How to Make a Cardboard Helmet for a Costume

When my son was five, he decided he wanted to be Chop-Chop (from Skylander Giants) for Halloween, all because of a Happy Meal toy he got.  (Thanks, McDonald’s!)

That meant I had to figure out how to make a cardboard helmet for a costume.

In case any of you are still working on Halloween costume pieces (no judging here, I just started working on his latest costume this week), I thought I’d share how I made the cardboard helmet.

Not only is it perfect for a costume, it could be a fun kids craft for tweens, as well.

This simple helmet craft would go perfectly with your very own cardboard castle playhouse.

How to Make a Cardboard Helmet

I  used cereal boxes to make the majority of his helmet.  They are thinner, which makes them easy to cut and more comfortable to wear.

To start with, you will need to cut a 2 inch thick strip of cardboard that fits around your child’s head.  I wound up having to connect two pieces of cardboard together with duct tape to make it long enough.

Use tape to secure your cardboard strip in a circle that fits snugly around your child’s head.

Then cut two more strips of cardboard, taping them inside the circle and crossing in the middle (as seen in the picture below).

Be sure these two strips sit high enough that your child’s head can still fit inside the helmet.

 Tip:  A roll of paper towels is perfect for holding your cardboard helmet while you work.

You will notice one other addition in my picture, the start of Chop-Chop’s helmet decoration — a triangular nose guard.

At this point you can add in the start of a nose guard.  You could also add in side pieces to the helmet, like ear guards. It all depends on how you want your finished product to look.

The next step is to fill in the top of your helmet.

Cut four triangular pieces to fill in the spaces left from the criss-crossing cardboard strips you have at the top.

To make them fit better, make a small cut along the triangle’s bottom to allow you to overlap the bottom a bit, making the triangles rounder at the bottom.   This helps them curve more with the helmet.

Use plenty of tape, cutting off any pieces of cardboard that stick out, until you are happy with the result.  It doesn’t have to be perfect smooth, as that will be covered in a bit.

You could paint your homemade helmet, but duct tape helps make it look more finished.  Plus, it will make it more durable and a little more water resistant.

Start by covering the top of the helmet with strips of tape.

Then use long strips to go around the circumference of your duct tape helmet.

You can leave your helmet as is, or you can make it a little fancier.

We put a large crest on top of the cardboard helmet.  For this I used a slightly thicker cardboard, hot gluing two pieces together to make it even thicker.

If you choose to add a crest, you will want to cut the bottom of the crest so it curves inward, allowing it to fit snugly against the main portion of the helmet.

You can paint the crest or use more duct tape to give it color.  My son decided to color his with crayons.

Use hot glue to secure the crest to the helmet.

You can add other decorative pieces in the same manner.

We decided to make a larger nose guard out of thicker cardboard to add to our helmet.

That’s all there is to it when it comes to how to make a cardboard helmet for a costume.

A homemade cardboard helmet will help transform any young boy (or girl) into their favorite character.  It’s the perfect addition to dress up clothes for pretend play.

You’ll also enjoy these posts:

• Coat of Arms Craft — Perfect for adding a shield to your dress up area!
• Shark Party Games
• Straw Weaving Bracelet — tween craft

Edited post.  This post was originally published October 27, 2014.