- Great Costumes
for Less!
- By: Tawra Kellam
You can really
come up with some cute and clever ideas for costumes, even if
you don't feel particularly creative. Don't wait until the night
before Halloween to start your costumes. Look at the people and
things around you and ask yourself how " how can I recreate
this?" Look at thrift stores and garage sales for costumes.
Go ahead and buy the costume or piece of a costume if the price
is right. You really can't go wrong spending $0.25 on a piece
of costume. Even if it doesn't work you haven't lost much.
Costumes can
be very simple and still make a big impact. For example, instead
of the usual witch robes, drag out your elegant black dress and
add a witch hat with a veil of spider webbing stretched over
your face. Cover the spider web with plastic spiders. For a man,
a nice suit and tie and a funny mask makes a good simple costume.
For a couple: get a REALLY big sweatshirt, both of you get in
it and be Siamese twins! Some examples of costumes for kids are:
Sunflower - For the body, use
a white sleeper or sweatsuit. Paint the child's face yellow,
adding black spots to simulate seeds if you like. Make a flower
to fit on the child's head out of felt or glue sunflowers on
a white hat.
Angel - Again use a white
sweatsuit or long white dress for the body. Make wings out of
heavy white poster board and paint the edges gold. Attach tie
straps to them that go around the shoulders. You can also shape
a metal clothes hanger into a wing. Make two wings, hot glue
fabric around them and add straps.
Pea Pod - Cut 2 small foam
balls in half with an electric knife or a knife with a serrated
blade. (Note: Do this BEFORE attaching them to the child!) Wrap
in green fabric and pin them to the front of a green sweatsuit.
Make a hat out of 2 shades of green felt and a little brown felt
for a stem.
Lion - Buy a yellow hat
or dye a white hat yellow. Buy long brown fake fur, yellow fake
fur and a yellow sweatsuit. You can get fake fur at your favorite
fabric store. Add brown fur to the top of the hat (for a mane),
hot-glue yellow fur into a long tail, adding a poof of brown
for the end. Pin the tail on the back of the costume. Make an
oval of the fur for the child's tummy and use eyeliner for whiskers.
Dalmatian - Pin black felt dots
onto a pair of white sweats. Paint blackpolka dots on the child's
face. Add more polka dots to a white hat, make some black felt
ears and add black shoes to finish it.
I Paint,
Therefor I Am
- Glue a copy of a painting with a face on it on apiece of cardboard.
(Ex. Mona Lisa). Cut out the face and then put their face in
instead.
Race Car
Stroller
- Decorate a stroller as a race car by adding fabric or paper
racing stripes and a number. Add two flashlights for headlights,
plus some reflector tape. If you want to get really creative,
add a wind foil, a foil covered paper towel roller for an exhaust
pipe or whatever else your clever mind conjures up. Cut a steering
wheel out of cardboard for the child to hold. Your child can
wear whatever clothes he wants. Just add an old helmet or baseball
cap worn backwards.
Think of themes
for all of the kids in the family.
It can be fun
for all the kids to dress up in costumes that complement each
other. Some sample themes are - super-heros, vegetables, candy
bars, rabbit family (or other animals) or cartoon characters
(i.e. Mickey Mouse, Minnie and Donald Duck). They could also
dress in pairs like a mouse and cheese, a plant and a watering
can or doctor and patient. The sky's the limit.
Christmas
theme:
One child could
go as a present, another a Christmas tree, another Rudolph and
the 4th as Santa.
Ideas for how
to make the costumes:
Rudolph - Dye an old pair
of sweats brown. Put a light brown felt tummy on the shirt, make
a set of cardboard antlers and paint the child's nose red.
Present - Wrap an old box
that is big enough for the child to wear. Cut out the bottom
of the box and make holes for the arms and head. The child can
wear a turtleneck and stretch pants underneath it.
Christmas
Tree
- Cut two pieces of cardboard into the shape of a tree, one for
the front and one for the back. Hook them together with a piece
of string over each shoulder. Paint the pieces green with latex
paint and attach old tinsel and ornaments with hot glue. Make
a star head piece by gluing glitter to a cardboard cutout or
use a Christmas tree angel as a head piece.
Santa - Trim a pair of red
sweats with white fake fur and a large black felt belt. Make
a beard with more fake fur, top off with a Santa hat and add
a little "Ho, Ho, Ho" for good measure.
Of course if
all else fails you could wrap the child head to toe in aluminum
foil and send him as a frozen burrito...
- _______________________________________
-
- Tawra Kellam
is the author of Dining On A Dime: Eat Better Spend Less. For
more free tips and recipes visit her web site at: http://www.LivingOnADime.com/. In 5 years, Tawra
and her husband paid off $20,000 personal debt on an average
income of $22,000 per year.
- _______________________________________
- ARTICLE POSTED
OCTOBER 13, 2005
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