Halloween costume ideas for infants and toddlers

New parents (especially Moms) will have fun choosing a Halloween costume for their bundle of joy. Instead of purchasing the typical pumpkin costume available in any retail store, why not create a unique outfit of your own? Easy and inexpensive costume ideas for infants and toddlers include:

- Charlie Brown. Simply dress the baby in jeans, yellow shirt with a zig zag across the front and then draw a squiggly on his forehead. Add a stuffed plush Snoopy animal.

- Mad Scientist. Visit How to Make a Mad Scientist Halloween Costume

- Chicken. A feathered chicken costume will be something to crow about. Simply add a feather boa (or two) to a white sweatshirt and a knit cap.

- Olaf the Snowman. Build your own snowman from the hit Disney movie, Frozen by following the instructions available in How to Make an Olaf the Snowman Halloween Costume.

For parents blessed with multiples, visit the Halloween Costume Ideas for Groups of Children for even more homemade Halloween costume ideas.

Halloween costume ideas for groups or family

Families and friends may want to dress up for Halloween as a group. Popular costumes for groups include those that can be made from various colors, shapes, cartoons or hit movies. While the costumes look clever as a group, each homemade outfit will stand alone when family and friends leave.

Each member can pick a color and dress as a crayon. A variety of colorful crayon costumes are available on Amazon.com for adults and children alike. Dressing as a crayon is perfect for school Halloween parties and parades. Browse the colorful costumes or visit How to make a Crayola crayon Halloween costume.

Sesame Street characters - with the variety of Sesame Street characters available, the group can be large! From Cookie Monster, Big Bird, Elmo, Oscar the Grouch, Bert, Ernie, this group can be huge!

Subscribe to my YouTube channel, Piece of Scrap, for more DIY Halloween costume ideas!

Visit How to make a Cookie Monster costume for details on crafting your own outfit, or simply purchase the costumes online.

Dr. Seuss and Thing 1 and 2 and so on ... costumes are perfect for school teachers, daycare / library workers and parents of small children. There are a variety of Dr. Seuss character costumes available on Amazon.com, or it's really simply to craft your own "Thing" costume. Visit How to make a Dr. Seuss Thing for detailed instructions.

The sequel to the animated comedy hit movie, Despicable Me, as renewed the popularity of those pesky minions. Men, women and children in the group can dress as minions. Make your costume by visiting How to make a Despicable Me minion costume, or purchase them online. Along the same animated series line, still popular today are the characters from the cartoon series, the Flinstones: Betty, Bam Bam, Fred, Wilma. View the selection of Flinstones character costumes available here.

How to make a Crayola crayon Halloween costume

An easy and fun do it yourself Halloween costume for an individual or a group is a Crayola costume. One person can select their favorite color, or a group of individuals can be an entire box of crayons. Supplies needed to make this colorful outfit include:

• Birthday party hat (for the cone on the head)
• Anti pill colored fleece fabric (1-2 yards)
• Colored Yarn
• Colored face paint
• Black Felt
• Hot Glue sticks and glue gun
• Scissors
• Self adhesive Velcro

To Make the Crayon Body:
1. To size, wrap the colored felt around the body under armpits and pin. Then, cut a straight line at the pins
2. Attach sticky Velcro to the back side of the colored fleece to keep the fabric closed.
3. Make straps to attach to the colored fleece on front and back, these will tie at the shoulders. Cut 2 long vertical strips of the same colored fleece. Cut these 2 long vertical strips in half. Hot glue (or pin) two of the straps to the front of the body wrap, the other two straps to the back.
4. Use squiggly classroom corkboard decoration trim to make the black squiggly trim at the top and bottom of the crayon. Trace the trim on to black felt and cut. Hot glue these pieces to the colored felt, one at the top, the other at the bottom.
5. Download and enlarge the “Crayola” template to fit on the colored fleece. Cut out each letter in black felt and hot glue on the colored fleece.

To Make the Point at End of Crayon (hat):
1. Wrap the colored fleece around the birthday party hat.
2. Cut to fit and hot glue the piece covering the entire hat.

Make Three Pom Pom Balls (optional):
1. Wrap yarn around a circular object (ball), then cut the yarn in half.
2. Hold the pieces of yarn tightly in the center and tie together with a matching piece of yarn.
3. Attach one pom pom ball to the top of the cone hat, the others to each shoe.

If desired, add colored face paint to nose and/or cheeks. As a trick or treat bag or a purse, the person can carry a crayon on box or pencil case. If you prefer a more technology advanced Halloween costume, see How to Make an iPod or iPhone 6 costume.