Aloe Vera Plant Costume

I think aloe vera plants or any kind of succulent are cute so when our teacher said we would have the chance to build our own costume I wanted to have an unique original idea and decided why not become and aloe vera plant.

Supplies

2 different sized hula hoops

Knife

Cardboard

Foam

Wooden squires

Duct tape

Craft paper

Elmers art paste

Acrylic paint

Step 1: Planning

Figure out what you want the diameter of the top and the bottom of your pot will be. Then find out how tall you want your pot to be, how many leaves you want, how tall you want those leaves, and how wide those leaves should be.

Step 2: Putting Your Pot Together

Once you know what you want the diameter of the pot and how tall you want it to be, begin cutting your cardboard. I found it easier to find the circumference of the pot so I knew how long the cardboard laid out would need to be. Then once you’ve cut out enough cardboard that meets your ideal height and width begin to roll the cardboard up, so that it has a curve to it. Once that is done begin to tape the cardboard together.

Step 3: Shaping the Pot

Once all of the cardboard is taped together, take the bigger hula hoop and begin to tape the top of the cardboard to the hula hoop so that it has a more defined circular shape. Then take the smaller hula hoop and tape that to the bottom of the cardboard so that the pot has a more accurate shape to it.

Step 4: Making the Edge of the Pot

For your pot you want a little lip to make it more realistic. You will begin by cutting cardboard into a length a little longer than the length of the top of your pot. Once you have it cut into the length and width you want it you want to begin to tape it to the body of the pot so that it sticks out a ways.

Step 5: Paper Mache

When I did mine I used brown paper so that I could save time so I would avoid painting. You could of course use white paper you would just have to come back and paint another time. Taking the Elmer's art paste you then take your craft paper and rip it into strips and take the strips and dip them into the paste and apply them to the sides and top edges of your pot.

Step 6: Cutting Out Your Leaves

You need to draw your ideal leaf shape onto the foam, then very carefully cut each one out. Once they are cut out you can use your knife to give the leaves depth and look more realistic.

Step 7: Painting Your Leaves

Choose the color you want your leaves to be and paint them a solid color. Then with a lighter color at the base of the leaves to give them a fade. Then with that same lighter color add details to the leaves to make it look more like a live aloe vera plant.

Step 8: Attach Your Leaves

Begin by attaching a foam beam across the diameter of the pot, with another one underneath of it for support, you can attach them with duct tape which is what I used or you can use hot glue which would take much longer as you would have to wait for it to dry. Then take you leaves and stab wooden rods into the base, as this is how they will attach to the foam beam. Then take your leaves with the wooden rods in them and stab them into the foam beam. Once you have the leaves where you want them use tape to connect the leaves together so they have less motion when you wear the costume.

Step 9: Wearing Your Costume

This step is all up to how you want to wear the costume. I chose to place the whole costume onto scooters and sit inside the pot on the scooter and just roll around. There are many different ways you could wear this; you could attach shoulder straps, you could add handles, or anything you could come up with.