Mr. Rattles Costume

Need a last minute costume idea? I'm Lee Woodruff at the craft table with Family Fun. Your child will love this spooky skeleton costume and it's a snap to make.

You'll need an all black wardrobe, including pants, a sweatshirt, socks, shoes, and gloves. For the materials you'll need double sided carpet tape, glue, string, scissors, a craft knife, cutting board, a hole punch, poster board, and four printable templates from familyfun.com. First, print a copy of the skeleton mask, hip bone, ribs, and two bone templates from our web site. Cut loosely around the edges of the template shapes and then paste onto card stock. Make sure that the glue is on the back of the costume images. Now you're ready to cut out the mask and bones. Be sure to cut along the dotted lines. The smaller holes can be difficult to cut, using craft knife with a cutting board will help. This is definitely a parent's job. Punch one hole on either side of the mask and reinforce with tape if needed. Thread the string through the mask and secure it, making sure it fits snugly, but not too tightly, around your child's head. Elastic string from the craft or fabric store also works. Now, using the double sided carpet tape, stick the bones, hip bone, and ribcage cutouts to your child's shirt and pants. This can also be done with Velcro. Using white paint, draw bones for the hands and fingers on the black gloves. If you really want to rattle them, you can also paint foot bones on the shoes. Carefully help your child into his or her newly created body, watch those bones, add the mask, and your little skeleton is ready to trick or treat the night away. To create a spooky effect, paint the bones with glow in the dark paint, or use the bones as a stencil and paint directly on to the clothing.