by Gail Kavanagh

Created on: July 20, 2008

You don't have to buy or hire expensive ready made Halloween costumes for your kids, you can have lots more fun coming up with cheap costume ideas from things you have around the house. Try these for size:

Pebbles Flintstone Costume

Take a chicken thigh bone and soak it in a weak bleach and eater solution for a few hours. Scrub the bone well with a nailbrush and soapy water. Dry in a slow oven.

Take one green t-shirt and cut a small slit in the front from the neck down. Using a black laundry marker, draw small arrows all over the t-shirt. Team this with blue shorts or a blue diaper to make Pebbles' outfit.

Brush the child's hair up onto the top of her head and secure in a bunch with a hair elastic. Thread the dry bone through the hair elastic.

Now you have one very cute Pebbles Flintstone!

CREEPY SPIDER

Boys love this costume. The basic costume is a black sleeved sweatshirt and sweat pants with black shoes. Put on black woollen gloves and make sure there is no flesh showing between gloves and sleeves. Cover the head with a black balaclava. You can paint the face black with child's greasepaint.

Now take two pairs of opaque black tights and stuff them with newspaper. Tie the tights together and pin them to the back of the black sweatshirt.

A cute but scary touch is a pair of `goggle eye' glasses with the eyeballs hanging off on springs.

Skunk

You will need the black sweats, balaclava and gloves from the spider costume. Using white acrylic paint draw a stripe down the center of the black balaclava and down the center back of the black sweatshirt. Cut a large flat tail out of a sheet of black card (or a piece of black fake fur for a great look!) and paint a white strip down the middle. Pin or sew this to the bottom of the sweat shirt at the back.

Attach claws to the fingertips of the gloves and the black shoes by cutting claw shapes out of cardboard and gluing them in place. Now hang your trick or treat collection bag on a pole so people can stand well back in case your `skunk' decides to add his own touch of realism!

The Hunchback of Notre Dame

For the costume you will need a pair of green tights or sweat pants, and a medieval style over sized shirt. Scour the charity shops for something that looks right a brown man's shirt will do.

To make the hunch, fill a back pack with crumpled paper and slip the arms through the straps then put the shirt on over the back pack.

For medieval boots, draw round the shape of the child's foot into strong cardboard, drawing a long point out from the toes. Stuff the card soles into a pair of knee length black or brightly colored socks and curl the point of the cardboard up.

Sew bells on the costume and around the top of the socks.

The Head on a silver platter costume

Take a large cardboard box, and cut out holes for your child's head and arms to fit through. Cut a matching head hole in a plastic table cloth and glue it over the box. Cut another matching head hole in a large circle of silver card stock (or the largest silver colored paper plate you can find, and glue it round the head hole in the box, over the tablecloth. Glue a few plastic fruits and vegetables to the plate.

With these cheap costume ideas, your child is sure to be the hit of Halloween!

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