The Fantastic Mr. Fox

I'm always sad to see October come to an end, but we sure do go out in style! Each year a coworker friend hosts a fabulous Halloween party. We get together for pizza, decorate with friends, and I'm always tasked with climbing the tallest ladder to put webbing around the chandelier. I hate heights, but each year it gets a bit easier! My favorite part of Halloween is the making of the costumes. 

This year our costumes were based on the Wes Anderson film "The Fantastic Mr.Fox", inspired by the children's book "The Fantastic Mr.Fox" by British author Roald Dahl. Warm golden hues are used throughout the movie, the claymation characters are perfectly styled, and we love it. The overall look of the movie is just so good. A true feast for the eyes. And it's funny. I could watch it a million times and I don't think it'd get old.  

I'm embarrassed to admit that I was going to paint our faces this year to save myself a bit of time. October is crazy, my kids are in sports and scouts, and I just didn't think I had it in me to make fancy costumes this year. My dear husband really wanted masks, which surprised me because he usually waits until the last minute to think about costumes. Perhaps I shouldn't have been too surprised, though, because he knew I'd be the one making them! I set to work watching the movie with a cup of coffee and some materials to problem solve the mask making. I had seen instructions for fox masks on Pinterest but decided to wing it and try doing it myself. I was armed with scissors, paper plates, masking tape, cheap masks as foundations, a faux fur vest, and a hot glue gun. How hard could it be?

I started with plastic 99 cent masks for your eyes, the kind a superhero might wear. I used paper plates to build up the faces, referencing the movie while I taped the bits and pieces of cut plate into place. My kids were so excited about the costumes and the movie that they sat with me while I worked and sipped coffee. Family bonding time. I didn't want to spend much on the costumes. I had days before the party and wanted to get the project finished while I had a chunk of time to invest. Since I hadn't purchased faux fur, originally intending to paint our faces, I decided to repurpose a faux fur vest that my daughter rarely wore. It worked beautifully! The only snag was that there was faux fur EVERYWHERE. It looked like I'd been shaving animals in my dining room! I was covered in fur, it was all over the floor. A small price to pay for cool masks I guess. Sweep sweep and it was gone. 

The vest fur wasn't the right color, so I had to figure out what to do about it. After digging around in the basement I found cans of spray paint and remembered that I had a stash of old colorful hairspray. Jackpot! I put cardboard on the driveway from my stash in the garage and set to work spraying the masks with reds, oranges and yellows. Referencing the case from the movie, I added a few gold and black details. It was going to work! It was coming together! I was going to have them finished in plenty of time! And it only took half the day!

It was a beautiful day, so I left them outside to dry in the sun and breeze. When my husband returned from his day of golf he was thrilled with the end product and couldn't believe I'd finished them while he was out! I had purchased ears and one tail (spoiler alert, in the movie his tail is shot off), so I painted them up a bit to match the masks I'd made.

A quick trip to the local Goodwill for him, a digging around the closet session for me, and voila! Mr. and Mrs. Fox! I'm biased, of course, but I think we looked FANTASTIC!