DIY Ramen Noodle Halloween Costume

I’m currently writing this on the plane on the way to Palm Springs for our elopement ahhh!!! But let’s talk about something else I’m really excited about; our first Halloween costume of the season! This is my favorite time of the year for crafting and we’re kicking off our costumes with one of our favorite foods ever, RAMEN! We eat a ridiculous, and I really mean ridiculous, amount of ramen, so it’s only fitting that I dress up as a ramen bowl for Halloween, right?

Even though the last few months have been a whirlwind, we haven’t forgotten about our costumes! I really loved making this one because it gave me an excuse to eat ramen two times in two days “for inspiration!” Ha! Hopefully you’re all in the mood for some ramen too, because making this will definitely work up your appetite! And stay tuned, we have a lot more costume ideas coming next week, I even got Kyle in on some couples costume ideas!

36” latex balloon
Newsprint paper or newspaper
Small and medium sized paintbrushes
White, red, coral, yellow, and black acrylic paint
Sheet of green craft foam (here)
Two skeins of thick yellow yarn
White foam core board
White ribbon
Two 1” dowels
Three thick craft foam blocks (here)
White glue
Hot glue gun
Utility knife
Scissors

1. Inflate your 36″ balloon to its full capacity. In a large bowl, mix together equal parts water and white glue until smooth. Cut long strips out of newspaper 1″-1 1/2″ wide. These will be used to papier-mâché the ramen “bowl.”

2. Place the strips of newspaper in the glue mixture, removing any excess glue with your fingers. One by one, cover the balloon with papier-mâché strips until half of the balloon is covered. Allow the first layer to dry completely before placing a second layer. We did three layers of papier-mâché to make sure our bowl was sturdy.

3. Dry the papier-mâché overnight before carefully deflating the balloon and removing it from your bowl structure. Once the balloon has been completely removed, level off the top of the bowl by cutting it with scissors and cut a hole in the base large enough to fit the bowl around your waist.

4. With acrylic paint and a large brush, paint the entire bowl white. Once it has finished drying, paint two red stripes along the top of the bowl.

5. Using a large sheet of foam core, cut out a circle the same diameter as the top of your bowl. Cut a hole out of the middle of the foam core circle large enough to fit around your waist. Hot glue the foam board to the top of the bowl. This is what your toppings will sit on.

6. Unravel two skeins of thick yellow yarn. Bunch it together to look like noodles and hot glue it all around the top of the bowl to completely cover up the white foam core. Leave a few strands of yarn hanging to make it look like noodles falling out of the bowl.

7. To make the green onions, cut small strips of green craft foam and hot glue them together in a cylinder. Hot glue those to the top of the noodles.

8. To make the seaweed, cut strips out of a large foam block. Paint the strips with black acrylic paint, leaving some areas unpainted to closer resemble the look of seaweed.

9. For the fish cakes, use a utility knife to cut scalloped circles out of a block of white foam. Paint spirals in the middle of the foam with coral acrylic paint.

10. The soft boiled egg is the trickiest topping to make. We carved it out of another white foam block using a utility knife and painted a small circle in the middle yellow for the yolk.

11. Once all of the toppings are hot glued to the noodles, cut two pieces of white ribbon long enough to fit over your shoulders. Hot glue the ribbon to the inside of the costume, making sure it’s very secure.

12. Step into your costume and grab two 1″ wooden dowels for giant chopsticks!

Hope you all love this one as much as I do!!! Sharing the photo above even though it’s extremely blurry because as we were shooting this costume, a girl in a ramen sweatshirt who was taking her engagement photos down the street came up to us. What are the chances?!? Haha! I also made the day of two adorable kids who definitely thought I was some kind of ramen mascot. Do you think if I wear this to a ramen restaurant, they’ll give me a bowl for free? I’ll keep you updated on that one. 😉