Halloween

You can find a large variety of Halloween costumes available at stores in your neighborhood. However, when you consider the cost and lack of originality, homemade costumes are a more fun and oftentimes more cost-effective option. Plus, if you involve your children in creating the homemade costumes, the results will be worth more than any store-bought costume in any store.

Here are some inexpensive, homemade Halloween costume ideas that will cost little money and show lots of imagination.

Soda Can: Find an inexpensive plastic barrel and cut a hole in the bottom. Paint the entire barrel the colors and design of your favorite brand of soda in a can. With holes for arms and your head, a simple barrel can transform your child into a soda can.

Ghost:
Ghosts are an old stand-by that never goes out of style. Use an old white sheet with holes cut for the eyes and sew a simple treat bag out of a scrap of material or a worn out pillow case. You can dress your ghost up a bit by making lips out of red lipstick and a few false eyelashes. Or you could color a beard and moustache with markers. You may want to create a colorful ghost by using a sheet covered with polka dots or one that is brightly colored.

Clown:
You can quickly create a great clown with sweat clothes that are a bit to large decorated with fabric paint or markers. Sew on some pom poms, use an inexpensive wig with a large, colorful hat, and you could even stuff the clothing with tissue (although the tissue will be a problem if the need for a restroom break arises).

Scarecrow:
An over-sized flannel shirt, some straw, and faded jeans with patches will make a great scarecrow. Stuff the jeans and shirt with plastic grocery bags and leave a little straw hanging out of the shirt and jeans. A little makeup will complete your scarecrow costume.

Hippy:
You can become a hippy from the 1960s with a tie-dye shirt and faded jeans with holes in the knees. Combine this with a headband, a ponytail wig, and a jacket or vest covered in fringe and you will have the most authentic looking hippy costume of all time.

Nerd:
Halloween is the time to dress like something completely out of character. You can dress your child as a typical nerd, complete with white shirt, pocket protectors, pants that are too short, horn-rimmed glasses, while socks and black dress shoes. Don’t forget to tape one corner of the glasses for a true nerd appearance. Make sure you use plenty of hair gel to slick back the hair and a few overly large fake teeth will be a great addition.

Your child can be the hit of your block or at the neighborhood Halloween party if you use a little imagination and create special homemade costumes out of inexpensive, household items.

Like the commercials say “The memory of your child in a costume you made together” … priceless.

Would you like to quickly make creative Halloween costumes that you and your children will be proud of — for a fraction of the price of store-bought? Nicole Dean has co-authored a book to show you how — no sewing involved. Visit www.ILoveHalloweenCostumes.com to learn more.

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Dressing up your toddler for Halloween is a lot of fun. Enjoy it while you can. Before you know it your sweet little toddler will be in kindergarten or first grade and will have developed a much stronger opinion on his or her costume choices and you’ll no longer be able to dress him in the costume of your choice. Here are a few ideas for toddler Halloween costumes to get you started. Of course there are plenty of other options out there as well. With a little creativity, the possibilities are endless.

Dwarf
Start with earth tone pants and shirt. Brown and dark greens work well. Put your child in some boots as well. Make a simple hat out of felt, similar to a witch’s hat but with a smaller brim. Finish the outfit with some gardening tools. Your little dwarf right out of “Snow White” is ready to go trick or treating.

Pumpkin
Start with a large orange sweatshirt. Cut eyes and a mouth shape out of black or yellow felt and glue them on the front of the shirt. Put the shirt on your child, fold up the sleeves, then stuff the belly and back area with newspapers or quilt batting to make it look nice and round like a pumpkin. Top it all of with a green cap. You can even cut some leaf shapes out of green felt and glue them to the top of the cap.

Sunflower
Dress your child in a green shirt and pants. For smaller children, especially those in colder climates, a one piece pajama-type outfit with feet works well. For the flower part, start with a brown hat or cap. Cut flower petal shapes out of yellow felt and glue them all around the hat. If you’d like you can cut two large leaf shapes out of green felt and glue them at the back of each of the shirt’s sleeves. A little plastic watering can makes a cute pail to carry candy in.

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Would you like to quickly make creative Halloween costumes that you and your children will be proud of — for a fraction of the price of store-bought? Susanne Myers has co-authored a book to show you how — no sewing involved. Visit www.ILoveHalloweenCostumes.com to learn more.

Have you ever wondered where the idea of dressing up for Halloween, or the idea for Halloween in general came from? After all, it is kind of an odd tradition. Children dress up in costumes, pretending to be someone else and then “threaten” to play a trick on their neighbors, unless they receive some candy.

The tradition of Halloween goes back to an ancient Celtic custom. As far back as the 5th century B.C. Celtic tribes in Ireland believed that the spirits of the dead were allowed to come back to earth once a year on October 31st. The Celtic New Year began on November 1st and the belief was that, on the night before the border between the world of the living and that of the dead became blurred. The spirits of the dead would then be able to cross over for this one night into the world of the living.

People were afraid of what the spirits may do to them, so they started to dress up to disguise themselves. They would roam the streets in these disguises trying to fool the spirits into believing that they weren’t living beings. Of course the costumes weren’t nearly as elaborate as they are today, and were usually scary costumes. People would wear rags and smear ashes on their faces to disguise themselves and keep the spirits of the dead away.

The tradition of Halloween came to the United States in 1840, with the arrival of a group of Irish immigrants. From there it slowly evolved into our modern day version of Halloween, with kids dressing up as Dora the Explorer ™ and Power Rangers ™, pretending to be their favorite TV characters.

While the spirit of Halloween and the meaning behind it have changed over the centuries, it is still a holiday that allows us to pretend to be someone else, by dressing down in rags and blackening our face to hide it, or by wearing a fancy costume with a mask, or using face paint to disguise our appearance.

Would you like to quickly make creative Halloween costumes that you and your children will be proud of — for a fraction of the price of store-bought? Susanne Myers has co-authored a book to show you how — no sewing involved. Visit www.ILoveHalloweenCostumes.com to learn more.

Do you need a fun mask for your child to go with a great costume? Or maybe you want to start with a mask and build the rest of the costume around it. You and your child can have a lot of fun making a paper mache mask from scratch.

You’ll need just a few things to make just about any mask you can imagine. Those items include balloons, newspaper, wallpaper glue and some acrylic paint. A pair of sharp scissors comes in handy to cut out eyes and mouth. Wear old clothing, or put an apron on both you and your child. Making the mask can get a bit messy.

Cover your work area in plenty of newspaper to protect it from glue and paint. Next, cut several newspapers into strips. Blow up a balloon so it is slightly larger than your child’s head. Now dip a newspaper strip completely in the glue and stick it on the balloon. Continue doing this back and forth until you have the entire balloon covered in several layers of newspaper. Work out any wrinkles as you go along. The more layers of newspaper you have, the sturdier the mask will be.

Finally add any features specific to the mask you are making. For example, if you are making a frog mask, sculpt two ball shapes at the top of the mask that you can later paint as eyes. If you are making a cat, dog, or monkey mask, form the snout and of course don’t forget about ears. The only limit is your imagination.

Allow the mask to dry completely, preferably over night. Once it is completely hardened, start cutting into the mask to pop the balloon. Cut a large enough opening so your child can get his or her head inside the mask, then cut eye and mouth openings. For younger children, you may prefer to cut the back of the mask out completely, and, instead, wrap a piece of ribbon or yarn around the back of the head to secure the mask to allow better air-passage.

Paint the mask in a solid color and allow it to dry completely. Then add details like eyes, nose and lips in different colors. Once that coat of paint is completely dry, it is ready to wear. For a longer lasting and shiny mask, cover the mask in several layers of hodge podge before using it.

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Would you like to quickly make creative Halloween costumes that you and your children will be proud of — for a fraction of the price of store-bought? Susanne Myers has co-authored a book to show you how — no sewing involved. Visit www.ILoveHalloweenCostumes.com to learn more.

Do you have a cardboard box that is large enough to fit around your child? If so, you can easily make a costume for your child for Halloween – and save a lot of money in the process.

Start by cutting a hole in the box for your child’s head. Or, if the box is smaller, then you’ll attach straps to the edges of the box when the costume is completed (like suspenders) and fit them over your child’s shoulders. Also, cut arm holes if you aren’t doing the suspender method. Then you’re ready to get started. All of these outfits fit perfectly over leggings and a long sleeve shirt (or jacket).

Box of Cereal
Does your child have a favorite cereal? Fruit Loops, Cheerios, Cocoa Puffs? Any box of cereal can be painted onto a cardboard box and turned into a costume.

Computer Monitor
Spray paint the box grey. After it dries, paint a white screen on the front of the monitor. Of course, you can have fun decorating the screen with your favorite website, or print the screen from your favorite website and glue it onto the box for a more realistic look.

Robot
Spray paint the box grey or silver. Then, after the paint dries, find a mish-mash of nuts and bolts and glue them to the box. You may also create attachments from aluminum foil, dryer vents, duct tape, or whatever you have lying around the house.

A Wrapped Gift
Wrap the entire box in gift wrap (whatever kind you like the best) and stick a bow on your child’s head. He or she can trick-or-treat as a wrapped gift.

Invite your child to help with making his or her costume. Spending time creating these costumes together may end up being even more fun than trick-or-treating. Be sure to take lots of pictures.

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Would you like to quickly make creative Halloween costumes that you and your children will be proud of — for a fraction of the price of store-bought? Nicole Dean has co-authored a book to show you how — no sewing involved. Visit www.ILoveHalloweenCostumes.com to learn more.