DIY American Girl Box Halloween Costume

Tonight I am meeting a self-imposed deadline of sharing my daughter's DIY costume before Halloween.  

By my clock I am sneaking in about three hours before midnight.

(Whew!)

Due to the late hour I'm going to keep the commentary brief.  

I do want to say that this project was suggested to me by a friend and it is not original.  In fact, we had both pinned a version of it at one time or another.

So in the interest of giving credit where credit is due, check out other versions of the project HERE, HERE, HERE & HERE.

Now all of those other kind people gave great instructions, many of which we followed, so I think I can give an abbreviated tutorial.

First my friend picked up two boxes from the local U-Haul Store. Using a bowl as our guide, we cut out holes for the faces.

After priming the boxes so you could no longer see the word U-Haul, we spray painted them bright pink.  (They look extra bright in these iphone pictures.)

When that paint was dry, we taped off a stripe in the middle, and painted it maroon.

We waited a day before adding white duct-tape edging and vinyl letters for the logo, names, and ages.  (Made on the Silhouette, of course.)

White tempera paint outlines the circle around the face.

We placed foam and vinyl stars on the sides for decoration.  Also on the sides are arm holes which my daughter will be using in order to carry her candy bag.

Really they're more like arm flaps so you can keep your hands out:

...or you can keep them in:

Also important to note are the duct tape straps that we made on the inside so the boxes don't rest on their heads.

We reinforced the straps with these cute button-shaped brads which just happen to match the box perfectly.

Needless to say my American Girl is very happy with her costume!

Happy Halloween, everyone!