Halloween is fast-approaching, and you haven’t finalized the kids’ costume plans yet? NO WORRIES! I haven’t either. We’re right now having the yearly battle over whether they can be something ridiculously scary or not (I say NO), or whether they should dress up as something creative and fun. Whatever they decide, I know they’re starting to prefer store-bought costumes over my homemade Halloween creations. But just in case, I’ve whipped up a list of 5 fast, easy DIY costumes made with a cardboard box and just a few other household items. I’m not sure any of my kids will dress up as these this year, but hopefully you’ll love these ideas and be inspired to make one of these easy DIY costumes.

The Night Table:

WHAT YOU NEED: cardboard box, scissors, lamp shade, string, night table props such as a remote control or a book, cloth

HOW TO: Leave the bottom of the box open. Cut a hole in the top for head/body to go through, and cut arm holes wherever they will be most comfortable. Cover the box with a cloth of your choice (it can be a blanket. an old shirt, old sheet, table cloth, etc.) and cut holes that match up with holes in the box. Place props on the box, and secure them with tape. Have your child get into the costume. Place a lampshade on his head, and then secure it like a party hat with a string around his chin.

Ta-da! An easy, fast DIY costume using simple stuff you likely already have around the house.

Night table DIY Halloween costume

The Rubik’s Cube:

WHAT YOU NEED: cardboard box, scissors, colorful construction paper, black electrical tape, transparent tape or glue stick

HOW TO: Leave the bottom of the box open. Cut a hole in the top for the head to go through, and arm holes on the side panels. Cover the box with a variety of colored paper, adhered to the box with tape or glue. Overlap the papers as needed so they appear in square shapes rather than rectangle. Use black electrical tape to create the grid of black lines that separate the colored squares.

That’s it! Soooo easy! My boys have used this costumer more than once, and it gets so many “Wow!” looks and comments each time.

The Fish Tank:

WHAT YOU NEED: cardboard box, scissors, blue construction paper, cut-out shapes such as fish or a treasure chest or bubbles, clear packing tape, transparent tape or glue stick

HOW TO: Leave the bottom of the box open. Cut a hole in the top for the head to go through, and arm holes on the side panels. Cover the box with blue construction paper, adhered to the box with tape or glue. Adhere a variety of fish tank-related cut-out shapes to the box with tape or glue, for example, a construction paper cutout fish, treasure chest, etc. Draw the details on if desired (e.g. eyes, stripes, whatever!) Cover the whole box with clear packing tape to help everything stay in place and to make the box look shiny/watery.

Again – so easy peasy!

Rubik’s Cube and Fish Tank

The Tissue Box:

WHAT YOU NEED: cardboard box, scissors, transparent tape, wrapping paper, white tissue paper. If you want to make a logo for the box, you’ll need a magic marker, piece of paper, and an ipad or computer to see what the logo looks like and/or to trace it

HOW TO: Leave the bottom of the box open. Cut a hole in the top for the head to go through, and arm holes wherever they are comfortable. Cover the box with wrapping paper, adhering it to the box with tape. Cut holes to match the head and arm holes. Tape on the brand logo if desired. Put child in costume. Insert a few pieces of white tissue paper around the child’s head, to look like tissues.

This one literally took less than 10 minutes to put together ... perfect for a last-minute Halloween party invite!

Achoo!

The Bathtub:

I know what you’re thinking. Wow, this M.O.B. Truths lady is so Pinterest Perfect. HAHAHAHAHA! I know, I know, you’re not thinking that at all. And in case you needed more proof, in addition to the toothbrush costumer fail from last year, here’s this year’s great idea gone wrong. I know you can perfect this one, though ... so I’m sharing it for inspiration.

WHAT YOU NEED: cardboard box, scissors, stuff that can look like water in a tub (bubble wrap with the big bubbles may have been ideal, but I didn’t have any, so I used a blue polka dot sheet and some air poofy packing stuff from an Amazon package), bath stuff like a bottle of shampoo, bar of soap, washcloth and a fun rubber duckie. Also — the part I didn’t master — have something you can make shoulder straps out of, to hold the bathtub up. And, optional: I covered the box with white paper and added some texture lines with crayon to try to make it look like marble. If you have time, some wrapping paper could work, or even wallpaper samples or something like that to make it look more bath-like.)

HOW TO: This time, leave the open side of the box facing up. Cut a hole in the bottom for the body to go through. No arm holes needed this time. Cover the box with paper or decorative paper to make it look bath-like (optional.) Create shoulder straps that connect the front and back edges of the box and go over the shoulders like suspenders. I did not get a chance to do this part! Costume fail! I think ribbon or fabric or real suspenders could easily work. Put the child in the costume. Fill in the box with bath-like stuff — something to look like water, and then various bath props like rubber duckies and shampoo, etc.

For fun, you could add a little bubble machine for the child to carry, or rest it in the box so bubbles come flying out of the tub during trick-or-treating! If you try this costume, please send me a picture! I didn’t get to bring this one to completion as well as I had imagined it in my head! It still counts as a super-easy, fast, DIY cardboard box Halloween costume, though!

Pinterest fail.

Happy fall, Happy trick-or-treating, Happy costume-creating with these easy DIY costumes, and Happy Halloween!

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