Halloween Costumes

Halloween costumes are a great opportunity to be creative and let loose. Whether you're looking for laughs, screams or blushing cheeks, you can get exactly the response you want. Purchased and rented costumes can be expensive, though. Luckily, it's easy to make lots of costumes yourself with items you already have or can find cheap. Check out the local Halloween store for ideas, or try some of these tried-and-true outfits and clever suggestions.

Traditional

Hobo. Another standard is the hobo/tramp, because it's usually pretty easy to find the pieces you need already in your home. Old clothes, particularly with rips or stains, that you might normally use to do yardwork, etc., are the base. Then just dress up the outfit with accessories. Use a little face paint or makeup to make your face look dirty. Cut the fingers out of old gloves and wear them. Use a piece of rope for a belt. Tie a bandana to the end of a stick and stuff it like you're carrying your worldly possessions, and come up with a clever sign to carry.

Hippie. For a hippie, you can start with jeans and sandals, but the look will really flesh out with your shirt, accessories and attitude. Wear a shirt that's tie-dyed or take a white shirt and paint a peace symbol on the front. Wear a headband that goes across your forehead (not the type that sits on top of your head). Wear a flower in your hair, and if it's long enough, braid it. If you have bead necklaces, layer however many you have, and most of all, flash the peace sign with your fingers all evening. Sell it!

Creative

• Dress as a cat (wear inexpensive store-bought or handmade cat ears on a headband, whiskers drawn on your face with eyeliner, and a simple fabric tail), and carry a bag filled with items you've supposedly pilfered. If you're at a party, periodically (where people will see you) "steal" something.
• Dress all in black with a mask across your eyes and carry a flashlight, like a traditional burglar, and carry a pillow case or sack filled with stuffed animal cats you've "burgled."

Dr Pepper. The base for this costume is hospital scrubs or regular clothes with a white doctor's-style coat. You then decorate the base outfit by making cut-outs of red chili peppers and pining or gluing them all over the scrubs or coat. For an added clue to the costume, make a fake hospital ID or nametag with the name "Dr Pepper." If you want to pay a few bucks for some doctor accessories, most places selling costumes will have some inexpensive medical accessories, like a plastic stethoscope, that you can buy either separately or in a package.

Cereal killer. This requires a small purchase, but you can eat it later. Buy a multi-pack of small single-serve cereals. Empty the boxes. Cut holes in the boxes and use red paint or marker to paint "blood" trickling from the stab-holes. Either string the boxes together and wear them like a belt (like a witch doctor would wear the heads he's shrunken) or hang them from your belt, clothes, etc. Then carry a fake knife of some kind - either a kid's pirate outfit accessory or a simple cut-out you make. If you don't care about your shirt, you can smear some of the fake blood on your shirt, too.

Iron Chef. For this costume, the base is a white shirt or jacket buttoned all the way up and black pants, but it's the accessories that make the outfit. Make a chef's hat (instructions below) and carry an iron. You're an iron chef! To make the chef's hat, you'll need a piece of white cardboard, white tissue paper and tape. Here's how to put it all together:

• Take a piece of white cardboard or paper and cut a band 3-4 inches high. Wrap the band around to create the base of the hat. Tighten the band to fit your hand, overlapping the ends slightly, then cut off the extra. Fasten the ends with tape.
• Create the top of the hat by billowing the tissue paper out of the top of the band. Create the shape you want with the paper, cut off any excess that comes out of the bottom of the band, then tape to the inside of the band.

Do you have a great idea for a fun and frugal Halloween costume?

What's the easiest, most fun or most clever idea you've ever had for a homemade Halloween costume? Tell us about it, and while you're at, show us a photo!

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