I have been an artist for years and I love to create and push myself beyond my limits! I have made original costumes in the past, but this year I really wanted to go all out! I am a senior art major at James Madison University, and my focus is in studio art, graphic design, and art history. My classes take up almost all of my time and I am constantly creating art in many forms. Though, I rarely get to do for myself and create art just for the love of art and not just for an elaborate assignment!This year for Halloween I decided to change this unfortunate fact and do something completely original and completely hobby related. For once, this meant no school assignments, no critiques, no crazy deadlines, this was going to be just for me and I couldn’t of been more excited! I began my research months before Halloween. I surfed the internet for all kinds of characters I loved from all aspects of entertainment. Though, a lot of character ideas I came up with had already been produced and I really wanted to push myself to come up with a creative costume that had never been seen before! In the end, it was between Toothless from How to Train Your Dragon or Slinky Dog from Toy Story. I had to go with Slinky Dog, as he was an old time original and a great character in a movie I loved and that was obviously well known. It’s a possibility that Toothless will be my next year’s attempt ;) I was surprised to see that not one person had taken the time to make Slinky Dog work as a costume, with slinky parts and all. I knew I had a huge task ahead of me, but I was determined to make it happen.
I never even made a single sketch, which is unusual for me, as I normally need some kind of basis. Instead I just studied pictures of Slinky Dog and was on my way. Due to the limitations of schoolwork, I started this project ONE week before Halloween. I did not realize at the time that this was absolutely not enough time for a full-scale paper mache’ project! All nighters were the only way this costume became a possibility and trust me I paid for it the next week!
The Slinky Dog costume requires quite a few materials, but most of them are easy to find at your local Walmart or Michaels and even around your house!
Materials include:
30 stacks of newspapers
15 bottles of elmer's glue
5 rolls of masking tape
2 poster boards
4 pieces of dark brown felt/fabric
1 piece of red felt/fabric
1 exercise ball
1 rounded trash can lid
1 large roll of hollow small tubing
1 large roll of hollow medium tubing
1 roll of thin wire
1 roll of medium wire
1 pair of garden shoes (crocs)
1 pair of slim winter gloves
1 dark brown turtle neck
1 pair of dark brown leggings
1 can of metallic silver and light brown spray paint
1 bottle of black, white, brown, tan, and yellow acrylic paint
1 bottle of mod podge
Tools include:
exacto knife
scissors
hot glue gun/glue sticks
measuring tape
sharpies
pencils
paintbrushes (large and small)
wire cutters
needle nose pliers
mop bucket
Don't forget you'll need about 40+ hours of work time, patience, creativity, and a great musical playlist to help get through it all! Read on to learn more :)
I never even made a single sketch, which is unusual for me, as I normally need some kind of basis. Instead I just studied pictures of Slinky Dog and was on my way. Due to the limitations of schoolwork, I started this project ONE week before Halloween. I did not realize at the time that this was absolutely not enough time for a full-scale paper mache’ project! All nighters were the only way this costume became a possibility and trust me I paid for it the next week!
The Slinky Dog costume requires quite a few materials, but most of them are easy to find at your local Walmart or Michaels and even around your house!
Materials include:
30 stacks of newspapers
15 bottles of elmer's glue
5 rolls of masking tape
2 poster boards
4 pieces of dark brown felt/fabric
1 piece of red felt/fabric
1 exercise ball
1 rounded trash can lid
1 large roll of hollow small tubing
1 large roll of hollow medium tubing
1 roll of thin wire
1 roll of medium wire
1 pair of garden shoes (crocs)
1 pair of slim winter gloves
1 dark brown turtle neck
1 pair of dark brown leggings
1 can of metallic silver and light brown spray paint
1 bottle of black, white, brown, tan, and yellow acrylic paint
1 bottle of mod podge
Tools include:
exacto knife
scissors
hot glue gun/glue sticks
measuring tape
sharpies
pencils
paintbrushes (large and small)
wire cutters
needle nose pliers
mop bucket
Don't forget you'll need about 40+ hours of work time, patience, creativity, and a great musical playlist to help get through it all! Read on to learn more :)
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Signing UpStep 1: Creating the Body (Two Halves of Slinky)
To start off, I used an exercise ball and pumped it up to maximum size. I decided paper mache was going to be the best medium for my costume in order to get a hard “toy-like” look. I did not want Slinky Dog to look like a stuffed animal, but of the plastic form we know from the movies.
To recreate this you also should blow up an exercise ball to its fullest capacity. Take stacks of newspaper and use scissors to cut them into small strips or squares. You can also use other forms of paper if you have no newspaper. Then take the stripes of newspaper and dip them into a glue/water mixture inside your mop bucket. The mixture is 1 part water and 2 parts glue. After dipping the stripes, wipe off any excess glue by pulling the paper in between your index and middle finger. Next place the stripes over the ball and smooth them down until they stick. Continue this until several layers are built up to create a sturdy enough structure for the body. Though, make sure to leave the plug on the ball uncovered so you can easily measure from this as a center to make two halves, and also to deflate the ball without damaging your paper mache.
For me this took several days alone, and after it was dry I measured and cut it in half for each side of Slinky. To do this Just measure from the plug all the way around, do the math and find what half of the ball would be. Draw with a sharpie a line on the half mark all the way around and cut with scissors. Don't forget to unplug the ball and let the air out before cutting with scissors or you will end up with a popped ball! After there were two halves I used poster board to give depth and create the middles of each side.
For this step simply lay one half on each of the poster boards and draw a circle around them. Then cut a circle onto each half; one the width of your head and one the width of your hips. This is for the top half and bottom half of the slinky body, so it will fit around you. Flip the halves over on the poster board and also trace the cuts you just made. Then cut the poser board circles out and use masking tape to attach it to the middles of the two half circles. Hot glue them in place and remove the masking tape. Lastly paper mache over the poster board several layers so that this is also sturdy! Use a glossy tan spray paint after everything is dry to match the Slinky character and your ready for the next step!
To recreate this you also should blow up an exercise ball to its fullest capacity. Take stacks of newspaper and use scissors to cut them into small strips or squares. You can also use other forms of paper if you have no newspaper. Then take the stripes of newspaper and dip them into a glue/water mixture inside your mop bucket. The mixture is 1 part water and 2 parts glue. After dipping the stripes, wipe off any excess glue by pulling the paper in between your index and middle finger. Next place the stripes over the ball and smooth them down until they stick. Continue this until several layers are built up to create a sturdy enough structure for the body. Though, make sure to leave the plug on the ball uncovered so you can easily measure from this as a center to make two halves, and also to deflate the ball without damaging your paper mache.
For me this took several days alone, and after it was dry I measured and cut it in half for each side of Slinky. To do this Just measure from the plug all the way around, do the math and find what half of the ball would be. Draw with a sharpie a line on the half mark all the way around and cut with scissors. Don't forget to unplug the ball and let the air out before cutting with scissors or you will end up with a popped ball! After there were two halves I used poster board to give depth and create the middles of each side.
For this step simply lay one half on each of the poster boards and draw a circle around them. Then cut a circle onto each half; one the width of your head and one the width of your hips. This is for the top half and bottom half of the slinky body, so it will fit around you. Flip the halves over on the poster board and also trace the cuts you just made. Then cut the poser board circles out and use masking tape to attach it to the middles of the two half circles. Hot glue them in place and remove the masking tape. Lastly paper mache over the poster board several layers so that this is also sturdy! Use a glossy tan spray paint after everything is dry to match the Slinky character and your ready for the next step!
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I went as one of the toy green army men last year. Hope you can make Toy Story a two year in a row contest winner.
http://www.instructables.com/id/Toy-Green-Army-Man-Halloween-Costume/
ps. this slinky dog costume is so baller. if you re-use it I'll go as the piggy bank. :D
;D
Hope you win! *votes*
Unfortunately the front page pics are square, and your title image is a rectangle so it crops your title image reeeeeeeaaaaaaaaally badly.
Attached is a square version of one of your first step images. Hope you'll agree it'll look much more appealing on the front page.
J
Next years??