a company or a school. The plug and socket costume helps children understand the difference between the male and female portions of the electrical circuit. You can make a plug and socket costume in about four hours.
Everyone wants to host a party that is so awesome people talk about it for weeks afterward, and those who miss it vow not to miss your next one. One way to make people fight to make your invitation list is to give your party some Hollywood ambiance and treat your guests as celebrities on the red carpet. Your preparations may take a little longer to complete, but the extra effort will serve to move you to the top of the best party-host list.
Many children and adults enjoy dressing as superheroes for Halloween or other costume parties. Superhero costumes are also a good addition to a child's dress-up box. Some of these costumes are just a shirt and cape. Adding chest muscles makes them look more realistic. The materials to create chest muscles are inexpensive and creating your own is often more economical than purchasing a costume that includes them. A fabric or craft store is a good place to look for the items you need to make your costumes.
Sometimes you might want to wear a costume portraying a mechanized figure that requires a windup key to lend it credibility. Making a life-sized windup key is easy, if you have the correct parts. Experiment with different mechanisms and anchoring to find what works best for your particular costume. Dressing in a mechanized costume allows you to be interactive with others in a nonverbal, fun manner that triggers lots of laughs and interest.
The LG GR500, also known as the Xenon, comes with several options to customize the phone to your preferences. Among the options is the ability to change the theme, which is the screen's background and text colors. You can select the theme and other phone display options to change the look of your LG GR500.
Whether you're playing the character of a fish in a school play or you're planning on going as some form of marine life for Halloween, you'll need to assemble a convincing costume. As most costume crafters preoccupy themselves with the eyes, lips and fins of the fish, more subtle details such as the shimmery scales or gills are easily overlooked. Add a touch of realism to your costume by cutting a set of gills into your costume using a few simple materials.
Although the many books, comics, movies and video games about the post-apocalypse era are all different, they share a similar clothing aesthetic that favors functionality over fashion. Resources are limited after the collapse of society, so a post-apocalyptic costume can be cobbled together with the items you have around your house — making it a cheap and simple costume to assemble in a short amount of time. With few extra flourishes, you can transform into a mutated gang leader, flesh-eating zombie or scrappy survivor.
Food-themed Halloween costumes are a clever alternative to the traditional ghosts, witches and superheroes. Choose to dress up as your favorite flavor of Skittles, the fruity, colorful candies made by Mars Inc. A Skittles costume is comfortable, and there's no makeup or mask required. To make a homemade Skittles costume, you need to find the color of felt material that matches the flavor you like best. Skittles colors include yellow, green, red, purple and orange in bright tropical shades.
Impress everyone at the the next Battlestar Galactica convention with a realistic Cylon costume. Cylons were man-made robots designed for battle in the television show "Battlestar Galactica." However, they later rebelled and enslaved the humans. Construct a costume to look like a Cylon Centurion by using paper mache to create the chrome mask. It's the most distinctive part of the costume, and once you wear it with black or gray clothing, you look exactly like a Cylon.
Costumes of the period are an essential part of a Renaissance fair. Wearing such apparel is a must for the organizers but optional for participants. The clothes worn during the class-driven Renaissance period varied from homespun, rough working clothes for the peasants, carpenters and weavers to expensive, silk garments for the nobles. So the kind of costume to make depends on the class of society you plan to represent at the fair.
Halloween is an exciting time for many youngsters as they walk around their neighborhoods, going from house to house to collect candy. As youngsters get older, the emphasis shifts from candy and treats to elaborate costumes. Funny, sexy, original and clever costumes often get the biggest reactions. Creating a Mount Rushmore costume will be sure to get you noticed.
Mardi Gras is the period of celebration just prior to Lent, the period of fasting, in the Catholic tradition. Mardis Gras generally takes place in late February and early March, eventually culminating on the day before Ash Wednesday. Made famous by the celebrations in the city of New Orleans, Mardis Gras parties and carnivals are actually common throughout other areas of the country as well. Mardis Gras parties are only limited by your imagination.
Genghis Kahn was a Mongolian warrior who built an army and went on to build an Empire during the Middle Ages. Ruthlessly destroying tribes across Northeast Asia, Genghis Kahn was a conqueror. The Mongolian Empire was the largest empire in the world before the British Empire. Today, a Genghis Kahn costume is appropriate for a historical or warlord-themed costume party, or for a theatrical production. Make your own Genghis Kahn costume using pieces found at your local thrift store or costume shop, and a few items from a craft store.
A do-it-yourself stegosaurus costume is sure to be the hit of the costume party and is relatively simple to make. All you need is a jogging suit, a long strip of fabric, a glue gun, sponge or foam, and imagination. If you like, paint your face and add plastic fangs and claws for the finishing touches.
The majestic image of a stingray gliding through the ocean waves provides inspiration for a unique Halloween costume. Whether a costume wearer is a lover of marine animals or simply a trick or treater looking for a unique get-up, a stingray costume is a one-of-a-kind costume that can easily be constructed using materials found at any department store or even in the costume wearer's own home.
Odysseus, the legendary King of Ithaca, led his forces to help save the kidnapped Helen of Troy and created the famed Trojan horse. Ancient Greek pottery provides images of warriors from which to derive the perfect Odysseus costume. War garb was a loose tunic covered by an armored breastplate and a girdle of leather straps. Add leather sandals, a cape over one shoulder, and a sword and shield and your own Odysseus steps out of mythology and into reality.
For a sophisticated get-up at your next costume party, dress as a high-fashion icon. You don't need to invest in pricey brand-name clothes to make it look like you're fresh off the runway. So everybody can identify your costume, look to fashion-forward celebrities, over-the-top designs and iconic red carpet looks.
Kaiju suits are often fashioned after famous monsters such as Godzilla, King Ghidorah, Gigan and Baragon and made entirely of foam rubber. But with the growing popularity of cosplay culture and the term "kaiju" being thrust into the spotlight with Kaiju Big Battel -- a theatrical production of actors dressed up as fictitious beasts fighting each other in staged comical showdowns -- more people are building their own suits and showing them off at conventions and cosplay events. The great thing about building a kaiju suit is that your imagination is your guide and the basics of any design are…
Charmander is a lovable monster from Nintendo's Pokemon, a Japanese cartoon world that includes a TV show, trading cards and video games. Charmander, which means fire lizard, is discovered and taken in by the main character, Ash Ketchum, after being abandoned by his owner. Charmander later evolves into more advanced lizard forms, such as Charmeleon and Charizard. For Halloween and costume parties, Charmander is an easy Pokemon costume that you can make with a few simple materials. He is a small orange lizard with a light yellow chest and bluish-black eyes. The most distinctive feature is the flame at the…
A fortune teller's distinctive look is as much a uniform as a banker's pinstriped suit. The iconic look requires plenty of color, bold jewelry, a pair of large gold hoop earrings and a vibrant head scarf. The Romani came not from Egypt originally, but from northern India, so the classic appearance of a "fortune teller" draws inspiration from India, the Middle East and Eastern European folk dress. Complete the costume with a deck of Tarot cards or a crystal ball.
Swing music wasn't the only thing that roared in the 1920s. After early electric- and steam-powered autos had run their course, the end of World War I in 1918 created an optimistic peacetime culture ready to hit the road in gasoline-powered cars. The United States in particular began its love affair with the automobile in the 1920s -- about 20 percent of the population owned a car by 1928, compared to roughly 2 percent in England and France.
Carnival is closely associated with the Caribbean, so it may come as a surprise to learn that the Carnival celebration actually originated in Italy. As the Italians and their fellow Europeans began to migrate to other parts of the world, including the Caribbean, they brought with them African slaves. Because of this, the Caribbean Carnival became infused with the history and traditions of the African culture. Your Caribbean-themed dance should feature the tropical décor and spicy foods of the region.
Familiarity with party etiquette can make the difference between a night of enjoyment or a night of embarrassment. Be considerate of others while looking out for your own safety. Though parties offer a relaxed atmosphere, they're not a free pass to behave however you want. Maintain a friendly, gracious attitude, and you may find yourself with a wealth of connections, friends and continued invitations.
Medieval garb, whether fancy or plain, was based on one simple piece: the tunic. The T-tunic was floor-length for women and usually knee or thigh-length for men. Some tunics were short-sleeved, but most had long sleeves. The sleeves were narrow at the wrist, although the styles changed through the years. Most people wore tunics of either linen or wool, leaving the more expensive velvets and silks for royalty or nobility. However, using a thrift-store cotton bed sheet or wool blanket serves the purpose for an inexpensive medieval costume.
During the Middle Ages, knights required the services of squires, who were young men apprenticing to become knights themselves. Squires performed a myriad of tasks. They served the knight's food and took care of his horses, armor and weapons. You can make a squire's costume that reflects the blend of servant quality and the courtly chivilry required of a young man with aspirations to be a knight. While a knight's armor presents a formidable challenge, you can still make a squire's costume in less than a day.
