Not My Mom’s Kitchen

I love a good costume. Maybe it was my moms love of Halloween when I was a kid. Maybe it was the 15 years of dance recitals- regardless, costumes are so freakin fun. I do not mind a good costume purchase- especially for those fancy princess types or even a stuffed animal. My favorite tho, is a good semi homemade costume. The ones where the pieces come together like magic. The costumes you spent days thinking about in your head before you even attempt to create it. These jelly fish are exactly that.

Starting with the clear umbrellas, adding the battery operated LED lights with clear packing tape as the adhesive. From there I added iridescent duct tape to the outer edge. My goal here being that I wanted the umbrella to be collapsible post transformation. Alternating, I added 24” white organza to half the umbrella support edges. Again clear packing tape – the EXPENSIVE 3M heavy duty- is the best adhesive here to the vinyl and fabric. For each umbrella section – these had 8 sections- I cut two long stripes of iridescent curly ribbon (arms length) and two long strips of bubble wrap. For the bubble wrap tentacles, use the tape to sporadically tape onto itself- making more of a tentacle shape rather than flat laying bubble wrap. I did two pieces of tape to each bubble wrap piece here. Additionally with the bubble wrap and curly ribbon, I added a piece of white netting; tied with two knots a piece to also create movement and texture. Each umbrella has 44 tentacles (16 bubble wrap, 16 curly ribbon, 4 white knotted netting, 4 white organza).

To create the opaque body resembling the jelly fish, I painted the top of each umbrella with DecoArt holographic illusions Crystal Ball glitter paint. I found a foam brush to be the best tool here, allowing broad strokes and easy coverage. In addition to the glitter paint, which I brushed down the umbrella to fade into the bottom, I sprayed Glitter Blast diamond dust Krylon spray paint over the white and down the side of the umbrella. Make sure to allow the first coat of paint to dry prior to applying the spray paint glitter. Also beneficial to have a large area to leave the umbrella open long enough to dry completely.

Here is the finished project. For these I created 5 jelly fish for my daughters dance class recital prop. The LED make the white stand out even more under the paint on the umbrella.