Female Costumes

• A bunny-girl outfit is almost a must-have costume that's easy to create. Dig out your sexiest black stockings and trim a black leotard with some white fur and include a bobtail. Some specially purchased bunny ears top off this outfit. You might not feel comfortable dressing in such a risque manner ordinarily, but costume parties and hen nights give you the perfect excuse. Dressing up as your favorite celebrity calls for some new designer clothes. Re-creating fairy tale characters you loved reading about as a kid is a reason to wear plenty of fluffy pink and large, meringue-style, dresses that you wouldn't be caught dead in on other occasions.
  
  

Male Costumes

• If evil chuckling and playing practical jokes takes your fancy, dress as the Joker out of the Batman comic books and movies. Spray your hair green and wear a double-breasted red or yellow zoot suit and two-tone shoes. Paint your face white with face paint and draw on the big iconic grin with a red lipstick. A water-squirting flower on your lapel and an electric shock handshake gadget will give you reason to laugh maniacally all night. For video gamers, a Super Mario costume is a simple but effective outfit. All you need is a long sleeved red top and a pair of blue denim dungarees. A red baseball cap can be adapted with a piece of red cloth stitched loosely around the top to make it floppy. Stick a white felt circle to the front with a red M drawn on it with a marker. A pair of thick white gloves and big black boots completes the costume.
  
  

Kids Costumes

• Buy some cute animal costumes and make your kids even more irresistible and cuddly. Get some photos as they won't put up with it when they're older. Boys are transformed into Frankenstein with a torn, plain-colored, jacket and trousers and a stick on neck bolt plus an enlarged, square, green cardboard head. Girls are prettily turned into pageant winners with frilly party dresses, tiaras and a silk sash that can just about anyone make with a piece of silk and needle and thread.
  
  

Last Minute Ideas

• A quick, witty, last minute idea is to draw a black "P" around each eye with face paint and tell people you are a black-eyed pea -- either the vegetable or the music group. A long flowing dress, tambourine and nattily-tied headscarf makes a quick gypsy costume for females. Another witty quickie is to be a bubble bath by covering yourself in inflated white balloons. An alien mask with an orange prison-type jumpsuit will turn you into an instant "illegal" alien -- at least the mask will cover your red face when everyone groans at the pun.