I’ll be honest with you and admit that I had never thought about having a Cousin It prop for Halloween until I saw one at my Aunt’s house. We had gone down to spend the weekend with them for Jonathan to tour a college out there. Lucky for me my aunt had the house all decorated for Halloween including Cousin It! It was the last weekend we would get to spend with my Uncle before he passed away. Maybe that’s why I decided to make a Cousin It for my house. He’s really cute by the way.
Cousin It Halloween prop
Making a Cousin It is pretty simple and straightforward and you only need 6 items to do it, well 9 if you count the grass skirts individually. I used 1 tomato cage, 1 plastic pot, 1 hat, 1 pair of sunglasses, 4 grass table skirts, and 70+ zip ties. Click the links to grab the supplies for your Cousin It!
Building your Cousin It
The first step of building your Cousin It is attaching the tomato cage to the plastic pot. I had Jonathan use a sharp knife to create several slits in the pot big enough for the zip ties to slide into. Once he added the first slit I secured the tomato cage so that we would know where to make the next slits. Just put a zip tie through the slit and wrap it around the edge of the pot and the tomato cage and tighten it. Make sure to rotate your zip tie so that the tail is inside the pot.
Time for the grass skirts!
Once you have the tomato cage attached to the pot its time to add the grass skirts. Start by holding the skirt so that the bottom of it just touches the floor. When you have the skirt in the right place zip tie the top of the skirt onto the cage starting at the end of the skirt. Holding the skirt at the same height zip tie it in place going in a circle. ( You will see what I mean in the pictures)
You can see how my skirts are actually in a triangle shape on the lower levels. This is because if I had placed them on the first circle I would have had to cut the bottom of the skirt off. Once the top layers of skirts are on you won’t see how they are tied on at all so it doesn’t matter how it looks. Continue adding the skirts onto the cage in an upward spiral motion creating layers until you get to the top. ( You can really see that in the middle picture.)
How to create the top of his head
I wanted to create more surface area on his head so that the hat would sit more snuggly and not tip. In order to do this I used the zip ties to connect each ring of the circle making it look like a rug. I then used a few of the large zip ties to connect it to the metal so it wouldn’t slip down. It’s tricky but just keep adding zip ties until it feels secure.
Now for the accessories!
When you get the top of his head done all you have left is to add his hat and sunglasses! I used a zip tie to secure his glasses which was super easy. Now you can top him off with his hat and viola! You have now made your very own Cousin It Hallowen prop! I hope you enjoy it as much as we have enjoyed ours. Happy Halloween!
All the supplies you need!
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