My 16 month old son loves horses and he loves to eat, so my mother in law made him a Chuck Wagon Cowboy! She revamped an old garden cart and added a horse from an old toy! She handmade his outfit and he was ready to ride!

Submitted by Tamir Meshiko, Hawthorne NJ

I have alwasys loved the Wizard of Oz. My mom made the Dorothy costume and the tornado from a hoola hoop and cheese cloth. When I spin around the horses, cows, fences, wagaons etc that are attached spin too! You can see my ruby red slippers and my head but my body is in the tornado!

Submitted by Hope Foley, Hawthorne NJ

my 8 yr old daughter has played my old game Mcgee’s Alice and 5 months before Halloween 2010 she came to me and told us she wanted to be Alice…she asked us to do it with her flower girl dress because it had the “puffy sleeves” and a ceramic scull we had as a decoration…..so we did, 2 bottles of material spray dye, a craft tank top, permanent marker, white thread, a horseshoe put upside down on a chain, and pictures to copy from….my daughter was one of the most happy trick or treaters out there….she was so excited she would come out every 5 minutes “is it done yet?” lol

Submitted by Christine Ellis, Peterborough Ontario

If you think that dressing up your dog or cat in a costume is tricky, get a load of these costumed caballos! The folks over at Visboo found a whole mess of impressive costumed horses—some seem to be for special events and horse shows, while some are just for Halloween. The amount of work and creativity that went into each costume earn a blue ribbon in our book. We especially love the joint costumes between horse and rider like the Dorothy and Cowardly Lion Wizard of Oz costumes.

Check out more amazing horses in costume at Visboo.com.

We’ve seen a great dane dressed like a horse, but a horse dressed like a great dane? Wow!

This elaborate seahorse costume features beautiful details and shading that makes it look like it’s shimmering under the sea.

Some of the most impressive types of costumes are illusion costumes. As the name implies, they create the illusion that the person inside of the costume is attached to another person, object or creature. The most common type of illusion costumes make the costume wearer look like they are riding a horse or other animal or that another person is carrying them. Of course there is only one person inside of the costume, which is what makes it so deceptive.

Illusion costumes are generally very elaborate and take a lot of planning. There are all kinds of illusion costume ideas that make the wearer look as though they are riding on an animal, not just cowboys riding on horses. Video game fans might wear a Mario Riding Yoshi costume, while a Princess might look as though she is riding a dragon or unicorn. Other types of illusion costumes can make the wearer look like they are sitting on top of something, like a gnome sitting on top of a mushroom or a baby sitting in a bassinet. These are pulled off by concealing everything from the hips down and again using fake legs and a prop.

Some other types of elaborate illusion costumes make it seem like the wearer is being carried by another person or monster. An example of this type of illusion costume might be a gorilla carrying a girl in a cage or a pirate carrying a mermaid in a chest. These costumes are very time consuming and difficult to build, but worthwhile. It’s a good idea when designing your own homemade illusion costume to read some step by step how-to articles to get an idea on how to build them yourself.

Headless costumes are among the scariest costumes as well as the most elaborate to make. Headless costumes are considered elaborate because they require some sort of structure that creates the illusion of height so that the person wearing it looks like they are holding their own head. In reality of course they’ve created fake shoulders and arms that sit above their head. Even knowing that, the illusion is quite chilling.

The most common headless costume idea is of course the Headless Horseman costume. The character was made popular from the story The Legend of Sleepy Hollow in 1820 in which the character was described as a shoulder who’s head was shot off in the American Revolution who “rides forth to the scene of battle in nightly quest of his head.” In fact, the Headless Horseman costume is so popular that some companies started making Headless Horseman costumes for dogs that turn the dog into his “horse.” For women however the most popular headless costume is Marie Antoinette who was beheaded by a guillotine after being convicted of treason during the French Revolution.

Although these are the most common headless costumes, many creative costume makers have created headless versions of all types of people and characters. Some headless costumes feature modern people and styles of dress. One creative twist on the headless costume is a headless butler costume serving his own head on a platter. Regardless of your personal take on the headless costume, it’s bound to be as elaborate as it is scary.

If you can’t wait until Halloween every year, or love to cosplay as your favorite anime or video game characters than chances are you’ve made an elaborate costume. Elaborate costumes take a lot of hard work to make, but are worth the effort. Some really elaborate Halloween costumes might take months or even all year to make. Sometimes costumes are elaborate because of the amount of small details like custom embroidery, accessories or weapon replicas, and sometimes they are elaborate because of how they function. Very dedicated costume makers have been known to create giant replicas of gadgets like iPhones, digital cameras, MP3 players and more. Other elaborate costumes include some kind of intricate mount to make it appear as though the person is riding a horse, dragon or other creature. Other elaborate costumes may involve some kind of mechanical element, stilts, wheels, lights, etc. There’s really no limit to what kind of creative costume ideas people can create. We’ve seen everything from a dragon costume with moving wings to a fortune teller costume built around a segway scooter. While elaborate costumes can be costly, not every elaborate costume idea has to be expensive. In fact some only require a few dollars worth of materials, but may require a lot of work. Most elaborate costumes are usually very time consuming and take a lot of creativity and talent to make. But the more effort you put into an elaborate costume the more satisfied you are with the results.

Dozer is a 145 pound Great Dane and everytime we go out people stop us and ask ” Where’s his saddle, he could be a horse!” Well this year we gave them an answer!

Submitted by Teela Dawson, Cleveland Texas
www.freewebs.com/dawsondanes

This costume is a centaur, half man half horse. I purchased soft suede fabric, along with a wig(for the horse’s mane, horse’s tail and the man’s hair), and also a muscle man t-shirt. Since my son is only 3, I sewed in a pair of pants inside the front two horses hooves. I used cardboard to shape the horse and bent the cardboard into the horse’s back and stomach. I also used some cotton stuffing so it was plush and soft looking like a horse. I then sewed on the suede fabric, along with hot gluing the horse’s mane and tail on. The muscle man t-shirt was just put on and tucked in. I did buy a pair of suspenders that my son wore underneath the muscle t-shirt that would help him pull the weight of the horse. Another thing I did was attach two wheels to the back to hooves of the horse so the horse part would move easily and smoothly(just make sure you cover the wheels with material so it doesn’t show. We got the idea, because my son loves horses yet wanted something with a beard and there it was! This sounds difficult which some parts were but it finally turned out great, my son can’t wait to wear it!!

Submitted by Nichole Heller, Spokane, WA