DIY Paint Swatch Family Costume

It’s that time of year again – costume time! My absolute favorite part of Halloween is seeing everybody’s costumes, and my favorite costumes are family costumes! This year is no different, and I’m so excited to finally be able to do a family costume for the first time EVER! Unless you count the costumes we did with our dog – ha! PS. You can see those here, here, and here!

Find my other costume DIYs HERE!

As a kid I loved looking at the paint swatch wall at the hardware store and then taking a bunch home for no reason, did anybody else do this?! Honestly, not much has changed because I still love staring at that paint swatch wall and taking a bunch home, but now they are to decide on paint colors for my many DIY projects. I loved the idea of dressing up as something that represents all the DIY and creative projects that I love to do, and that is… PAINT SWATCHES!

The great part about this costume is that you can make it as big of a group costume as you want because there are endless colors! You could just have a whole army of paint swatches! I also loved including our dog Cooper as a little paint palette, haha! Of course, the best and easiest way to make a paint swatch costume is to use tie dye, and what better than my personal favorite tie dye brand – Tulip Color! They have literally every color under the rainbow, plus you can always mix colors (yes, it’s true). I used their party pack that includes 14 (!!) colors!

Anyways, let get started on making this DIY paint swatch family Halloween costume – woo!

SUPPLIES:

For the Paint Swatches:

Tulip Tie Dye Party Kit

White Tulip Fabric Paint

Painters Tape

Paint Brush

White Fabric Vinyl (optional)

White Cotton Clothing (Dress, T-shirt, Onesie)

For the Paint Palette:

Felt (tan, blue, coral, mustard, pink)

Aleene’s Ultimate Glue

Scissors

White Elastic

Paint Palette Printable Template (Enter your email below)

DIRECTIONS:

For the Paint Swatches:

1. Start by deciding on your dye colors, I chose pink, blue and yellow for my three paint swatches! I often mix my colors (mix the powders together before adding water), like this time I added a little pink to the yellow to make it a little more mustard.
2. I then test out the color on a paper towel to make sure that I like it.
3. I spray my clothing with water a little because it helps the dye absorb into the fabric better.
4. I then added two elastics to form the three sections of my paint swatch. I bunched the shirt up vertically and then added the two elastics spaced evenly apart.
5. I then started at the top section and added dye to the whole thing, making sure that that section is completely covered in dye.
6. Then add water to what you have left of your dye and color the next section. This will make the color in the next section much lighter. Do the same to the next section, adding more water again, making an even lighter color.
7. Add two pieces of painters tape between each section to form lines between the three sections (see photo) and then use your white Tulip fabric and paint between your tape. Touch up your white lines once you take the tape off.
8. Paint on the color names with your white fabric paint or add iron-on vinyl like I did! I just made up my color names and decided to name them all after food.

For the Paint Palettes:

I made a paint palette headband for myself and a paint palette costume for my dog, both using the same technique, just different sizes!

1. Print and cut out the paint palette template (get the link in the supplies section).
2. Trace the paper template onto your felt with a pencil and cut it all out.
3. Glue the felt paint splotches onto your felt paint palette with Aleene’s Ultimate glue.
4. Then attach your elastic by gluing both end to either side of the back of the felt. Don’t forget to measure it on your dog, baby, cat, or whoever will be wearing it first to make sure that it’s the right size.
5. Repeat these steps to make the headband version, just use the smaller template.
6. I also added slightly larger a cream piece of felt behind it to make it stand out a little more, since the tan felt was the same color as my dog – ha!

That’s it! A family costume perfect for anyone who is creative, loves art, loves design, or just loves going to the hardware store and staring at the paint swatch wall! Pretty pleaseee let me know if you make this costume – you can tag or DM me @mikylacreates on Instagram. I think this would make the BEST group costume, so somebody needs to make that happen! ALSO! You need to check out Tulip Colors million tie dye colors here! Alrighty! See yah next time!