Oh what fun. It is that time of the year again when we get to dress up in crazy costumes and go trick or treating to collect yummy candies. I know they are unhealthy for us but I guess once in a while in limited quantity should be ok.
This year my dad decided to build a costume for me instead of buying one from the store. And oh boy, I am glad that he did. We had monster mash bash Halloween celebration in my school where all the kids do a parade in from of the judges. I won the best costume award in monster category. I was thrilled to win the award. I got a lot of good comments from my fellow students and their parents and quite a bit of head turns for my costume.
The costume was a 3D illusion of a phantom kidnapping me. Here is a glimpse of the costume :
We got the idea from the below website :
http://www.coolest-homemade-costumes.com/alien-abduction-costume/
Here is a detailed instruction on how we built it.
Materials Needed :
- Backpack – we had a black backpack at home
- A decorative pillow – for stuffing the backpack
- A card board – cut in T shape for body and shoulder
- A stick – for neck and insert the head
- Styrofoam ball – for head
- A phantom costume – we had from previous halloween costume. We used the mask, gloves and the light up glasses. Alternatively you can buy alien mask and hands from halloween store.
- A hooded cape – got it from walmart for $5.
- A black turtleneck
- Black pant
- Black shoes
- Footsie Pajama
- Stuffing
- Swim armband.
- Velcro – bought it from hobby lobby for $3
How to build :
- First we cut the cardboard in T shape. The cardboard should be inserted all the way to the bottom of the backpack. The top of the cardboard should be about 6 to 8 inches above the backpack.
- Next, we tied some stuffing around the cardboard to give it some dimension and put on the turtleneck over it. Stuffed the hands of the turtleneck with swim arm bands and stuffing.
- Then we inserted the whole thing in the backpack. Also stuffed the backpack with a small square pillow.
- Next we inserted the styrofoam ball into the long stick. Also, secured the lightup glasses of the phantom costume around the styrofoam ball. Covered the ball with the mask of the phantom and inserted the stick into the backpack. Finally puton the hooded robe around the whole assembly. The upper part of the phantom was ready.
- Next, made a slit at the back of the pajama and stuffed the legs nicely.
- Then we stuffed a pair of kitchen gloves for hands and put on the phantom costume gloves on it. Finally secured the hands around him with velcro.
- I was wearing a black track pant and black shoes. I wore the upper part of the footsie from the back slit. The lower part of the robe was wrapped around my waist down and secured with velcro. We secured the footsie and robe with lot of stick on velcros at multiple places.
Final 3D illusion came out to be very good. People were having hard time believing that it is just one person and not two carrying the costume.
I got to wear the costume two times. Once in my school and then once on the evening of Halloween when we went trick or treating in our neighborhood with my dad. Got lot of compliments from our neighbors as well.
After trick or treating for about 2 hours, we came back home with lot of candies. Finally we got to enjoy one candy each from our baskets. Victory!!!
I already started planning about my costume for next year in my head. Stay tuned…
Oh wait, last but not the least …
If you are wondering what to do with those excess candies, I might be able to help. While you certainly can enjoy a few of your delicious loots, do not try to finish them all. Your dentist will be really mad at you if you do that. Also please do not throw them in the trash. They end up in landfills thus polluting our environments even more.
Here are the few websites that will come in handy in your pursuit to safely dispose of the excess halloween candies :
https://soldiersangels.org/Donate-Halloween-Candy!.html
http://www.halloweencandybuyback.com/
https://www.today.com/parents/how-donate-halloween-candy-good-cause-t117994
Happy Halloween!!!!!
