The trees are turning warm rusty colours, there are conkers on the ground and a smell of bonfires in the air... which means Halloween must be just around the corner!

Today, we're bringing you some creative fancy dress DIY ideas for this year's celebrations - not your standard spooky witches, cats and vampires this time (no judgement, we've been there many times!) but some fun handmade projects that will get your creative juices flowing.

Here's our DIY Halloween Costume Ideas...

Your favourite artist or artwork

This one is quite open to your imagination, but we think it can be a really wonderful theme when doing fancy dress! Our go-to is Frida Kahlo with a beautiful handmade paper floral head-dress (take inspiration from our paper flowers kit) as well as a flowing vibrant dress and tassel earrings - the more colour and pattern the better for Frida!

You could also get creative with face paints and re-imagine some of Matisse's famous cutouts - whilst wearing all one colour to match.

Treebeard

This is a costume idea that goes hand-in-hand with a lovely autumnal walk in the woods. Treebeard is a character originally created by J.R.R. Tolkien and is an ancient and wise tree giant.

Rather than overwhelm yourself with an entire tree costume, we would focus on a mask that includes a long, bedraggled beard made out of leaves, twigs and maybe some bits of fabric you find lying around.

Feathered Creature

Whether you choose a goldfinch or a swan, a feathered creature can be a very fun costume to create. Just make sure you pick the right colour palette for your bird and form some big wings using chicken wire.

Don't forget to craft a beak out of card and elastic to finish off the costume. This one can look super carnival-like - harking back to warmer summers as we head into winter! Happy making!

Image Credits: Yulia Chinito, Joshua Coleman (Painting Chloe Hakakian), Markus Spiske and Sommi H