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.

Motorcycle Rider

 Watch out for this guy! He's taking over the road!

What you need: 

PVC Pipe
Card Board
Battery Operated Light
Styrofoam for gas tank (we used an old bicycle tank)
Black spray paint
Metallic grey spray paint
Lawn mower tire
Zip ties
Bolts
Duck tape
2” C-clamp
Force pump plunger
Gorilla Glue
Harley Davidson Stickers

Assembly: 

We were pretty lucky with this design because we took a part an old motorcycle bicycle.  We bought several pieces of PVC pipe and made the handle bars and frame out of PVC. We spray painted the pieces while they were separated because once you start drilling and shaping your motorcycle you don’t want to take it apart. We screwed in the tire to the PVC as well as the tank. We used the zip ties to hold down the card board. You’re probably wondering what we used the plunger for but that was our make shift head light! We also cut out card board and made a speedometer. After we made the body we then attached the motorcycle piece to Jacob’s wheelchair using 3 c-clamps for a mount which is easy to remove the entire piece.  Most of these materials you can find at your local hardware store. Good Luck!

Awesome Clarrissa, thanks so much for sharing Jacob's costume with us!

Dry Bones Costume

Leave it to Caleb to choose an obscure character from Mario as his Halloween costume of choice. Dry Bones. You can't buy a Dry Bones costume. It doesn't exist. There are costumes for Mario, Luigi, Princess Peach, Yoshi, Waluigi, Wario and even Toad. But not Dry Bones.

"Who is Dry Bones?" you ask. Well the older folks out there might remember Dry Bones in his original form from Super Mario 3:

That's vintage Dry Bones right there.

He's basically a skeleton Koopa Troopa

(can I just say how much I LOVED Super Mario 3, man that brings back memories)

Dry Bones has changed quite a bit over the years. This is modern day Dry Bones...driving a car.

You can see how I had my work cut out for me in trying to make a Dry Bones costume! I scoured the internet looking for some other crazy moms who attempted to make a Dry Bones costume. I found one. I actually emailed this mom who made her son a DB costume several years ago. She gave me some basic direction on how to get started and I just went with it.

What you need:

Black shirt (long sleeve)

White felt

White beanie cap (I found one at Walmart for $1.50)

Black felt

Orange Felt

White foam board

Primer Paint

Black Paint

Something to use for a shell (you'll see what I used in a minute)

Here's how you do it:
I found this printable for Skeleton Arms. I used it as my template. I cut 4 bone shapes out of white felt. These will go on the sleeves of the black shirt.

Then I cute a bunch of white strips of felt to put across (horizontally) the front of the black shirt. Now I don't sew so I bought some of that iron on "no sew" adhesive. I attempted to iron on the felt bones and strips to the black shirt...I got poor results. Not sure why it didn't stick well, but it didn't. So, I had to hand sew (no sewing machine in this house) the parts that wouldn't stick down. 

I should mention that you can also add "bones" to a pair of black pants for a full outfit. I didn't do this with Caleb because I knew no one would be able to see his pants with his wheelchair costume on. Why make something that no one is going to see right?

Next I cut out 2 black felt circles and 2 smaller orange felt circles for the eyes. I sewed those to the white beanie.

For the shell I found a Captain America shield at Party City. I found the last shield in stock. The price: $15!! How these people can charge $15 for a round piece of plastic is beyond me. Anyway, it was my lucky day because the straps on the back of the shield were broken. So I did a little wheelin' and dealin' with the manager and got the shield for half price. I still think $7.50 is ridiculous for something that probably cost 4 cents to make but I had to have something.

I took Captain America's shield home and gave it a makeover:

I primed it and then painted it black.

Next, I cut out a bunch of hexagon shapes from white foam board and glued them all over the black shell.

And that is how you make a Dry Bones costume! Hopefully this post will help some poor mom years from now who has a kid that wants to be Dry Bones for Halloween. Your welcome.

Now for the wheelchair part of the costume.

What you need:

Cardboard, lots of it

Spray Paint (we stuck with black and white)

Hot glue gun

Whatever decorations you want to add.

I'm not going to give step by step instructions on how I made the wheelchair part of the costume. There really isn't a rhyme or reason to the madness. Glenn just brings home a giant cardboard box, I cut it up and then just play around with the pieces until they resemble a car.

This is what my living room looked like last Friday night. 

Somehow I turned all that cardboard into this:

I used black and white checkered Duck Tape for the stripes.

I used Glow-n-the-dark Duck Tape for the Dry Bones emblem (I cut it out with an exacto knife)

I got a styrofoam cone and painted it silver, added red tissue paper for fun.

If you are familiar with Mari Kart you know you get items (shells, banana peels, stars, etc). I printed the star out and added it to the back of the car. I thought it added a nice touch.

At the last minute I decided to do something with the wheels. I bought black poster board, cut big circles to fit on the hand rims and I added more bone shapes (cut from white paper) as the wheel spokes.

And there you have it. It looks hard and time consuming but it really wasn't.

I'm kinda proud of it. This may be my favorite wheelchair costume yet.

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!

Batman Wheels

I used vinyl peel and stick sticker material (like for the cricut machine) but anything would work fabric/paper/durable plastic/painted cardboard...I just cut out the pattern and stuck it on!

This is great Dawn! I love how simple and easy this is. A wheelchair costume doesn't have to be complicated or hard. Thanks for sharing!

Batmobile Wheelchair Costume

You need:

Cardboard

Black Spray Paint

Half sphere styrofoam shape

2 Styrofoam circles (one small, one bigger)

Reflectors

Red and orange tissue paper

Hot Glue Gun

Batman symbol printed out

Dashboard decorations (optional)

Here's how we did it:

First we cut out the cardboard into the shape we wanted for the sides of the Batmobile. I cut out a rectangle for the back of the Batmobile and a square for the front. I spray painted the cardboard black, at least 2 coats of paint.

The smaller styrofoam circle was painted silver. The larger one I painted black. I also painted the half sphere black.

Then I glued the front square to the sides and finished it up by gluing the back rectangle. That gives you the Batmobile shape. It only takes 4 pieces of cardboard to make the Batmobile. At the last minute I cut out a thin rectangle shape, painted it black, and added it to the front of the Batmobile to make a dashboard

I clued the large styrofoam circle to the front and glued the half sphere in the middle.

For the dashboard, I printed out a MPH gauge and a smaller batman symbol. I glued those to the dashboard. You could also add a small steering wheel if you want.

For the back I added 2 reflectors (bought at Walmart). I glued the smaller silver styrofoam circle in the center and added red and orange tissue paper to look like flames. I added larger Batman symbols to each side of the Batmobile.

The Batmobile fit really nice around Caleb's chair so we only had to add a little string to tie it to his back seat bars.