Deku!!

A Deku Shield! For those that don't get the reference, it's from Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.
Like most things I've made here, it cost nearly nothing.

The body is constructed from illustration board, which I cut into the basic shape, then bent and folded accordingly. After that I spray painted the front red, and carefully drew the deku symbol on it.
Then I took woodchips, and glued them to the top and bottom.

Finally I found a tree in the forest that was pretty much dead, with a bunch of bark hanging off. I grabbed a chunk, cleaned it, then cut it to fit, and glued it on, save for the area I had drawn a symbol.
Finally I added craft foam straps on the back so it can be carried.

light up, moving, cardboard robot helmet!

I built this back in June for a robot themed party I had.  The visor lights up, and the jaw moves with mine.

The helmet itself is constructed almost entirely from cardboard. I started with the two sides, roughly estimating the proper shape and size. They were connected by a separate strip of cardboard, sliced halfway in four places so it would bend in a jagged curve. Then I added another length of cardboard down the middle of the head, with semi-slices across every inch, so that in bent along the curve of my head.
I realize the detail I'm going in is already a bit too much, so I'll try and skim the rest since I don't have many pictures from when it was in pieces. There are smaller pieces from cereal boxes I used to cover up everything. The nose/cheeks area, is all actually one piece. The jaw is separate of course.

The eyepiece is a glow stick, which can be easily slid out. The great part is that this allows for me to easily change the colour to whatever I want. It's also relatively inexpensive.
To make the jaw move, I attached it with a flat pin. Elastics were attached to the inside, going from the cheek bones to the lower jaw. My jaw simply pushes down on the "jaw-piece" and the elastics pull it back up.
Sometimes I think it looked cooler when it was unpainted cardboard.

Laurel Wreaths

For my friend Jeff's Birthday, we held a Toga party at my pad, and I was surprised at the amount of turn out when it came to toga's, but more-so the amount Laurel Wreaths that were actually constructed.

Of course a couple of them were left behind.

This one was made by my friend Lindsay,

It's painted plastic leaves. It stays on via hairclips.

This one was constructed by Jordana for Jeff. 

A head band with individual leaves cut out and pasted on. There's also some bent wire at the front to hook it on your head.

This one's mine.

I went the more lazy root and cut out only a couple leaves to stick on there to give the illusion of separate pieces.  It's glued onto a bent coat hanger and stays on by squeezing my skull. Gently.

And this one is by Nathan

Nathan traced mine, and put a bendy wire on the inside to make for a more one-size fits all thing.

Dino-mask!

Now that I'm settled with a pleasing number of posts, I'm gonna try and do just one post a week. I'll try and make them nice and phat though.

So I'll post my dinosaur mask today.

The mask is based on a minataurasaurus. A member of the ankylosaurus family, in which only a single fossilized skull exists. Which is perfect, because now, in a way, it's a complete costume.

A lot of creativity had to be used to figure out the placement and proportions of things. The nose had to be shrunk, and the eyes moved forward, as well as the lower spikes. The way I thought of it, I could either have them coming off the back of my head, or just a little further back from the eye. Both are accurate, but I figured the latter looked better.

The mask is paper-mache, with crumpled thin cardboard (like cereal box material) for the bony forehead.  The skin is textured wall paper glued on over top.

Kraft glue was smooth over the horns in layers to work out the wrinkles and rough textures.
Of course, next was the paint, which was pretty easy since all it takes to look good is a little dry brushing.

One thing I would do differently, is make it a bit more spacious. It's really snug and doesn't fit many other people.

Ten minute Tiki

Okay, maybe not ten minutes, but surely no more than a half hour.

One size fits all, and you look awesome.
I was running out of time to put together a quick costume, so I cut some shapes out of cardboard, glued them together with a glue gun, and then added some wig hair on top for effect (left over from my failed first attempt at a baboon mask).

Some cardboard wraps around the back of the head and over the top. With more time it could've been spruced up with paints, some feathers, or maybe some actual research on Tiki masks.
Of course, then it wouldn't be a Ten-minute-Tiki