It’s Halloween costume time and I am so excited to share last year’s costumes! Our DIY Greek God family costumes were sooooo fun to figure out and make and I am going to walk you through all the steps and links to everything so you can get your Halloween costumes started! Get the full DIY below.
I got the whole idea for these costumes when I saw some really cool costumes made out of acrylic tiles. Since those costumes cost thousands of dollars each I though…I can make something like that!
How I made the gold tile look throughout the costumes was by using gold shiny sticky foil on craft foam sheets! Its actually crazy easy but get ready to buy a lot of glue sticks ha ha.
SUPPLIES
To make the gold tiles you will need:
–Metallic Gold Sticky Foil– I used the Cricut brand, the stickiness and color were perfect, so I can’t say for any other kinds. But I did find some similar here, (although I have never tried it). BUT one thing you need to make sure of is that it is METALLIC not just gold. Because the metallic foil will give that shimmer and reflection that regular gold vinyl won’t. I think over all I ended up using about 4-5 rolls or it could have been more ha ha I don’t remember? It just all depends on how many family members and what pieces you are adding the gold geo shapes to. I would start with 3 and then you can always run over to Joanns or Michaels and buy some more (with the coupons of course ha).
– Craft Foam Sheets -You will want the thin 2mm craft foam that you can buy in sheets at the craft store. Its perfect for cutting and is light enough that it molds well.
–Hot Glue gun– You are going to want a good one because there is a LOT of gluing involved. This one comes with finger protectors ha ha which comes in handy because I didn’t have some and burnt myself quite a bit!
–Glue sticks– Get a BUNCH!
–Scissors. You are going to want some good scissors because you are going to be cutting a lot AND you don’t want a jagged edge around your foil if your scissors are bad.
Now here is the fun part! I am going to be honest, some pieces were SO easy to cut and glue, others not so much. For example my breast shield was by far the hardest. Because it had so much shape and rounded corners the shapes had to be much smaller and more intricate and didn’t all fit perfectly. So with that there was a lot of trial and error. But for my husband’s belt or the kids skirt tales they took only minutes to make because they are flat and simple and I could just cut out the piece exactly out of foam then glue them on like a perfect puzzle.
1. Take your metallic foil and peal and stick it onto the foam sheet. Be sure to make sure it is stuck on there really well. Use something like a paper creaser to make sure it is secure.
2. If you have a certain shape (I’m using my cuff piece) you can cut out the shape from your foiled foam piece. You can even trace it if it’s small enough.
3. Start to cut up the piece into geo shapes. It’s helpful to glue as you go OR lay it out like a puzzle so you know where all the pieces go.
4. Use your hot glue gun to secure all the pieces and put it on so that you can see where certain pieces may need some extra glue. Then you are done!
5. Continue onto the rest of the costumes. Like I mentioned before there are some pieces you can’t trace because of the shape or they are too big. These are more intricate BUT my trick was to cut mostly triangles they are easier to match up this way. For big pieces that lay flat mostly, like the boys body armor I could cut out big triangles and geo shapes because they stayed flat most of the costume. But for my breast piece because of all the curves I needed to cut much smaller more intricate triangles.
FABRIC
Now I wanted the fabric to look cool and compliment the metallic gold and this stretch velvet I found in downtown LA was PERFECT!! I don’t have any links to it because it was just from a random shop and I bargained with them a lot! I think I ended up getting 8 yards to be safe and it was pretty accurate, I also wanted to make sure I had some extra. I found some similar online but again I can’t be sure. The best advice I can give is to find a huge discount fabric store in your area, bring your metallic gold foil for reference and just see how it looks! I loved the stretch velvet because it hung beautifully and gave that more Greek God elegance that I wanted!
HELMETS
This was by far my most favorite and coolest find and SO simple to make! I was pleasantly surprised. You know what the helmets are made out of???? PAPER! so cool hu!? And they held up SO well! We wore them to a Halloween trunk or treat one night AND all night for Halloween (and that included my kids battling and running all night) and they were awesome.
The winged helmet is from HERE.
The Centurion helmet from HERE.
I bought gold metallic paper from the craft store. I printed out the helmet pattern onto regular paper and then before I started to fold it I used a glue stick and stuck a piece of the gold metallic paper on top. THEN I folded it. Which was nice because it was doubled up a little. I thought about using the metallic foil that I used for the geo shapes BUT I didn’t think it would fold as good as actual paper.
GOLD FACE PAINT
To say this gold paint is AMAZING is an understatement!!! It’s legit the coolest stuff ever! It is soooo beautiful, so easy to put on and does NOT budge! It’s not sticky or goopy and you can touch it after it dries. It’s great for kids and everyone. I put it in my husbands hair, on my lips and did cool stuff on my arms and kids faces. I am trying to think of a way I can use this stuff again ha. You just need to put a little of the liquid and then a little of the powder together to make the paint. I used a paint brush to put it on, or you could use a makeup brush too!
GLITTER BEARD
Ha ha the glitter beard was the coolest and at night it was so fun! This was my husbands actual beard that he grew out JUST for Halloween so I am not sure if it would work as good on a synthetic beard? BUT all you do is add some oil (he used beard oil) to your beard and then coat it in glitter. Like full on cover it, pour that stuff on! Best to do this last so you don’t get glitter all over your house but it stayed on all night and rinsed out super easy. But at night it caught the light and was a sight to behold ha!
ARIES the God of War Costume:
I bought his costume from HERE. I cut off the red fabric, measured it against the gold velvet fabric so it would be exact and then replaced it and sewed it back into place. The nice part about the costume is it mostly is a front piece so its super movable and nice for kids. I covered the costume in the gold geo shapes, leaving the black belt exposed. The helmet is from HERE (you can read about how I made it above.) The Spear is from HERE and the shield I found at a local Halloween store. But here are some HERE and HERE. And I painted them gold to match. Getting the perfect gold was tricky because I wanted it more yellow so I tried a few different metallic acrylic gold paints from the store till I got the right color, I ended up blending two together. For under the costume I just had him wear black soccer shorts and a black t-shirt.
APOLLO the God of Sun Costume
To be honest his costume isn’t too “sun” like ha ha but all he really wanted was a sword. AND he actually would have made a great Hermes with the winged helmet BUT again Hermes was a messenger and not as cool as the God of sun so….. If he didn’t care I would have made him carry a harp or something. But what 5 year old wants to carry that? Sword trumps harp any day ha ha. I bought his costume from HERE. I covered it in the gold geo shapes and then attached a cape that I made with the gold stretch velvet fabric. One tip is that when you are putting on the gold geo shapes make sure you know where the costume bends so that you glue and put the shapes on in a bend. Because if you don’t they will peal.
His helmet is from HERE, you can find the instructions above.
His sword and shield combo is from HERE. I painted them gold just like the other shield and spear.
HERA Goddess of Mothers and Family Costume (or Aphrodite ha ha you can pick)
For me my costume was the trickiest because I am not a seamstress and figuring out how to sew this on yourself can get hard. It would be awesome if you have a dress form (which I didn’t) but that is ok you can make it work! I bought this costume HERE. I knew I wanted some sort of breast shield and this one was perfect. It also came with arm pieces that I loved. I ended up cutting off the existing fabric and then sewing on the gold velvet fabric. I did it in a drape like way so that it gathered in the front and that I had some fabric attach to my hands. This was very trial and error ha ha but if I can do it anyone can. I am NOT a seamstress!! I covered the breast shield and arm bands in the gold geo shapes. Then for my headpiece I just used an old plastic headband and attached different gold triangles, some 3D some not around the sides. The headband sits in the middle back of your head with the gold pieces on either side of your head facing forward.
ZEUS God of the Sky Costume
This was ALL just make shift! I cut out a huge piece of EVA foam for the belt, arm cuffs and leg band. Covered them in the gold geo shapes and then attached them with industrial strength Velcro. For the toga like robe I cut out two pieces of fabric and draped them over him to figure out length and everything. I sewed the two pieces together just up by his shoulder and the rest just draped. the belt holds it all together. Then we did the glitter beard (see above) and then painted some of that awesome gold paint in his hair. Lastly was his lighting bolt. He just cut up a large piece of wood in a zig zag pattern and we spray painted it gold.
ERROS (or Cupid) The God of Love
This little guy got the most love ha ha he was a HIT!! I mean how can you resist a kid in a gold diaper! His costume was fairly simple. I just fashioned a gold diaper using the gold stretch fabric then made a little strip that I sewed on to hold it all up. Because it was stretch it was easy to take on and off. At night when it was more chilly he had on a nude leotard underneath. His headband was so easy! I actually got the headband from my older sons costume. I just attached some gold geo shapes to it and stuck some of the gold foil on each of the metal divots. I bought a bow and arrows and painted them gold. The wings were the most intense but I actually really loved doing them! I bought the wings from a local party store and then just cut out feather shapes like I did with the gold geo shapes and glued them on. I can’t find any online without the feathers. BUT if you can’t find any I would just cut out shapes out of EVA craft foam and then tie on some straps on the front. Will work out great!
And that is IT!!! Ha ha making 5 costumes are not for the faint of heart but these DIY Greek God Family costumes are AMAZING!! A show stopper and Halloween costume winner for sure! Hope you guys make them! And let me know if you have any questions :)
xoxo
Sara
