Meet Griffin! An adorable 19-month-old boy from St. Paul, Minnesota.

His mother, Sarah, was inspired by Green Halloween® to make Griffin an eco-friendly “Griffin” costume for Halloween this year!

(Be sure to check out Griffin’s 2009 owl costume made from wool fleece and Eco Felt).

As you may or may not know, a Griffin is part lion, part eagle so what’s a Griffin mama and daddy to wear? You got it!

Sarah was a “Eagle Mother” and her husband, Andrew, a “Lion Dad”.

Each costume was made with either recycled materials Sarah found at Goodwill or from home, and Eco Felt or wool felt. One of her favorite transformations was using an orange bath mat for Andrew’s lion mane!

All in all, Sarah spent less than $15 on supplies, which also made it a thrifty Halloween!

Sarah, we love your resourcefulness and style; can’t wait to see what you come up with next year.

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 came across this post today from TheDailyGreen.

It has great photos of costumes you won’t find on any rack.

For some reason the images remind me of that quote, “What would you do if you knew you couldn’t fail?”

Here are a few of my favorites, but if you need inspiration for your own get-up, check out this list of ideas.

It’ll surely get your creative juices flowing…

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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.

Stop by our kids page and check out our current contests as well as our “winners circle” featuring results from challenges such as the ChicoBag trick-or-treat design contest.

Current contests include our CODE Apparel t-shirt design contest. The chosen design will be printed on ethically sourced, organic t-shirts and some will even be hidden around the country only to br found through Geocaching! It’s a Green Halloween-Contest-Treasure Hunt.

Starting on October 1st, your child can also sumbit photos displaying his or her pumpkin-carving talents. This contest is hosted by Crayons Beverages, our national sponsor. The artist behind the chosen photo will win a Razor scooter and Crayons Beverages for a year!

There are also lots of contests featured elsewhere online. This one will feature photos of your handmade costume creations.

Send us your photos as well! We’d love to see ‘em.