The countdown is on, only 8 more days until Halloween! Where did this month go?
Well I have been diligently working on Aden’s Bumblebee costume and to be honest it hasn’t been as bad or as difficult as I thought it was going to be. That’s not to say there haven’t been any snafus along the way but all in all it’s been a pretty sweet process.
A few weeks ago my friend Stephanie came over to help me draw out the individual pieces on the foam. I was so happy to have use of her art skills because I know my version would not have been as symmetrical. We spent maybe 2 hours on design and then it took me all of one hour to cut out each piece (using the handy dandy hot knife) and bevel the edges. Next step, painting!
Who knew foam was so difficult to paint? And it’s not just any foam it has this thin layer of plastic on top so that seems to make it trickier. The foam is just not grabbing the paint very well. I take that back. The pieces that I colored silver and black turned out great! The yellow has been a different beast altogether!! I tried Krylon Yellow Gloss spray paint, it just slid right off the foam. Next I tried Krylon Short Cuts craft spray paint, better but the coverage was not what I was looking for. Now I’m trying Liquitex spray paint which the girl at Michael’s said was like paint magic. Poof, my money is gone and it still doesn’t look right.
So here I am at an impass. Do I keep trying different kinds of paints in the 8 days I have left or resort to something a little simpler? Because the next step in this process is hot gluing it all together and who knows what will happen when we start that.
So how are your costumes coming out there? Any of you DIY’ers having a go at your kids costume this year? And can anyone out there tell me what kind of paint works on foam, because one more opinion certainly couldn’t hurt.
It’s looking great Shannon!
I will be sewing Little Red Riding Hood’s hood tonight. I made Big Bad Wolf’s mask out of felt, I think he needs a tail too. Your costume looks amazing! You should Craig’s List it after Halloween, someone should pay you for all that work!
Miyuki…thanks! People usually assume it’s a straight up bumblebee when Aden tells then what he’s going to be. I just hope they can figure it out when they see him.
Impressive! When you said ‘bumblebee costume’ I was imagining black and yellow stripes with antennas but this is much more complex than that! Nice work.