- 1 Cardboard box - approx. 15 x 11 x 7
- Foam core for teeth
- Newspaper
- Tacky glue
- Brown packing paper
- Egg carton or similar material
- Styrofoam ball
- Hot glue gun
- Tacky glue
- Paint either craft, tempra, or acrylic -green, brown, black, white, red, yellow
- Masking tape
- Box cutter knife
Instructions:
From Carolyn, "Original idea for Halloween costume for my 10 year old daughter. Was originally intended to be a crocodile, modified from an idea found online. Box for the head seemed too short for croc and looked more like T-Rex, so T-Rex it was. Won for most scary costume in the fourth grade.
I started working with the box first. The box I used opened on the top and bottom not the ends, so I flipped the box on its side. First I hot glued the box closed. Then I took what would be the bottom of the head-and cut out what would be the hole for childs head. I sliced across the center of the box and along the edges towards the back and up the back about 2 inches both sides. Leaving the piece I cut alone to go down the back (this you add the tail to).
I then cut from the front of the box about 3 inches from the bottom around the sides in a wavy line to about 4-5" from back and then cut a second line across the front and along the sides same as the first but about 4-5 inches from the first cut - meeting them on the sides. This creates the mouth.
To shape the top of the head, I cut the back top corner sides off, cut across the box top, and slid it down and hot glued. I did the same for the front of the head, this gets rid of the square of the box.
Then cut out the teeth from foam core, or similar material. Hot gluing in position around the mouth.
I then covered the box, mostly with paper mache (newspaper dipped in 1:1 tacky glue and water), adding sort of lumpy to give the head a little texture. This is also how you add a spot for the eyes, which you should add before going around. Cut 1 Styrofoam ball about 2" round in half and hot glue onto where you want the eyes.
To make the tail I used packing paper, similar to paper bag, laid it out and rolled it - packing in a little newspaper to make it fuller. I taped it in place with masking tape. To make the bumps, I used a packing material similar to egg cartons and peanut packing. I hot glued them and painted black.
To paint the T rex I just took all my paint colors and loaded them on, this gave the T-Rex lots of variation in coloring. Around the mouth I used red for the gums and I also added hot glue for drool. I painted the eyes using red around the outer edges and a combo of yellow and green with black in center.
I attached the tail to the back of the head using the flap from cutting the head hole. I attached Velcro at end and 4 inches from end,attaching in two places held it on very well."
You can use Carolyn's picture as inspiration. You can find a larger picture of her T-Rex costume here. - - Compare Prices on a Dinosaur Costume
Looking for more costume ideas and Halloween projects? Check out these easy costume ideas! You can also browse through my other Halloween articles and find many Halloween crafts, games, recipes, and other activities.
