Wednesday, October 29, 2014

Last Minute Costume Idea: DIY Groot Mask for 33 Cents


Hi! Halloween's in 2 days and costumes aren't finished over here.

Am I the only one? We almost had a last-minute costume change, which would have been devastating, but luckily avoided that! But I did get a chance to throw together a super cheap Groot mask (from Guardians of the Galaxy) and wanted to share the how-to  in case anyone else needs a super cheap, fast and easy costume idea!

Most of this costume was assembled by my friend London. Her daughter wanted to be Groot for Halloween, so London went and bought a brown shirt and brown pants and drew wood grain on them. A great thing about this is that those can be worn any time, not just on Halloween, so score!

I went to walmart and picked up a $0.33 sheet of black craft foam (in the craft aisle) and drew up this template in Photoshop.


It's not super precise and doesn't have eye holes because those vary from kid-to-kid. After you get the template cut out, you can hold it up to the kid's face and poke their eyes to find the placement. They won't like you very much, but it's for them, so they'll get over it ;-)

Here's a list of supplies you'll need


  • Black Craft Foam
  • Brown craft paint (different shades for a better effect)
  • Green craft paint (optional)
  • Elastic (or string, to tie onto the head)
  • Scissors
  • Template (above)


(warning, cell phone pics from now on because I wasn't expecting this to turn out well - HA!)


After getting the template printed (scale to fit media so it takes up the whole page) and cutting it out in the foam (I cut it bigger than the template, and cold have even gotten a bigger mask if I'd have angled the template), I stole the Big Kid's head to mark eye placement.

This wasn't for her, so she didn't forgive me easily for poking her eyes...


The next step was to mark the wood grain/face structure of Groot. I googled an image of him and drew on the mask with a pen, pressing firmly to leave a deep indentation. His mouth's crooked. I never said I had amazing art skills..

After this, I cut out the eyes and did a light base layer of brown paint, followed by some lighter brown and a little green to be the moss/lichen at the top of his head.


This was done on an as-needed basis (I would do the light brown over a spot where I'd accidentally put too much dark brown, and the lightest color was dry brushed on). When the painting was finished, I took a black sharpie and drew in some of the indentations that had gotten too much paint in them and poked a hole in each side for a string to tie it on to the head.

Actually, for my test run I tied cheap elastic hair ties to each side and wrapped them around the big kid's ears. She didn't recommend that...


And with that, the cheapest/easiest mask I'd ever attempted was done. How are you all, costume-wise? Decoration-wise? HALLOWEEN-WISE?!!

(side note, I'VE MISSED YOU!!!)

5 comments:

  1. She lives! I wondered where you've been! Cute mask!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I... Am... ALIIIIIIIIIIVE!!!
      ;-) Appreciated your comment on my last post. It feels nice to know that people think of me xoxo

      Delete
    2. Well it's been 4 eva! Just wanted to make sure all was well. :)

      Delete
  2. Yeah Gina!! We've missed you too! You are back, and with a super cool project too! Your art skills way surpass mine, this looks awesome! I was hoping to see cool pictures of your yard for Halloween...I am sure it was amazing! Hugs!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I posted about my Halloween yard JUST for you, Mindi ;-)

      Delete