3 Halloween Costume Ideas on a Budget

With Halloween around the corner, panic starts to set in for parents across the UK as to what to dress their kids up as, whether it’s for a party or a night of Trick or Treat. If you’re facing this position and are looking to do it on a budget, read on. We’ve put together three great Halloween costume ideas that can be made at home and used for kids and adults of all ages.

 

We’re kicking off with just about the cheapest and easiest Halloween costume there is – the ghost. It may be a bit of an old classic but we love it nonetheless, it’s perfect if you haven’t got much time and just need to get a costume put together in minutes. 

 

Making a Ghost Halloween Costume

• Find an old white sheet and place it over the person that will be wearing the costume. 
• Ensure it’s fairly centred and carefully mark where the eyes are with a felt tip pen, together with where the sheet meets the ground and emove the sheet. 
• Then cut out two small holes (around 10cm in diameter) which are elliptical in shape and drape the sheet back over the person so you can make sure they can see out of them. Cut off any material required at the bottom as well, ideally as jagged as possible.
• If you’re worried about the sheet slipping off when worn, find an old hat and pin it to the inside of the sheet. This will enable the person to wear the hat, which then has the sheet fixed in place over it

 

That’s it – your done with the main ghost costume and now just have to team it up with some white tights/leggings/tracksuit bottoms and white trainers. Fake blood can be flicked on to the costume to add some additional effects, together with black face paint around the eyes for a truly ghouly look.

 

 

 

The Alien Halloween costume certainly isn’t as easy to make as the Ghouly Ghost costume idea, but it does look fab and isn’t that much extra work, you’ll just need to allow some more time. You’ll need an old pair of pyjamas (a onesie may also work), together with paper Mache paste, old newspaper, a balloon, elastic and some spray paint.

 

Making an Alien Halloween Costume

• First of all make up a paper Mache paste in a small bowl and rip up your newspaper into fairly even strips (around 5 cm in width).
• Blow up your balloon (it’ll need to cover your face) and use some selotape to fix it to a table.
• Next start placing strips of the newspaper covered in the paper Mache paste on to the outside of the balloon, the smoother the better.
• It’s best to cover the entire balloon so you have two sides (only one will be needed) in case you have issues with one of the masks – i.e. you mess it up.
• Leave to dry and then pop the balloon inside using a small pin. Using scissors or a sharp knife cut the mask exactly in half
• You can now hold the mask up against the face of the person who will be wearing it and mark the eye holes, before cutting them out.
• Trim off any excess so you have an alien-shaped mask – it’s now time to paint and the easiest thing to use is a can of green or silver spray paint.
• Leave the paint to dry and you should then be left with your alien face mask.

 

To finish the outfit, the person wearing it should use one-piece pyjamas that are green or silver, or plain trousers and a long sleeved t-shirt of matching colours.  You also want to team it up with matching gloves and socks if possible to complete the look. The mask can be attached with some elastic and you should use facepaint of the same colour to hide the skin colour underneath.  If you want to take it to the next level, spray paint an old water pistol and add a shiny silver badge to the front of the outfit (kitchen foil backed on cardboard will suffice).

 

 

 

The Zombie Halloween costume idea can take many forms, which makes it perfect if you are just looking to use what you have lying at the back of the wardrobe, together with face paints. It’s brilliantly simple and the time aspect is really on your art skills for creating that zombie look.

 

Making a Zombie Halloween Costume

• Dig deep in your wardrobe (or the wardrobe of the person who the costume will be for) to find old clothes, ideally with long sleeves or bottoms. Don’t worry if the clothing has rips in it already – the key is to find clothing that isn’t too vibrant in colour.
• With the selected pieces of clothing, get your scissors out and start slicing out large gashes at the cuffs and very bottom of the trousers. You can also rip off the bottom of one trouser leg below the knee for a bigger impact.
• Try the costume on for size and see if any further cuts need to be made to make it appear that the sleeves and legs have been ripped.

 

Your basic zombie costume is now nearing completion – the final step is to add some fake blood across it, together with some blood flicks around the cuts you’ve made. Then apply the face paint (using dark colours) to give the costume wearer a deathly look, dark around the eyes with blood trickling down the face from gashes. Coloured contact lenses also make a great final touch if you want to really stand out, and then just make sure the classic zombie walk is adopted at all times to pull the outfit off and make other people watching think they’re truly in a horror film.