Wreck It Ralph - DIY You're My Hero "Cookie" Medal

Looking to make your own costume from the movie Wreck It Ralph?  Here's a tutorial on how I made the You're My Hero Cookie Medal for my daughter's Vanellope costume last year.  In the movie, Vanellope gives Ralph a cookie medal before the big race.  You'll have to watch the whole movie to fully understand why earning a medal was so significant. 

I made this wooden "cookie" medal in just a few hours and it was such a cute accessory to go with her costume. You can also make this if you're dressing up as Wreck It Ralph.  So if you're feeling crafty, follow along and I'll show you how I made it!

Supplies You'll Need:

• Plain Wooden Heart (I found this one at Michael's craft store)
• Acrylic Paint (white, turquoise, yellow, pink and brown)
• Paintbrushes
• Pencil
• Coarse White Glitter
• Pink Ribbon
• Scissors
• Staple Gun/Staple
• Hot Glue Gun/Glue stick

Step 1:  Draw the wording "You're my hero" on the front of the heart with a pencil.  I looked at a picture online of the cookie medal as I was drawing the wording. I wanted the font and placement of the words to match the movie.

Step 2:  On the backside, I drew a heart within about 1/2 inch from the edge.  Then I drew "To Stinkbrain" by looking at another cookie medal picture online.

Step 3:  I mixed turquoise acrylic paint with some white acrylic paint to lighten the tone of the turquoise to match the icing color.  I painted the raised portion of the heart and barely painted over the wording so I could still see it through the paint.

Step 4:  Once the paint dried, I traced over the wording again with a pencil.  Then I carefully painted around the lettering to evenly coat the turquoise color.

Step: 5:  Using the white acrylic paint, I painted a white border edge around the turquoise.  Be sure to leave some of the wood exposed on the edge to make it look like a frosted sugar cookie.  I painted over the lettering and added some white sprinkle dots.  

Step 6:  To match the sprinkles, I painted yellow, dark pink and light pink acrylic paint dots.

Step 6:  Allow paint to fully dry before painting the other side of the heart.

Step 7:  On the Stinkbrain side, I painted the inside of the heart using a chocolate brown color acrylic paint.  I basically did the same process in steps 3 and 4, by not painting over the lettering too thick.  Then I retraced the letters with a pencil and carefully painted around the letters with the brown to get an even coat of brown paint.  Next, I painted the letters white.

Step 8:  Using more brown paint, I repainted the heart avoiding the lettering. While the paint was still wet, I sprinkled the white glitter all over.  I used a coarse glitter to make it look like crystal-sugar. The reason I didn't use glue to adhere the glitter was because I was afraid the glue would look like glossy patches. Then allow the paint to fully dry.

Step 9:  Measure the length of the pink ribbon around your neck to the length of where you want the heart to hang.  The length of my ribbon was about 34" long.  Using a hot glue gun I put a dab of glue in the center of the top of the heart. and attached one end of the ribbon. I put another dab of glue on top of the ribbon and over-lapped the other end of the ribbon.  Once the glue dried, I used a staple gun and carefully stapled the ribbon to the wooden heart as a reinforcement.

You're My Hero - Wreck It Ralph - DIY Costume

Here's the finished product to accessorize your Vanellope or Wreck It Ralph costume!

To Stinkbrain -Wreck It Ralph - DIY Costume

DIY Costume- You're My Hero "Cookie" Medal 

DIY Costume - You're My Hero "Cookie" Medal -To Stinkbrain

For my tutorial on how I created their Vanellope and Fix-It Felix Jr. homemade costumes, click here.

Hope you all enjoyed this tutorial and tag me on Instagram with your costumes @artisticanyadesigns so I can see what you created!

XOXO
Anya

DIY Vanellope and Fix-It Felix Jr. Costumes for Kids

Did you ever have a favorite movie that you loved watching over and over as a kid? Well, my kids absolutely love watching Disney's Wreck It Ralph movie.  They love that movie so much that I decided last Halloween to make their costumes as characters from the movie.

My daughter Amaris (4 yrs old) was Vanellope Von Schweetz and Carter, my youngest (9 months old) was Fix It Felix Jr.  Unfortunately my oldest son Brendan who was 7 yrs old, didn't want me picking out his costume which would have been Wreck It Ralph.  He wanted to be something scary for Halloween.  We actually ended up having to return his scary bleeding pumpkin skeleton costume on the day of Halloween since the bleeding pump was broken.  All the costumes had been picked over by that time and he ended being Batman again.

Vanellope Von Schweetz "The Glitch" Costume

• Turquoise Hoodie
• Pink Ribbon 
• Brown Ruffle Skirt
• Black Boots
• Striped Vanellope Tights 
• Candy Hair Accessories (scroll down for instructions)
• You're My Hero Cookie Medal (I will be posting tutorial soon)

A few months in advance, I searched and searched online and at different stores to find each of the pieces to make her Vanellope costume.  I was able to find a plain turquoise hoodie online and luckily found Vanellope tights online too.  (Click Here to see where I purchased these tights)  The brown ruffle skirt was from a second hand kid's clothing store and Amaris already had the black boots.

Vanellope Von Schweetz Costume

Vanellope Hoodie

I cut pieces of pink ribbon and attached them to the jacket with safety pins. I didn't want to attach the ribbon on permanently, so I chose to use safety pins instead of sewing on the ribbon onto the jacket.  I cut longer pieces of ribbon for the "drawstring" around the hoodie and used the safety pins on the inside of the jacket.  For the X and 2 strips around the pockets, I also pinned the ribbon from the inside of jacket so the safety pins wouldn't be too obvious.

 DIY Vanellope Candy Hair Accessories

Supplies:

• Black Clips
• Circle Foam Stickers
• Peppermint Ornaments
• Red Pipe Cleaner
• Hot Glue Gun

To make the candy hair accessories, I found colorful foam stickers and peppermint miniature ornaments at Michaels. I also purchased plain black clippies at my local grocery store. I had bought several different types of stickers since I wasn't sure how they would stick to the hair clips, but I ended up just using the foam stickers and peppermint ornaments.  You'll also need red pipe cleaners for the red licorice hair tie.

DIY Vanellope Candy Hair Accessories 

Candy Hair Clips

For the foam stickers I used the circle shapes, peeled the paper backing and placed them randomly to the hair clips.

The peppermint ornaments had tiny little eye hooks on them, so I removed the eye hooks.  It's best to bend open the clips before you attach the peppermints. Then hot glue the peppermint to the larger ends of the hair clip.  Be sure to allow the glue to completely dry before bending the clips and testing out in your hair.

Peppermint Clips

Vanellope Candy Hair Accessories

Red Licorice Hair Tie

At first I had no clue what to use for the licorice hair tie, and then when I was strolling through the craft store I had an epiphany!  I wanted something that was bendable and red pipe cleaners was just the perfect solution.  I used about 6 pipe cleaners, twisting 3 sets of two together.  Then I twisted all six to make the licorice rope.  To attach to her hair, I twisted it tightly around her pony tail.

Red Licorice Hair Tie

DIY Vanellope Candy Hair Accessories

Vanellope "The Glitch"

Fix-It Felix Jr. Baby Costume 

Fix It Felix Jr Baby Costume

• Blue Collared Shirt
• Felix Name Patch
• Dark Denim Jeans
• Work Boots
• Toy Hammer

Optional Accessories:

• Tool Belt 
• Blue Baseball Cap with FF Patch

I lucked out since I already had the blue collared shirt, jeans and work boots before I even decided on creating their costumes.  I couldn't find a small enough blue hat to fit his size at 9 months.  Plus he probably wouldn't have kept the hat on for more than 5 seconds anyways, so I didn't do the Felix hat. I didn't have a tool belt either, but his outfit worked without it.  

Fix It Felix Jr Costume

Felix Name Patch

You can purchase embroidered Felix name patches online, but I wanted to keep the cost down and make my own "patch".  I took some blue and white felt that I already had in my craft stash, and cut oval shapes with the white oval slightly larger than the blue oval. 

I painted the name with white acrylic paint which took a few coats to make the white lettering thick enough on the felt.

I hot glued the blue oval over the white oval.  Then once the glue dried, I attached the patch to the shirt with safety pins on the inside of the shirt.

DIY Felix Name Patch-Painted Felt

Carter wasn't quite standing on his own yet here, so we cheated by propping him against the ottoman.

Fix It Felix Jr and Vanellope Costumes

You could spray paint the hammer gold to make it more like Felix's hammer in the movie. Since Carter was was at the age where he puts anything and everything in his mouth, I didn't want him chewing on a spray painted toy.

Soon I will be posting the tutorial on how I made the Hero Cookie Medal and a Wreck It Ralph jack-o-lantern.  So stay tuned for more Wreck It Ralph ideas!  (UPDATE: Click Here for the tutorial)

~Anya 

Hawaiian Luau Party

The summers here in Texas are scorching hot! So if you're planning a party for the summer, why not throw a Hawaiian Luau to beat the summer heat.  Here's some cool ideas from a party that I co-hosted a few years ago to help inspire you to throw your own summer luau party!

With the help of my best friend's mother-in-law and another friend, we threw a surprise birthday party for my best friend Brandi.

The birthday girl Brandi with her fresh flower lei

Make sure to ask your guests in the invitation to dress in Hawaiian attire to really set the theme for the party.  A luau must-have is plenty of leis.  Make sure you have them for each of your guests and some extras to add to the decor.  You can also go all-out and have guests wear grass skirts and coconuts too!

My Sister-Laura and My Daughter-Amaris

The decor was a combination of Craigslist finds, party decor from Hobby Lobby, Party City and other Hawaiian decor we already owned.  I bought several of the party decorations from someone on Craigslist. This person had just thrown their own Luau party and wanted to get rid of all their party stuff, so I got a great deal on tons of stuff.

Birthday Gift Table

Hanging Palm Tree

The kitchen island wrapped with a grass skirt garland

I think I went a little fruit crazy and made several fruit trays, carved a watermelon whale and also carved a watermelon tiki mask. My sister, Laura helped me cut up all that fruit which took us several hours! Thankfully we had extra fridge space for all the fruit trays and watermelon carvings.  Keep that in mind when prepping for a party, that you must have fridge space for items that you will make ahead of time.

Carved Watermelon Whale

Carved Watermelon Tiki Mask

To carve the watermelons, I used a pumpkin carving kit and some other kitchen utensils.  This was my first attempt at carving a watermelon so I found a video tutorial on YouTube to help me.  I drew the design on the outside of the watermelon before I started to carve out anything.

Here are some video tutorials to help you carve your own watermelon:

• KJ's Watermelon Whale
• Watermelon Whale (How to Make)

Tiki Mask-Carved Watermelon

Carved Watermelon Whale with Fruit salad

Fresh Fruit Kabobs

Don't throw away pineapple crowns, use them to decorate your fruit platters. Then once the party is over, you can even regrow a pineapple plant from the pineapple crown.  If you go to my Instagram account, you can see my Pineapple Project where I have been regrowing a pineapple plant. Check hashtags: #regrowingpineapple #pineappleproject

A Hawaiian luau wouldn't be complete without a whole roasted pig! This giant pig was as big as the whole table.  It was delicious and we served it with Hawaiian rolls of course!

Here are some ideas for the luau party food that we served.

Coconut Shrimp

Chicken Salad with Hawaiian Rolls

Drinks anyone?! You can rent margarita machines from local party rental businesses. They are convenient if you are serving frozen adult beverages for several guests, instead of making frozen drinks one-by-one with a blender.

Tiki Bar

Me and my sister Laura

You can use this theme for any occasion such as birthdays for kids and adults, wedding showers, and pool parties.  I hope you are inspired to have your own Hawaiian Luau Party and make it a party to remember!

Mahalo!

~Anya