DIY Airplane Costume
This easy and adorable DIY airplane costume made from cardboard was one of my favorite DIY projects ever!
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Over 30 Halloween Costume Ideas
You can use this homemade cardboard airplane for halloween, or a "time flies" birthday party theme.
We used this cardboard airplane costume as a photo prop, and it was sooo cute! Everyone loved it.
All you need for this easy cardboard airplane project is two hours and the following:
DIY Cardboard Airplane Costume Materials
two colors of spray paint: we used blue (and gold for the stripes)
aluminum foil: for the propellors
a styrofoam half ball: to stick on the propellers in the center
two dowels: or just buy one 48" dowel and cut it to size. I bought as thin as I could to be as lightweight as possible (I think 3/4 inch thick.)
3 yards of stap fabric: (found at Hobby Lobby near the fabric.) They cut it to size.
two cardboard boxes: our toddler was a size 3T and we bought two 16" x 12"x by 12" boxes at Home Depot and it was the perfect fit.
a hot glue gun: and glue sticks: to glue the dowels on (I glued, dried, glued and dried to make sure they stuck.)
painters tape: for perfect stripes and to secure the wings to the box
a box cutter: makes things so much easier than scissors.
DIY Cardboard Airplane Costume Steps
- Take the first box. Take off the flaps of the box on one side and the opposite side. This is where your child is going to fit through (top of plane) The front of the box will be closed. This is where you'll attach the propellers.
- Take the second box. Lay it out flat. Draw the top and bottom wing-shapes and cut them out. round off the edges. The size of the wings were 27" by 8" Use the tape and hot glue gun to secure them onto the box. They go on the near the front. Leave space for your child to fit through the back of plane. (shown below)
3. Glue on the dowels. I did a few layers of hot glue here, and pressed the top down to seal them.
4. Cut out a rounded front to cover the entire square front. Hot glue it on.
5. Draw the propeller shapes and cut them out. Wrap in aluminum foil. Keep it smoothe.
6. Glue them onto each other and onto the front. I fed a zip tie through all of these layers to make it extra secure, so if your glue fails to work, give that a try!
7. Hot glue the ball on. If your ball is a full sphere, cut off half to make it flush against the front.
8. Final Touches! Spray paint your entire plane. next, grab a different color and spray 4 strips of tape, let dry then add them to your wings! Finally, feed your straps through so you can use to hold up the plane to wear!
Flight Crew prepare for takeoff!
I hope you enjoyed this tutorial!
Read my post on halloween costumes if you're looking for more ideas.
or check out this DIY Hot air balloon that we used for my daughter's "time flies" first birthday theme!