TMNT Assault Van

The inspiration:

What you need:

2 cardboard boxes
Cardboard rolls(wrapping paper & paper towels)
Paint
Glue gun
Tin foil
Zip ties

Assembly:
I used one box that fit perfectly over the wheelchair. I flipped the flaps up and glued the two shorter ends at an angle. This gave the me a little extra height with just one box. The other box I cut up and used it for different parts. I put two pieces on each side of the box to make the sides taller and then one on top the enclose he van. I cut a flap on top to make the opening, along with a circle for the top globe window. Once it was all glued together I painted the whole thing green.

I used the cardboard rolls to make the ladder, bar up the side of the windshield and for the wench. The lights, mirrors, wench hook, and tires were all cut from the extra cardboard. And painted accordingly. The tin foil is wrapped around the mirrors to make the mirror effect. I used a picture of a toy I found online to paint the details. Then I used the zip ties to attach it to the wheelchair.

Thanks Allison! This is amazing! Turtle Power!

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!

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

What you need:

Foam mats (colored bottoms) *I bet you could also use cardboard for this*

4 yellow, 1 green

Colored tape (yellow, green)

Spray paint

Green, orange, blue, purple, red, silver

Black permanent marker

Foam glue

Red cups

Foam sheets

Light blue, dark blue, white

Assembly:

Trying to find colorful material that is also waterproof is a bit of a challenge. Old foam mats gave us a great surface that can be glued and painted and cut up. The back of the mat has a colorful and smooth surface that holds the paint very well. It is also the perfect size to fit on a walker.

The pieces of the mat fit together into a cube shape. Each side of a cube and held together with the top (green). The sides can be glued together, and the part that sticks out can be cut so that you can tape over a smooth surface. Yellow duct tape holds the sides in place without being too obvious on the mat. The wheels and the center part can be cut out.

The roof can be reinforced with green tape (duct tape or painters tape). The Shell Raiser is a subway car. So paint subway doors and windows, and I got wood-colored strips to cover the windows. The paint holds well on the foam, to make straight lines, tape up what you want to paint and spray over it. The whited needed 4 coats, and then silver two coats.

The subway car is covered in graffiti. The graffiti used the 4 turtle colors, and writing. If you put the graffiti on after you have taped it together then the graffiti will help to hide the tape. But make sure you have everything taped up.

To help the graffiti pop out, we outlined the words in black permanent marker.  We wrote “Turtle Power” on one side and “TMNT” on the opposite side. The turtle colors covered each corner of the car, overlapping to the front of the subway car, the colors were opposite on the other side so that all 4 colors show at the front.

The back has blue rocket boosters (with blue flames cut from foam sheets), and red bumpers, made from red cups that are glued together and taped on. The SHELL RAISER sign went on the back as well, with glue to hold in place. To help to hold the Shell Raiser in place, a hole was cut into the back to hold the basket of the walker in place.

The ramming bumper at the front is held in place with a wire and a cut up pool noodle, covered in white foam. The rocket launcher is a marshmallow shooter held in place by a cut-out in the roof. Wires also hold the front in place over the wheels

For some graffiti at the front I wrote Booyakasha and Cowabunga, both things that Michaelango yells.

TMNT Manhole Cover for Wheelchair

What you need:

Cake pan

Large aluminum foil

Letters

Foam

Grey paint (light and dark)

Assembly:

I glued foam strips onto a cake pan. I tried a couple of different designs to see what I wanted to use. I got a pack of letters to make up the NYC SEWER and glued them in place. I cut the edges off that overlapped.

The aluminium foil covered the cake pan. I found that the letters for the sewer didn’t stand out enough so I put on 2 layers of foil. Gently press between the foam and around the letters.

 

To help it to stand out more, use the grey paint. With the darker grey went in the middle and the lighter color went over the letters. It doesn’t have to be neat, and if the aluminum foil breaks, don’t worry.

The sewer grate sits over the wheelchair handles so that it overlaps over the head.

Another great costume for both walker and wheelchair by Amanda! Thanks for always sharing your awesome creations with us. I love the manhole cover. It looks awesome.

You can see more step-by-step instruction for creating a manhole cover by clicking here.

Mario Kart!

What you need:

Cardboard and lots of it

Black poster board

White poster board or paper

Red spray paint

Black spray paint

Silver spray paint

Glue gun/sticks

Styrofoam cones (4)

Styrofoam circle

Black tape (we used electrical tape because that's what we had)

Zip ties

Assembly:

It's been 4 years since I made this costume....but I'm going to do my best to explain the building process from memory. The first thing we did was cut our design from cardboard. I usually cut the sides first and then add a piece of cardboard at the front and another at the back. I use hot glue to attach all the pieces so that I have one solid body. Later we cut a piece of cardboard to go on front of the kart...kinda like the front bumper with the sides. Again using hot glue to hold everything. The front bumper was attached to the main body of the kart. We also made a spoiler using a long rectangular piece of cardboard with square pieces on each end. That completed the body of the kart. I painted it red. I painted a foam ring black for the steering wheel and used zip ties to attach it to the frame of his kart. 

The styrofoam cones were painted silver to be the exhaust pipes in the back. Later I hot glued red tissue paper to them to look like flames. To attach the cones, we just cut holes into the back of the kart frame and shoved the cones through. I used hot glue to make sure they were secure. We cut a small hole in the spoiler so that Caleb's handlebar would fit through. We didn't attach the spoiler to the actual kart, it was just held on by the handle bar. 

We used black electrical tape to add our racing stripes down the kart. I traced a number "5" out of paper and added that to the spoiler. Caleb was 5 at that the time. I also cut out a letter "M" for the front of the kart. The wheels were just black poster board with a white circle added to the center. I also added smaller black pieces of paper to the white circle to make it look more like a wheel. 

The entire kart fit right over Caleb's chair. We didn't really have to do anything to attach it because it fit so nicely. 

If you have any questions or need more specific instructions, feel free to contact me using the button on the right side. 

Tyrone the Backyardigan

What you need:
Foam pages
Grey x3
Black x1
Orange x3
Light blue x3
Pink x3
Foam squares
Red
Green
White
Black
Orange
Brown
Dark blue
Foam glue
Green plastic table cloth
Plastic plates
Permanent Markers (black, silver, pink, red, orange, yellow, purple, blue)
Thick cardboard plaque-board
Popsicle sticks

Assembly:
My son’s favorite thing was the Backyardigans t.v show. His favorite character was Tyrone. Each Backyardigan character lives in their own house (with their own colour) and they all meet every day in the backyard. So we decided to surround my son in his ‘backyard’ with the houses around him. This turned into a much more ‘crafty’ project than I had originally anticipated, but he was very happy with the result (and the houses are used afterwards to play with.

Living in Canada the costume had to be able to withstand rain (and it did). Everything was made with plastic or foam. The houses were held in place with poscipcles sticks along the back (like an L brace) and then glued into a green foam square.

I used the foam glue to hold it all together. I was worried about the holt glue gun (and I don’t think I could find it). The roof sat on the bottom of the house and just folded over. I got extra long pieces of the black and grey. I used tape and glue on the back to keep it in place. The doors and windows and shutters all glued directly on, and the stairs are 3 layers of foam to make steps.

The three houses were mounted on a heavy cardboard board. A hole was cut into the cardboard so that it fit around the wheelchair and fit into the handle bars. The blue and pink houses sat on either side of my son in his wheelchair and the orange one was between the handle bars behind him. Everything was covered in a green plastic table cloth. It tilted so that my son came up between the houses.

(When we went out trick-or-treating we had a number of people who thought he was a reindeer flying over houses)

For the walker costume we did the same costume, only I wasn’t going to be making up more foam houses. I used plastic dinner plates and cut out the shapes of houses. I used permanent marker to colour the house in. The houses are held up with popsicle sticks glued together on either side and then glued to a cardboard board. I used green painter tape to hold it all in place. And covered it with a green plastic table cloth. 

Everything was tied in place underneath the cardboard and against the back of the walker.

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.

Thomas the Train

What you need:

3 blue foam poster boards

1 or 2 inch wide red tape

1 empty coffee tin (an empty oatmeal cannister would also work)

1 white poster sheet

1 yellow crayon

1 black poster sheet

1 black sharpie

Spider web from Halloween section (stretchy kind)

Hot glue gun

Glue sticks

Assembly:

Start by placing 1 blue board in between the wheel and chair, measure the height you will need as well as the length. You will need to cut off the excess.

Use the second blue board to measure the second side. Do this for both sides of the chair.

Using the third board, measure the width needed across the front of the chair to glue all boards together. Glue the right, left and front of the train and measure to make sure it will fit. Next, you will use left over board to measure, cover and glue the top of the train(where the steam comes out). Glue all boards together to form the sides, top, and front of the train. Fit on the chair to make sure everything is going fine. If no modifications are needed, remove train for next step.

Use a picture of Thomas the Train for drawing the red lines. I used a pencil for the rough draft and then started adding the red tape on top of the pencil outline.

Use leftover white posterboard to create the yellow "1"s hat will go on each side of the train. I used a yellow crayola crayon to color the board. Hot glue one "1" to each side according to rough draft.

Use the white posterboard for the face. I free handed the face and filled it in with the black Sharpie, a thicker marker will work faster. When completed hot glue face to the front of the train.

Last step will be to cover the coffee tin or whichever cylinder you are using with black posterboard. This will be the part of the train where the steam comes out. This will be hot glued to the top of the train behind the face. Place hot glue along the bottom edge. You can use spider web from the Halloween section for the steam. This does not need to be hot glued but you can glue it if you want. I stretched it out just a tad to give the smokey look.

To make the train stay in place we taped the back to the chair. Sorry I didn't take pictures of this. I used the same red tape since we already had red on the train and it just blended in.

The total time spent on project was 3 hours. Total cost was under $10 I bought most of the materials at Dollar Tree or a local dollar store(I already owned the hot glue gun and glue sticks). Best part of all was my son had a blast in it. 

Great job Olivia! Thanks for sharing your awesome creation. I love that it only cost $10! Proof that anyone can create these amazing costumes with some basic supplies and a few dollars.

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!