Karen Semyan and her 3 1/2 year old daughter participated in Green Halloween at the Wallingford Center in Seattle, Washington this past Halloween wearing a homemade jellyfish costume created from materials found from around the house!  Super fun and easy to do!

How to make a jellyfish:

1 sombrero

1 polar fleece for lining

bubble packaging

1 short led light chain for top of hat

Various ribbons and rickrack for tendrils

1 sheer, shiny piece of material to cover the top and for more tendrils

To secure it all, use a glue gun and clear packing tape.

Jellyfish Made Easy!

Create your own jellyfish costume

Blogger Laurali Star can also be found on The Damsel in the Attic.

Green Halloween® is a nationwide non-profit initiative started by mother-daughter team Corey Colwell-Lipson and Lynn Colwell. In 2010, Green Halloween became a program of EcoMom® Alliance and has events in cities across the U.S.

If you hadn’t heard the incredible buzz (including on Good Morning America!), the first-ever National Costume Swap Day is already a wild success.

With more than 65 registered costume swaps in the U.S. and Canada, there’s a lot of money and landfill space to be saved this year. Plus, swapping costumes is FUN!

Find a swap near you by clicking here.

Hosting a swap? Here are the how to.

Are you planning on attending a costume swap ?

Green Halloween® is a nationwide non-profit initiative started by mother-daughter team Corey Colwell-Lipson and Lynn Colwell. In 2010, Green Halloween became a program of EcoMom® Alliance and has events in cities across the U.S.

I love finding new shops on the internet. It’s actually a full-time hobby of mine. So I thought to myself, why not share these with Green Halloween’s wonderful viewers?! These shops are all fabulous and not to mention carry eco-friendly, GREEN merchandise. What more can you ask for in a shop? Even better, some of the stores mentioned below sell Green Halloween® authorized gear!

EcoMom.com

Like the above banner mentioned, Ecomom® is partnering with Green Halloween® in selling costumes and other Halloween goodies on their website. If you’re still looking for costumes, we highly recommend heading over there and browse their wonderful selections!

Oeuf

According to Oeuf‘s website, the company “has believed in designing products that offer real value to consumers without ever compromising on quality, of the highest order” ad they were around before the green and eco movements became trendy. Their items reflect on their solid philosophy and not to mention, extremely extremely adorable and pleasing on the eyes!

Recycling is Cool

Recycling is Cool carries Green Halloween merchandise and is helping to spread the word of greening up your holidays! While you’re there check out their other store sections as well to find great green products.

Green Halloween® Marketplace

And lastly, we must mention our very own Green Halloween® marketplace! We have tons eek-o-fabulous ideas for costumes, treat & treasures, dECOr and more!

Green Halloween® is a nationwide non-profit initiative started by mother-daughter team Corey Colwell-Lipson and Lynn Colwell. In 2010, Green Halloween became a program of EcoMom® Alliance and has events in cities across the U.S.

I came across this website today: ThreadBanger.com. It’s to DIY for.

They’ve got wonderfully creative ideas (with an emphasis on “green” materials) with easy-to-follow pictures, too.

Now I’m all for letting our kids make their own costumes – when they can – but helping them with the process can be a cherished experience – one that will likely be remembered even more than the costume itself. So if you’re looking for some ideas and direction for what to make and how to make it, I’d say ThreadBanger is a great place to start.

Here are a few of my other favorites:

• Knitty.com’s knitted wig
• About.com’s DIY fashion
• Budget101.com (“frightening ideas that won’t hurt your wallet”)
• AllFreeCrafts.com

Of course, our new book, Celebrate Green! also has great DIY ideas, including a recipe for making your own face paints!

I know you’ll find this astonishing and sad (and you’ll be justified in thinking my parents neglectful) but when I was a child, I never once had a store-bought costume.

Can you believe how awful it must have been for me to hunt through my parent’s closets trying on over-sized shoes and hats, or rummaging through my mom’s art kit looking for paints and random bits of fabric? Can you believe how crushed I was having to dream up ways to actualize the costumes in my mind: an Ewok, a chicken, or a dragon? It’s true, I’m still traumatized…

Of course, you know me well enough to know that I’m only kidding. Creating costumes is one of Halloween’s greatest joys! It’s not only rewarding for children to strut around in something they made themselves, but the there’s also great joy to be found in the entire process – beginning to end.

Okay, so avoiding off-the-rack costumes puts some meaning back into the holiday, but how is it green?

It’s green when the materials you make it with are easy on the Earth, such as:

• Reused, vintage, recycled or reclaimed materials
• Fabrics such as Organic cotton, hemp or burlap

My #1 favorite? Wool. Not only is it non-petroleum based (like polyester is), it’s compostable, biodegradable and naturally fire retardant! Perfect for Halloween.