Create a (low budget) snail costume

I wanted to be a snail for Halloween (I love invertebrates!) but all the designs I saw online looked, uh, less than stellar. So, my crafty bf and I came up with our own, low budget but fancy-looking snail shell design.

This instructable is good for getting ideas, but doesn't need to be followed letter by letter!

Step 1 Gather your materials!

We kind of amassed materials as we went along, and you can substitute a lot of these things, because the shell will be created through a paper mache sculpture. But here's the materials we used:

One pool noodle for floating (often called "fun noodles")
T-pins from a craft store
plenty of paper towel and toilet paper rolls (the cardboard ones once the paper is done)
foam glue, hot glue, gorilla glue
paper mache materials (newspaper, flour, and water)
poster board paper
one lid from a rotisserie chicken! (other tupperware type lids should work fine)
paint in your preferred snail-y colors (we used various craft paints)
an old belt
a sharp knife or good scissors

For the eye stalks:
headband
two toilet paper rolls (empty)
four twist ties
two Styrofoam balls (a size that will fit on top of the tp rolls without falling in)
black paint and other snail-y color paints

Comments

[fishmistress]

Cute!

[dawn_ee]

Love it! This is at the top of my list for next year!! (besides....who can pass up an opportunity to papier mache??)

[nomasheroes]

No mames guera está cagadísimo tu disfráz...

[I LIKE TURTLES]

do u think u could make a turtle costume? i wanna be a turtle for Halloween but all of the pics or how to's are ninja turtles im in need

[GirlOfAllTrades]

Could i maybe use 2 noodles and shave one down to get thinner toward the end?

[hummer_head]

i want to see you getting in your "house" :)

[mpino]

Thanks! This was also my first Instructable!

[ac1D]

This is cute, but you need to crawl on the ground to collect candy.. gonna take age!

[aramanthe]

This is a really cute costume and isn't something you'd see every Halloween! I love it and you did a great job!