Bunch of Grapes:
Supplies: Dark sweats or t-shirt and sweatpants, bunch of purple balloons, safety pins or double-sided tape, green construction paper or felt. (To be a little fancier, make a stem out of a cloth beret and put on child’s head.)
How to make: Blow up balloons and tie off. Have your child put on the sweat suit, and either pin or tape the balloons to the suit (using the tied end if pinning so not to pop the balloon). Using the construction paper or felt, fashion leaves to go around the neck or make a headpiece of a leaf.
Scuba Diver:
Supplies: Dark sweats, 2 empty 2-liter soda bottles, black spray paint, masking tape, old cable, black felt or foam paper (1 sheet 9×12 inches), green craft foam, 6 foam hair rollers, goggles, scissors.
How to make: For the oxygen tanks: Spray paint two soda bottles black, then adhere them to the child by wrapping two bands of masking tape (you can choose colored) around the torso, a few inches apart. Find an old cable and attach one end to the soda bottles and the other to a “mouthpiece” cut from black felt or a sheet of black craft foam. For the weight belt: Tape a few foam hair rollers to the lower band of tape, wrapping around the torso again. For the fins: Cut two fin shapes out of craft foam and attach them around the ankle with masking tape. For the final touch: Top the look off with a set of goggles!
Hot Air Balloon:
Supplies: Round laundry basket, spray paint, pillowcases or sacks (for sandbags to fill with candy), twine or rope and large 20” or larger helium filled balloon.
How to make: Use scissors to cut off the bottom of your laundry basket. If the edges are sharp where the plastic has been cut, use high-grit sandpaper to smooth them out. Spray paint the laundry basket (gold or brown). Tie two pieces of twine from the front of your basket to the back of your basket to act as shoulder straps to hold the basket up at your child’s waist level. You may want to have the child stand in the basket and hold it up while you measure out the length of twine so that you can cut it to the best length. Tie the balloon to the basket. Tie “sandbags” to the sides to store candy.
Campfire Costume:
Supplies: Orange, yellow and red felt, red shirt, brown fabric, neutral-colored pants, 2 pool noodles, brown duct tape, brown packing tape, hot glue, cotton batting, gray paint, headband.
How to make: Cut flame shapes out of orange, yellow and red felt. Hot glue them in layers onto an old red shirt. Then glue a strip of brown fabric along the base of the flames. Cut pool noodles in half vertically and then into smaller logs. Cover some of the logs with brown duct tape and others with brown packing tape. Hot glue the logs onto the brown fabric at various angles. Cut a smoke shape out of stiffened felt, hot glue on cotton batting and dab on some gray paint. Glue the smoke onto a headband.
Rubik’s Cube
Supplies: Square Box (16 x 16 or larger), construction or craft paper in green, blue, orange, yellow and red, craft glue, scissors, black electrical tape.
How to make: Cut holes for the head and arms in a square box. Cut the flaps off the open end so that child can pull the finished cube over head. With craft glue, glue four 8 1/2 by 11-inch sheets of green paper to one side. Repeat with blue, orange, yellow and red paper on other sides. (You may need more if you use a larger box than we did.) Then create the squares with black electrical tape.
