Coolest Paper Mache Earth Costume

If you have seen our earlier planet costume 2012 Saturn. This project was very similar.

We used a medium sized palates ball and paper Mache. After 3-4 layers of Mache we deflated the ball through about an 8” hole at the top.

Once the ball is out we use strips of Gorilla tape on the entire inside of the sphere.

Now we finish cut the hole at the top for our 5 year olds head and a larger hole at the bottom to slip around his waist. We used real sharp scissors and a utility knife to cut the Mache. We made sure to start the holes small and always trim it bigger as we go through a fitting each time.

The arm holes are somewhat of a guess but usually work out about 8” below the head hole. We cut those holes oblong to insure a good range of motion.

We use the gorilla tape to tape the edges of the holes we cut.

Using a common clearish plastic clothes hanger, we hang the globe up to paint.

We used a cheap flat gray spray paint from Lowes for a few coats. Once dry we used a ‘Good’ Rustoleum Saphire Blue to finish coat Mother Earth.

Using a flat map of the earth we crudely traced each of the 7 continents onto a piece of craft paper and cut it out.

Now the fun part, We got some different color pieces of thinish felt from Michael’s, taped them together on a wall, I held a continent up and using my flash on my cell phone projected the image onto the felt hanging on the wall, moving it in or out to get the size correct to fit proportionately on our Earth. My wife then traced the image onto the felt paper and cut it out.

We used a good felt glue to paste them to Earth.

I had some ¼” red automotive pin striping to use as the equator. My son helped with the whole project. He wanted to be Earth this year; He loved putting on the paper for the Mache, the gorilla tape, helping with sticking on the felt and adding the critters for the ocean.

Not pictured, we had to add some shoulder padding. Just a few rolled up t-shirts between him and his Earth.

We taped some blue glow sticks inside Earth to give a cool glow at night.

To top it all off we added;

GENESIS 1:1

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

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