Homemade Halloween Costume a Child Can Make on a Budget - Pizza Slice

With Halloween costumes costing from $5 to well above $50, you might want to suggest to your tween to make his or her costume. You can set a spending limit and see where their imagination will take them. If you have left over material or even cardboard, you will want to let your tween know what is available to them.

Cardboard boxes can usually be found at appliance stores for free. There are several in Titusville. Appliance Direct is on US1, Applianceville on Hopkins Ave., and you can check at Lowe's on Cheney Highway for free boxes. The top of the cardboard where the head and arms will go through, needs to be larger than the bottom. Depending on how tall your tween is they will be able to use a washer, dryer, dishwasher, or even small refrigerator box without adding extra cardboard.

Make the hole for the head and the arms first. Try to leave the box complete around the shoulder area so you do not have to find a way of keeping the cardboard up. Once the head and arm holes are finished, the hard part begins. The sides of the box can be cut completely off or you can leave the sides of the box as wind protection for when your tween goes out at night.

Before making any cuts on the box, have your tween draw the shape that he or she wants the front and the back to look like. Then, make your cuts. If your tween wants to cut the sides off, do that before cutting the front and back. It will make it easier to cut the front and back if the sides are removed first. After cutting the triangle representing the pizza slice, color the front of the box with pizza toppings. The back of the box can be left as plain cardboard to represent the bottom of the pizza slice.

If your tween would like the look of a layered pizza, you can suggest gluing material or construction paper decorations to the box. Let your tween choose the colors of the material or construction paper and have him or her cut out what they want to use. They can even mix materials. They could have a solid cream sheet as cheese and use construction paper for the pepperoni. Be sure to make the decorations large, or proportioned, to the pizza slice size for a more realistic look.

Once the toppings are added to the pizza slice, try the costume on. Your tween will want to model it to make sure he or she can wear it for Halloween.

This is a project that you can work together on closely or just collaborate with them and be there if they need you. As a parent, my advice is to let them do what they can do with their costume. You will be helping them to build self confidence and self worth, even if the costume does not "turn out" as they had hoped or wanted.