How to Make a Nut Costume

Healthy foods like nuts can make great Halloween costume ideas for any member of the family. With a few household items, a few craft store supplies and a little creativity, you can make a basic nut costume right at home. This costume is versatile enough to be used for other occasions, too, such as school plays, food group presentations or parades.

Cut the cardboard box open at its seams and lay it on the floor, with the box's inside facing upward.

Trace around the costume wearer. Have the costume wearer lie down with his legs together on top of the open cardboard box. Draw around the wearer's silhouette with a pencil, starting at the neck and following down the shoulders. Lift your pencil and continue tracing under the arms and down to mid-thigh.

Use a permanent marker to shape the pencil silhouette. First use pencil to connect the lines between the shoulders and underarm area of your outline. Draw an exaggerated billowed shape around the hip area, creating the bottom half of an hourglass figure, with a buffer of at least six inches from the actual body boundaries you drew in Step 2. Above the waist, create another billowed shape from the waist upwards, drawing a straight line at the top of the figure at the shoulders.

Use scissors or an Exacto knife to cut out the shape you have drawn in permanent marker. The silhouette should now resemble an hourglass, but cut off at the middle of the top half in a horizontal line.

Create a second, mirror image cutout. Lay your cutout from Step 4 on top of another disassembled cardboard box (or the remnants of your first box if using an appliance size box). Make sure this second box is laying on the floor inside-down this time. Use your permanent marker to trace around your first cutout, and then use your Exacto knife or scissors to cut out this second matching cardboard shape.

Use the cardboard box remnants to create a headpiece. Lay out your first cutout and draw a half-oval on your uncut cardboard to continue the peanut-head shape. The headpiece shape should have a straight bottom side (which will connect to the body piece to complete the peanut shape). When placed vertically on top of your body cutout, the total shape should resemble a peanut.

Punch holes in your body shape cutouts. Use a hole punch to create two holes near the top of each shape, roughly 2 inches down from the top and several inches in from the right and left sides respectively. The holes should appear roughly in the same horizontal alignment that a backpack strap would on the wearer, as they will be used to secure the pieces over the shoulder.

Use light brown tempera paint to coat the cardboard body and headpieces. Lay out newspaper on the floor and cover each surface in light brown paint. Allow to dry.

Use darker brown paint to create a pattern of squares on the head and body pieces to mimic a peanut's texture. Use a ruler to draw pencil lines vertically down each part of the costume, spacing them roughly 3 inches apart. Draw horizontal lines across the cardboard pieces to create a pattern of boxes on the costume's surface. Paint these pencil lines with a thin brush using the darker paint. Allow to dry.

Cut a face hole in the headpiece. Measure the width and height of the wearer's face that you wish to show through the headpiece. Use the Exacto knife or scissors to cut a hole in the headpiece so that the wearer can see and breathe properly.

Dress the nut costume wearer in neutral-colored leggings or tights and long-sleeved shirt, such as black, brown or beige.

Secure the headpiece on the wearer. Punch two holes in the headpiece, roughly 1 1/2 inches in from the right and left edges of the headpiece. Cut a 36-inch length of yarn and double it over, securing one end through one of the headpiece's holes with a knot. Pull the yarn across the back of the wearer's head, pushing the yarn through the second headpiece hole. Tie a knot in the second hole and cut off any excess yarn.

Secure and connect the body pieces on the wearer. Cut two more lengths of yarn about 30 inches each. Double each length of yarn for extra security, and tie a knot through the hole on the right side of the front costume body piece. Secure the other end of the yarn with a knot through the costume back's right hole, making sure the costume rests securely and comfortably on the wearer's shoulder. Secure the left side of the costume by threading the doubled yarn and securing it with knots in the same manner.