Cute, coordinating outfits are usually how I dress my twins.
I don’t want them to look identical to one another, but I do love it when they look like they belong together; after all they make a cute pair!
When October rolled around and we began planning coordinating twin Halloween costumes. I scoured the web and found fun twin costumes like rainbows and rain clouds, Garth and Wayne & Salt and Pepper.
Here are my kiddos as Monsters, Max and Wild Thing from Where the Wild Things Are, an alien and an astronaut and coordinating dragons.
Until this year my twins let me have all the fun I wanted picking their Halloween costumes.
This year, not so much.
Now that they are in preschool, they have no interest in humoring my Halloween costume ideas. Both boys had very clear ideas of what they wanted to be for Halloween and they would NOT WAIVER!
So when my twins approached me with their costume ideas, I wasn’t expecting their choices, and realized I couldn’t snag a deal on Amazon this year. We had to get crafty!
Our recent family TV obsession, Deadliest Catch, inspired my son to be a crab fishing BOAT for Halloween. That’s right folks, he doesn’t want to be a fisherman, he wants to be the BOAT! Don’t forget to pin this for later….because you know you’ll want it for next year!
So without further adieu, I bring you my son’s Halloween costume, a DIY version of a wearable crab fishing boat!
Learn from me and avoid multiple trips to the craft store by gathering all your materials before you begin building. Here is a comprehensive list of materials you need. I have included some links to the products I used for your shopping convenience.
- 4-5 Cardboard boxes:
- The structure of the boat was created from one square large box approximately 3’x’3 and 1′ in height.
- The bridge of the boat was created from two different boxes. You will just need two boxes, similar in shape, but staggered in size
- Spray Paint – 1 color of your choice, black, white and orange (for the buoys)
- Colored Duck Tape – make sure to have a roll of black, it comes in handy!
- Craft Rope
- 2 Cotton Mesh Shopping Bags
- Magnetic Fishing Set – we had this one at home, but it’s pretty cheap on Amazon
- Heavy duty cardboard roll – I used one from the tin foil we had in our kitchen
- Dixie Cups – again, had some at home
- Styrofoam boal
- Small American Flag
- Chicken wire for the crab basket – my dad had some, don’t ask me why!
- Plastic crabs – these are $5 for a dozen
- Scrapbooking Letter Stickers
- Spray Adhesive
- Hot Glue Gun with hot glue sticks
- LED Pumpkin Candle Lights
- Heavy duty scissors
- Tie down straps
- Styrofoam balls for buoys
- Craft wire
Building The Base
Once I gathered my materials, the assembly of the boat was rather simple. I began by cutting the flaps off of the large box in two pieces, keeping them attached at the corners so they are rather long pieces. I took the first piece and folded it in half to make the bow of the boat. The second piece of cardboard became the back of the boat. Once I molded the cardboard to be the shape that I wanted, I taped everything together and reinforced it with a couple applications of Duck Tape.
Once I had the basic shape, I cut out additional shapes to embellish the bow and the stern of the boat. After creating those shapes I simply taped them where I wanted them on the boat.
As we worked through the shape of the boat, we decided to add some wood braces, again secured with Duck Tape, to the inside, just to be sure that everything would hold up.
Paint the Boat
Then….I painted the boat and all of the details. Let the paint dry completely.
Assemble the Boat
Once everything dried it was time to assemble the boat and add all of the finishing touches.
We created a crab cage from chicken wire, added details to the bridge with Duck Tape, taped the fishing nets to the sides, and then created the crab cage crane and crow’s nest from tin foil rolls, tape and hot glue. I painted styrofoam balls orange and hot-glued wire into the top of them to tie them on the nets/cages as buoys. To finish it up, we named our boat and added decals to make it more life-like.
Give it a Name
The fun part about this project was using images of real fishing boats to come up with the details that we wanted to add. We had lot of fun being creative!
Make it Wearable
In order to make this boat wearable, we took tie down straps from our truck, cut them up and secured them to the wood supports so they could be used as suspenders.
Paired with a yellow rain coat and some rubber boots, you now have a fun and super creative DIY Halloween costume that will guarantee a win at this year’s costume contest!
What do you think? Are you going to attempt this DIY Halloween project?
Tell me about your DIY Halloween experiences in the comments below!
