Dangerously Cheesy... How to Make Awesome Cheeto Halloween Costumes

This Halloween my girlfriend and I made 2 large Cheeto costumes with foam from Joann's, two colors of tempera paint and a few different types of adhesives and glue to glue the pieces together.

They turned out great!

MATERIALS

• 2 x Copper Infused Foam Roll 2" x 24" x 72"
• 1 x 3 in. Thick Multi-Purpose Foam 24" x 72" from Home Depot
• 1 x Project Foam 24" x 72" x 1" thick
• 1 can of Gorilla Glue Heavy Duty Spray Adhesive
• 1 bottle of E6000 FabriFuse glue
• 1 bottle of orange tempera paint
• 1 bottle of yellow tempera paint
• Several bags of Cheetos for inspiration

TOOLS

• 1 sharpie
• 1 pair of scissors
• Exercise weights to help weigh down sections of the foam while it dries
• 1 Hairdryer to help speed up the paint drying

Overall cost came out to be about $60 - $70 per Cheeto costume and that was after wasting a decent amount of foam just figuring out how to assemble everything. These were also made in one afternoon and total dry time for the glue and the paint was about 1 hour. We used a hair dryer to speed up the drying process after gluing and after each paint coat.

First step is to cut the head hole and fold the Copper Infused Foam sheet in half. I used a dinner plate to trace a hole and carved it out with scissors a little later so it felt more comfortable.

Take the thick 3" foam sheet from Home Depot and carve out crunchy shapes. Look at a few Cheetos to plan out the shapes and how they intersect. Then take the Gorilla Glue Spray and spray each side of the foam before attaching. I also used some of the E6000 FabriFuse Glue to add more support on the edges. Use exercise weights to help keep pressure on the pieces as they dry. I let each piece dry for about 30 minutes before moving on to the next step. Draw out the shapes and lines lightly with the Sharpie. After you have some shapes go back and carve out the edges and some deep lines connecting the shapes with scissors.

Dab a thin coat of yellow tempera paint all over the entire piece.

Look at some more Cheetos and look to see how the dust piles up in between the cracks. Dab on the orange paint with an emphasis on the edges and underneath the blobs. One coat is plenty and if you're in a rush you can get the paint to dry in less than 10 minutes with a hair dryer. Lay out trash bags on the ground to avoid any spills.

Now the paint is dry and the foam pieces are all firmly glued together. The last step is to add foam waistbands cut from the 1" Project Foam. Make these loose enough to dance in but tight enough so that the entire costume looks like a Cheeto instead of a sheet of foam folded in two. Paint the bands and glue them onto the main folded sheet.

Go out and party and make sure to bring lots of Cheetos!