super simple car costume!

my son decided that he wanted to be acaar for halloween this year.   car?   easy!   i love an easy costume!

you can be as fancy or simple as you want, time will allow and resources will grant.  i have next  to nothing in the last two so we went with simple.

first, you're gonna need a box!

consider kid/box ratio, length, width, height, length.   

i un glued the bottom and the seam so i could lay it out flat.  i didn't to try and deal with the glossy outside and the inside is nice and clean.   plus, i want to work with it flat.   much easier. 

 give your ride a paint job.   we laid down an old shower curtain and went to work.   i used kitchen sponges since i don't have any large paint brushes here.   my 4 year old used his hands.   it all worked.   after painting the ride, we painted some wheels.   just circles with white rings.   you have to have white walls after all.   black tires blend with the pavement.

 cut the tires off the bottom side flaps.   fold the bottom front flaps up and tape.   fold the top side flaps down and tape for a little stability.   then i just taped it back together inside out.

 i used some wire to hold the wheels on.   you could glue them as well.   just make sure to secure them well.

i used wire folded in half and then splayed at the ends.   i taped over the ends so the wouldn't snag.   you should also tape them on the back of the wheel or add some stabilization to the hole in the wheel so it doesn't tear and jump off your car. you could use washer of some sort to keep it on as well.

my son and i multi-tasked on this and got it done in no time.   i got the wheels on and he installed the windows.    we are so  much faster than any garage.

 

we used tin foil for the front and back windows.   just press the tin foil over the flap so you can see the outline, fold it gently in half so it won't crease and cut a window slightly smaller than the outline.

i cut a grill out of tin foil and added some detail with paint and the original paintbrush.  

 the lights are seriously awesome!   they make the costume super sweet and super safe at the same time.   we had some of these small push lights, you could cut holes and use flash lights or glow in the dark stuff as well.  

 for the back lights, i cut up a red plastic bag and taped it in place.   all of the lights were taped on with duct tape.   i just made little tape rolls and they held fine.

 the straps were made from duct tape as well.    i had my tomboy princess be the car lift and hold the box in place while i measured.   then i just ran tape across from one side to the other.   then ran another piece on top of it so it wasn't sticky.   i went wide at the front and met in the center of the back so they wouldn't slip off the shoulders.  

 i would reinforce the flaps.   my race car driver went of roading and racing around until the front window separated from the body.  i had to steal some tape from the straps to do some on the spot body work.   i usually carry duct tape, of course, not tonight.

hope you have fun making a car for your little driver . . .or for yourself.   it's a great thing for halloween or any day really.   when is a box car not fun?!