Inpsired by the Tim Burton exhibit we saw in LA, and this poem: Life isn’t easy for the Pin Cushion Queen. When she sits alone on her throne Pins push through her spleen. Obscure was what I wanted. I set out to make my own pinata head for this. I hadn’t done paper mache since … Read more
From the moment my daughter April cracked her first smile — a wide, brilliant grin like the shape of a capital D on its side – I had a vision. She was only 10 weeks old at the time, and Halloween was over four months away, but that smile (not to mention April’s adorable baby-chubby … Read more
This “Greg” from ‘Diary of a Wimpy Kid’ cartoon drawing is very simple to make and only requires a few materials. Though I have written quite a bit on how to make this costume, overall the task is quite simple. Don’t let the length of these instructions discourage you from attempting. I have gone into … Read more
I love Star Wars. Not in the “I jumped on the bandwagon in 2010” way, but in the “I’ve loved Star Wars since the 80s” kind of way. So does my husband (Dorks). So we decided to be Star Wars characters for Halloween. The hard part was choosing the characters we wanted to be. I … Read more
Our entire family gets really into Halloween. Every year my In-Laws throw a huge Halloween party. A bunch of our family and friends go and every year everyone gets extremely creative. Last year my husband and I decided to be Jack Sparrow and Elizabeth Swann from Pirates of the Caribbean. We started planning our costumes … Read more
This is a Trick ‘r Treat Sam Costume I made for Halloween last year. Sam, from my favorite Halloween movie: Trick ‘r Treat. I made the body of the costume using a pajama pattern and a big chunk of orange fleece. On the back of the costume is a “trap door” pocket with two buttons that … Read more
Anybody can be Johnny Depp’s version of The Mad Hatter, but I decided to take the Hatter’s madness to its (il)logical extreme. In my vision, the poor Hatter was so confused as to which hat to wear to the Queen’s Tea, that he decided to wear EVERY hat he owned at once. Now, of course, … Read more
My wife, being an elementary librarian, came up with the idea of honoring Maurice Sendak with this year’s costume. We always do homemade costumes, but these took more work than normal. Papier Mache Heads: Each head was constructed out of paper pulp papier mache over a punch balloon. Each layer took 2 days to dry … Read more
Voltron! Defender of the universe! Definitely one of my favorite childhood toys…. so this year I decided to go big and try my hand at building a costume and also doing an instructable on it. First I’d like to give a couple shout outs, my girlfriend and our kids for putting up with my mess, … Read more
My first thought for Halloween 2011 was to be a giant. That should make some impression on the other guests. Of course, the ceiling is a problem when the party in inside so I had to make do with a half-giant: Rubeus Hagrid. I wanted the effect of the costume to be big so stilts … Read more
The Halloween Tree is a magical tree from Ray Bradbury’s novel of the same name. The Halloween Tree is filled with pumpkins that glow with the lights of the souls that reside inside them. We made these Halloween Tree costumes almost completely from scratch. We started by making the bark. We painted sheets of brown … Read more
I’ve made many Halloween costumes before, but when I decided this year to make the Where the Wild Things Are costume, I was not really sure what I was getting into. I knew it was going to be larger and more elaborate than anything I had built before. I made this decision a little more … Read more