Alice Angel Costume DIY (Bendy and the Ink Machine)

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In keeping with our Bendy and the Ink Machine costume series, today I will show you how I made my 5 year old her Alice Angel costume! Like any good little sister, Emerson is into all the things her older brother loves. BATIM is no exception. With a main character like Alice, we had lots of different ways we could make her costume. Ink Alice? Classic Alice? Allison? She had her mind made up…classic Alice it is! Her costume was one of the easiest pieces of this whole series. (image found at bendy.fandom.com)

When we collected our costume haul, my first instinct is to make the job as easy as possible. I tried to find a premade dress that fit the design of Alice’s and had shoulder straps to it to make it a little more appropriate for a 5 year old, so I opted to make my own. The items we purchased were:
*LG black women’s t-shirt
*white costume gloves
*3 pack of tights
*Halloween Devil horns
*air dry modeling clay
*fabric paint markers
*white ribbon
*small sewing kit


Here’s what we started with, a large V-neck t-shirt. I cut off the sleeves, altered the top so the neckline was not so deep on her, and brought in the sides to make it more fitted. All of this would have been SO much easier with a sewing machine, but since we had recently sold mine, I had to hand sew all the alterations. It wasn’t incredibly difficult, but it did take more time that way.

This is after I completed the alterations. She is very clearly feeling herself and I had to practically pry the dress off of her! All that was left was to make a white bow and hand sew it onto the neckline. Seriously so easy peasy!

On to the horns/halo headpiece! The horns I found were all black and hollow inside the horn. I decided the simplest way to make these come to life was to use air dry modeling clay. I formed the clay around the horns as well as I could and let it dry overnight. When using clay, I always keep a small bowl of water handy to help me wet my fingers and really smooth out the clays texture.

With the clay on the horns, it can add some weight and bulk to the headpiece. So to keep from adding even MORE weight to this (it is for a 5 year old after all) I found a foam circle that I cut a center hole out of. In order to secure it to the headpiece, I used craft matchsticks and hot glue. The hot glue dries in just a few minutes, so I was then able to paint the sticks and headpiece white with craft paint.

The gloves we purchased were elbow length, and Alice has wrist length Mickey Mouse style gloves. I hemmed the edge of the gloves to make them shorter, and then for the detail of the circle on the palms I used my fine tipped fabric marker to draw a circle.

And that’s all there was to it! Here’s the finished look all together with her Bacon Soup candy bucket. I love that you can tell exactly who she is supposed to be, while it also being very age appropriate for her. And she wants to live in this shirt/dress so I guess I will be making more of them in the future!

Keep coming back to see us finish our Bendy and the Ink Machine Halloween costume series! Still to come is my favorite part of making costumes-the props! I will show you how to make Sammy Lawrence’s axe and the Bacon Soup candy buckets! You don’t want to miss it!

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Sammy Lawrence Costume (Bendy and the Ink Machine)

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This post contains affiliate links, read my full disclosure here.

If you’re a gamer, chances are you have heard a thing or two about Bendy and the Ink Machine. Or if you’re the parent of a gamer (like myself), you are VERY familiar with these characters. My son is, in a word, obsessed with BATIM (that’s what all the cool kids are calling it, or so I’m told) This is a kid who could not for the life of himself remember where his shoes were this morning, but can recite every single word to the game’s songs. So much so that I could sing along with a good portion of it (thanks a lot Alexa). Well it comes as no surprise that my BATIM loving child chose a character from this beloved game as his costume for this year. Lucky for him, I knew exactly how I could pull this off, props and all! (image found at bendy.fandom.com)

Looking at the images I found of Sammy, I was able to make an easy game plan. On hand we already had a black body suit from a previous Halloween costume (a Minecraft Enderman from 2 years ago) so I only needed to purchase a few pieces. We set out to find yellow pants, suspenders, craft paint, and paint markers. I also needed cardboard, a large tin can, and EVA foam for the props, but we will cover that in another post (the props are always my favorite part!)

After a venturing to a few different stores, I was able to find pieces that I could easily alter into exactly what would work for me! For this costume we used:
*suspenders
*yellow women’s ‘jeans’
*yellow women’s tank
*yellow, tan, and black craft paint
* sponges and brushes
*a small sewing kit
*fabric paint markers
(we will cover the rest of the items in a separate post)

This is what we started with. The pants were an XS in women’s, and still a tad big on my 8 yr old. I knew I could hem them up, and we decided that they weren’t so baggy that it bothered him since the suspenders hold them up nicely. I couldn’t find a matching color in the suspenders, so I bought a mustard yellow tank to use as fabric to cover them. I forgot to take pictures of that step, but I just cut the tank down one side and laid it flat. Then I cut out the suspenders shape (allowing a seam allowance) and hand sewed the tank fabric around the suspenders. Once I got the suspenders covered and the pants hemmed, I was ready to start adding the inky details.

The pants and suspenders have a lot of little details on them. The edges and pockets all have small drawing lines on them, and there are ink splatters coming up the leg (I mean, you’re bound to get ink on your clothes when you are an ink monster I guess). In order to keep the paint from seeping thru the fabric, I cut up an old plastic place mat to fit in each leg and in the crotch. I just shimmied it around as things dried and I moved on to another section. I used the thin tipped fabric marker to add all the small lines, along the seams and little details. I used the brush tipped marker to trace the ink splatters that come up the legs, but after trying to fill it in I quickly realized that it was not giving that wet, inky effect like you see on the character. I switched to a small paintbrush and my black craft paint and it worked perfectly!

Here’s a front view of the finished costume. You can see how much darker the ink splatters are in comparison to the drawing lines, and I think it gives it a more authentic look like you see in the game.

Of course we have to also give you a back view! Here you can see how the ink detail continues all the way around the ankles, as well as the drawing details on the pockets and suspenders. I am really pleased with how it turned out and I know Finn loves it. He gets into complete character when he puts it on (this is him slowly shuffling away from me) and is so ready for us to venture out to all our annual Halloween events so he can show it off!

Be sure so keep following along as we continue our Bendy and the Ink Machine costume DIY’s as we cover an Alice Angel costume, Sammy’s axe, and Bacon Soup can candy buckets!

DIY Halloween Costumes

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Every year around late August I start getting antsy that Fall is right around the corner. The stores start slowly creeping in signs of Halloween, and it gives me the itch to watch scary movies and get started making Halloween costumes! My kids usually already have an idea of what they want to be, and it is my favorite thing to see them get so excited over it!

Since I have no chill when it comes to Halloween, I’ve already had this years costumes finished for over a week. Yep, before the calendar even turned to October. More time to focus on the scary movies part of the holiday, right?

Over the next few days, I’m going to show you how I made the pieces to this years costumes and their props, but first I’m taking a quick walk down memory lane to a few of my favorite costumes I’ve made.

When my son was 3 he went thru quite the garbage truck phase. I shouldn’t have been surprised when he requested to be a garbage truck for Halloween. Not a garbage man…but a truck (trust me, I asked) I used diaper and baby wipes boxes to make the truck body. We cut the top of the hopper to be open so he could use it as his candy collector, first collecting them in his miniature garbage bin and then dumping it into the back-which he thought was so much fun! Some spray paint and little details, like working headlights and tail light reflectors, really brought this thing to life. And it will forever be my favorite costume, simply because he was so unbelievable cute in it and he loved it so much.

This is Halloween 2018. My son, like most 7 yr old boys, was in love with Fortnite. Thankfully I was able to find a youtube tutorial for the mask and the gun, both of which I was able to make with a glue gun, EVA foam, craft foam, paint, a utility knife, and a dowel rod. His shoe covers were made from craft foam and elastic, and it took some work to figure out the best way for me to make them and to let them be removable from his shoes! The rest of the pieces I was able to make from doctored pieces of clothing I found on Amazon and at Walmart. His trick or treat bucket is a Chug Jug, which I made out of a Cheese Balls container and hand painted it with some duct tape details. We got several compliments and even had adults stop us to ask for pictures with him, which he thought was the coolest!

My daughter LOVES all things Tim Burton, and The Nightmare Before Christmas is her favorite movie of all time. When she said she wanted to be Sally I was thrilled to have a chance to try to make it for her (mostly because I also love all things Tim Burton!). The wig and basket were purchased at Wal Mart. I was able to find some fat quarters of fabric in the basic colors of Sally’s dress and I just cut the pieces and hand decorated them with a fabric marker. Her arms and legs are 2 pairs of white tights that I purchased and then dyed blue, adding hand drawn stitches on them for that ‘sewn together’ look that we all know Sally for. We topped it off with some black and white striped socks a pair of black mary janes (that were some old tap shoes she no longer was using!) and she was a perfect Sally! In fact, she still has this dress in with her princess costumes and it’s a regular part of her dress up routine!

And here we are, Halloween 2019. Now both kids are into video games and nothing comes close to Bendy and the Ink Machine! My son knew right away that he wanted to be Sammy Lawrence, and my daughter quickly decided that she was to be Alice Angel-and I jumped at the chance to do a group themed costume for them! Every piece of their costumes has homemade elements to it, and it has really been a labor of love. Check for my future posts as I break down each costume and prop from this year and how I made them!

The Softest 6 Ingredient Bread Machine Sandwich Bread

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This post contains Amazon Affiliate links. Read my full disclosure here https://murphypartyof4.com/2019/10/08/amazon-affiliate-disclosure/

I’m going to level with you here, there are few things that make me happy like the smell of fresh baked bread. Ironically, all the time spent kneading the dough and waiting for it rise and then baking is a little daunting when you’re a busy Mom who has to get her life together. Enter one of the greatest machines ever invented….the bread machine! My amazing sister got me one a few years ago for Christmas and it has come in handy more times than I can count. Now, I’m not the kind of mom who makes her own bread on the regular, my kids actually prefer the store bought stuff and it’s a relatively inexpensive purchase to buy the pre-made stuff. However, there are those times when you’re in between paychecks and at the end of a loaf that it comes in really handy to be able to whip up an easy and inexpensive batch of the homemade stuff to help pull you thru the week. This is one such week.

With only 6 ingredients, this recipe really is the epitome of soft, easy, and inexpensive sandwich bread.
1C hot water
2Tbsp sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/4C oil
3C flour
2 3/4 tsp yeast

Attach your paddle attachment to the bottom of your loaf pan, then add the ingredients in the order listed (unless your bread machine specifies differently).

Once you add your ingredients to the pan, carefully place the pan into your bread machine and make sure it’s locked into place. This recipe is for a basic loaf, so I used the Basic level 1 setting, for light color and 2lb loaf (those are just my preferred settings, you may prefer something different) The timer will automatically set to 3 hours, and you my friend now have time to do whatever you want! No need to knead the dough, or wait for it to rise…the machine will handle all of that. Just resist the urge to open the lid or you may get a deflated loaf, and no one wants that.

The bread machine I use is a Sunbeam Programable Bread Maker. It is so user friendly and I just love it! You can get one on Amazon here (affiliate link): https://amzn.to/2M1SpAp

Once your machine beeps and your house smells divine, carefully transfer your loaf to a cutting board to cool. Or you can serve it up warm with some butter fresh out of the machine-we’ve all been there! Then sit back and enjoy as your family gushes over how great the house smells and how awesome it is that you spent 3 hours of your day making delicious, homemade bread for them (full disclosure-I took a nap and did dishes while mine baked, but my family is none the wiser) Just another reason why the bread machine is one of the greatest appliances you can own.

Sheet Pan Sausage and Veggies

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Prepare yourselves for THE EASIEST dinner you will ever make. This recipe checks all the boxes on what a family needs for a quick and healthy meal on those nights when it comes down a home cooked meal or ordering a pizza.
Quick prep?
Delicious?
Healthy?
Easy cleanup?
Check, check, check, and check!

For this recipe, you’ll need:
8 oz mushrooms, sliced
half an onion, sliced
1-1.5lb brussels sprouts
1-1.5lb potatoes, cubed
1-2 packs chicken sausage
1/2tsp each garlic powder, parsley, paprika, Cajun seasoning, salt and pepper
Oil for drizzling (I used avocado, but feel free to use whatever you have on hand!)

I found these sweet Italian chicken sausages while roaming around the happiest place on Earth, Trader Joe’s. I was afraid they might be too spicy for my kids, so I opted to go easy on the spices. It must have worked because my 8 year old requested we buy these every time we shop there!

Start by prepping your veggies. I like to keep the skin on my baby reds, so I just gave them a good wash before cubing them. Also slice your brussels sprouts, onion, and sausages.

Once I got everything prepped, I realized that there was SO MUCH sausage! I ended up putting some of it back to add to scrambled eggs for breakfast. 2 meals in one!
Now, divide the mixture between 2 sheet pans and drizzle with your oil and spices.

By now, your kids have probably wandered into the kitchen to steal scraps and start asking you when dinner is ready. Don’t worry kids, we’re almost there! After a good hand wash, mix up the veggies and sausage so it all gets covered in the oil and spice mixture. Or you can pawn that job off to your mini sous chefs as you take pictures.

Place your sheet pans into your 400° preheated oven for 30 minutes. I didn’t even stir this in those 30 minutes, just left it alone while the kids did bath time and I got some laundry folded. Any time I can be making dinner while doing laundry and cleaning the kids is a huge mom win!

And that’s it! Eat it alone or with your carb of choice (we did sourdough garlic bread, as per my daughters request). You can now enjoy your dinner knowing your family is getting a healthy meal, you were able to finish your laundry and bath time while it cooked, and you only have a cutting board and 2 sheet pans waiting to be washed. Win, win, win.

Homemade Chocolate Syrup

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When our son started Kindergarten a few years back, we really noticed how much his attention span and behavior were becoming an issue. He was fidgety, always poking at his peers, and just could not focus. All of this led to behavior issues as he was becoming increasingly more anxious and frustrated at school, and the more he got in trouble the more he’d act out. We knew we had to do something, so we looked into cleaning up his diet first.

Now I know what you’re thinking, how in the world is a chocolate syrup tied into a clean diet-I’m getting there I promise!

We did a lot of research and decided that eliminating artificial flavorings, food dyes, and preservatives would be a great place to start. And you know what-it ACTUALLY helped! The hardest part of sticking with keeping our kids diet as clean as we can was to find ways to make all the ‘no list’ (as we refer to all the bad foods) things our kids loved in a cleaner version. Enter this chocolate syrup recipe…a lifesaver to a mother of a (then) kindergartener and toddler who have a deep love of all things chocolate and to appease my need to ‘keep it clean’.

This chocolate syrup is so stinking easy to make, and only 5 ingredients that you most likely have on hand anyway! Just sugar, water, unsweetened cocoa powder, salt, and natural vanilla (as Ina Garten would say, use the good stuff!)

First you need to make your simple syrup. In a saucepan, add 1C water, 1C sugar, and 1/4 tsp salt and turn to high heat. Whisk until combined and bubbly.

Once you get a good boil going (it won’t take long!), let it boil for about a minute and then remove it from the heat. Set aside and let it cool for 10-15 minutes. This is usually when my kids notice what I’m doing and start begging for me to make them a glass of chocolate milk as soon as I’m done!

Once the mixture has cooled a bit (and once you’ve distracted your ravenous children), whisk in 1/2 C cocoa powder until combined. It may take some vigorous whisking to get all those little lumps out, but it’s worth it. Trust me. You’re almost in chocolate heaven!

Once the chocolate is all combined, add 1Tbsp vanilla. Or if your children have wandered back into the kitchen after smelling the warm sugar and chocolate, put them to work to add it for you. I won’t judge. Whisk the vanilla into the mixture and then pat yourself on the back, you’ve just made homemade chocolate sauce in less time that it would have taken to put on a bra and shoes to head to the store to buy some. Go ahead and lick the whisk, you’ve earned this win.

You can store this for up to 2 months in the fridge in a sealed container (not that it will last that long). And please don’t judge the horrible photo of this pour job…remember when you licked the whisk and I didn’t judge? This is a safe space, after all.

Boom. Now you’re the best mom ever and the kids will be none the wiser to the fact that they’re getting the clean version! Go ahead and enjoy this over ice cream or in some milk (or however you like your chocolate sauce-judgement free zone, remember?). I can verify however that it tastes the best with some milk in a donut mug, but that’s just how us Murphy’s do it.

Meet the Murphys

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Welcome! I’m Amanda, a stay at home mom to 2 kids and housewife to the boy I grew up with. With over a decade of marriage under our belts (and nearly twice that in time together), we’ve had our fair share of adventures and life lessons!

Our son, Finn, is anything but ordinary. He has always been our quirky, hilarious boy and kept us on our toes from day 1. He is the smartest person I know and will tell you how it is, which I admire and know will be a blessing for him in adulthood (so long as I can hold on for the ride!)

Emerson is the kind of girl who loves a good pair of heels, but also isn’t afraid to play in the dirt. Her laugh is contagious and her sass is unmatched, and anyone who gets to know her finds it hard to not fall completely in love with her.

This man right here has spent the better half of our lives by my side. We have gone from teenagers, to adults, to spouses and parents, and I know we have a few more milestones to hit together before it’s all over! We love him fiercely and will follow him wherever this crazy journey sends us.

I am so glad you are here to follow along with our adventures and exploring everything from family favorite recipes, DIY’s and all that comes with surviving military life and motherhood!

XO
Amanda