Got the munchies? Our 10 year old’s Junk Food costume would make anyone drool. He & his Dad made his legs into a Cheeto and a can of Coke, arms a lollipop and Laffy Taffy. Dripping Blueberry pie and a chocolate donut made up his shoulders. The costume would not be complete without a slice of pizza,a half eaten Dreamsicle and all his favorite candies in between.
Lots of candy was consumed making this costume!

Submitted by Cassie,

Here we have King Kong clutching our 7 year old “Damsel in Distress,” on top of the Empire State Building. Our son thought he would make his friends giggle by transforming himself into Fay Wray with girly makeup. His friends didn’t do much laughing, instead his spotlighted head walking in a lit up building, left them begging for him to design their costumes next year. We helped him stitch up mattress foam into a box he could walk in. Then we covered it in an old room darkening window pull shade (so the light would only shine out the cut windows) and grey fabric. We cut out windows on all four sides so that the light from the battery operated Christmas lights would shine through select windows. King Kong is made from fur, a black vinyl table cloth, foam & pillow stuffing. Three foam airplanes attached with wire circled his head.

Submitted by Cassie, Colorado Springs

Imagine sitting by the glow of a flickering campfire telling scary stories on Halloween. Our 12 year old daughter loves everything about camping. So when she suggested she be a glowing campfire for Halloween, I took on the challenge with her. We took a broken hula hoop from the back yard combined with some old wire garden fencing to form a ring of fire that she could trick or treat in. Vinyl table cloths & foil wrapping paper covered over 60 individually wired flames. We used blinking & non-blinking battery operated Christmas lights wired onto the flames make her fire resemble a real campfire. We used felt to cover newspaper “rocks” to form the fire pit. Her marshmallow on-a –tick hat was made from sheet foam, wire and a floral wreath. Who’s up for a Halloween So more?

The picture shows it by day & night

Submitted by Cassie, Colorado SprIngs

This potato has many eyes and they’re all watching you.

Submitted by Brenna, Cleveland, OH
mycathascancer.etsy.com

I made this costume for my daughter for halloween. She loved the Red Queen character from Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland so I made the dress and teased up her hair and sprayed it red.

Submitted by Joelle Stewart, Augusta, Ga

He LOVED this costume. He wore it as much as he could up until Halloween.

Submitted by Katie, Madison, WI

We have peacocks on our family farm and Preston (age 3) asked if I could make him a peacock costume for Halloween. He wanted the feathers to be able to go up or down so I wove the feathers in chicken wire, wrapped the wire around a cardboard tube and put a belt through the tube. I put a coat hanger handles on the tube so he could flip the feathers up and then made the legs, feet, and wings out of felt.

Submitted by karen, aurora, il

I have been an artist for years and I love to create and push myself beyond my limits! I have made original costumes in the past, but this year I really wanted to go all out! I am a senior art major at James Madison University, and my focus is in studio art, graphic design, and art history. My classes take up almost all of my time and I am constantly creating art in many forms. Though, I rarely get to do for myself and create art just for the love of art and not just for an elaborate assignment!

This year for Halloween I decided to change this unfortunate fact and do something completely original and completely hobby related. For once, this meant no school assignments, no critiques, no crazy deadlines, this was going to be just for me and I couldn’t of been more excited! I began my research months before Halloween. I surfed the internet for all kinds of characters I loved from all aspects of entertainment. Though, a lot of character ideas I came up with had already been produced and I really wanted to push myself to come up with a creative costume that had never been seen before! In the end, it was between Toothless from How to Train Your Dragon or Slinky Dog from Toy Story. I had to go with Slinky Dog, as he was an old time original and a great character in a movie I loved and that was obviously well known. It’s a possibility that Toothless will be my next year’s attempt I was surprised to see that not one person had taken the time to make Slinky Dog work as a costume, with slinky parts and all. I knew I had a huge task ahead of me, but I was determined to make it happen.

I never even made a single sketch, which is unusual for me, as I normally need some kind of basis. Instead I just studied pictures of Slinky Dog and was on my way. Due to the limitations of schoolwork, I started this project ONE week before Halloween. I did not realize at the time that this was absolutely not enough time for a full-scale paper mache’ project! All nighters were the only way this costume became a possibility and trust me I paid for it the next week!

To start off, I used an exercise ball and pumped it up to maximum size. I decided paper mache was going to be the best medium for my costume in order to get a hard “toy-like” look. I did not want Slinky Dog to look like a stuffed animal, but of the plastic form we know from the movies. Paper dipped into a glue/water mixture was placed all over the ball until several layers were built up to create a sturdy enough structure for the body. This took several days alone, and after it was dry I measured and cut it in half for each side of Slinky.
After there were two halves I used poster board to give depth and create the middles of each side. The hands and feet were done in similar ways yet, instead of having a solid structure I had to create one on my own. I used stacks of newspaper and molded them into the forms of hands and feet. Using old winter gloves and soft garden shoes for the basis, the newspaper molds were taped onto each. A lot of masking tape was used to get the final look of paws before I used a few layers of paper mache’ to harden them up. Next I worked on the head, which was a giant mistake. The head should’ve been done first, as it took me the longest and was the most intensive!

A rounded trash can lid from my apartment was the basis for the very detailed Slinky Dog head. I had quite some problems with this, because once I paper mache’d over the lid I could not get it off! I had to recreate this several times, using Vaseline underneath the layers hoping it would pop off but for some reason this still did not work! I decided to move on as I was wasting valuable time. So, I started shaping his mouth and eyes in the same way I did for the paws. I also used very large amounts of newspaper and masking tape for Slinky’s face, but this turned out to be way too heavy to hold up on its own! I then realized the trash can lid would be perfect to help me hold up the front of his head and I kept it under the paper mache after all! I guess I can say I really got lucky, but in the long run I now need to buy a new trashcan! Once I finished molding his face and eyes I also put towels in the back of the lid to give more balance to the heavy face so it would sit on my head evenly. I then paper mache’d his face as I did everything else.

Last came the final touches and piecing it all together! I hand painted every single aspect of Slinky Dog. I paid special attention to his face and eyes because I wanted his head to be recognizable as Slinky and not some random dog head. I added felt ears and a tongue with a hot glue gun. The slinky body and tail were last and also extremely hard to create. I used hollow tubing and painted them metallic silver to mimic the slinky look. I took an immense amount of thin wire and thread it through the tubes and into the body in order for them to stay in place. Thicker wire was used for the tail so it would “boing” like a real slinky!

I had to leave a good amount of gap at the bottom of the slinky body so I could actually get in and out of the costume. I barely got it to work but after several tries I was successful! Finally I bought dark brown leggings and a turtleneck to wear underneath to mimic Slinky’s dark colored body! In order to get in and out of the costume I constantly needed a friend to help me and I am very thankful I had help or this costume would have never been possible! I wore the costume out on Halloween night and I must say it was a huge hit. I was getting comments everywhere I walked and was constantly asked if I had actually created the costume myself. I couldn’t of been happier with the way this costume turned out and I spent at least 40+ hours creating it! I honestly did not know at the beginning of this massive project if this costume would even be possible! I am so incredibly happy that I somehow made it work! I feel I have achieved something great in my art career and will definitely create more costumes in the future! The only problem with Slinky Dog was the heat that accumulated in the costume. It is quite surprising how well newspaper insulates and I had to take my head and paws off several times throughout the night. If I were to change anything about this costume I would figure out a way to cool myself down so I could wear this for hours and get full enjoyment out of it!

Thanks for checking out my costume, and I really hope you like it and appreciate my efforts! I am willing to answer any questions or give any tips, just comment or contact me at thomp5km@dukes.jmu.edu! ☺

DON’T FORGET to watch my video of the Slinky Dog costume at:

or type in Slinky Dog Halloween Costume 2010 in the search box!

Submitted by Kaleena Thompson, Harrisonburg VA
kaleenathompson.weebly.com/

Hello, I made this robot costume for my son P.J. Its made out of lightweight cardboard boxes covered with a sticky reflective wrapping paper. On his chest are sternos with a hole punched in them and inside the sternos along with the buttons on his chest are lights that actually light up-great for trick or treating at night. He had as much fun wearing this costume as I did making it!

Submitted by Kimberly Tadrick, Brick, NJ
kmhswtpea@netscape.net

My daughter loves the musical ‘Wicked’ and she desired to be Elphaba this year. We know a very talented seamstress who researched the actual Broadway costume from the Defying Gravity scene and made this replica for us.

Submitted by Cara Whalen, Bradley, IL