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This Halloween DIY post is sponsored by Deseret Industries. Portland’s Deseret Industries Thrift Store and Donation Center is located on SE 82nd Street six days-a-week. I created my Felicity Smoak costume out of materials from my closet, the craft store, and items thrifted from Deseret Industries. All opinions are my own. To learn more about my posting policies regarding sponsored posts please visit my policies page. As always, thank you for reading more about the companies that help support this blog. 

Can you believe that Halloween is just around the corner? I feel like the month has flown by and suddenly the holidays are here! Over the past eight years my husband and I have hosted a Halloween party. Some years the parties are more elaborate than others, but it is always one of my favorite parties to plan each and every year. This year’s theme is Comic Books and I’m having a blast coming up with decoration and costume ideas for the party. I’ll be sharing several projects between now and Halloween. So, check back for all the comic book party ideas which will work for Halloween parties or really any comic book themed event year-round.

I knew I wanted to be Felicity Smoak for this year’s comic book Halloween party. I basically live in a pony tail and glasses and am always glued to my screen so I pretty much fit the bill. My husband is going to go as the Green Arrow. My oldest son is going as The Flash. My youngest as Roy Harper/Arsenal/Red Arrow. Our little cast of comic book characters required a hodge podge of different items to create our looks. The Flash costume (affiliate link) was affordable and easy to find via Amazon but, the rest of the costumes I created using a combination of purchases from Amazon, the craft store, my closet, and our local Deseret Industries thrift store.

Halloween Prep - Cell shading my comic book themed costume

My visit to Deseret Industries Thrift Store in Portland was fruitful! I have been surprised in the past at how expensive thrifting in Portland is (being trendy and all) but at Deseret Industries I was happy to see the pricing be more in line with what thrift stores in my past have been like. I was able to get several comic books, comic-book themed masks, and clothing items to use for costumes all for less than $50. In my haul I grabbed a couple of business attire type items to see which would work the best for the Felicity Smoak costume.

I love thrifting for costume elements. However, if I hadn’t gone in looking to MAKE my costumes I would have been fine to find a pretty wide selection of Halloween gear. There were several racks of Halloween costumes and accessories in the store.

DIY Felicity Smoak Costume

 

Attire: I ended up working with the blue shirt (looks purple above due to poor lighting as I worked on my costume at midnight!) and black pencil skirt to create the look. I then used a black paint marker to cel shade the shirt so it looked more like a drawing.

Tips for Cel Shading a shirt: In order to cel shade the shirt I first ironed out all the wrinkles. I then went through and outlined all of the seams in the shirt. This gives a good general outline that you would see in any comic. The hard part, of course, is creating the shadows that you would see when someone wears the shirt. I looked pretty hilarious as I was wearing the shirt and shading in the natural creases as I was wearing it! Once it was all said and done however I was pleased with the results!

 

DIY Felicity Smoak Costume

 

Accessories: I paired it with a handmade name badge utilizing a comic book picture of Felicity Smoak and an old lanyard and badge holder I had from a previous work conference. I finished off my look with a blonde wig put in a pony tail and a tablet.

 

DIY Felicity Smoak Costume - A Well Crafted Party

 

Makeup: I wear business attire most days and didn’t want to just wear my hair in a pony tail and have on pink lipstick. It wouldn’t really get across the idea that I was the Felicity Smoak comic book character. So, I continued my fun with cel shading and did comic book inspired makeup. I shaded in my eyebrows and the edges of my face. I also created the comic book dot look with white paint. (Check out this tutorial for tips on creating this Felicity Smoak make-up look!)

 

DIY Felicity Smoak Costume

 

The kiddo and I had so much fun taking photos dressed up for Halloween. I can’t wait to break out the costume again for our Halloween party and see it all combined with other members of our little comic book crew!

 

DIY Felicity Smoak Costume - A Well Crafted Party DIY Felicity Smoak Costume - A Well Crafted Party DIY Felicity Smoak Costume - A Well Crafted Party

 

What are you wearing for Halloween this year? There is still time to pick up last minute items!

 

About Desert Industries: Deseret Industries is a national non-profit thrift store that provides employment, sponsors refugees and offers vocational and professional training for its associates. The stores collect inventory from individual local donations, enabling associates to process and recycle that inventory to fit others’ needs — a circular strategy of service and learning that benefits the entire community. For more information, visit www.deseretindustries.org

 

Check out other Halloween Posts from A Well Crafted Party here!

I love getting dressed up every now and again. Planning out my outfit, and let’s be honest… my husband’s outfit, was both fun and a little stressful. I’m thrilled with what we ended up pulling together for our 10th anniversary party attire.
 I knew I wanted to have a fun party dress but I wasn’t attached to a certain color or style. I was approximately 7 months post-partum and not feeling my most slim and attractive. Searching for a dress ended up being my least favorite part of the whole plan– though, my shopping partners and the eventual finding of the dress made it worth it.
10th Anniversary Party Attire
A little background, let’s go back ten years or so to the time when I was searching for “the” dress, my wedding dress. I love clothing, but I do not like the type of shopping that goes with finding a once in a lifetime outfit. I really disliked needing help getting in and adjusting myself into a way too expensive dress. After trying on a few dresses at two different bridal shops I ended up hopping online and purchasing a dress online. If it wasn’t perfect I didn’t care. Thankfully, it pretty much fit perfectly and I didn’t need helping getting it on. Looking back I realize that it wasn’t the most flattering for my shape, but I felt beautiful in the moment and that is what matters.
I originally planned on wearing a white party dress or a brightly colored cocktail dress for the party. I thought it would be a fun way to coordinate with the event. I went to several shops before trying on dresses at Macy’s. While at Macy’s I loaded up my arms with dresses in my size (there were not many) and tried them on with more than a little disappointment in how they looked. I found one that I liked enough if I ordered a larger size online and began to reserve myself to doing that when on a last minute decision to walk through again put a beautiful black and white striped dress in my hands. I gravitated to the black and white stripe mainly because of the black and white striped element in the party invitations and paper goods I had designed. I fell in love. The dress was a tiny bit snug and didn’t completely hide my baby belly… but, I felt fantastic in it!
10th Anniversary Party Attire 10th Anniversary Party Attire
The idea of coordinating with the invitations was then implanted in my brain. I figured my husband would wear his grey suit, but I didn’t know what style of tie to go along with it. I dreamed for a little bit about making him a custom tie using the design I had on the invitations. I knew I could order custom fabric, but didn’t think I’d have time to actually sew a tie. That’s when I thought to google “custom printed ties” and found that there is a whole world of custom print items out there! (This is very dangerous!!) I was able to have a tie printed through Zazzle in the design I created and it didn’t cost an arm and a leg. While he wasn’t stoked at first about the brightly colored floral tie, he ended up liking it in context with with party.

Some of my makeup was provided by Mineral Fusion for purposes of sharing about products I enjoyed on my blog. The makeup I share about are used on the regular and not just for my blog posts.  All opinions are my own. For more information about my sponsored content please visit my policies page. This post contains affiliate links marked with *. 

I have always been a big fan of beauty products— testing out and trying new makeup trends as they come and often way after they’ve gone out of style. I did my own makeup for my wedding and was planning on not dealing with it when it came to my anniversary party. However, the budget and my first choice of makeup artists were both a little unavailable, so I decided to do my own makeup for the party.

I really wanted to look put together for the party, but not overdone. After a lot of YouTube videos on contouring and several attempts at attaching false lashes gracefully… I landed on the look I wanted for the event. I thought I’d share some of the products I used to create my special occasion look.

 

Special Occassion Makeup Tips
My Snap on the way to the party!

Ignore the fact that my hair is doing something crazy in this photo. I posted this photo because, unlike the beautiful professional photos, you can see that I used some highlighter and contouring to slightly enhance my cheekbones and eyes.

My favorite products for Special Occassion Makeup:

This is gonna seem like a long list. However, a lot of it is building a good foundation that would both keep up all night and protect my skin from the sun during the day.

Lotion: Mineral Fusion Facial Moisturizer, Mineral SPF 40*

Base: Mineral Fusion Liquid Foundation, Neutral 2

Primer:Mineral Fusion Primer, Mattifying*

Eyelashes: e.l.f. Dramatic Lash Kit*

eyelashes

Concealer: Mineral Fusion Concealer Duo*

Contouring Palette: e.l.f. Contouring Palette*

e.l.f. contouring palette

Eyebrows: e.l.f. Studio Eyebrow Kit*

eyebrow kit

Eyeliner:Mineral Fusion Liquid Eyeliner, Ebony*

Highlighter: Mineral Fusion Illuminating Powder, Radiance*

Blush: Mineral Fusion 3-in-1 Color Stick, Rosette*

Mascara: Mineral Fusion Mascara, Volumizing, Midnight*

Lipstick: Mineral Fusion Lipstick, Peony*

Finishing Powder: Mineral Fusion Brush-On Sun Defense, SPF 30*

 

Ten years ago when I got married—heck, even five years ago when I got a pretty awful burn at an outdoor wedding—I didn’t even think that I could really have good skin protection that didn’t completely mess up my makeup. The Brush-On Sun Defense is absolutely genius and my biggest recommendation for keeping your makeup looking awesome while protecting your skin from the sun.

What is your favorite beauty product for special occasions?