Up Family Costume

UP has always been on my wish list of family themes for Halloween! Although I've been creating for the last several years, it was this year that I decided I would test my skills in homemade costumes.

For the Up house, I used several cardboard boxes, cutting down the shapes I needed in order to have a frame that looked like the house in the movie. LOTS of paint and colors were needed for the different elevations of the house, as well as popsicle sticks for the front porch, steps, and the window trim, scrapbook paper for the chimney, a dollhouse door for the front (and a hand painted faux door on the back), dollhouse shingles, cardstock paper for the windows, beads that I used as the door locks, peep hole, a light on the porch and the doorbell, dollhouse trim for the porch area, stickers for the house numbers, a bead wire reel to hold the "garden hose", bracelet rope for the garden hose, a lego piece for the garden hose nozzle, and tons of hot glue to hold it all together. I glued straps on the inside so my daughter could wear the house like suspenders, then got a bouquet of balloons that were tied to the top of the house. The rooster on top was a napkin ring, where the ring was removed and the rooster was secured to the top of the house. As seen in the movie, the character Ellie had on a vintage airplane hat and goggles when she's first shown in the movie...my daughter wore my husband's old hat and glasses.

For Dug the dog, I made the head out of paper mache and covered it in fabric, cut out a mouth, used a styrafoam ball that a squished into an oval shape and wrapped it with an old black sock. The styrafoam ball eyes were cut down and painted. The tongue is made from felt, and the teeth were made from foam board, then glued in place. The ears were made with material and stuffed with cotton for fluff. The collar was made from felt and old drink caps. The body was made from material that matched the head.

The costume for Russell had many little details. I spray painted the hat yellow and hand cut and glued the felt to look like the Wilderness Explorer logo. I also made this same logo out of felt in two other sizes. One for the flag he carries in his backpack, and one that is seen on his shirt. I used a brown bandana and cut it to the shape of a sash. The badges were placed in the same order seen on Russell's sash, made from construction paper and round felt stickers that you normally use for the bottom of furniture. The American flag patch on his sleeve was hand cut using felt and sewn on. The diamond-shaped WE pin was made from cardboard, some braided rope and beads. His Grape Soda patch was from a bottle cap and some paper that I drew the logo on. His backpack had a lot of the same accessories as seen in the movie and they were attached using pipe cleaners.

For Kevin (the tall bird), I made his head from an old unicorn pinata. I cut the horn off its head and glued it to the front to create a beak. Then I used the metal clothes hangers near the eye sockets to give it a more rounded shape. I gathered batting throughout the whole head to soften the lines and used masking tape to hold it together. Then wrapped it in felt fabric. For the neck, I used chicken wire, tubing, masking tape, and felt. For the body, I took a yellow shirt and cut the front off, attached it to the front of a hoodie, and glued lots of boas in various colors. The back was done similarly, but using a blue piece of felt. The wings were done the same way. The feathers coming out of his head were made from pipe cleaners, sticky and regular felt.

Carl (the old man) was contructed from a cardboard box, then wrapped in chicken wire for the shape, then masking tape, then paper mache using paper towels, hand painted. The wrinkles were made with masking tape as well. The eyes are whiffle balls that were cut to size and I used nail polish for the eye color, then a sharpie for the pupils. The glasses are made from paint sticks and electrical tape. The hair and eyebrows are feather boas that I glued on.

LOTS of details and lots of hours/work, but so worth it when all put together.