Deer Costume DIY

This year for Halloween I decided to check off a costume that’s been sitting on my Halloween bucket list for a few years now. An ethereal deer! I’ve been enamored with pictures of DIY antlers with flower crowns, and deer makeup on Pinterest, but I haven’t done anything crafty in years, and I’ve never been that great with makeup so I kept saving the idea for next year. This year I was determined and bought my craft (and makeup) supplies almost a year in advance… then didn’t make my antlers until the day of this shoot. Oops.

As always, I try to wear my own clothes for the majority of my costumes and buy key accessories for the look. For the antlers, I bought a two strand headband, a strip of sherpa fabric, and a single pieces of felt from Walmart, branches from Michael’s (they’re usually on sale after Christmas), and a flower crown from Amazon. I took a few minutes to study some pictures of both DIY antlers and actual deer, then cut out the ears and fur. To try and get symmetrical ears, I used the first one I cut out to trace out the second one and then made sure to flip it around so it would be a “mirror image” of the first instead of a copy. I used fabric glue to attach the fur to the felt, then used more fabric glue to glue the outer edges at the bottom of the ears to the center to give them more dimension. Then I used duct tape to attach the ears to the front strand of the headband and the branches to the back strand of the headband. I didn’t feel like messing with a hot glue gun, but if you want your antlers to be more stable than mine were, I recommend trying that instead. I left the flower crown unattached from my antlers so I could re-use it. Thankfully, the one I bought is very flexible and fit over the front of my headband nicely.

For my deer makeup look I simply applied a heavy amount of cream bronzer at the normal contour spots (forehead, below the cheekbones, and sides of the nose) and very lightly blended it in. Then I used a cheep white eyeliner pencil from Target to draw spots on top of my contoured forehead and cheeks. Lastly, I added a little bronzer to the end of my nose.

Goody 2-strand headband/Michael’s bare branches (x2)/Single piece of tan felt from Walmart, similar Walmart 5 pack of felt/Walmart 4in. x 1yrd of sherpa fabric/Amazon adjustable flower crown/Vintage necklace/Gliks ribbed sweater, similar H&M ribbed jersey top, & Forever 21 ruched ribbed top/Urban Outfitters sequin tulle skirt, somewhat similar ASOS stud detail tulle skater skirt, and Forever 21 sheer metal midi skirt/American Eagle western bootie, similar Journee Collection link bootie, & Nordstrom BP. nolly bootie