How To Create a DIY Costume Under $10: Disney Toy Story Alien

In late September, we were invited to a Toy Story birthday party. The birthday boy wanted all of his family and friends to wear costumes of his favorite toy story characters. He chose for my sons, to dress like the Aliens who work at Pizza Planet. My husband and I were chosen to be Toy Soldiers.

Quick Costume

Because I had no intention of using these costumes again, I wanted to create something quick and cheap. Through my Google research, I found various ideas that were all very good but required too many things to purchase. As I have three kids, everything I had to purchase tripled in cost.

I decided to just create a simple headband as their costumes. This DIY idea saved me tons of money and time. Each headband took 15 minutes to create. So in total, I spent 45minutes creating my kids DIY costume for the party.

Money-Saving Tips

I found all my items at Michael’s. The foam sheet was $.99 each. I purchased one for each child. The wiggly eyes cost me the most money. The wiggly eyes come in a pack with two wiggly eyes in it. Each pack was $2.49. The costume requires three eyes. Overall, I purchased 5 packs of wiggly eyes because I needed to make 3 costumes. If you want to save money, you can skip the wiggly eyes. An easy method would be to cut out the eyes out of white and black construction paper, foam or felt material.

To further save money, I used coupons that I found on Michael’s website. If you are a crafter, you’ll already have some of the items necessary like scissors, hot glue gun, and glue sticks.

Here’s what you need

12×18 Neon Green Foam Sheet by Creatology (1 sheet per headband)

2 packs of 2.4″ Wiggly Eyes by Creatology (for one headband)

Glue gun with at least 5 extra glue sticks. You may need more glue sticks if you are making more than one headband.

Velcro

Thin cardboard

Directions

Headband and Eyes

1. First, you will make the headband. Cut a 2 to 4-inch strip from the foam sheet. Depending on the circumference of your child’s head, you may need to cut an additional piece and glue them together. If you cut the strips along the longer side, you will have a longer piece to work with.
2.  Next, attach three wiggly eyes to the front of the headband. Although the eyes will have adhesive on the backside, I highly recommend using hot glue to secure the eyes firmly on the headband. Make sure the eyes are centered.
   

   

   Ears and Antennas

3. Next, you will cut two 4×4 square pieces for the ears. Place the headband around your child’s head to figure out where to put the ears. Fold the square in half and add glue in middle and hold for a minute to allow the piece to adhere together and form a triangle. Glue the triangle to the headband. Repeat the process for the other square. 
4. Next, you will create the antenna. Cut out two 6 to 8-inch long tube shapes from the green foam. Cut out the same shape out of the cardboard. I was able to use a  recycled cereal box.  The cardboard was thin and sturdy. Take your three pieces and hot glue them together. The cardboard goes in the middle of the green pieces.
5. Now you will place the headband around your child’s head to determine the exact spot to place your Velcro. Hot glue the Velcro pieces to the end of the headband. You can add as many Velcro as you need.
6. Last, you will add the antenna to the headband. Locate the midpoint in the back of the headband. Attach the antenna securely with hot glue. The antenna should be glued on the inside of the back of the headband.
   

   

7. We painted the kids’ faces with green body paint. The kids wore a blue t-shirt and blue jeans to complete our DIY costume.
   

   

If you wanna add extras…

If you want to get fancy with your costume, you can add a Pizza Planet logo to your blue shirt. The logo was created with my Cricut cutting machine. I found an image of a planet and cut the design out of a green heat transfer vinyl. Once cut, I  ironed on the design to the top left corner of the shirt.

If you don’t have a cutting machine, you can cut out a planet shape from the remainder of your foam board and hot glue that to your shirt. You can leave the planet plain or add toppings made from construction paper or felt.

You can accessorize your DIY costume with green face paint and green or blue bottoms such as tutus, leggings, and pants.

I think I nailed it!!! Did you create this look? Share your DIY costume creations in the comments below!