Halloween Costumes 2013 (part 2)

Now for Ezra's costume. I love me a good paper maché costume. It's cheap, it's easy, but it certainly does not store well. This, in fact, did not really survive the night. A 2-yr old and paper maché aren't exactly a great match. But I do have suggestions for making it work, below. Mike Wazowski from Monsters Inc.

I did add the little horns after this photo shoot, because I realized I forgot them, but the new photos didn't turn out great. Ez liked to hold onto them as handles. The arms and legs are just footless tights from WeLoveColors.com, my go-to source for tights in any color. And I paper-machéd a 36" balloon (Amazon.com or local party supply stores), doing 3 or 4 or 5 layers, so it would be strong enough. Plus some green spray paint. What I should have done though is layered the inside with duct tape to toddler-proof it. I did that around the neck as we were heading out the door to trick-or-treat, but it could have used a little more, especially since he fell once. I also had bought a blue baseball cap and had good intentions of putting an MU logo on it, but got busy and lazy and wasn't sure he'd wear it anyway, so I skipped that. The eye and mouth I painted on with acrylic paint, and that's what really saved it.

My kids both loved the costume, and Ezra loved wearing it, despite his lack of maneuverability. And that' all that really matters, isn't it?

Halloween Costumes 2013

For some reason I always come up with these costumes that are difficult to live in. Like barely fitting though door-ways and no room to store them kind of costumes. I'm going to try to do better in that aspect in the future!

Back in July, when I started brainstorming for Halloween, I asked Ava for suggestions, and she said she wanted to be a cake. I was totally on board. So a little cardboard, poster board, duct tape, and felt, and voilá! Here's the finished product!

I wanted it to be kind of girly, not like a wedding cake. But fun, not like a 9x13 pan cake or something, and recognizable. I almost put candles on every layer, but decided that would be too much. What do you think? Should I have? The candles are just paper straws with some felt flames glued in.

The nice thing is that I only had to buy the pink felt and white fleece. The sprinkle colors of felt I already had in my stash (it's just the 45 cent sheets of felt).

And this is the support structure. Real fancy, eh? cardboard boxes, posterboard, and duct tape. With a slit in the back to help get it on her. Really though, the back could have been all closed up except for the top circle which needed to bend open to allow her head through. I did put buttons on the back of the fabric so it wasn't gaping open or anything.

That cardboard part will be tossed now so I can easily store the fabric part. When I want to use it again, it will only cost me about $2 to remake the cardboard support structure.

The best part though, is how happy she was when she put it on. She absolutely love it! That is the best reward of all!

I'll post Ezra's costume next.