Homemade Halloween

 This year, our 10 year old daughter Naomi was certain she wanted to be a dragon for Halloween.  Dragon costumes that are not for toddlers are hard to come by, and so I was nominated to create Naomi the costume she always wanted. 
    
     We lucked out by finding a dragon jumpsuit at Goodwill from and old "How To Train Your Dragon" costume, and it fit her!   It was missing wings and of course a head, so off to work I went.  I visited our ACE Hardware and collected some empty boxes for the shape and purchased 1 can of orange spray paint 1 can of black and a clearance can of yellow, just in case.  

Dragon head formed together from cardboard, foam padding and of course, red duck tape.

    The hardest part was cutting out card board and duck taping it together to resemble a dragon and or dinosaur head.   After this was accomplished, I taped in some padding I had laying around from past craft projects and works on making the structure not appear so cardboardish.   I then spent an hour spray gluing fabric (from an old t-shirt sheet) onto the card board to make it have a more reptile texture. 

     Waking up Halloween morning, the pressure was on, it was now time to paint the dragon head and pray it dried in time for some Trick-or-Treating!



Naomi supervised my spray painting skills



   I went over the entire head with orange first.  I then cut out a make shift stencil of the pattern on the jumpsuit we purchased from Goodwill.  While Naomi carefully moved the stencil around for me, I sprayed the head with the black, creating the textured scale look of the dragon.   I painted the eyes with the yellow I picked up and then came back in and hand painted the details on the eyes and shaded the entire head with the black.  The teeth were made by cutting the design out of poster board and staple gunning them in the mouth.  

    

    Finally, the wings were created in a last minute panic.  I had a set of orange pillow cases I ran out to the garage and sprayed some black details on with what was left of the black spray paint.  When we got to Grandma's, she helped me safety pin the  wings in place on the back of the arms of the jumpsuit.   I think it turned out so great, but more importantly, Naomi LOVED it! 

Eden as "Creepy Red Riding Hood"

In between paint jobs on the dragon head I stitched up our middle daughter, Eden's, Little Red Riding Hood Cape and through together some clothing she already had to finish her ensemble.  She wanted to be a creepy Red Riding and with some make up and fake tattoos she was completed. 

Ayda as Belle from Beauty and The Beast

Our sweet Ayda Grace found a dress at Goodwill that made a perfect Belle from Beauty and the Beast.  A fancy hairstyle and rose decals on her face made her the happiest princess around.  

When we finally hit the streets for some candy, Naomi discovered a hidden bonus feature in this costume.  The mouth piece had a bowl like shape in which she could throw candy right into the mouth of the dragon and store it there!   It was hilarious watching peoples reactions as she tossed the candy in.   Check out the video below of her doing this.