Halloween Fancy Dress Ideas | Making a Voodoo Priestess Headdress or Crown
I am a big fan of Halloween fancy dress and fancy dress in general, but sometimes it’s difficult to find something a bit different or something you or your friends haven't worn before. Last year I had an idea to go as a Voodoo Priestess after being inspired by seeing some Day of the Dead costumes and some photos of amazing Voodoo headdresses I found online - see below. Unfortunately I couldn't find exactly what I wanted and the ones that were available to buy were upwards of £60, which even for me was a bit much to spend on one element of my outfit.
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So I started looking at what I could use to construct a Voodoo Priestess Headdress using flowers, feathers, antlers and bones. I found the best thing to use for the headdress base was a sturdy set of reindeer antlers. I then stripped off the material, so just the black plastic was left. This gave me a structure to attach the rest of the headdress decorations to.
For the voodoo headdress bones I bought a pack of assorted Halloween bones, but as I only needed the finger bones I shared the cost with my friends so they could use them for their outfits.
Halloween Bones for Voodoo Fancy Dress | Party Packs
I knew I wanted to use feathers, flowers and bones (not real ones) for my voodoo headdress decorations, so I bought a range of different coloured feathers. For additional headdress decorations I also bought a few peacock feathers from a craft shop and some artificial flowers I had on a flower headband.
I also found some great twisted twigs in the garden to use as the antlers/horns. I then superglued a stick across the two plastic antlers to create a frame, then glued a thick cardboard arch at the bottom of the plastic uprights to give the feathers something to stick to, with cardboard flaps on either side to give it some more stability. I then glued the bones to the cardboard, poked the feathers through the cardboard then glued them in place to make sure they didn't fall off. You can still see the cardboard in the photos of the nearly finished voodoo headdress below but I covered this up with more feathers.
I had already bought an old wedding dress from a charity shop which I thought would be perfect, so I ripped this and covered it in fake blood which was really effective. I also had some old costume jewellry I made into a headband and attached it to the head dress. Then I was finished! Although slightly heavy and quite a bit larger than I imagined I absolutely loved the finished article and got loads of positive comments about it.
I did quite simple makeup with a white face, dripping blood and heavy eye makeup, I then rubbed some flour through my hair to make it grey(er) and voila a Voodoo Priestess!!
Halloween Bones for Voodoo Fancy Dress | Party Packs
I knew I wanted to use feathers, flowers and bones (not real ones) for my voodoo headdress decorations, so I bought a range of different coloured feathers. For additional headdress decorations I also bought a few peacock feathers from a craft shop and some artificial flowers I had on a flower headband.
I also found some great twisted twigs in the garden to use as the antlers/horns. I then superglued a stick across the two plastic antlers to create a frame, then glued a thick cardboard arch at the bottom of the plastic uprights to give the feathers something to stick to, with cardboard flaps on either side to give it some more stability. I then glued the bones to the cardboard, poked the feathers through the cardboard then glued them in place to make sure they didn't fall off. You can still see the cardboard in the photos of the nearly finished voodoo headdress below but I covered this up with more feathers.
I had already bought an old wedding dress from a charity shop which I thought would be perfect, so I ripped this and covered it in fake blood which was really effective. I also had some old costume jewellry I made into a headband and attached it to the head dress. Then I was finished! Although slightly heavy and quite a bit larger than I imagined I absolutely loved the finished article and got loads of positive comments about it.
I did quite simple makeup with a white face, dripping blood and heavy eye makeup, I then rubbed some flour through my hair to make it grey(er) and voila a Voodoo Priestess!!
