For a Carnival Season characterised by customary fun, we're showing you how to make simple DIY costumes and decorations and keep the kids busy at the same time. DIY Carnival costumes Personalise your Carnival to the max., whilst saving both money and time.
Here’s a few suggestions for some creative arts & crafts to help you prepare your favourite Carnival costume just how you like it.
Carnival bunch of grapes: how-to
For nature enthusiasts and wine connoisseurs alike, we're proposing a grape-inspired Carnival costume that’s quick and easy to make as you’ll only need a few items:
- a pack of purple or yellow balloons, depending on the colour of grape chosen;
- a cap coloured to match the balloons;
- a square of green felt;
- a long-sleeved top and trousers to match the colour of the balloons;
- needle and thread to attach the balloons to the clothes;
- a few safety pins to attach the leaves.
Blow up the balloons and cut out pieces of felt to make the leaves. Attach the leaves to the top and trousers with safety pins, then using the thread, tie up the balloons and sow onto the top. Put on the hat and enjoy the Carnival spirit dressed as a bunch of grapes!
Burglar mask: how-to
It’s not really something we tend to think about, but to dress up as a burglar all we really need to do is raid our very own closet. You can make a burglar costume for the Carnival Season with:
- a pair of black shoes;
- a pair of black trousers;
- a black and white stripe or plain black top;
- black cardboard;
- string;
- a black or white sack.
There are two steps to creating this costume:
- cut out a classic mask shape with eye holes from the cardboard, then make two small holes at the sides of the eyes to thread the string through, so as to be able to tie the mask at the back of the head;
- customise the sack with the dollar ($) or euro (€) symbol. Get dressed... don’t get too into character though!
Ghost costume: how-to
Let's now take a look at how to make a ghost costume for Carnival, a simple and easy-to-make disguise that can double as your Halloween costume.
What you’ll need:
- white sheet;
- scissors;
- black fat-tipped felt-tip pen.
You’ll have your costume ready in no time:
- simply lay your sheet over the head of the person who’ll be wearing the ghost costume to take the correct measurements;
- using the felt-tip pen, mark where you need to make holes for the eyes and mouth;
- remove the sheet from your model and lay it down somewhere comfortable, then using the scissors, cut out the mouth and eye holes;
- once you’ve made the holes, emphasise the eyes and mouth with the black felt-tip pen;
- complete the costume with any additional features to provide your sheet with extra character. You’re now all set to strike terror in your fellow party-goers.
DIY Carnival decorations
What’s a party without decorations? Carnival season is no stranger to this rule: different coloured card, coloured crepe paper, PVA glue, string and scissors are all you’ll need to make countless different decorations.
Colourful Carnival paper chain: how-to
To decorate the walls and doorways of your home both simply and quickly, all you’ll need are a few sheets of different coloured cardboard or three rolls of different coloured crepe paper. Whichever you choose, be sure to follow this method: using different coloured card/paper, make rectangles of 10-12 cm in length and 1 or 2 cm in width.
Glued to form loops, the rectangles will become the main elements of your Carnival paper chain. Once you have made the first loop, thread another strip of paper through its centre and join the two ends together to make another link. Continue until you have the desired length of paper chain. Your colourful chain is now ready to be hung up.
Crepe paper coloured flowers: how-to
If you feel like creating something more imaginative, here’s our guide to making a decoration reminiscent of a meadow in bloom using different coloured crepe paper. You’ll need the following: a green and a yellow piece of crepe paper as well as another colour of your choosing to make petals in your favourite hue.
The same instructions apply should you decide to use cardboard instead of crepe paper. Take the green sheet and cut out several rectangles of approximately 15 cm in length and 3 cm in width to make the flower stalks. Using the remaining green paper, cut out leaf shapes to fit the stalks and glue them above the rectangles. The stalks are now complete. Now, take the yellow piece of paper and cut out several circles of varying sizes and glue these at the top of the stalks, so as to form the head of the flowers.
Then, take the third piece of coloured paper to create the petals; draw and cut out enough petals to cover the circumference of the yellow circles that you made earlier. You may even choose to draw petals on the yellow circles to make sunflowers. After creating your preferred number of flowers to decorate your home, make a hole in one petal on every flower and thread a piece of string through, so as to join the flowers together ready to be hung up.
Coloured sweet decorations: how-to
You can also make colourful sweets both quickly and easily using coloured crepe paper and newspaper. Take a number of different colour sheets of crepe paper, a sheet of newspaper, some colourful ribbons, a pair of scissors (ideally with a zigzag blade) and a stapler.
Starting with the crepe paper, cut out as many rectangles (measuring 25 x 15 cm) as you see fit to make your decoration. Use zigzag scissors on the two shorter sides of the rectangles. Take a sheet of newspaper and make balls to place on top of the crepe paper rectangles that you made earlier. Now, wrap the content by rolling the crepe paper to form sweets, sealing the two ends with ribbons in your favourite colours. Repeat this procedure until you have the desired number of sweets. Then, take a stapler and join them together - all done, your decoration is now ready!
