Costume Party Ideas: Glee Meets Gaga

Much of the charm of the “Glee meets Gaga” episode of Glee, “Born This Way,” is that the characters didn’t try to emulate Lady Gaga exactly. Instead, the Glee crew went for “Gaga-esque” and put their own personalities and personal touches on their costumes.

For this reason, if you are considering a Lady Gaga Halloween costume party, why not a Glee Meets Gaga theme party? Pay homage to her accomplishments by retaining her spirit and setting free your own imagination as well.

Gaga Foundation Halloween Costume Pieces
Visit the Lady Gaga Costumes department of the Halloween Costumes store first. Here, you’ll find the black sequin two-tone dress and the blue “Poker Face” video outfit complete with matching gloves.

This is where you’ll also get the creative juices flowing as you discover a selection of sunglasses, hats, feather and sequined masks, and wigs including the signature Lady Gaga long blonde wig with bangs. Keep your eye on that wig! We’ve got a couple fun ways to use it.

Do-it-yourself Lady Gaga/Glee Costumes
Gaga/Brittany’s silver lobster headdress: Make a stop in Nautical Party Supplies for a 16” long lobster cutout that you can cover in glitter in no time. Attach the finished lobster to an elasticized headband. That’s it! Since not everybody’s cut out to wear a transparent plastic dress with the headdress, you might opt for the black sequin as described above, or a simple black sheath as a contrast to the showy crustacean.

(Incidentally, nautical also carries a captain’s hat that’s not hard to picture Lady Gaga wearing.)

Gaga/Tina’s bubble dress: Select either silver metallic or clear crystal latex balloons. Inflate them to varying sizes but no bigger than about softball size. Create balloon ropes, each at least your own height, by attaching the knot ends of all but the smallest balloons to clear thread with small spaces between them.

To assemble the bubble costume, climb into a bodysuit that matches your skin color as closely as possible. Drape one rope over your shoulders like a stole. Then have a friend bring the other around your torso, crossing and twisting one thread around the other at the spaces wherever possible, but keeping the thread well away from your neck! Finally, have your friend glue the smallest balloons between and on top of the larger balloons with clear- and quick-drying craft glue that is skin safe.

To get the hair that goes with the bubble dress, trim the blonde wig with bangs to a bob length.

Gaga/Mercedes hair bow: Get two of the blonde wigs with bangs, one for wearing and the other for extra hair to make the bow. Type “Lady Gaga’s hair bow tutorial” into your preferred search engine and watch a couple of them. Be sure to cut the second wig as close to the cap as possible for a nice long length of hair to work with. Wear with the Lady Gaga getup of your choice and the tallest shoes you dare.

More Halloween Costume Ideas
Why not create a Lady Gaga Meets Halloween look? Imagine fingerless gloves, a feather boa and a chic witch’s broom — all in hot pink! Browse your way through Halloween Costume Accessories and Create-A Costume prop options to pull together your own unique Halloween tribute to the pop star today.

He Rolled Away a Personalized Tombstone!

Odd as it may sound at first, it may be worth your while to venture from church decorations shopping to check out some Halloween decorations and other party supplies for an Easter church display, Sunday school classroom or pageant.

Imagine adapting a crypt standee into a cave, and fashioning Halloween tombstones into a boulder. The advantage — besides not having to build these items from scratch, of course — is to be able to customize them with special Easter messages such as “He is Risen.” The products are free-standing yet do not take up a lot of floor space, so they are classroom-friendly. Place them in front of a background of tan cobblestone flat paper or other rock patterned paper.

Our Halloween costumes department includes religious costumes for children that are highly rated by shoppers for their detail and fit, a good investment that can be used for both Easter and Nativity events down the road. We also have affordable but quite authentic-looking Roman helmets and other Roman wearables tucked into our “hats, bandannas and wigs” party favors pages. The helmets are one-size-fits-most.

Get a good start on recreating a stunning Last Supper tableau by covering a long table with a white table cover and metallic gold plates from our solid color tableware collection.

And, finally, don’t forget a sign or two for reminding folks of your Easter event. We have a dozen beautiful, inspirational church banner designs that are appropriate for Easter celebrations, yard signs and a 7-foot personalized cross standee to choose from.

Happy Easter!

2011 Costume Ideas

Whether you like to go classic, cutting edge or humorous for Halloween and costume parties, there is no shortage of options in Halloween costumes for 2011.

Go To the Movies
For the absolute latest trends in costumes, our advice is to go to the movies this year. New Pirates of the Caribbean, Harry Potter, XMen and Green Lantern films will be released in 2011, meaning lots of choices coming up in new costumes whether your character preference is Jack Sparrow or Voldemort. Shop Movie Costumes for some of the hottest movie and TV selections out there.

Play Favorites
Another way to go this year is a classic costume. Sci-fi and superhero characters fit this category, as do old- fashioned witches and monsters such as vampires and werewolves that are as fashionable as ever thanks to such TV fare as The Vampire Diaries and Being Human. From Spiderman to Darth Vader, Dracula to Wolfman, see Movie & TV as above, Witch Costumes and Horror Costumes.

Humor Us
If you like to walk into a room and hear laughter as others spot your costume, Create-a-Costume may be for you with its wacky wigs, glasses and other costume accessories. Put together an over-the-top 1970s “disco guy” with big wig and mustache, or a “biker” sporting a flame bandanna and tattoo sleeves. Or, pull on one of our hilarious sandwich board instant costumes (found in Men’s, Women’s or Teens’ pages).

Think Young
Look for older kids’ faves in durable, detailed Disney™ Costumes. Toy Story and Pirates of the Caribbean are still running strong as are girls’ Disney Channel characters from The Wizards of Waverly, Hannah Montana and Camp Rock.

In Infants & Toddlers, don’t miss the highly-rated Pinkalicious™ and UPS™ Guy costumes for the littlest trick-or-treaters.

10 Ideas for Halloween Event Supplies

Plan An Amazing Haunted Halloween Event
Whether you’re in charge of this year’s community haunted house or you’re planning a spooky sock hop, we’ve compiled a list of ten unique ideas for Halloween event supplies:

• Put the finishing touches to howlin’ good Halloween hootenanny plans.
  Enhance the spookiness of your Halloween decorations with a fog machine.

• Pick a peck of Pick Your Poison beverage napkins for the bar.
• Add cemetery personalized candy bars to your Halloween favors list.
• Create-a placemat with past Halloween photos or children’s art to complement orange, black, or themed event tableware.
• Select a couple more traditional tombstones to round out a haunted graveyard scene.
• Can you possibly have too many cobwebs in your Halloween event supply arsenal? We think not – especially at this price! Stretch them ominously over picture and doorway corners, chandeliers and table skirts.
• Organize a neighborhood Halloween parade. Deck out truck beds, cars, and pull-behinds with parade supplies themed with these Halloween event supplies.
• Ask actors to dress in Halloween costumes at your haunted house or carnival party event.
• Hire a square dance caller to teach your guests a few moves at your Halloween cowboy party. Set up a section of party games in the corner for kids.
• Borrow an ice cream truck. Decorate it with Halloween banners. Wear a headscarf with braids and carefully roll thru your festival handing out bulk candy and freeze dried, astronaut ice cream.

Enjoy this year’s Halloween festivities and do tell us your favorite Halloween ideas!