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When choosing your Halloween costume, why not take the opportunity to reuse and recycle? Look around the house for clothes and supplies for a cool costume, and get crafty. Can you come up with an amazing get-up without buying anything new?
Send us your ideas for creating a terrific disguise constructed completely of reused materials.
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At our house, we re-use paper plates on a regular basis. The rule is: if it can wash off easily with water, it does not go in the trash. My 10 year old daughter uses cardboard, soda cans, newspapers (almost anything that most people call trash) to make doll houses or dioramas, and she cuts up her clothes that don’t fit her anymore to make clothes for her dolls or stuffed animals.
October 17th, 2007 at 10:15 am
I have made my husband’s and my costumes since we started dating. I’ve amassed a ton of things from thrift stores, and have always put together the coolest things. Last year, Halloween fell 3 weeks after our wedding, so I thought it wouold be funny to dress up as a corpse bride and groom. For my husband, we used a suit a friend had given us that never quite fit him, and I put black and white face paint on him. For my veil, I found an old lace tablerunner, and soaked it in tea so that it looked old and ancient. My bouquet consisted of dead flowers from the yard that I cut the petals off of, and my dress was an old bridesmaid gown. We even ended up winning the door prize for best couple! The best inspirations usually come from what is going on in your life at the moment.
October 17th, 2007 at 4:17 pm
Start using regular dishes again. Paper plates cost more in the long run and create more landfill waste.
October 18th, 2007 at 4:56 am
Costume idea (CLOTHESLINE-2 posts)
You need a partner for this, brother, sister, friend.
1. You both either dress in all solid dark brown(head to feet) Head is a brown knitted ski hat- just your eyes are shown.
2. You get a 5 foot piece of clothes line and you hang clothes on it with wooded clip clothes pins, hang socks, boxer shorts, tshirt, (BE CREATIVE WITH WHAT YOU HANG ON THE LINE)
3. Wrap the rope ends around your waist
4 walk close together and then when it is time to display , spread apart.
Enjoy
October 18th, 2007 at 5:29 am
The little plastic containers that baby food comes in are the perfect size for holding leftover halves of lemons, onions, etc. and perfect for holding lunchbox snacks like raisins, trailmix, etc. Besides helping the environment, reusing these containers saves me money that I would otherwise spend buying small storage containers.
October 18th, 2007 at 6:11 am
Your suggestion to recycle something you currently have for a costume brought back so many memories. When I was growing up, we never bought Halloween costumes. We always used whatever we had on hand – from Mom’s make-up stash, to Mom & Dad’s closet, to old work clothes, to old bed sheets. We usually ended up wearing a string mop wig and one year even wore Dad’s hip waders! We had the best time coming up with costumes and never spent a penny. Thanks for reminding me of those wonderful times!
October 18th, 2007 at 7:04 am
Making paper mache masks are a great way to use up old newspapers, paper bags, plastic bags, and pieces of cardboard that are lying around your house waiting to be recycled. You can use some inexpensive clay to create a mold of an animal, spirit, or any creature you desire, about the size of your face. You can use an old plastic bag to cover the clay once you have molded it into your desired creature. Then you can paper mache strips of paper bag or ripped cardboard over the plastic bag and onto the mold (3 layers creates a stronger mask). Water and corn startch can be mixed to make the paper mache paste. Let it dry, then seperate the plastic bag from the mask, and you have yourself a Halloween costume!
October 18th, 2007 at 7:47 am
My idea is to tie a bunch of empty cans to a string attached to your waist, put a just married sign on your back, dress in all black, and go as a Just Married Vehicle leaving a wedding.
October 18th, 2007 at 8:11 am
In keeping with the green theme, here’ s punny costume idea. When complete you will be MIXED GREENS WITH DRESSING ON THE SIDE!!
1. Dress in ALL the green clothing you have (green shorts – over green capris – over green pants – tucked into green socks – worn over green shoes or slippers – with a green t-shirt over a green turtle neck – and green gloves). If you really want to go all out, cover your face and hands in green eyeshadow (everyone has some in their old cosmetics drawer!)
2. Take a bottle of salad dressing (365 is a good choice) and trace its shape onto the back of a piece of white scrap paper. Then cut out this shape.
3. Soak the salad dressing bottle in warm water until the label slides off.
4. Glue the label onto the paper bottle.
5. Attach this labeled bottle to your side with a clothespin.
VOILA!! YOU ARE MIXED GREENS WITH DRESSING ON THE SIDE.
This costume won’t get shrieks from being scary, but it will get groans from being punny.
October 18th, 2007 at 9:12 am
Being a college student, I NEED to use my imagination for a costume because I can’t afford one otherwise. So, last year I wore a robe of mine that had a slight Asian patter, then folded a black scarf around my waist, so that it was at its widest. I wore flip-flops with socks, put chopsticks in the bun in my hair, and drew my eyeliner to make my eyes look Asian. Voila…a Japanese geisha.
October 18th, 2007 at 9:58 am
I made a costume for my little girl using a brown paper bag from the grocery store, gluing cotton balls to cover it entirely (you can even recycle ones that are used if they are sanitary or not discolored), and fastening her little white or gray tube socks to a headband for the ears. She was the cutest little lamb!
October 18th, 2007 at 11:43 am
As a kid, I went through an “elephant” phase where everything had to be elephants. For Halloween, my mother dressed me up in my father’s grey work socks on both arms and legs, put me into a grey sweatsuit and made a nose out of eggshell cartons. If you cut each egg section out, then affix them together in a pile, it will create a long, thin “trunk”. This can be attached to a child’s face using string or whatever is available. I loved that costume!
October 18th, 2007 at 12:24 pm
Last year my husband was the “main course” on a table…we used an old cardboard box and cut a hole through the center…I covered it with an old tablecloth and used ketchup to create “blood” stains…he stuck his head up through the hole up to his neck, and I decorated around it with apples, grapes, etc – I even used old paper plates to create “place settings” and I was the mad chef serving his head…wore an old white smock, chef hat and carried around a knife – we won several prizes at parties last year!
October 18th, 2007 at 12:35 pm
Don’t throw out that cracked laundry basket! Cut out the bottom for your legs, use old neckties to make suspenders to hold it up. Put an old wrinkled shirt on one arm, secure a orphaned sock on your head, lay more clothes over the edge of the basket and your costume is “Laundry”!
October 18th, 2007 at 1:38 pm
My kids had a blast this year making their costumes out of cardboard and some paint that we already had on hand. They made “sandwich-board” costumes – a panel for their front and a panel for their back – and painted them to look like the front & back of a mustard bottle (my daughter) and a ketchup bottle (my son). It was a fun and cost-free project, and all the detailed painting was great for tuning their fine motor skills. Plus it kept them busy and creative and away from the TV.
October 18th, 2007 at 1:43 pm
A cute recycling conscious costume for kids is a Lego man.
Large box that fits around child’s body to the waist.
Solid colored sweatpants and shirt
Margarine tubs
Cut a hole for head and arms in the box.
Glue margarine tubs upside down in a lego pattern on both sides of the box.
Paint the box and tubs the color of your sweats and viola! You’re a lego…
October 18th, 2007 at 1:43 pm
wine bottles make real cool garden edges. check out hong kong willie a artist lived the life green.
http://hongkongwillie-preservationist.blogspot.com/2007/10/hong-kong-willie-in-news-green-shopping.html
http://www.hongkongwillie.com
October 18th, 2007 at 4:47 pm
A potato sack which can be used as a top for a costume, with the hole for the neck and arm holes and then paint it with watercolors in a mosaic pattern. For a belt use an old necktie. For the pants a batik material and you are set to go.
October 18th, 2007 at 4:52 pm
Crafty Costumes
I had an early Halloween Party and I bought a super old dress at a Thrift store for $2.00. It had poofy sleeves and shoulder pads so I cut them out and turned it into an off the shoulder dress. I also cut up the ruffles on the bottom as my character was dead.
If you don’t want to buy new makeup if you have sunscreen at home with zinc oxide that stuff’s pretty thick and if you don’t rub it in too much you can use that for the dead look. I also took old white stockings and wore old fishnets over them and put holes in the fishnets. Finish with a necklace you don’t care about, high heels and grey or dark eyeshadow under the eyes and on lips with a hint of red over it and you are an undead prom girl.
I love going to thrift stores for Halloween cause you are in essence recycling plus I got to turn a kind of conservative frumpy dress into something sexy with only a pair of scissors. The trick was finding a good color something kind of bright to contrast with your skin.
October 18th, 2007 at 5:49 pm
My favorite costume requires only scraps of aluminum foil–either tape the scraps you’ve collected together or wrap a roll around you (to be recycled or used later), and you’re the TIN MAN!
October 18th, 2007 at 8:42 pm
Last year, my seven year old wanted to be a genie. This was accomplished without buying a thing. A very colorful tablecloth was folded (too hard too explain how) and tied at the waist to become billowy genie pants. He wore a blue, long-sleeved tee shirt, and we wrapped a very long, purple scarf around his waist like a cummerbund. I cut a short vest out of a light yellow pillow case (no longer using the pillow case because of a rip in it) and sewed shiny green satin ribbon around the edge of it. The ribbon was recycled from a gift. Finally, we made a turban out of a strip of old white sheet, and put a great big costume jewelry pin in it as the “jewel” in the center. My son looked great, and it felt really good to have created something special with only the materials we had on hand.
October 18th, 2007 at 9:43 pm
go as a scarecrow. get some old clothes in a couple sizes too large (a plaid shirt might do well–holes nor stains matter, in fact it’s better that way), wear them over your own clothes, stuff them with newspaper to fill them up, with some straw coming out the cuffs and various places (any old easter basket or gift basket grass might work too). use twine as a belt, some make-up on your face to look like stitches, and voila. it’s seasonal, too. if you’re real daring, put a detached broom handle through your sleeves (that should get tiring after a while).
although, if you want SCARY, get your nicest professional clothes on, suit or suit skirt outfit, mostly black, and borrow a black briefcase. if anyone asks you “what are you supposed to be” say you’re an IRS agent. everyone will say “that is the scariest costume i’ve ever seen!” Guaranteed.
October 18th, 2007 at 10:11 pm
One great idea is taking the plastic tops from yogurt and place them slightly over each other like fish scales, glue them onto a large black garbage bag, which then become fitted to your body, and voila, you are now a mermaid!
October 18th, 2007 at 10:23 pm
My son will be using his DASH pajama for his costume this year. I will be making a mask for him cut-out from a black art paper and and make two small holes on each end and tie the two rubber bands on each side. And her sister will borrow her God mother’s scrub for her outfit. So just dig into your cabinet, garage and hidden chest box. Enjoy and be safe.
October 19th, 2007 at 12:44 am
2 years ago, I found a bright red, sparkly Christmas tree skirt at a yard sale. We don’t have a Christmas tree (we’re Jewish), but I thought it would make a great Halloween costume. My daughter threw it over her shoulders, tied a red piece of cloth around her waist, used a basket and a bandana that we already had at home, and became the most wonderful Little Red Riding Hood ever. And I did not have to buy anything new in a store!
October 19th, 2007 at 2:37 pm
My mom used to make the greatest costumes….
I was a eastern Indian lady….a length of material fashioned into a sari & a red lipstick dot on my farhead…..
a hobo was another…an old sport coat with patches sewn on, large pants held up with a piece of rope & the handle from the plunger with a bandana attached….then Mom burnt a cork to make my face look dirty….I won 3rd place with this one!
October 22nd, 2007 at 1:29 pm
My mom used to make the greatest costumes….
I was a eastern Indian lady….a length of material fashioned into a sari & a red lipstick dot on my farhead…..
a hobo was another…an old sport coat with patches sewn on, large pants held up with a piece of rope & the handle from the plunger with a bandana attached….then Mom burnt a cork to make my face look dirty….I won 3rd place with this one!
October 22nd, 2007 at 1:29 pm
Like many people we use the trunk of our car to store clothing for the dry cleaner. In a plastic bag from your favorite cleaner stow soiled shirts, sweaters, suits, written instructions for repairs, etc. When your arrive at the dry cleaning store you have all the soiled clothes in a re-used clear plastic bag. No rush & no forgetting. When you return home with the clean clothes, take off the metal hangers and put on wooden ones in your closet. Pile up these metal hangers along with the claim check for what you dropped off in a clean clear bag supplied by the cleaners and repeat the process. Waste is minimized, no missed items & your hard working dry cleaner gets to re-use the clean metal hangars.
January 6th, 2008 at 1:38 am