11 Halloween Costume Hacks for Easy Costume Making

Halloween should be a stressless night, and your costume should be, too. If you are low on time or just want to amp up a costume you already have, here are some awesome Halloween costumes.

Shadow

For a unique but simple costume, cover yourself in a black morphsuit and layer all black clothing on top. You will look like someone’s shadow.

Fake Blood with Makeup

You can create your own fake blood with makeup you probably already own. Slice off some red lipstick and mix in with clear lip gloss or vaseline. Add a drop or two of black eyeliner. Mix until you have the desired color and consistency.

Recycled Jet Pack

Apply silver paint to two empty liter soda bottles. Hot glue or duct tape the bottles together. Cut black felt shoulder straps and attach them to the bottles. Make sure the mouths of the bottles are facing down. Glue red streamers to the mouth of each bottle for the flames. You can add galaxy print clothes for an outer space theme or use this to compliment a costume for a fictional character that uses a jetpack (Jimmy Neutron, anyone?).

Yarn Animal Tail

Choose acrylic yarn in the color you want for your costume. Take a bunch of the yarn and braid it together, about 2/3 of the way down. Knot it so some loose strands hang out. Brush out the ends with a pet brush to fluff out the end. You can tie smaller bundles of yarn together, brush them out, and tie them to the notches in the braid for a fuller tail.

Angel Wings

For this, you’ll need a large piece of cardboard, scissors, hot glue and a lot of coffee filters. Cut out the wing shapes from the cardboard. Fold the coffee filters into triangles and glue to the back of the cardboard wings. Start from the bottom up to create a fuller look. You can paint the front of the wings (the part that will be touching your back) with white paint or glue hymn sheets for a heavenly touch.

Body Glitter

To add a little shimmer and shine to your costume, you can add body glitter. To get body glitter to stick and stay all night, use vaseline. Spread vaseline evenly over the area of skin you want to add glitter to, and then press the glitter in with a brush or with fingers.

Umbrella Jellyfish

The basis of this costume is an umbrella. You will also need streamers in your choice of color. Cut the streamers to the desired length and hot glue to the rim of the open umbrella. You can add ribbon or even string lights for a more detailed effect. Complete the look by wearing clothes in a color that match the streamers.

Zombie/Devil/Witch/Vampire Eye Makeup

This simple yet versatile eye makeup look can add an extra touch to almost any costume. Take your favorite black eyeshadow and apply it to your upper lid. Blend it all the way to your brow bone. Line the lower lid with the same eyeshadow and smoke it downwards. This will create a sunken eye effect.

Fishnet Scales

Take fishnet tights and place them over your face. Dust eyeshadow in any color over the tights to create a scale-like pattern. Use aqua colors for a mermaid or neutral tones to compliment a reptile costume.

Box of Crayons

Dress head-to-toe in one solid color. Find a matching colored pointy birthday party hat for cheap at a nearby store. This can easily become a group costume with all the colors of the rainbow.

Domino

Take a solid white t shirt you don’t care about and glue on black circles cut out of construction paper.