Project

Love Bug Costumes

Dress up a duo for twice the fun! In this punny pairing, fuzzy soft "love bugs" crawl across a heart-shaped spiderweb shirt front.

Photography: Janelle Jones

Source: Martha Stewart

Introduction

These costume ideas come from our friends at Primary.com and were made at our Punny Valentine's Day Kids Crafternoon. Bold berry colors are the base of the outfit and tiny "love bugs" crafted from pom-poms and fuzzy pipe cleaners bring the entire look to life.

materials

"Love Bug" Spiderweb template

Bug #1

Purple dress (Pictured: Primary The Cozy Dress in Grape, $24, primary.com)

Light purple leggings (Pictured: Primary The Legging in Lilac, $14, primary.com)

Bug #2

Pink long sleeved top (Pictured: Primary The Long Sleeve Classic Tee in Raspberry, $10, primary.com)

Yellow leggings (Pictured: Primary The Legging in Sunshine, $14, primary.com)

Pom-poms

Colored felt

Pipe cleaners

Foam heart-shaped stickers

1-inch pin backs

Hot-glue gun

Iron-on transfer paper

Iron

Scissors

Cutting machine like Cricut or Silhouette

steps

To make the love bugs: Glue two pom-poms together in matching colors, but different sizes, for a bug body. Cut two matching colored pipe cleaners in half for the legs and line up the four pipe cleaners together in a row. Cut and hot glue a rectangle of felt across the center of the four pipe cleaner "legs," and hot glue a pin back to the center of the felt.

Hot glue this set of legs to the pom pom body and bend the legs up, then the down about one inch from the ends of the legs. Glue two matching but contrasting color foam hearts to the head for the eyes. Make four love bugs for each outfit.
To make the spider web: Download and print the spiderweb template. If you have a cutting machine, upload the file to their design space. (Tip: Remember to mirror the image, as the machine will cut the image backwards.) Set it to cut iron on transfers. Place the iron on transfer sheet with the clear layer face down onto the sticky mat, and cut.

When finished, carefully peel away the areas that you don’t want to iron onto the clothing. You will have this heart shaped spider web shape left on the clear plastic layer. Follow the instructions on your transfer paper packaging to iron onto the clothing.
Pin the pom-pom love bugs as you like onto the clothing and around the web.