Tag Archives: DIY

Save Money This Halloween – Re-Purpose an Old Costume!

dogs, designer dogs, Yorkipoo, yorkie poo, piggy bank, Halloween, dog costume, pig costume

If you’re feeling creative, one great way to save money this Halloween is to re-purpose an old costume. You may have an outfit in the closet from an old recital or school play or something retro that belongs to a family member. Maybe you can take a costume from Halloweens past and add or remove some accessories to give the outfit new life. Or some small tweaks and DIY elements may turn one costume into something completely new. Why not take a look in storage and see if anything sparks your Halloween creativity?

Keep reading to see how I transformed one of Sadie’s old outfits into five completely new Halloween costumes for my dog!

Pig Costume

For example, I have a simple pig costume for Sadie. It’s a fairly easy Halloween costume for her to wear, because it mostly sits on her back, held in place with Velcro. It’s easy for her to move around, as there are no restrictive parts of the costume on her legs. And it’s a convenient costume for me because it has a hole made for a harness or leash to fit through. But most importantly, when I looked at this old costume I had a sudden burst of DIY inspiration.

Piggy Bank Costume

With some simple DIY printing, cutting, and pasting, I can turn Sadie’s pig costume into a super cute piggy bank costume! I printed a large image of a coin I found online and also printed a solid black rectangle off of my computer. I cut out the rectangle and taped it to the back of Sadie’s pig costume, making sure not to cover the leash opening. I then cut out 90% of the coin, leaving a wedge of printer paper attached to the bottom of the coin. I folded over the wedge and taped it to the black rectangle attached to the costume. This enabled to coin to appear standing up, as if it’s just being placed into the piggy bank. Thus with a few pieces of paper and tape I turned Sadie’s pig costume into an adorable piggy bank Halloween costume!

Miss Piggy Costume

I was also able to use Sadie’s simple pig costume and turn it into a glamorous Miss Piggy outfit that’s perfect for Halloween! All I needed was a blond wig and a dress worthy of the most stylish Muppet. I placed the blond wig over the head of the pig costume, using the ears to hold the wig in place. Then I chose a dress that is slightly larger on Sadie and put it on over her pig costume. The combination of the visible pig elements with the dress and wig create pretty cute representation of Miss Piggy from the Muppets.

Harry Plopper (from the Simpsons)

Piglet Costume

To turn a plain, old pig costume into the adorable Piglet from Winnie the Pooh, all Sadie needed was the right sweater. A simple purple and pink striped dog sweater works perfectly as Piglet’s signature style.

Spider Pig (from the Simpsons)

Sadie has added a Spiderwoman dress to her pig costume to transform into Spider Pig from the Simpsons. One red and blue jumpsuit is all it takes to go from ordinary pig to superhero!

dogs, designer dogs, yorkipoo, yorkie poo, spider man, spider pig, simpsons, dog costume, halloween costume

Super Easy DIY Halloween Costume For Your Dog!

I love looking at all of the creative DIY Halloween costume ideas you can find everywhere at this time of year! But to be honest, I’m a bit clumsy with crafting, and most DIY costumes are beyond my beginner skill set. But when I came across a photo of a Beanie Baby dog costume on Pinterest, I immediately knew this was perfect for me – easy enough for my skill level and adorable enough for my dog. Plus, as someone who collected Beanie Babies at the height of the craze, I rather liked the idea of having a Beanie Baby of my own dog. Below you can find the steps I used to create the Beanie Baby costume seen in these photos of Sadie.

Beanie Baby Dog Costume

Step 1:

Search online for a good image of that unforgettable heart logo tag. Try to find an image that has the tag open so that your own tag can be opened and read.

Step 2:

Print out the heart, making sure the tag will print large enough based on the size of your dog. I printed mine at 150%, making the heart take up the top third of a piece of standard printer paper.

Step 3:

Glue / tape the paper with the heart printout to a piece of cardboard. This will help to make the tag is sturdy enough to survive being attached to your dog.

Step 4:

Cut out the tag and fold in half.

Step 5:

Write your dog’s name and birthday inside. You may also include cute little facts about your dog, or a small story or poem.

Step 6:

Punch a hole in the tag at the upper left corner. The correct spot may be marked with a small circle, depending on the heart image you chose online.

Step 7:

Attach the tag to a piece of string or a rubber band. I used a hair elastic for Sadie’s tag.

Step 8:

Loop string around your dog’s collar and you’re done! (I also tried hanging the tag by Sadie’s ear, as a lot of the Beanie Babies I owned had tags in that position. By using the hair elastic, I made sure this placement wouldn’t pull Sadie’s hair or hurt her. It looked pretty cute in the photos, but as you can probably guess, the tag did not stay in place very long and I ultimately realized the collar placement is better in the long run.)

This post is part of the BlogPaws Wordless Wednesday blog hop.

Tissue Box Tower

As I looked around my living room last weekend, I noticed over a dozen tissue boxes lying on the floor. Before you start thinking I might be a secret hoarder, let me remind you that all of these tissue boxes belong to Sadie, as she uses them in her favorite game, Tissue Box Ball. She usually goes from box to box, playing with them one at a time. But on this particular day I decided to see if Sadie would like to play with all of her tissue boxes – at the same time. I took one of her squeaky balls and placed it in a random tissue box. Next I began stacking the tissue boxes one on top of the other to form a tower. Then I told Sadie to find her ball. She sniffed the tower, she barked at the tower, she ran from the tower, but eventually she worked up the courage to knock over the tower. After destroying several more towers throughout the weekend, Sadie perfected her method of handling a tissue box tower.

Step one involves barking at the tower, hoping it will fall down on its own.

Step two is to make sure the ball is actually hidden in the tower. Sadie would sniff the tower for the scent of her ball, and then sniff all over the rest of the living room just to make sure her ball wasn’t secretly hiding somewhere else.

Step three involves more barking, while circling the tower and checking for weaknesses.

In step four Sadie actually hits the tower with her paw and then jumps back, knocking down the tissue boxes without getting hit by them.

And finally, step five involves Sadie sniffing each fallen box looking for the one containing her beloved ball.

You can see the whole game in action in Sadie’s Tissue Box Tower video:

This post is part of the BlogPaws Wordless Wednesday blog hop.

Sadie’s DIY Leaf Necklace

Sadie and I were hanging out on the deck this weekend, enjoying the brisk Fall air and the colorful leaves. Quite a few of the beautiful leaves found their way onto our deck and I thought it would be a shame just to throw away something so pretty. That’s when I decided to make Sadie a Fall leaf necklace. I collected some of the prettiest leaves that had long stems. Then I tied the stems onto Sadie’s collar. Sadie seemed to enjoy looking pretty in her fancy necklace. But eventually my knots came undone in the wind and pieces of Sadie’s necklace scattered in all directions. It was a beautifully festive fashion accessory while it lasted.

This post is part of the Monday Mischief Pet Blog hop hosted by My Brown Newfies.

DIY Ball Ramp

Sadie’s Grampy decided to get creative when cleaning out the recycling recently. He saw some long pieces of cardboard and got an idea. He built Sadie a toy ramp for her squeaky balls! There’s a little platform, made from half a cardboard box, where Sadie stands to reach the top of the ramp. Once Sadie is in position with a squeaky ball in her mouth, I give her the “drop it” command and she releases the ball down the ramp. When the ball hits about the halfway mark, Sadie runs around to the front of the ramp and tries to catch the ball. More often than not, Sadie misses and then has to chase the ball across the living room. It’s very entertaining to watch, and Sadie seems to enjoy playing the with ramp, but it’s currently taking up about half the floor space between couches. I think the ball ramp, like Sadie’s dog tunnel, will be more of a special occasion toy, taken out of the closet only when regular playtime has become too boring.