For Halloween this year I was given one pretty big stepping stone by my husband. He requested no blood. As you know, every year I dump about 30 buckets of blood all over us. It takes me about three weeks because I need our costumes dry before we go out. Needless to say I wasn’t quite thrilled with his demand. Don’t you fret though, I worked my way through it. So, for this years Halloween we went as the painter Bob Ross and his happy little tree painting. Take that Derek lol. Here is how I did our costumes.

You’ve probably already wondered why Bob Ross? Well, my reason are three fold.
1. He’s awesome
2. No blood
3. I like to ooze sex appeal

So, if you ever want to make yourself a Bob Ross costume, here is what you need:
1. Brown Afro wig
2. Gold medallion necklace
3. High waisted jeans
4. Denim long sleeved shirt
5. Fake mustache
6. Fake beard (if you want)
7. Eyelash glue
8. Paintbrush
9. Painters palette
10. Old painting
11. Seventies glasses
12. Halloween face paint in colors that match your painting

Here’s what I did. It honestly only took about an hour to throw together and I bought everything I needed the day before the Halloween party. It’s been one of my easiest costumes to date.

Face: I put on a thin layer of foundation where I wouldn’t be gluing any hair on. This was to hold the little bit of makeup that I would be wearing. Then, because my eyelashes are so blonde, I added one coat of black mascara. With an eyebrow pencil, I drew on man brows. These are thicker and more straight across than ladies eyebrows. Kind of like a messy catapillar over each eye. A little bronzer on my eyelids and under my eyes to make me look more tired and a bit more masculine and that was that.

Hair: I brushed the wig out a solid four times so that the curls were a bit more broken up. Then I sprayed it with hairspray twice to hold it a bit better. I cut some hair off of the sides of the wig because I needed that for my face and chest. Plus, the sides of his hair are a bit more boxy. For best results remember to put your hair in a flat bun and wear a wig cap before you slip your wig on.

Facial Hair: This is where shit got interesting. I took my wig clippings and separated them so that they weren’t a huge mass of curls. Then, I glued a fake mustache on with clear eyelash glue. It had more straight hair, so I took more eyelash glue and glued some of the curly, loose wig hair on overtop of the mustache. I added eyelash glue to my cheeks all the way up to the bottom of my ears. Then I affixed the loose hair from mid cheek down to my jawline. I had originally bought a beard to glue on in one piece, but I was afraid that it would be too heavy and that the glue would lift. So I decided to do it all by hand instead. It still lifted throughout the night but it was nothing a shot of eyelash glue and two seconds of time couldn’t fix. For the hair on his chin, I just kept layering loose wig hair and eyelash glue and kept gluing until it was longer than the hair on the sides of my face. He has a couple of white lines running through the hair on his chin so I added white face paint to the hair in that area. A good shot of hairspray to keep any strays in place and I was done. I had one million pounds of hair in my mouth, but I was done.

Chest hair: I used the same eyelash glue and loose wig hair method all over my chest where I knew that my shirt would be open. No need slapping it on all the way down to your belly button. Just put it where everyone will be seeing it. Remember a good coat of hairspray when you’re done to keep any loose hair from lifting.

Outfit: High waisted seventies jeans with a long sleeved denim shirt tucked in with the sleeves rolled partway up are the main components to this. I threw on his gold medallion necklace so it could really highlight my chest hair and added his glasses for a final touch. I figured if no one knew who I was I could just tell them that I was going as “Denim Dan” and leave it at that.

Derek’s Gorgeousness: I bought an old painting with a frame around it, measured his head with Saran Wrap (he thought I was trying to smother him) and taped it to the painting to cut the face hole out of it. When that was done I cut two long pieces of cardboard from a cardboard box to look like easel legs and covered them in silver duct tape so they had a bit more strength. Then I glued those bad boys to the back of the painting. Come the night of the Halloween party all he had to do was stick his face in the painting and I painted his exposed skin with face paint that matched the surrounding colors.

And with that we were done and could enjoy the festivities…..and about a thousand drinks. Which, by the way, the more drinks I had, the more I chased him around with my palette and paintbrush and pretended to paint him. He’s a lucky, lucky guy. Bonus: the painting was so wide that when he walked through a crowd of people, they had to move to the side. This was a perfect way to get up to the bar and grab a drink lol.

That, my friends, is how we made our Halloween 2016 costumes. I hope you all had a great night like we did. Well, like I did. I can’t speak on behalf of my happy little tree.

xo Stephanie