Materials Needed To Make the Tree Costume:
- Small branches
- Leaves, in various colors (flat ones preferably)
- Cotton wool (the long strip variety)
- 2 large potato sacks (Kardcraft)
- Paint (Brown Acrylic was used, mixed with water to dilute)
- PVA Glue
- A straw hat (Amazon sell a cheap Cooli style hat)
- Scissors
Instructions:
Michelle explains, "This tree was relatively easy to make and most of the materials were collected and left to dry from outside.First, I adjusted the length of the sack and cut the arm holes and a hole at the top for my daughter's head to fit through.
I coated the sack in PVA glue first and attached the cotton wool in strips.
I left this to dry and then painted over it with brown Acrylic paint (this works better if diluted with water otherwise it will stick to the cotton wool). Once the cotton wool is painted it becomes very easy to mold into bark shapes. I molded it using a paint brush and then left it to dry.
While this was drying I used the other sack and measured out two strips that fitted comfortably around my daughter's arms. I then stuck them into a cylinder shape using some strong tape.
I then coated a line down the center of the cylinder (directly opposite from the tape) with cotton wool to form a branch shape.
I painted the two branch shapes in the same way that I painted the sack.
Once the sack had dried (the cotton wool turns really hard!) I mixed the brown with a little white and used a dry brush to brush this over the brown bark patterns, this gave the 'trunk' texture.
I then attached some Ivy to the front of the trunk and a couple of leaves.
I then stuck leaves collected from the garden to the two cylinders using PVA.
The hat was made on the top of a pointed straw hat. I stitched a couple of branches to the top. I then created two branch-like patterns using the sack again and sewed them onto the top of the hat.
I then covered these in cotton wool and painted them in the same way.
Once they had dried I attached leaves to the rest of the hat using PVA glue.
This has made a super costume and providing you have a couple of days to keep allowing the glue to dry...or have a glue gun! Then this is definitely something that is easy to make!
Hope you enjoy it!"