Space Shuttle

Blast off in this awesome costume!

What you need:

White Foam Board (approx 5 sheets)

Black Foam Board (1 sheet)

Exacto knife

Glue Gun

Black Duct tape

Black Permanent marker

Styrofoam cones

Black Spray Paint

Assembly:

Start off by finding a picture of a space shuttle.  You will likely learn more than you ever wanted to know about the contours of that machine!  Like any wheelchair costume, there will be some trial and error as you adapt the costume to work with your particular chair and child and it helped me to look at a few different ideas.

I started my making the sides of the shuttle.   Using two pieces of foam board, I played around with different ways to fit it between the sides of my son’s wheelchair and the wheels.  It was a little tight, but I finally settled on cutting a rectangular notch to secure the foam board over the brakes.  I also could have cut a notch to fit it over the axles, but felt it was secure enough over the axles.  I then trimmed the foam board down so that it would be low enough for my son would be able to reach his wheels.

I then cut a triangular wedge out of the top front end of each side to approximate the rounded contour of the front windows.  I measured and cut out another piece of white foam board to make the front window.  I secured it to each side with hot glue.  I made the black front window using the duct tape and wrapped it around a little to the sides.

The front nose was a little tricky.  I ended up cutting three triangles of black foam board.  Two of the triangles matched up the edge of the side of the shuttle and I then came together in the front.  The length of these triangles should be the distance that you want the nose cone to come out -  I suggest measuring for this step instead of eyeballing ;)  The third matched up the bottom of the front window and came down to meet the two triangles.  Using duct tape, I secured the side triangles first and the placed the top triangles.

Then I made the wings and rudder.   Initially, I made two fantastic to-scale wings that went almost the length of the shuttle.  However they would have blocked the wheels and part of the fun of having a space shuttle the ability to zoom around it in, so I had to drastically reduce their size so that they would fit behind the wheels.  (The little boy in my first inspiration picture looks like he was using a power chair, so long wings made perfect sense for his costume.)   Once I settled on a size, I decorated with black marker and NASA, USA and flag printouts.  For the rudder, I couldn't  think of a simple way to make the one rudder, so I settled on cutting out two trapezoids to approximate the look.  I colored in the details with the black marker and hot glued on.

The last step in the structure was to cut out a black piece for the back and secure it to the sides with duct tape.  I spray painted three styrofoam craft cones to make the after burners. I cut holes in the back piece and foam and secured with glue and duct tape.

I got the astronaut costume and helmet off of Amazon.  One of the unintended benefits of the helmet was that it gave my son, a preschooler, a nice place to hide when the attention got to be a little too much.

Mr. Rogers Trolley

Major cuteness alert!

What you need:

One ginormous cardboard box.

Spray paint. Red for the inside, top, and front of the trolley.

Paint samples (Red, Yellow, & Black). 

Six thin wooden dowels (about 2 feet long each). 

Glue gun. You MUST have a glue gun for this project.

A caving headlamp for the trolley’s headlight. 

Assembly:

I cut the body of the trolley out, then the oval shaped roof and a strip of cardboard for the yellow sign on top. Then I cut two pieces for the front and the back (squares with a rounded top). I can’t give details on how I got it to fit on the chair. I really had to play with it and ended up using the wheelchair’s push bar to anchor the thing and keep it from flopping around. See what works. Measure a bit. You can do it. 

I wanted to paint the exterior by hand to get it right. I knew I wouldn’t need much paint so I just bought three samples from Lowes. I got red to match the spray paint, black for the stripe along the base, and yellow for the trolley seats and sign.

I used the dowel rods to stabilize the sides of the trolley. You can see them glued vertically on the inside. They kept the sides from bowing out (due to the weight of the roof and trolley sign).

Add your lettering and headlamp. Done!

Thank you Mary Evelyn for sharing this adorable creation! Simeon makes the perfect Mr. Rogers.

Jeep (aka Createrra).

I'm calling this a Jeep just to make it more generic...but it's technically the Createrra from Caleb's most favorite show "Wild Kratts".

This was my inspiration.

What you need:

Cardboard (lots of it)

Paper towel tubes/Gift Wrap tubes

Spray paint

Assorted craft paint (I used blue, green, and brown)

Reflectors

Black posterboard for the wheels

LED push lights (I found them in the night light section)

Paper plates or posterboard

Foam for the bumpers (you can use something else, I just happened to have foam)

Assembly:

First I cut cardboard to make the 4 sides and hood of the jeep. It's basically a rectangle shape, super easy design. I spray painted all the pieces before I hot glued them together.

I cut smaller/angled pieces of cardboard to attach to the hood so it has a raised look in the middle. I used gift wrap paper tubes to make the front and back roll bars. I cut them to fit together and then hot glued them to make a solid piece. I painted the front bars to match the jeep and the back bars I painted black.

I used a manila folder that I cut to fit over the angled cardboard on the front to complete the hood. I printed off the Wild Kratts logo and added it to the back and the top of the hood. I used reflectors for the back brake lights. I bought LED push lights for the headlights. I added a square of black paper to the front for the grill. The front and back bumpers were black foam pieces that I happened to have. I painted them silver. I added a small square of cardboard (painted black) to the rear of the jeep.

The wheel covers were cut from black posterboard. I spray painted the back of 2 plates silver for the rim of the wheel. I added some squares and circles cut from black paper.

Since this is technically the Createrra from Wild Kratts, I had to make it look just right. I used brown paint to look like mud. I used green and blue paint for the paw prints.  We had to remove the front roll bars...they were in Caleb's way :)

This could be customized so many different ways. It's a really basic shape that you can do a million things with!

I also made the costumes. I bought black v-neck tshirts and cut off the sleeves to make it look more like a vest. I used blue/green felt for the creature power suit design. I did the same thing for the gloves. I found the creature power discs online, printed them out and then laminated them. They stuck to the creature power suits with velcro. I made the small pouch for the discs out of felt. I made a creature pod using a piece of cardboard that I painted blue. I found the picture online and printed it out. Added a couple of buttons and a strap for the wrist. 

You can see more photos by going to our family blog. 

Hello Kitty Car

Prepare for some serious cuteness folks!

What you need:

Cardboard
Posterboard (pink, white & black)
Hot glue gun & glue sticks
Spray paint (2 pink, 1 white, 1 red)
Zip ties
2 Dowel rods

Assembly:

First we sketched a design of one side of the car on cardboard (measuring approx length we wanted using wheelchair).  Repeat for the other side and measure to cut out pieces of cardboard for the front and back of the car.  We used small bowls to sketch circles on black poster board for the wheels & then cut them out.  Then sketched smaller circles on white poster board that were glued inside the black circles.  The cardboard was spray painted pink and was glued together.  The small red bows for the wheels, mirrors, door handles, tail lights were cut out of white posterboard and painted red.  The large red bow on her chair was cut out of cardboard and spray painted.  The eyes and whiskers on front were cut out of black posterboard. White posterboard was folded and painted pink for the ears. Use white posterboard for the nose & color it yellow.  We found pages in a Hello Kitty coloring book, colored them & cut out to glue on the doors and back.  The license plate was cardboard with a piece of posterboard glued to it.  A dash was also made out of a piece of cardboard and a steering wheel cut out of posterboard was attached!  White posterboard was used as the front fender and can be used for the bumper (we ran out of posterboard so painted cardboard for the bumper).  The car sat over the wheelchair and had a dowel rod attached to the cardboard to keep it in place in the back.  it was then zip tied to the handle bar.  A dowel rod was split in half, taped & glued to the cardboard and used to zip tie to each side of her wheelchair in the front.

A lot of this is up to you and what you want on it and have around the house to make work!

Seriously adorable! Thank you Casey for sharing Kinley's costume with us!

Ambulance

What you need:

27in TV box from U-Haul (or any large cardboard box or pieces of cardboard glued together)

Exacto knife

Foam rectangle sheets 

Pipe liner

Internet pics for dashboard and lights

White poster board or white paint

Styrofoam discs

Hot glue gun

Foam sticky letters

Lights of your choice (sticky LED night lights, panel lights, etc)

Assembly:

1.  Cut out the box panels, and slip onto sides of the wheelchair.  Cut basic side shapes allowing room for self propelling.  We just did one side, and traced it for the other side.

2.  Decide how you want to attach it to the chair.  We originally wanted it to go over his head, but it was easiest just to rest everything on his frame and handle bars, rather than affix it to the chair.

3.  Measure and cut the top, front, and back from other box flaps.

4.  Trace all of the pieces onto white poster board, cut them out, and hot glue them to the pieces.  OR If you are better at planning ahead than I am, purchase a large white box to begin with. Or you could use white paint to paint the entire box.

5.  Hot glue all the pieces together, We also reinforced all of the sides with another piece of cardboard folded in half and glued on the inside.  

6.  Decorate!  We used colored foam pieces for the cross shape (you could use posterboard or paint as well), styrofoam discs for the ambulance light on top, and printed the dashboard and lights on glossy paper and glued them onto the sides.  We also used a piece of cardboard and construction paper tilted and hot glued inward for the dashboard.  For the number, we used pipe lining.

Add some lights for an extra touch!

Thanks for sharing Kari, this is such a versatile costume. I love it.

The Mystery Machine from Scooby Doo

What you need:

PVC Pipe
Box cutter
Card Board (Refrigerator Size)
2 Battery Operated sticky lights
Metal Cake pan
Red reflectors
Tempera paint: Blue, orange, green & yellow & orange construction paper
Black permanent marker
Bolts
Painter’s putty or spackling paste
Wooden rod
2” C-clamp
Duck tape
Gorilla Glue
Old power wheels tires and steering wheel

Assembly:

We used huge card board boxes to form The Mystery Machine. We used PVC pipe to secure the van and several C-clamps to mount the van on Jacob’s wheel chair. I wanted to give his costume some more texture and hide all of the duck tape we had used to form the van so I used spackling paste on the entire thing! It gave the van a smoother look but it also made the van EXTREMELY heavy. If you decide to use this be careful because as it dries and the more you move it, it will crack.   We took apart an old Power Wheels and used the tires and steering wheel. We screwed the wheels onto the card board and PVC frame.  I cut pieces of construction paper into circles and glued them onto card board which I then glued onto each of the four tires. In the front of the Mystery Machine I used yellow spray paint to paint the round cake pan and glued the flower onto the front of the cake pan that we then screwed into the cardboard. We used two battery operated lights and large PVC tubes to create the head lights. We used a wooden rod in the back of the van to reinforce as well as balance the back of the van. Jacob really enjoyed this costume because the steering wheel would turn as if he was driving the Mystery Machine.

Wow, that's impressive. Seriously.

Pirate Ship

What you need:

PVC Pipe
Box cutter
Card Board (Refrigerator Size)
Bolts
2” C-clamp
Gorilla Glue
Skull (party city)
Pirate lunch box
Pirate’s gold (party city)
Anchor chain (party city)
Black raven (party city)
Metallic link chain (party city)
Jute roll (party city)
Old carpet roll
Duck tape
Black curtain
Black and white felt
Brown spray paint
Brown Tempera paint

Assembly:

We shaped the cardboard box into a pirate ship. We used PVC pipe to make the frame and used bolts and gorilla glue to hold it all together. Once we made the frame we used c-clamps to anchor the ship to Jacob’s chair. I painted the ship with brown tempera paint and used a back and forth motion to give it that old wood look. We I spray painted the old carpet roll with brown spray paint and placed it on the back of Jacob’s chair in between some metal pieces that came out of the back end of his chair. We cut a hole through the carpet pole and glued it in. We then tied the black curtain to the PVC to make the sails. I draped the jute roll over the pirate ship and cut a whole big enough to sit Jacob inside of his pirate ship. I used gorilla glue to hold the skull on the front of the ship and placed pieces of gold and treasures on the top of his ship. Good Luck!

Another great costume from Clarrissa! We love it.

Circus Train Wheelchair Costume

What you need:
Large boxes
Paint
Box cutter
Long straightedge/ ruler
Glitter
Zip ties

I used one big box for the body of the train, but you could use a few pieces and glue or tape them together. Then I measured where I thought the train should sit on the chair. I freehanded the design for the top of the train and used a straightedge to make bars, leaving a gap big enough for him to get his arms out and wheel himself. Once I cut out the train, I fit it onto the chair and marked where the brakes hit so I could cut out a spot for them. Then the fun part! I spray painted the inside of the train, and decorated the outside with acrylic craft paints (I tried kids' poster paint first but it would have taken 100 coats to cover) and glitter.

For the wheels, I measured and used a big compass to draw the right size circles. I cut them out, painted them, and affixed them with zip ties. The smaller circles were hard to attach, but I managed with a couple of zip ties and a few extra pieces of cardboard. The exact process is probably different for every chair, so you may have to figure that part out on your own. :)

So cute! Thank you Lauren for sharing your costume creation!

Cowboy on his horse wheelchair costume

What you will need:
A box large enough to fit over wheelchair
a box to cut the legs out of
a horse head on a stick
black paint
spray paint to match the horse head
yarn to match the color of the horse's hair

Assembly:
It was pretty straight-forward. Cut the box to fit over the wheelchair and then make two cut-outs for his arms. Using the second box, cut out shapes for the horses legs. We also used a smaller box as the horse's neck. Once all pieces are cut, spray paint them all the same color as the horse's head. Once the spray paint dries, pain the horse's feet and saddle black. Assemble all pieces, and stick the horse on a stick through a hole in the main box. That's it!!

Thank Leigh from "Our Little Gibblet" for the great idea!

Astronaut Wheelchair Costume

You Need:

a large box big enough to fit over wheelchair
a smaller box to use as the front
2 pieces of cardboard to be used as the wings
2 toilet paper holder to use as the jets
paint
tissue paper
duct tape or hot glue

To assemble the spaceship, we had it pretty easy. The box we found to fit over Grey in his wheelchair fit perfectly, so we just needed to make cut outs for his arms. With the second, smaller box, we made the front part of the ship. We cut some extra pieces of cardboard out as the wings and spraypainted the whole thing silver. We then added the two toilet paper holders (that were already spray-painted) to the back. Once the ship was assembled and spray painted, we used blue, red, yellow, and white paint to add the design on the sides. Finish up with a little tissue paper as first and ta-da...a spaceship!

*side-note this was our first try at a wheelchair costume and I learned that it is best to put the duct tape on the inside of the box, or use hot glue. Even when spray-painted the duct tape shows up.

Also, I had to remind myself that this costume was only going to be used for one day and it was just for fun...it's ok if it's not perfect!

That year we also decided to make a jet-pack out of his walker. We spray painted two 2-liters silver and added the tissue paper as fire. We then hot-glued them together and tied them to his walker.

Thank you Leigh from "Our Little Gibblet" for the great costume idea!

Wheel of Fortune Wheelchair Costume

I made Hayden a Wheel of Fortune costume using mat board and temper paint. I used stencils to make the dollar amounts on each wedge and then attached it with fishing line to the wheels. we put a little folded up piece of thick paper on it so that with each turn of his chair it made a "click click" sound like the sound the wheel makes when it turns. We also used some plastic tubing pieces on each color wedge to represent the things you grab to spin the wheel. Then I also made him a $5,000 wedge to wear on his body and that I painted with glitter paint and glued those iron on numbers on (since they were larger size than the small stencil I had used on the wedges.) I attached fishing line to the $5,000 wedge and he wore it like a necklace

Thank you Johnna for sharing Hayden's costume!