Costume Horns DIY

Costume horns for halloween, LARPs, and other joyous events.

This tutorial shows how to make horns out of cheap, lightweight materials.
(There are many pictures because I took one for every step to make the tutorial as clear as possible; but the project is quite simple and short- it took me less than 2 hours.)

You will need:

1-2 sheets A4 sheets of Craft Foam , preferably brown or white

0.5 m .8 mm Wire (that doesn't bend too easily)

Masking Tape

Metal Headband

Acrylic Paint - Brown, black, or other colors you want

Hot Glue Gun

Scissors

Pliers for cutting wire

Start by cutting a triangle out of craft foam (a.k.a fun foam, in Hebrew it's called sol foam, usually sold in craft and hobbies stores). The triangle should be about 15cm high- the measurements are pretty flexible.

Cut out a wire that's about 5cm longer than your triangle (you will use this extra wire to connect the horns to the headband). Connect the end of the wire to the top of the tiangle with masking tape.

Close your cone with masking tape
Bind some masking tape aroung the tip of the cone to close any gaps and to make a nice pointy tip

Bend the foam cone over your hand (masking-tape side towards your hand) to create a slight curve. Note that this will lightly flatten your cone.

Pinch the curved cone to bring it back to a non-flat shape.

(Optional) to create a more interesting texture, pinch the foam towards the tip and hold for a few seconds.

Starting to look nice! :)

Connect the end of the metal wire to the 'front side' of the horn.

Connect the metal wire to the headband, and twist it a few times around the headband to keep in in place. You can use some masking tape to keep it in place, but I suggest to keep the heavy adheasion until you have both horns and you can see how you want them located.

Metal headband with two horns!
I used reference pictures for the angle and location of the horns; horns are usually in an angle that continues the line from your chin to your eyes.

Cut more craft foam to cover open gaps (connect with masking tape), keep the bottom part of the horn open.

To make the horns more stable, fill them with a rolled cone of foam, and then seal the opened part of the horn.

Cover any metal connections and the headband with masking tape.

For a more organic texture, I added lines of hot glue (with a glue gun). Let it cool.

Apply paint (brown as a base, and a darker brown between the hot-glue lines). I also painted the masking tape on the headband- use a color that's similar to your hair.
Ta-da!