Stuck for a Halloween costume? People share their hilarious last-minute efforts they put together

 What to buy/find:

Black leggings or tight black jeans and a black long sleeve shirt

Children’s butterfly wings from a costume store or Pound store

Printed app logos

Some antennae if you’re feeling fancy. Use a headband, pom poms, and pipe cleaners. Cellotape.

Method:

 Put on the black clothes.

Tape the app logos all over your clothes using cellotape.

Put on your wings.

Antennae – Tape two pipe cleaners to a headband, and then tape pom-poms to the top of those pipe cleaners.

 What to find/buy:

Sheet of cardboard large enough to cover your torso and thighs

Paint that matches your skin shade but is also slightly darker

White paint

Green paper

A headband

Wire or two/three pipe cleaners

Elastic string

Cellotape and glue

Method:

Match the cardboard to your body size. 

Pencil in a grid across the cardboard and cut a few random squares along the edges.

Inside each square, randomly paint a selection of your near skin shade paint colour, mixed with varying amounts of white. This should create a “blurry” effect. Some very light, some closer to the original shade, and everything in between.

Connect elastic string around your neck and waist.

Use a ‘Plumbob’ (that green thing above your head) papercraft tutorial for your green paper. There are many examples online. Attach the Plumbob to the wire, or wind the pipe cleaners together to create a stronger length. Attach this to your headband.

What to buy/find: 

Large cardboard box, big enough to cover your torso as if you were wearing the box (for the sphere)

Roll of masking tape

Gold paper or, in a pinch, normal white paper (for the wrapper)

Brown paper (for the paper tray)

Gold paint or gold spraypaint – whichever you think takes the least amount of time to dry according to the time you have available

A box of Ferrero Rochers 

Method:

Make a geodesic half dome with the box – which is triangles that all connect to make a sphere. There are templates online which you can print out and size up for your box/torso size.

Once you’ve cut out your template and traced the same template onto the box, cut that out, stick it together with masking tape and overlay the tape multiple times until it’s stable enough to last a few hours.

Cut out a hole for your head out of two or three of the top triangles and tape again around the rim to make strong.

Cover and tape the sphere in gold paper (or paper you’ve painted gold)

Tape a long line of brown paper together and fold it into a concertina – ensuring the full folded length is enough to match the diameter of the Ferrero Rocher.

Paint two gold lines around it, and once dry, stick it to the base of your golden sphere.

Stick your head in the top hole, your arms out the bottom and viola.

What to buy/find:

Yellow masking tape

Pink cardboard

Red marker

Fabric glue

A grey jumper or T-shirt

Elastic strips – long enough to fit around your head

Pencil

Scissors

Method:

Draw a teardrop shape on your cardboard and draw an oval shape big enough for your own face in the middle. Cut the tear drop and the section in the middle out. 

Using your pencil, draw a border around the edge of the teardrop, on the outside and in the middle. 

Now colour the border in with a red marker.

Take the yellow tape and stick it onto your shirt to create the streets.

Now find some blue and white car signs online and print them off – about eight to 10.

Think of five or six street names you want on your map, type them out and print them off too.

Stick the street names on the yellow tape and the cars wherever you want them to be.

Next, print a big letter A and a letter B and stick them on the red location signs.

And finally, make two small holes on either side of the hole where your face is going to go, thread the elastic through and tie knots in each end to keep it in place.

What to buy/find:

Bag of multicoloured balloons

A clear bin bag about the size of your upper body

Some ribbon to tie the top

An A4 printed piece of paper showing a Jelly Bean logo

Clear cellotape

Method:

Cut leg holes out of the bottom of the bin bag. 

Tape your printed logo to the inside of your bin bag onesie facing outward.

Blow up your balloons into smaller sizes.

Step inside your bag onesie and fill the bag with the balloons.

Lightly tie your ribbon around the top/near your neck.

Cellotape every hole and corner you can to prevent tearing throughout the night.

What to buy/find:

Lots of grey paint swatch cards from a paint/DIY store – make sure that you count 50 different shades!

A plain T-shirt

Some cellotape or safety pins 

 Method:

Pin or tape the cards to your T-shirt taking care not to accidentally stab yourself.

There is no step two.

What to buy/find:

White T-shirt

Frizzy blonde bob wig from your nearest Poundland type store or costume store

A photo frame

Method:

Put the wig on.

Put the T-shirt on.

Print a picture of that screenshotted moment from ‘Photograph’ by Nickelback.

Put the picture inside the photo frame.

Practise your best Chad Kroeger voice.

What to buy/find:

Cardboard (either white, or partner it with some white paint)

Printed Guess Who and your name in the same font

A plain coloured T-shirt

Elastic string

White paper

Cellotape

Method:

Cut your cardboard out into a frame that fits your face and upper body to your waist. 

Cut out a question mark from your white paper, and stick it to your T-shirt with tape

Cut out your printed words ‘Guess Who’ and your name, placing it on the bottom and top of your cardboard frame.

Measure and cut elastic string around the top of the frame, and the bottom, ensuring that it allows for around your waist and the back of your head.

Bonus: Add some fun accessories you may have lying around – hats, scarves, glasses. Anything to add points of difference to your Guess Who character.

What to buy/find:

A little black dress 

Blue, orange, and red paper – five to six sheets

Safety pins

A cheap plastic tiara

Thick white ribbon

Black permanent marker

Flowers (optional but a great addition)

Method:

Draw planets onto your paper and cut them out.

Pin them to your dress using the safety pins.

Using your black marker write MISS UNIVERSE on your ribbon and pin that around your torso.

Pop your tiara on, wear your sash and hold your flowers – you’re a winner!

What to buy/find:

A bunch of flowers

Black trainers, or better yet, old black trainers

A black hoodie

A pair of white trousers – pre-loved if you can

Small tube of black and white water-based paint 

Masking tape

Cans of spray paint, empty or full, depending on how Banksy you want to be.

Method:

Use the masking tape to create the jagged shapes you want on your trousers. 

Paint the sections you’ve marked off with your black paint.

Now do the same on the black hoodie, and use the masking tape to make the shapes you want on the sleeves.

Now paint the sections of your hoodie with the white paint.

Remember to wait for the paint to dry before taking the masking tape off.

Before putting your outfit on, ruffle the two garments together so the paint transfers to the opposite colour to create that worn-out look.

Hood up, flowers in the one hand and spray can in the other and you’re a Banksy on the move!