by Gail Kavanagh

Created on: August 11, 2009

Want to wear the scariest Halloween costume on the block this year? You can be everyone's worst nightmare by dressing up as a killer clown. All you need are some thrift shop clothes, and some home made clown make up.

Get a cheap clown wig from a dollar shop, or make your own by punching holes in a plastic swim cap and threading through loops of brightly colored yarn. Use crazy clown colors like shocking pink, orange, fire engine red or green.

For the rest of your costume just head for the thrift shop and buy the biggest boots, pants and shirt that you can find. The pants should be at least twice your size, and the shirt can be in any clashing colors you like, such as a Hawaiian shirt.

To make your clown pants really stand out, you need to sewn another waistline inside the existing one. If there is a facing, you may just be able to open it up. You need a tube through which you can push wire or stiff plastic beading to make the top of the pants stiff and circular. You can use a hula hoop, cutting it in one place, threading it through and then taping up the break again.

A pair of braces will hold your clown pants up, but if you can get any, make braces with heavy grosgrain tape instead.

Paint your big old boots a crazy clown color with acrylic paint and cover them with dots or stick on flowers. If they need soling or the uppers are separating from the sole, so much the better.

Now for your clown make up. No need to rush off and buy expensive greasepaint. Some simple ingredients and old bright cosmetics will do. First make your clown face white base. Just mix half a cup of cornstarch with a quarter cup of white shortening until you get a thick paste. Stir in a few drops of glycerin to make it slide on easily and cover your face with the white base. Apply it so it streaks and you will look great.

Now gather up some old cosmetics or buy some cheap eye shadows, eye pencils and lipsticks from the dollar shop. Every clown face is unique, so design your own.

Make heavy eyebrows with a black pencil or kohl, use grey eye shadow to make your eyes look like sockets. Use the brightest reddest lipstick you can find to paint on a big scary clown mouth. You can paint your nose or get a plastic clown nose from a party shop to wear.

A killer clown needs one final touch. Mix up some fake blood using corn syrup and red food coloring and splatter it over your clown clothes. Now grab a blood spattered rubber axe and have a real three ring circus of a night as the scariest killer clown out there!

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