Ashley W: "Bowser and Princess Peach! Homemade with lots of love. I'm so excited he wants to be Batman next year! LOL"

Beckye M: "Zombie made by gluing toilet tissue on face, allowing to dry, then painting with acrylics and using a toothpick to peel off "skin" and painting 'blood' underneath."

Bem P: "Handmade costumes for my girls... outer space themed school Halloween party - my star princess and sun princess."

Cristi H: "Homemade Jack Sparrow costume. Pants/vest are made out of two different pairs of pants, shirt is made out of a pillow case, scarf is made out of a kitchen towel/paint, hair is made out of yarn/handpainted beading and jute with red kitchen towel. Hat was refurbished and completely changed/painted."

Cynthia G: "I went to the Devil's Night party at our local museum dressed as the Mona Lisa."

Dawnn M: "Wire hangers, Dollar Store glitter, Dollar Store hot glue, scraps of fabric...and Dollar Store felt = cutest butterfly around!"

Deidre C: "Addie Flintstone"

Diane K: "Was attending a Halloween party for little girls ages 5 & 6 so I needed something that wasn't sexy and wasn't scary so I fashioned something that I felt looked like Mother Nature. I think it turned out pretty good and it used most things from the dollar store!"

Emily B.: "I'm a devil this year :) got most of this out of my closet! Born with the horns! lol jk :)"

Erika T: "Mario Brothers Gang: Mario, Luigi, Toad and Princess Peach. [The toad hat was made with a] big round piece of white fabric, darts all the way around, gathered the edge, attached it to a stocking hat then stuffed it. Lastly I hot glued the red felt circles on. Oh I also decided to make a chin strap out of elastic since it was so wobbly."

Heidi K: "Ava: my Southern Belle, Wren: my Little Red Riding Hood, Jolee: my Medusa, and Clint: my Little Frankenstein! I usually have a theme every year but I'm due with our new baby in 2 weeks and had no time or energy to make anything! lol"

Jeanette S: "Made this pirate costume for my daughter. Just thought I would share. :)"

Jennifer Y: "My son (ninja) and daughter (bat). My daughter is crazy about bats. Made the costume from an umbrella."

Jessica B: "Our Thrift store finds costume miss-moch! LOVE your blog!!!"

Jessica W: "My little Snow Queen, wasnt so easy to make(not a great sewer), but they looks great!"

Kat T: "$5 in glow sticks from the Dollar Store, safety pins, tape and black clothes = Glow stick man!!"

Kelly V: "I made this Brobee (from Yo Gabba Gabba) costume from an old fleece hoodie of mine, some green spray paint (on hand), and some Dollar Store craft felt (on hand). I used my little guy's clothes to cut down the Ladies large hoodie, and used the left over arms to add to the bottom to make it a full jumper. It was warm, fun and basically free. :)"

Kim L: "Home made pirate Mayjay"

Kim M: "Any guess what our kiddo's favorite food is???"

Lila and Lub: "$6.50 Alice of the Undead - Blue Fabric: Clearance Sheet from Walmart $2.50 White Crackle Fabric: $3.00 White makeup $1.00 Everything else from around the house. (Scrap batting, felt, eyeliner, magic marker)"

Lila and Lub: "$7 Padawan"

Love Bug Living: "My daughter's first Halloween! I made her a Love Bug costume so she could be the mascot for my blog lovebugliving.com"

Michelle P: "My little Soldier (Buckingham Palace Guard)"

Natalie S: "Deadmau5 (Music artist) and a Ladies Man. The Mau5 one is totally homemade out of a Ferret Ball (think LARGE hamster ball) and he constructed and deconstructed what he needed from that! lol"

Sheri C: "My Batman & Robin boys! The goal was for the costumes to look like the original TV series. I sewed on these costumes for a month, but I think they turned out pretty well."

Stefanie S: "My 6 year old dressed as a leaf pile or some people thought as Fall. Leaves from Dollar Store, her own headband and own jacket. Total price $2!!!! Big hit!!!!!"

Teri S: "My daughter is going to be Tinkerbell! My mom made the slippers & I made the pom poms on the slippers! :)"

Tonya G: "I made this for under $ 6"

Tricia C: "$8 zombie bunny costume thanks to Hancock fabrics' $3 fleece sale! Pink felt for brains, hot glue and red paint for blood, and white felt cut out to make ribs!"

Staff:

Heather Mann: "My 10 minute snake fascinator turned out great! 1 dollar store headband + 1 pkg plastic snakes + a football-shaped piece of self-stick craft foam & felt + a hot glue gun."

Heather Mann: "My 2yo Gideon in his dollar store-ish Batman costume."

Heather Mann: "Me & my 3 boys"

Melinda Hileman: "My rottweiler Kona as a moose! Used a headband and gloves from Dollar Tree, and cut out cardboard hands to hold the gloves up. Then I just hot glued the "antlers" to the headband and praised her a lot in order to get her to sit still. The best part is that this Christmas, I can add some fake holly and she can be a Christmoose!"

Inspired by a tutorial for creating a makeup brush carrier I found at Still Dottie, I made a makeup brush carrier out of a pretty placemat I found at the dollar store along with some grosgrain ribbon. The brush carrier can be rolled up for easy toting in your purse, or packing in a suitcase. If you hurry, you can still make one for Mom for Mother's Day!

Because you are using a placemat as the base for this project, you only need to sew a tiny bit (all in straight lines, I promise!). The project ends up taking less than a half hour, even if you have an ancient (and finicky) sewing machine like mine.

Choosing a placemat: my placemat was fairly stiff with interfacing, and had sequins sewn around the edge. My sewing machine had no trouble sewing through a double-thickness of placemat plus sequins. If you find a placemat that isn't as stiff, I think it will still work just fine!

Project Materials:

• Placemat, $1
• Grosgrain ribbon, $1

Total cost: $2

To make:

1. Fold placemat over as desired to acommodate the length of your makeup brushes. Crease with your hand or an iron.

2. Pin decorative ribbon across placemat if desired. This is the time to add any other embellishments, too. Possibilities: sew buttons on, stencil or embroider a design, applique, etc. I used two stripes of ribbon that I lined up on the front and back of the makeup carrier.

3. Sew embellishments on. I sewed my two rows of ribbon. (Optional) Sew a line across area where you creased/ironed.

4. Cut a length of ribbon twice as wide as your placemat. Fold in half, and pin folded side between the folded placemat. This will be the tie for your makeup roll.

5. Line up ribbon (if you're doing the same thing I did) and pin sides together. Starting at fold, sew straight line down each side of pocket, reinforcing at the open edge of the pocket.

6. Sew lines down pocket for brushes. You might want to put a brush in after the first line sewn, just to be sure the brushes fit. Because the carrier is flat, you will want to make the pocket lines wide enough to expand a little when a brush is put inside. In other words, a wider pocket is better.

You're done!