Halloween 2015 – Games

We look forward to Halloween every year simply because it gives us an excuse to be creative and silly – well, okay, we need no excuse for that, do we?

Every year, we think of a theme and costumes that aren’t terribly hard to make.

This year I took on an additional challenge. How little could I spend on making our costumes?  The whopping total I spent to make all 4 costumes was $3.23, only having to buy 1 item from the store. Everything else we already had on hand or received from generous friends. I couldn’t be happier with how they turned out. This year’s costumes might be my favorite yet.

Here we are, all decked out. *UPDATE* – We won 2nd place for best family costume!

Twister:

I made this sweet Twister dress for my sweet little Zoey. Used one of her existing dresses as a template to make the little white dress for this costume. Used fabric that’s similar to sweatshirt material. Cut 2 identical pieces front and back, sewed top shoulder and side seams. Since this material does not fray I left the neck and hem a raw edge.

I cut 2 inch circles out of felt and hot glued them to the dress. The Twister logo is hand-drawn with permanent marker.

Back of the dress.

The Twister spinner is hot glued to a wrist band made out of extra material from dress.

Scrabble:

I made this white dress pretty much identical to Zoey’s dress above, only in my size of course. Added red felt to the bottom for the logo.

The letter Scrabble pieces are made with felt and handwritten with permanent marker. Attached with hot glue. To create the empty squares on the board I traced around a 1×1 inch paper template I made. This was simple but took forever. The squares are filled using colored pencil.

As a finishing touch I added the logo to the bottom. It was printed on card stock, hand cut and hot glued to the felt.

Operation:

I searched for a template for game pieces I could print and cut but didn’t have any luck. Ended up hand drawing and cutting all the pieces out of felt. Hot glued to clothes my husband already owned. And yes, the red nose lights up.

Text is hand written with a permanent marker.

The tongs work perfectly as giant tweezers.

To replicate the rubber band game piece I used a long piece of off-white felt and hot glued it on it’s edge.

The Claw Machine:

For my little Zander I made him the ultimate Claw Machine costume. This was by far the most complex costume to make and the one I love the most. I ended up making all the printables myself and I’ll post them below for you to download for your own Claw Machine! Here’s a look into how it was made…

It all started with 1 cardboard box that fits a 5 year old inside perfectly.

Cut windows on 3 sides. Left the back solid to add backpack straps later.

Cut about half of the bottom out so he could slide in/out of the costume. Hot glued a small tray for his toys to sit on. We wanted to minimize the weight of this costume as much as possible so this helps against added weight from extra toys.

The entire box is covered with Duct tape. This checkered Duct tape is the only item that I had to purchase to make all of our costumes. Needless to say, I was hesitant to spend any money but I think it’s what actually makes the costume. Gives it the added arcade feel and keeps the box sturdy. Money well spent.

I made “The Claw” sign in Illustrator, cut and hot glued it to the top. Click here to download the file.

This claw was made using cardboard that I cut. It is hot glued to a large straw (the kind used for boba tea). Everything is wrapped and hot glued to foil paper my husband found. And of course, silver duct tape is used to cover up the hot glue mess underneath.

This box is an empty tissue box covered in Duct tape. Joystick is a large straw (used for boba tea) and a ping pong ball from one of the kid’s toys. I cut a circle out of the ball and attached it to the straw with hot glue. I created the arrows, grab it button, $1 per play and money slot.  Click here to download the printables. And no, the money is not real.

For the prize door I used silver Duct tape and outlined it with permanent marker. It’s just for show and doesn’t actually open. “Prize” artwork is included in the file to download above.

The background image is probably my favorite part of the whole costume because they are actually Zander’s toys. I searched online for an image of stuffed toys I could use but nothing was high quality enough and was too blurry when blown up to size.  I ended up taking a photo of Zander’s toys and tiling that. Worked out perfectly and added that personal touch to make it his own.

This was 6 pages tiled together and attached using scotch tape.

Backpack straps are nylon webbing cut from an old bag. Cut slits in the box, hot glue and taped it in place on the back.

Top and back of box are covered in silver Duct tape. Worked out perfectly since we already had tons of silver Duct tape and it adds to the machine look of the costume.

There you have it. I really enjoyed making our customs this year, hope they inspire you to make something fun for your family!

Now it’s time to…play.

When Twister played The Claw, she won a caterpillar.

When Scrabble played Operation, she got some spare ribs.