Last-Minute Handmade Halloween Costume Accessories

Most people spend enough on Halloween costumes that they don't want to spend even more on a bunch of accessories to go with the outfit. But whether you made your own outfit, or purchased it, it's the accessories that often bring the costume to life. Some accessories, like wigs, boots and similar items, can be fairly expensive, but there are many other accessories that you can make yourself, and spend little money doing so.

One thing you can make cheaply, that goes with many different costumes, is a headband-type accessory that can be made the way you want it. A cheap plastic headband is all you need to start. Bendable drinking straws with a Halloween theme often have pumpkins, ghosts or other images, molded into the straw. Glue two of these on top of the headband, spaced several inches apart, looks like weird antennas of the Halloween variety. The headbands are also great, when covered in tin foil, to go with Martian outfits and similar costumes. Simply mold antennas out of the foil and wrap them around the headband.

Headbands are perfect for other Halloween accessories, too. Purchase fake hair at a costume shop and glue it to the headband. This is much cheaper than purchasing a wig. Do something similar with a veil. Purchase the desired fabric and cut it to the appropriate size. Find the center and glue it to the headband. Now you have a veil that hangs down the front and back. Glue on spider webs, flies, bugs or other eerie trinkets.

Cut a section from a bathroom tissue or paper towel roll. Now cut a split in the cardboard so that it can be placed on the wrist like a cuff bracelet. Wrap the cardboard in black chenille pipe cleaners until the cardboard is completely covered. Now glue on a novelty black cat, pumpkin, witch or other ghoul. If the bracelet won't stay on, fasten a piece of elastic between the split and it'll stay in place.

Press-on nails can be decorated for Halloween and worn the night of the event. Use tiny pieces of thread to form spider webs, use a stencil to paint on jack-o-lanterns, or just glue tiny creepy-crawlies on some of the nails. Super glue will help hold the nails in place. Acetone will help remove them after Halloween.