How to make Bunsen and Beaker Costumes

(This is a flashback blog post. We did these costumes back in 2007. I was WAY preggo with K and having issues so that's why I'm not doing much in the pictures and why there aren't as many pictures as my normal DIY stuff.)

At the time we were trying to think of an idea for costumes for our friends' annual Halloween party. We had awesome  ideas in the past and didn't want to disappoint. Heck we had even won a few contests.

Being that I was preggo,  I wanted something comfortable and warm. Halloween here in Saint Louis is usually very cold.  We went online looking and found that someone had done a Bunsen and Beaker costume.

You remember...from the Muppets? Meep Meep and explosions? That's some funny shiz-nit. So we looked at the picture we found and got started.

For Beaker we got:

- a white poster board
- 1 yard of  pink felt
- two round Styrofoam balls
- one egg shaped Styrofoam ball
- One orange feather boa for the hair
- a doctor coat from the Halloween store
- can of orange spray paint

For Bunsen we got:

- 1 yard of green fleece
- one of those hold-in-your-hand-and-bounce-it ball from Target
- pair of goofy glasses from Target ( popped out the silly eyes)
-a doctor coat from the Halloween store


We started with Bunsen since we knew we were going to paper mache his head and it would take a while to dry.  We blew up the bouncy-boppy ball and then started to make and apply the paper mache.  I don't remember ever doing it before and  it was easy but messy.

After it was dry, we  cut a smiley mouth so that I could see out. We figured I would be Bunsen since  he's kinda shorter than Beaker.

Then I started to apply the green fleece and stretch it around his head. I had have my mom help and cut it around the top of his head so it would lay flat and just have a small seem up on top.

 I then took some smaller pieces of felt and hot glued it to the sides of his head for his ears. Super easy and looked good. His nose was a little harder. We just had to sew a triangle, glue it on three sides to the head and then stuff it with some old pillow stuffing. It didn't take much. then we glued down the other end.  I got out the crazy-eyes glasses , popped out the crazy eyes and then glued them on the head as well.


With Beaker, We started by taking the poster board and wrapping it around J's head.

We drew him a mouth to see out of and cut it out as well. Then we hot glued the  fleece onto the poster board making sure to leave a bunch at the bottom of the head so J could tuck it into his shirt.

 As we were gluing the felt on we had to cut and then push it into the mouth opening and then glue it again so you couldn't see the poster board.

 I used a sharpie maker and a toilet paper roll (yep) to make the pupils on the Styrofoam eyeballs. The toilet paper rolls kept them the same size.  We took the egg shaped Styrofoam  and sprayed it orange outside.  We may have been able to paint it but it just seemed easier.

We wanted his hair to look like it did on the show so we bough the orange boa and then looped it around the outside of the poster board and then also attached it to the inside of the poster board, looping it back and forth so  that would sit right above J's head. See below.

Our heads were finally done. All and all it took two nights with all of the drying involved but it wasn't hard at all.

 We also decided that we didn't want to see our own hands , So we hand sewed ( very primitively since the they only needed to last one night) some four fingered gloves out of the green fleece  and the pink felt.  We put on our doctor coats ( we bought at the costumes store for about $15 a piece), jeans and some ties  voila!  There we were in all of our  Muppet glory.

We actually ended up selling them  in 2010 for $20 at a garage sale.  It was a shame but they took up so much room in our storage area. We saw the kids that bought them  in our neighborhood that same year.  Sniff Sniff.  They lookd good though.  I'm going to post all of other costumes coming up soon. Like I said... we were good at coming up with the couple costumes :)

What costumes have you made

Monday
What is the Gunny Sack -Making the world Cuter -Debbie Doo -DIY Show Off
-I should be mopping the Floor
Great Fun 4 Kids

Tuesday
 Tip Junkie - My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia -The Kurtz Corner
Sugar Bee - Romance On A Dime -The Winthrop Chronicles

Wednesday
 Someday Crafts - Sew Much Ado
 - Southern Lovely  -SNAP

Thursday
Beyond the Picket Fence - Somewhat Simple - Live Laugh Rowe
Loving this Crazy Life - The Shabby Cottage
The Taylor House- House of Hepworths 
Two In Diapers-Mommy Brain Mixer


Friday
Naptime Crafters - Stay At Home Nation
Young and Crafty -  My Turn(ForUs)
Delicate Construction
Serenity Now
Here Comes the Sun

Saturday

Six Sister's Stuff
Cheerios and Lattes
Natasha in Oz -Say G'Day