Halloween 2010

At the Anderson Farms pumpkin patch

Halloween proved to be tricky this year. We were visiting California the week leading up to Halloween, and we did not return home until Saturday evening 10/30. At the same time, Alex decided early on that he wanted to be a minivan. So we knew we had our work cut out for us.

On the plane flight home, Alex changed his mind slightly, and in a flash of inspiration decided that he wanted to be the Arnold Schwarzenegger character from the movie Cars. It's a big yellow Hummer SUV. This gave us something concrete to work towards -- and easy too, since those big SUVs are boxy and flat.

Arnold as he appears in Cars, "Lighting McQueen must be found at all costs!"

At work we routinely recycle large amounts of big cardboard boxes, so getting the raw materials proved pretty easy.  The next steps were to lay out the design and figure out a reliable way to connect the pieces together.

Me and Alex during the early stages of construction

We ended up with a pretty simple, yet complete, design.  We traced and cut out the two sides of the SUV on big, rigid sheets of cardboard.  Along each edge, we included an extra flap 1-2 inches wide running the length of each edge.  This gave us a surface to attach the hood/roof/windshield to.  We also used a single, very long, sheet of cardboard to create the hood, windshield, roof, and rear of the car.  This gave us extra strength, and simplicity too.  We used a box-cutter to cut through the cardboard, and an Xacto knife to score the insides of the folds where we needed to create 90 degree folds in the cardboard.

Bonding together the cardboard proved to be the most difficult challenge.  Originally we were going to use basic packing tape.  But this could not hold the large pieces together reliably.  As we were assembling it, the taped joints began to give out.  So we had to find a better mechanical way to connect the pieces.  First I tried using my big T-50 staple gun, but the 1/2" staples barely poked through two sheets of cardboard.  Then I ran to Ace to try and get some brads, but they didn't have anything suitable.  So I bought a pop riveter instead and some plastic-sleeved rivets.  This would have worked beautifully, I think, except that the rivets were not long enough to bond the two sheets together, and by the time I realized it, Ace had closed for the night.

So finally I ended up using the staple gun and a pair of needle-nose pliers to pinch the ends of the nails and turn them in just enough to take hold in the cardboard.  It worked!  After I'd joined all the pieces together, I used additional packing tape to help secure the sheets together.

We painted the truck with a couple of cans of yellow spray paint.  We used a big sharpie and black duct tape to create the fine details.  And voila!

Dana and Genevieve decided to stay home and brood while the boys went out Trick-or-Treating around the neighborhood.

My two favorite witches

Everyone we met on the street complimented Alex on his original costume.  It made me smile to know that our frantic 4-5 hours of construction had paid off and made him the star of the neighborhood.

What a haul!