Dressing up for Hal­loween can seem like a finan­cially (and cre­atively) daunting task when you see what some cos­tumes are being sold for.

But fear not. You can rock a great Hal­loween cos­tume using clothes, items, and makeup you already have. We asked Farah Griffin, AMD’16, and Rebecca Price, AMD’17, vet­erans of the Depart­ment of Theatre’s cos­tume shop, for home­made Hal­loween cos­tume sug­ges­tions that go beyond poking two eye­holes in a white sheet and dressing up as a ghost.

Puns on puns on puns

Griffin pointed out that the eas­iest cos­tume to make is to take what you wore last year, and trans­form it into the “dead” ver­sion this year. “If you were Ariel from The Little Mer­maid last year you could be ‘dead’ Ariel this year,” Griffin said.

Other pun-​​themed ideas include:

Quar­ter­back – Tape a quarter to your back

Ceiling fan – Write “Yay Ceil­ings!” on a white T-​​shirt

Use your­self as a canvas

One idea that Griffin is stealing from a friend is dressing up as a vending machine, which entails taping var­ious snacks and prices to your shirt. “I thought it was so lame until we put it together,” Griffin said.

You could also tape “trash” to your­self to be a dirty floor; tape images of dif­ferent apps to your­self and be an iPhone; or wear a white top and red pants and go as Tylenol.

Group cos­tumes

By simply wearing jeans and solid col­ored T-​​shirts, friends can coor­di­nate group cos­tumes to be M&M’s or Skit­tles. Cou­ples can make it more simple, with one person wearing jeans and a white T-​​shirt and the other wearing jeans and a black T-​​shirt and going as salt and pepper.

The essence of the character

Price noted a Tumblr page called Disney Bound that high­lights dis­tinct colors and styles that rep­re­sent dif­ferent Disney char­ac­ters, which you can wear rather than going out and buying an actual costume.

“You wear the rep­re­sen­ta­tion of the char­acter without actu­ally being the char­acter,” Price said.

Where’s Waldo?

The most clever cos­tume sug­ges­tion was for anyone who can’t make it out to Hal­loween fes­tiv­i­ties with their friends. In the days leading up to Hal­loween, tell everyone you have a top-​​notch Waldo cos­tume. And when they realize you aren’t out cel­e­brating with them, they’ll get in touch with you to ask where you are.

Makeup pointers

Griffin, a self-​​taught makeup artist, likes Spirit Gum and Spirit Gum remover, which will help attach items to your body and then remove them with ease. If you want to enhance your M&M’s or Skit­tles cos­tume, use Spirit Gum to attach the can­dies to your face.

“And you can lit­er­ally paint on any design with black eye­liner,” Griffin said.

If you need more pointers or help with Hal­loween make up, Depart­ment of The­atre teaching pro­fessor Frances Nelson McSh­erry is hosting a work­shop on Tuesday from 4 to 5 p.m., in 334 Ryder Hall.