How to make Lightning Bolt & Strike Costumes

Looking for a funny couples or group Halloween costume idea? Here’s a step by step guide to making a DIY lighting bolt and struck by lighting costume!

It might be slightly lame to post a Halloween costume in November – but this was just too much fun not to share. I charged Sean with picking our costumes this year. I spotted this one on the web and sent it to him (along with dozens of other ideas) and he was immediately sold.

After deciding that I would be the victim (since I had hair we could frizz) and he would be the lightning bolt, we got to work. Here’s what we did.

How to make a struck by lightning costume

What you need:

• An old shirt
• Scissors
• A lighter
• Leggings or black pants
• Rain boots
• An old umbrella

What you do:

STEP 1: The Shirt

First, we made the shirt. This was an old dress shirt of Sean’s that was in the Goodwill pile. Sorry, Goodwill!

He used a pair of scissors to cut out random holes all over it. Be careful not to cut too many/big of holes in the boob-area.

Next we burned the shirt. I’m gonna go ahead and say this was probably (definitely) unsafe but we did it so here it is.

We went outside and used a lighter to singe the edges of the holes. It caught on fire, then we quickly blew it out. It was easy, though a bit scary at first. Be careful!!!

This does add a nice effect to the electrocuted costume look.

STEP 2: The Umbrella

To make my umbrella look like it had been struck, I just tore it up with scissors. I tried to leave about 1/3 of the sections whole but with holes, tatter 1/3 of the sections, and cut away 1/3 of the sections. Randomness is key here.

STEP 3: The finishing touches

When you get ready, you’ll want to frizz your hair and make your makeup look “sooty.” I actually used some of the burned pieces of shirt that came off my shirt to rub soot on my face and neck.

DIY Lighting Bolt Costume

What you need:

• A tri-fold poster board
• Scissors
• Yellow or gold paint + paint brush
• Glitter and white glue (and paint brush you can throw away after)
• An old hat
• Hot Glue
• 1/2 bag of pillow stuffing (polyfil)
• Yellow, blue or black shirt and pants

What you do:

STEP 1: The Cloud

First, make your cloud-hat. We used his man in the yellow hat hat from last year.

I hot glued stuffing right onto the hat. It’s kind of clumpy, so just do it in small bits as best as you can.

A second pair of hands help here – have one person glue and one stick the blobs on.

STEP 2: The bolt

Next, make the bolt. We used a trifold poster and drew on a lighting bolt shape.

Cut it out and then paint the whole thing yellow.

I painted a darker golden yellow, then decided it wasn’t enough color but that bottle ran out so I topped it with a lighter shade that I had on hand. I think it turned out cute!

STEP 3: Glitter

I topped the bolt with glitter. I used a foam brush to add lines of white glue and then Sean added glitter on top of that, just for fun.

We spent Friday night (Halloween night) at Crawl with the Creeps in Avondale. It’s an annual Bar Crawl that we have now attended twice. This year we entered the costume contest and were totally robbed by people in the same costumes as last year.

My opinion is if your costume wins, you shouldn’t be able to win again (same people, same costume, same bar) the next year, but I digress! We had a total blast.

Before we went out, we dressed up CiCi (as a taxi cab) and Bear (as a track-runner). They both hated it. Hence the lack of group picture.

What were you for Halloween? Link up to pics in the comments! 

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Morgan

Hello, I’m Morgan, half of the creative force behind CharlestonCrafted.com! With a passion for DIY that dates back to 2012, I’ve transformed three homes and now I’m dedicated to helping others craft their dream spaces. Let’s turn your house into a home together!