Halloween Costume ideas....HELP !!

One year I was a... laundry basket. My mom cut holes in the bottom of an old one for my legs, we tied ropes to go over my shoulders to hold it up and then stuffed clothes around me. My treat bag was an empty Tide box. We liked it, and it was inexpensive and creative! Just a little cumbersome....

I went as a dalmation one year. I got a white sweatsuit, black headband, and some fuzzy material and fabric paint. I cut ears and a tail from the fabric (in craft area) and sewed (or pinned) them to the headband and seat of the pants. I painted black patches on the sweatsuit. It was so easy, you could each do one and it would be a fun project to do together. I also had some black and white face paints and some black gloves for my paws.

Something that I did with my son when he was one was he was a Care Bear and I was dressed in PJs. So it looked as if he was my teddy bear. You could do the same idea except if she isn't into Care Bears she could be a Doll or Raggidy Anne. Hope this helps.

Here's a silly, VERY CHEAP idea: "Smarty Pants", just normal clothes and safety pin Smarties all over your pants. A friend of mine at work did this one year and I just thought it was such a clever idea! Have fun :)

Check out parents magazine online. They had some great ideas. You could go as bacon and eggs or as barbie and skipper (find a couple wigs or do your hair up glam and a couple jazzie outfits)

Some "go-together" ideas:
**A pirate and a parrot
**Cruella Deville and a dalmation puppy (101 Dalmations)
**A monkey (brown clothes, tail, and ears) and zookeeper (khaki-colored slacks and matching button-down shirt, "zookeeper" nametag, a khaki-colored hat with "ZOO" on it, a push broom if you like)
**A lion and liontamer (same kind of idea as above, add a "whip" and a chair made from cardboard)
**a dog and dogcatcher (similar as above, add a net)
**An ancient Egyptian (or Cleopatra) and a cat (and give the cat a jewelled collar)
**A monkey and banana (use foam)
**Peter Pan and Tinkerbell
**Tweety and Sylvester
**Clifford (the Big Red Dog) and Emily Elizabeth
**Cat in the Hat and the Fish (from the book "Cat in the Hat")
**a cat and mouse (or Tom and Jerry if you like)
**Alice in Wonderland and another well-known character, such as the Queen of Hearts, the Cheshire Cat, or the Rabbit
**a farmer and a farm animal (cow, pig, chicken, etc.)
**a mouse and cheese
**scarecrow and crow
**Miss Tuffet and a spider
**M & M package and one M & M candy

These next few may look a little funny since you'd be such different sizes, but could still be fun:

**A pair of "blue jeans" (blue clothes, blue face paint, nametags that say "My name is... Jean")
**Pair-o-dice (make dice costumes from cardboard or foam)
**Ketchup and Mustard (foam again, in red and yellow)
**"Yip-yip" aliens (remember them? yip yip yip, uh-huh, uh-huh!) from Sesame Street (although young kids may not have any clue who you're supposed to be, lol)

Hope that gives you some ideas!
--A.

How about Patrick Starfish and Spongebob Squarepants? Easy to make.

For you (Patrick), pink sweatsuit (about $10 at Walmart) and buy one extra pair of pants. Cut one of the legs off the spare pair. Slip it over your head pulling it as far down as you can with the gathered side pointing upward, at the top of your head. Cut an opening in the middle of the leg for your face and use pink face paint. Use a brown marker and color a belly button on the middle of the costume.

For your daughter (Spongebob), all you really need is a cardboard box big enough to fit over her. Cut a hole in the top for which you will slip over her head. Paint the top of the box yellow to about 3/4 of the way down, paint a black belt in the middle, and paint the bottom portion brown for the shorts. Once the yellow paint dries, use light gray paint for the sponge holes on body. Put her in fleshtone leotards, white socks and black shoes. If whe lets you, use yellow face paint for her face and neck and pull her hair back into a pony wrapping a yellow bandana around her head.

And Voila...!

Dress as M&M's.. I think I saw a green m&m costume on craigslist.

I had a friend who went to a party with her husband.
They were "the Jolly Green Giant" and "Sprout". (From the Veggies)
It was adorable!

Or maybe one of you a cowgirl and one a cow (or horse?)
(I did that one with my roommate in college one year...it was hysterical)

Or one is a bee or bug and the other, the Orkin man?

Get scrubs and a play stethoscope for one of you and a "hospital gown" for the other...viola...doc and patient.

You could be the "merry maids" and bring little vacuum cleaners or a bucket and sponge.

How about lil Bo Peep and her lil sheep...well lamb for you, haha. it would be so cute!!! have fun!

I did raggdy anne 4 myself!! I worked n a catholic school so I had 2 find sumthin I could go as but not scarry!! I bought my outfit at party city last year!! The pants r white so make sure u wear shorts or sumthing under it

Family Fun magazine had some great ones last year!

i especially loved the Sweet Cone http://jas.familyfun.go.com/crafts?page=CraftDisplay&...

and A Good Egg http://jas.familyfun.go.com/crafts?page=CraftDisplay&...

here is their full list if you would like to try something else http://familyfun.go.com/arts-and-crafts/season/specialfea...

how about Thing 1 and Thing 2 from Dr. Suess

My mom dressed up as a tooth fairy one year. She had a little stuffed tooth around her neck that she sewed and some kind of wings. Hmmm...that doesn't solve what to dress up your daughter as though. I know...you could dress up as a fairy and make your daughter into a giant tooth :)

Family Fun magazine/online has excellent resources & ideas. I have used this website for YEARS!

My younger son went as an autograph hound one year. We sewed patches onto a sweat suit & found a half-face dog mask (with floppy ears, no less!). I think he was in 1st grade when he did this & he really played it up! He then used the costume for pj's for the rest of the winter, & absolutely loved reading his friends signatures.

Go to familyfun.com they have great ideas!

My daughter is 7 and is going to be an artist--white oversized shirt I got at goodwill and a red berret. Add a paintbrush and we are good to go!

Good Morning,

One year my girls and I went out and bought plain white sweat suits and painted black dalmation spots on them - had a litter of puppies that way. Simple painting of nose and whiskers and the sweat suits were used for many months around the house after Halloween.

Happy Halloween!

N.

familyfun.com has some great idea's.

A really easy adult costume that is modest and child friendly is a dalmation...buy whit sweat pants and whit sweat shirt and use puffy paint or other fabric paint to make your spots in black. Then get a head band and buy some black felt and cut out ears and hot glue gun to the head band, make up can be as simple as just a nose drawn on with an eye brow pencil or eyeliner...Also relatively easy and using the same materials is a Dragon, buy green sweat pants and shirt buy green felt to make scales and sew on scales or use puffy/fabric paint. Maybe they are not that exciting but they are super easy and also not that expensive. The cutest halloween costume I ever made was a gingerbread man, I couldn't find brown sweats ( imagine that LOL ) but I was ablt to find a brown t shirtand brown leggings, I used big plastic gems from a craft store as the candy and I used shower/bath poofs in whits from the dollar store as icing.
You could go as princess's, you can find prom dresses etc at a thrift shop and then all you need is a tiara. I am just all about ease of prepration and also can't bare to spend a lot on something that will be worn once and maybe if you are lucky recycled for another halloween.
Good luck have fun = )
B.

The Family Fun website and magazine have some pretty cute family costume ideas. I believe the site is just familyfun.com . If nothing else you could always go back to the good old fashioned ghost sheet. No one does that anymore.
K.

You could go as a tree and an apple. :) Brown clothes for you with leafy branches tied/glued/otherwise attached around the back of your shoulders, and for her a big red sweatshirt stuffed with crumpled newspapers or stuffing. :)
My mom did that one year, except I was a peach. :)
A.

My daughter was a housewife once. It was super cute. We put Noxema on her face (do they still have Noxema?) and her hair in curlers with a shower cap on and a big fuzzy robe and slippers. We got rave reviews and it was SO easy...we already had everything we needed!

Good luck
Jenn

Someone already said M&Ms but you don't have to buy anything...you each need a sweatsuit in an M&Mish color and glue or pin a white felt "M" on the front. You could pass out M&Ms for treats too! If there is a costume contest, bribery works wonders! Total tangent but some friends dressed up like different holidays (baby new year, lepricon, etc.) one year at an adult party and passed out shots that matched their holiday...pretty easy to guess who won the contest that year!

Good Morning KL! What fun, how about both of you going as hobo's! Go to local good will store and look for over sized plaid shirts and baggy jeans, get a braided rope for a belt, you can smudge your faces with powdered eye shadow. A little kids broom with a rag bag tied at the end. Floppy straw hats etc.

Or how about Queen Momma & little Princess? you can look for evening wear at Goodwill also, I found a black flowing pants suit for a Murder mystery dinner we went to in Guthrie Ok was 5.00 total . Make it colorful not white.. lol

Good Luck, let us all know what you came up with. We might need some other good idea's too.

K. Nana of 5

If you look on familyfun.com they usually have a lot of good ideas that aren't typically hard to make. The magazine is always full of good ideas. It's one I've enjooyed for many years for party ideas, halloween themes, crafts and recipes.

Also, my kids and I have gone as Winnie the Pooh and Friends. I dressed as Christopher Robin (blue shorts with white knee socks and shirt with rain coat and they boys have been Pooh, Tigger and Eeyore. You could also go as cats (dress in black, make a tail and make or buy some ears, draw oon whiskers. We also did Blue's clues this way too, just in blue.

Good luck and God bless

Old Navy has cute kid costumes--they also look good and warm! Also, check garage sales. I'm going to the ones at Fort Leavenworth this weekend--all the military young families do a huge garage sale day!

Try going as butterflies. Buy some cheap white/cream fabric. I used muslin. Also some fabric paint. You will have a blast painting your wings together. And they can be ANY colors you want. Just safetey pin the wings down the senter of your backs. Iif you don't feel comfortable with that for her try sewing them on wit a few strands that can be cut off later. Also sew a loop at the end of the wings (with thread, a hair band or just a hole) you can put your middle finger through. You can wear all black (jeans or sweats or whatever. Attach some pipe cleaner to a head band for antennae and you are all set. I made this costume for myself years ago and it was a hit (and has been borrowed several times) and mom friends have duplicated it for their little ones. Wearing the wings is great fun. Good luck!

Get a brown sweat suit for the two of you and a brown headband. Make ears to attach to the headband (out of paper), a pouch to pin to the front of your shirt and a tail. You could be a kangaroo and Joey.

I had a teacher in school who always came dressed head to toe in pink and her face painted with pink makeup. She had a tennis shoe affixed to a headband that she wore on her head. Her costume?? She was gum under a shoe. We thought it was cute & funny every year. Not really a joint costume, but cute & clever non-the-less. Maybe your daughter could go as the wrapper? A little foil or silver lame' fabric would do the trick. Good luck and I hope you find a great idea here! Let us know!

The Good Witch from Wizard of Oz and a munchkin? That could be cute. The Smarty Pants idea is funny...can you imagine covering yourself in candy and going to a party with "lots of little kids"? LOL

One of the funniest costumes I've seen was a speed bump. A couple came dressed up in yellow sweat suits, they painted tire treads on the suits, like if a car went over them and then attached a couple of candy wrappers, a top to a soda cup and stuff like that. They also smuged some black stuff on their face and messed up their hair. Not a lot of black, just like if they touched something sootie and then wiped their face. It was comfy and funny.

Hi,
For my sons first halloween party we went to I dressed hin up as a chicken and I made myself an egg costume out of white felt like material and stuffed it with tulle I made it drawsting around my neck and around my legs, then cut out arm holes. I also made a hat out of the material to look like the egg had cracked open. We ahd a great ime and the big discussion about it was what came first the chicken or the egg. I am not sure where you live, but I would be happy to give you the egg costume. My e-mail is ____@____.com
Have fun at the party.

I love the idea of dressing up together. If you look at Disney they have costumes for you and kids. they minnie mouse or Tinker Bell. My mom dressed up with me as Minnie mouse when I was in preschool and I loved it. Hope that helps. Either that or just think of something else that is fun that your daughter enjoys like Hannah Montana or something like that. Hope that helps.
Good Luck and Have Fun

I haven't read all the other ideas so hope this wasn't already mentioned but what about Dorothy & Toto?

Good Morning! A couple of costume ideas are! Black cat! Wear a black shirt and black pants. Paint your nose pink and use black eyeliner to make whiskers. You can get the Ears and Tail at Walmart or Target for less than $10.00. For my daughter I used black tights and a long sleeve black leotard. It turned out really cute.

A couple of simple ideas I have done is a farm girl. Plaid shirt, overalls put your hair in pig tails and where some work boots or Roeper's if you have them. Also there is a construction worker. Same clothes basically except you can do jeans instead of overalls borrow a tool belt from some guy if you don't have one. If you have carpenter pants you can put a hammer in the loop and pliers in the pockets. Get a hard hat and your set.>>>>Good Luck J. C

Goodwill or another second hand shop. There should be military, 60s 70s 80s style clothes, plethora of ideas I usually find there.