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As I mentioned in a previous Halloween post, my daughter Liv LOVES ice cream–specifically strawberry. It is one of her most favorite foods, other than a rare, ribeye steak. So, when it came time to pick out Halloween costumes (that I could DIY for $20 or less), it seemed fitting that she be a strawberry ice cream cone.
Cruz is one, so has no choice in the matter. However, the Ice Cream Man was something I knew we could easily pull off with things we had in his closet.
Not taking into account the things we already owned, each costume cost me $20 or less (and a few hours of my time and creativity).
Our Look
Inspiration
I think we did a bang-up job, don’t you? Here’s how it all went down:
1. Assembling the Looks
I start by checking out what we already have around the house before I purchase anything. If I do need to purchase an item, I try to find things we can use/wear again.
Ice Cream Cone Look
It is usually quite cold here for Halloween, so layers are very important. Liv was given this fantastic pink coat by Mack & Co as a gift a few years ago. It still fits so it was an obvious choice for the top layer of her Ice Cream costume.
Shockingly, Liv did not have a pink top that would work for this look. I found this great pink mock neck turtleneck at Walmart during my weekly grocery run. The color was also perfect, she will be able to wear it again and it was only $4.88 in-store, so it was a win.
Walmart.com sells it in a package of 3.
For the bottom, she had some pink polka-dot leggings from Old Navy to wear underneath, we had purchased when we went school shopping.
Ice Cream Man
So, initially, I was going to have Cruz wear a button-down white shirt we already had and buy him new black pants (they had them for less than $5 at Walmart), similar to the inspiration photo. Unfortunately, he had outgrown his white shirt.
Most of the white shirts I found were around $10 -$15, and I still needed to buy the pants. He also needed an all-white ensemble for his baptism mid-October, so I had a bit of a budget dilemma.
After shopping around a bit and weighing my options, I opted to purchase this outfit from Amazon, hoping to use it for both the baptism and Halloween. It was $19, but I had a coupon, so it was only $14–I am considering it $7 for the purpose of this project since he wore it twice.
I also liked that this outfit was one piece and I wouldn’t have to be tucking his shirt in all night long (that seems to be an issue with my boy).
The outfit was so much better than I expected. I replaced the bow tie with one we already had and cut out the pocket square because I wasn’t feeling the blue and leaving it would have been too easy, of course.
2. Final Details . . . the sprinkles!
Now that we had a good foundation, the next step was adding the final details.
Sprinkles
I took mini craft sticks and painted them a variety of colors using these cool Kwik Stix Tempera Paint Sticks Liv got as a birthday gift. My original plan was to paint them with regular paint, but this was much easier and less mess.
I did have to do a few coats, but this paint dries in 90 seconds, so it was no hassle.
Then I glued on safety pins to the back of the sticks using hot glue, so I could affix them to her outfit.
I also ended up painting them with glitter paint because, let’s be honest, everything is just better with glitter.
NOTE: I had to be very careful not to get glue inside of the safety pin or I could not get it latched or re-latched. This was basically impossible. Ya live and ya learn.
I would suggest using a bar pin clasp like this.
Ice Cream Cone Hat
I started by making another cone out of cardstock, except instead of cutting the sheet in two, I used the whole sheet. Visit my Paper Ice Cream Cone Tutorial for instructions on how I make paper cones.
Then I took some used, crinkled pink tissue paper and glued it on the bottom of the cone. I wanted to give it a “melted” ice cream effect.
Then I used two tulle strips and glued them on the inside of the hat, so I could tie it on Liv’s head.
I attached the “Sprinkles” to her hat and to her outfit. I also used pom poms as sprinkles–attaching them with safety pins as well.
Tulle Tutu
I made a tulle tutu using rolls of tulle from Walmart and an elastic band. This was the most time-consuming and expensive part of the costume (about $10)–but as Carrie Bradshaw would agree–the tutu was necessary.
- I bought the tulle at Walmart, I used about 4 rolls. I already had elastic.
- Measured Liv’s waist (just to get an idea–nothing exact) and also measured roughly how long I wanted the strips to be.
- I doubled the length of the strip (so it could be folded in half and looped).
- Then you cut strips until you are almost drunk–because you must be drinking during this part.
- Once the strips are cut, I layered two strips together, folded in half and then looped around the elastic.
- Then you continue looping around the elastic until you are totally smashed.
Here’s your cone little lady . . .
We added her strawberry purse to carry her candy stash and she was almost sweet enough to eat.
Ice Cream Man Hat
With the help of my brother, we designed the hat’s logo in Adobe Illustrator, reflected the image and printed it on card stock.
Then I cut the sheet in half, length-wise. I trimmed it to fit Cruz’s head, then used hot glue to secure the ends.
Or, you could go the easy route and order the hat from Amazon. They sell them in a 6 pack for $4.99. Click HERE for more details.
The Tray
I don’t have pictures of the creation because it was sort of a last-minute thing. I only intended to decorate the stroller like an ice cream truck (continue reading for pics) but ended up with some extra cardboard and time, so I said–“hell, why not make an ice cream tray too. It’s noon, you’ve only had one beer. You can do it”.
Let’s be honest, it wasn’t complete rocket science. (And, THANK GOD, because again–I’d only had one beer. Rocket science requires tequila).
I happened to have a perfect piece of white cardboard in my “stash.” I cut X’s where I wanted the cones to go, glued two strips of ribbon at each corner (on the bottom) and over the front of the tray and another ribbon on the underside along the back.
Mr. Charming’s Ice Cream: So good you’ll scream!
Then we tied it on and this guy, he was ready to sell ice cream to Eskimos.
The Ice Cream Truck (Stroller)
This post is really about the costumes and to be honest, I just kinda went crazy with the stroller ice cream truck idea and epically failed at documenting the process. But basically, I created everything in Illustrator and printed it off. It’s all made of cardstock, hot glue, tape, and cardboard.
I am just going to say it. It was ice cream magic.
