How to make an Oscar the Grouch Halloween costume

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Popular Halloween costumes for children and adults alike include those from the popular educational PBS television program, Sesame Street. Sesame Street characters include: Big Bird, Elmo, Cookie Monster and Oscar the Grouch. To make a unique homemade costume of one of these television characters, you will need the following:

- 6' dark green feather boa
- Colored hoodie sweatshirt
- 2" styrofoam balls
- Black felt
- Safety pins
- Hot glue sticks and glue gun
- Black or gray sweatpants
- Black shoes
- Oscar the Grouch character face tee shirt
- Scissors
- Brown Darice craft fur deluxe (eyebrows)
- Soup or bottle can for circular tracing

To save money on the supplies, search your own closet or local thrift stores for the character T-Shirt, shoes, sweatpants and hooded sweatshirt.

To create the Oscar the Grouch character, start by laying the green feather boa across the top of the hood. Then, carefully pin the boa to the outside of the hood, concealing the safety pin under the boa and poking the pin through the rope of the boa. Pin liberally, especially around the face to keep the feathers from falling in front the face. Pin the entire boa to the outside of the hood. Use a circular shape from a soup can or bottle to trace two circles on to black felt. Cut out the circles and glue them on to the foam balls. Glue the foam balls to the top of the hood (do not glue to feathers). Carefully cut a strip of the darice fur and then cut it in half. Lay the fur strips over the top of the foam eyes creating a unibrow. Hot glue the fur strips to the top of the eyes.

Dress in black sweatpants, black shoes, character tee. Put on hooded jacket and lift hood up. For the trick or treat candy bag, carry a black garbage bag or small metal tin bucket.

To accessorize the costume even more, add a metal garbage can around the waist. For safety, cut the metal can in half, then remove the bottom of the can. Place the metal lid on top of the hoodie.

How to make a street light Halloween costume from a box

My boy was fascinated with law enforcement, traffic lights and crossing signals. Instead of dressing up as a typical police officer, we created a unique Halloween costume: a traffic light with working lights! 

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Supplies needed for this one-of-kind costume include:

- Large cardboard box in a rectangular shape. The box should fit over the shoulders and sit just above the knees. If the box is longer than the child’s knees, walking and climbing stairs will be difficult.
- Scissors
- Hot glue sticks and glue gun
- Golden yellow felt or fleece
- Black, green and white foam pieces
- 3 tap lights with batteries
- Red, yellow and green acrylic paint
- Paintbrush
- Yellow or black baseball cap
- Black sweatsuit
 

To create the stop light:

1. Measure the child’s head circumference and cut a circle in the top of the box.
2. About 3-4” down on each side of the box, cut a circle for the child’s arms to fit through
3. Trace the tap light circle base on to the front of the box. Cut out each circle so the tap light will fit snuggly inside each hole.
4. Cover the box completely in yellow fleece / felt by gluing the fabric to the box.
5. Disassemble the tap lights. Paint each white covering separately: green, yellow, red. Allow paint to dry and reassemble. Add batteries, if needed.
6. Cut a semi-circle out of black foam and fit on the top of each tap light, making an arch covering over each light.
7. Cut large black foam piece into a rectangle shape for the front of the light. Hot glue to fabric on front.
8. Center the yellow light on to the black foam rectangular piece on the front of the box. Add the red light just above the yellow one. Glue the green light just below the yellow light.
9. Dress in black sweatsuit and place completed street light box design over.

To create the street sign:
1. Cut a large rectangle shape out of green foam.
2. Cut a slightly larger rectangle shape out of white foam.
3. Glue the green foam on to the white foam.
4. Cut the child’s name and the word, “Avenue”, out of paper or white foam and glue the letters to the green foam.
5. Hot glue the completed sign to the top of black knit cap. Place the cap on top of the head.

How to make a Superman Halloween costume

 

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To make a do-it-yourself Superman (Clark Kent style) costume for school plays, book character day, Halloween and dance parties, supplies needed include the following:

1. Superman Tee Shirt
2. Long sleeve button front shirt, solid color is best
3. Denim jeans
4. Glasses (3D glasses from a movie theater work perfectly!)
5. Hairspray

To complete the Man of Steel costume, dress in the pieces of clothing mentioned above, buttoning the long sleeve shirt only a few buttons up from the bottom. Next, slick hair back with water and spray with hairspray to hold in place. Remove the lenses from the 3D glasses (simply pop them out), leaving just the frames and place on head. These black framed glasses work well and resemble the superhero seen in the TV series, Smallville.

Sure, one can purchase the standard Superman costume at a local retail shop or on Amazon.com, but isn’t it more fun to create your own outfit? Isn’t it also less expensive to build your own Halloween costume or character dress?! To save money, shop local thrift stores and garage sales for comic book t-shirts before heading to the retail stores (Wal-mart or Target, for example). Check your family closets for a pair of blue denim jeans, dress slacks and a long sleeve button front shirt.

How to make a snowman costume

Want to build a snowman? Runners may choose to dress as a snowman for the nationally popular Jingle Bell Run funding arthritis research. Others may choose to make a snowman for a school function or a Frosty Halloween costume. To make an inexpensive and easy snowman costume, supplies needed include:

·         white tank top

·         black felt

·         red scarf

·         white tulle

·         elastic

·         black tights

·         black top hat

·         Hot glue sticks and hot glue gun

·         soup can for tracing circles

·         scissors

Using the soup can, trace 3 circles on to the black felt. Cut out the circles and hot glue them to the front of the tank top shirt. To create the tulle skirt, follow these simple instructions or watch this video:

Dress in tights, shorts, tank top, and skirt. Wrap a red scarf around the neck and place a top hat on the head.

How to make a Mario Bros Halloween costume

Creative folks can make money putting together costumes unlike any other listed available on Amazon.com. For example, characters Mario & Luigi from the Super Mario Bros video game series. Sure, store purchased Mario Halloween costumes might be readily available (and expensive), but handmade costumes are more desirable because they are one-of-kind and perfect for boys, girls and adults.

Follow the steps below to make a Mario dress up character costume for Halloween, school parties, character days or school spirit week:

Apparel to Purchase (click the links to purchase supplies):
1. White slip on gloves
2. Red baseball cap
3. Child or adult size red long sleeve shirt
4. Denim Bib overalls

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Less creative folks can purchase the Mario Bros. accessory kit which includes gloves, mustache and hat. Otherwise, supplies needed to make mustache and ball cap:
1. Red, white and black felt
2. Scissors
3. Hot glue gun and glue sticks
4. Mustache pattern located at www.zankat.com

Purchase a Mario Luigi cap online at Amazon.com. Or, make the Mario baseball cap:
1. Trace the bottom of a soup can onto the white felt to make it perfectly round. Cut out the circle
2. Download the “M” in Mario from www.zankat.com. Zoom and print to fit on the white circle
3. Assemble the “M” circle and hot glue to hat

To make the mustache:
1. Trace the mustache pattern here
2. Cut out
3. Use Heavy Duty Scotch shipping tape to hold the mustache in place just above the lip

Child can complete the costume with hiking boots or heavy shoes. I have yet to think of a creative trick-or-treat bag to complete this outfit. Feel free to leave your suggestion in the comments section below!

How to Make an Olaf the Snowman Halloween costume

Popular Halloween costumes for this year will include those characters from Disney’s hit animated movie, Frozen: Princess Anna, her sister Princess Elsa, Kristoff the outdoorsman, Olaf, Sven the reindeer and Hans the handsome royal. Instead of purchasing the typical and costly Disney costume, be unique and build your own snowman … Olaf!

Olaf is the friendliest snowman to walk the mountains above Arendelle and he likes warm hugs. To make an Olaf the Snowman Halloween costume for boys and girls, supplies needed include:

1. White shirt (tee shirt or sweatshirt depending on weather)
2. Orange, white and black felt sheets
3. White baseball cap
4. White sweatpants
5. Black shoes
6. 12 ounce bag Poly-fil stuffing for nose
7. Scissors
8. Hot glue sticks and hot glue gun
9. Black pipe cleaners

Once the supplies are gathered, start to create the homemade costume following these steps:

1. Using the template available here, cut out the pieces and then trace them onto the corresponding colored felt squares.
2. To make the circles perfectly round, one can use objects around the house that are approximately the same size as the circles shown on the template (soup cans, bottoms of drinking glasses, etc).
3. Assemble the eyes as shown using the hot glue gun.
4. Place the completed eyes, eyebrows on the baseball cap and glue in place.
5. For the nose, use the stencil as a sizing guide. To make a 3 dimensional nose for Olaf, cut a piece of orange felt, roll it into a cone shape and then stuff with polyfil. Attach stuffed nose to top of cap rim using hot glue.
6. Add hair pieces to the top of the cap using the black pipe cleaners available here. Pierce the top of the hat making a hole slightly smaller than the pipe cleaner to push the pipe cleaner through. Allow enough give on the underside of the cap so that the pipe cleaner can be attached and stay in place.
7. Glue 3 larger black felt circles on to the front of the white shirt
8. For fun, complete the costume using a top hat a trick or treat bag. Have a better idea? Leave it in the comments section below.

Homemade Halloween costume idea - fish tank aquarium

To make a fish tank aquarium costume for boys, girls or even adults, the supplies needed include:

1. One sturdy box to fit around person. A 19” x 19” box fit over my 10 year old son.
2. Masking tape
3. Blue cellophane wrap
4. Blue battery operated lights
5. Fish swim caps
6. Fishing line
7. Scissors
8. Balloons
9. Needle or pin
10. Paper

To create the fish tank:
1. Cut out each side of the box leaving about a 3” edge on each side
2. Cover the outside of cut box with masking tape to make it appear “silver”. Or, you could paint the box using acrylic paint.
3. From the inside, add the blue cellophane wrap to each side

To decorate the inside of the fish tank:
1. Using a needle, poke a tiny hole at the top of the swim cap to thread the fishing line in
2. Blow up a balloon for each fish swim cap
3. Stuff the balloon inside the swim cap to make it appear “full”
4. Tape the fishing line string with fish cap attached to the top inner side of the box
5. String battery operated lights along the back inside of the box
6. Print a sign that says “Do not tap on glass” and glue this sign to the front of the tank

How to wear the costume:
1. Pin an extra fish swim cap to the child’s sweatshirt
2. Add strips of fabric, two on each side to the box. Then, ties these strips of fabric at shoulders
3. As accessories, add swim goggles and water shoes or scuba diving gear
4. As a trick or treat bag, carry a strong fish net or tackle box

Tips:
* Make sure the cardboard box is not too big that it makes it difficult for the child to walk up and down stairs.
* Adding the sign, "Do not tap on glass" seemed to encouraged fellow trick or treaters to touch the cellophane. Keep an eye out for those destructive children wearing store bought costumes.