Between themed parties, Halloween and Book Week, the cost of all the costumes in your kids’ toy box can start to add up. Collect your craft supplies, engage your creativity and save your wallet with these delightful and easy-to-make kids’ costume ideas.‍

Hands hold a white paper unicorn headband featuring a gold horn, ears, and colourful flower decorations.

DIY Kids’ Costume: Unicorn Headband

A hand holds a printed template sheet for a unicorn headband, featuring outlines for a unicorn horn, inner and outer ears, and two different flower shapes.

Step 1: Print out this unicorn headband stencil for the horn, ears and flowers. Using a pair of scissors, cut roughly around the stencils, leaving a thick white border around the edge.

A hand holds a printed template sheet for a unicorn headband, featuring outlines for a unicorn horn, inner and outer ears, and two different flower shapes.

Step 2: Starting with the horn, stick your stencil to white cardboard using either sticky tape or Blu Tack. 

Step 3: Cut both pieces of paper, around the whole horn about 5mm away from the outline of the stencil. This will create the base of your horn.

Step 4: Take the same stencil and stick it to a piece of gold paper. Cut on the edge of each individual curve. This will create the pieces needed to create the horn pattern.

Step 5: Take all your gold pieces and use glue to adhere them to the white base to complete the horn.

Step 6: Repeat this stencil process with the ears and the flowers; sticking the outer ear stencils to white card, the inner ear stencils to pink paper and the flower stencils to any colour scheme of your choosing. Cut along the outline of each stencil to produce your patterns.

Hands using a glue stick to assemble paper unicorn ears, with one ear already completed with a purple inner section.

Step 7: Glue your centres on your flowers and your smaller ear pattern to the larger white pieces. Set aside.

Step 8: Taking a large piece of white card, measure a 10cm x 60cm thick strip for your headband.

Hands adding a paper flower to a DIY unicorn headband with a gold horn and pink ears on a plain brown background.

Step 9: To assemble, glue the horn on the outside of the headband in the centre, secure the ears on the inside on either side of the horn, then arrange the flowers along the outside front of the headband.

Hands holding a DIY unicorn headband decorated with a gold horn, purple ears and colourful paper flowers on a plain brown background.

Step 10: Before fastening, estimate the size by wrapping the headband around your child’s head and mark where the pieces need to meet to achieve the correct size. 

Step 11: Cut off any excess cardboard at the ends of the headband and use sticky tape to secure it together.

What You’ll Need

SEE ALSO: 4 Easy Book Week Costumes

A child wearing a handmade lion mask made from a painted paper plate with a yellow, orange and brown paper mane, standing outdoors in sunlight.

DIY Kids’ Costume: Animal Face Mask

Hands cutting eye holes into a white paper plate to make a DIY animal mask on a plain brown background.

Step 1: On the underside of a paper plate, draw two small holes (about the size of a 20-cent piece) with a pencil to mark the eye holes of your mask. Use scissors to carefully cut these out.

Step 2: Sketch out your animal face. For this example, we’re creating a lion.

Hands painting a DIY lion mask on a paper plate, with eye holes cut out and orange paint on a second plate beside it.

Step 3: Bring your animal mask to life with a pop of colour using acrylic paint and a paint brush. For this lion mask, we mixed red and yellow paint to create an orange.

Step 4: While waiting for the paint to dry, choose the coloured paper you will need to create the ears and any other features needed for your animal. For the lion, cut out semi circles of yellow and orange paper for the ears and 1cm-wide strips of yellow, brown and orange paper for the mane.

DIY lion mask made from a painted paper plate with cut-out eye holes, paper ears and a drawn face on a plain brown background.

Step 5: Once your paint is dry, stick your animal ears on using glue or tape and use a paint marker to add in your animal’s facial details, including nose, mouth and whiskers.

Hand placing a piece of elastic onto a DIY lion mask made from a white paper plate with yellow, orange and brown mane pieces on a brown background.

Step 6: Stick the strips of paper around the edge of the plate to create the mane. Add a few layers at different lengths to create volume.

Three DIY paper plate animal masks on a brown background: a panda, a fox and a lion with a layered yellow, orange and brown paper mane.

Step 7: Cut two 30cm lengths of string or one 60cm piece of elastic and secure to the mask using sticky tape, or punch a hole on either side of the mask to tie the string through.

What You’ll Need

SEE ALSO: Spooky Halloween Craft Ideas for Kids