How to Make a Foam Rubber Costume

This is a fun and easy project that you can enjoy by yourself or with your kids. Teens will be entertained by the novel and creative idea of being a ham and cheese sandwich, and will probably want to make it on their own. Even young children can help with pasting and painting, and you can expect lots of giggles as they craft bits of ham and cheese from foam rubber.

The materials required are either already in your home or inexpensively available at department and hobby stores. There's no sewing or other needle craft involved, so almost anyone can complete the project in an hour or so.

This simple costume is designed to be worn like a walking billboard, with one "sign" worn on the front of the body and the other on the back.

Things You'll Need

• 2 sheets 1/2-inch thick white styrofoam 6-8 yards 1-inch wide foam rubber strip 2 yards of 1/2-inch wide ribbon Green crepe paper Contrasting green tissue paper Acrylic paints Paintbrushes White craft glue Pencil Scissors Sponge

Instructions

1. Lay one of the sheets of styrofoam on a flat surface. Use a pencil to sketch a slice of bread on it. Cut the shape out, and trace it onto the other sheet of styrofoam. Then cut out the second piece of bread, too.

2. Use brown paint to add crust to the edges of the styrofoam sheets. Paint the rest of the sheet to look like a slice of bread. Dabbing a lighter color of paint on with a sponge works very nicely for this. You won't need to paint the undersides of the sheets.

3. Use scissors to cut the strips of foam rubber into small pieces, about 2 to 4 inches each. Then paint them to resemble pieces of ham and cheese. If you want Swiss cheese, use a darker yellow to create holes. Let the paint dry completely.

4. Make bits of lettuce from the crepe paper and tissue paper. You can do this by either crinkling pieces of the paper or by folding small sections of it into loose little "fans."

5. Make the lettuce stick out the sides of the sandwich by gluing the edges of the paper onto the undersides of each of the styrofoam bread slices. It's a good idea to then lay the slices on a flat surface and place weights on top of them while the glue dries in order to set it well. Wait until the glue has dried thoroughly before proceeding.

6. Create ham and cheese peeking out from under the bread by gluing the painted foam rubber pieces directly to the top of the green paper lettuce, flush with the bread slice. Add a little glue between the bread slice and the pieces of ham and cheese for more strength. Be creative by overlapping some of the pieces or by placing them at odd angles. Make sure that the glue dries completely.

7. Poke or cut two small holes about 1 inch from the top of each slice of bread. These holes should match up and be horizontally situated so that they can be used to create shoulder straps.

8. Poke or cut 2 small holes near the lower outer corners of each slice of bread about 1 inch from the side and the bottom of the sheet.

9. Sandwich the two slices together, match up the holes and connect them loosely by running pieces of ribbon through the holes.

10. Slip the sandwich over the head of the subject with one painted slice of bread facing front, the other facing behind. Secure the slices into place by tightening and tying the ribbons for a comfortable fit.

Tips & Warnings

• You can "fit" a styrofoam sheet to the person for whom the costume is being made by having him or her hold it up in front at shoulder height before actually cutting any of the materials. Visualize the sheet as being a slice of bread and determine how much of the board to use. An alternative to cutting little pieces of ham and cheese from the foam rubber strips is to just use a single strip of it for each slice of bread. Just paint the strips, let the paint dry, then glue them completely around the slices of bread before adding the tissue paper lettuce. Glue the ham to one slice, and the cheese to the other slice.