Attention-grabbing Halloween costumes needn't require extensive preparations or elaborate trappings. Take these costumes, for example, all of which are easy-to-make visual puns on common phrases or things. Wear one to a party, and you're sure to be noticed, even if the reaction is hearing your friends groan loudly as they slap their foreheads.

To make a Raining Cats and Dogs costume, visit your local toy store for an assortment of stuffed dogs and cats, and sew your purchases onto an umbrella. To create a Black-Eyed Pea costume, make up one or both of your eyes to look blackened, and sew a letter "P," cut from felt, to the front of your shirt. For The Seven Seas, sew a length of sailing rope to the front of a blue shirt in the form of the letter "C." Put on a sailor's hat, and enlist six friends to do the same. To be Pigs in a Blanket, get some friends to join you in obtaining pig snouts from a costume store, and wrap each of yourselves in a blanket. To make the Wallflower, One Nightstand, or Coat of Arms costume, follow the step-by-step instructions below.

Making Pun Costumes

Hot-glue gun

Ribbon

Headband

Petal templates

1/8-inch Zippy foam

Green pants

Green shirt

1. Use the hot-glue gun to attach an 18-inch length of ribbon to the inside of the headband.

2. Print the template below, and use the assorted petal shapes to cut out five large, six medium, and seven small petals from the Zippy foam. Cut a 1-inch vertical slit at the base of each petal; overlap the foam at the slit, and use hot glue to secure so that the petal is concave in the middle. Glue the large petals along the outside of the headband and about 7 inches along the inside of the ribbon on each side (enough to meet at the bottom of your chin once the ribbon is tied). Glue the smaller flowers in front of the larger ones.

3. Wear green pants and a green shirt to simulate a "stem." To complete the effect, spend significant time standing against a wall.

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Wallflower template

1/2-inch foam core

Utility knife

Fabric

Double-stick foam tape

Binder or bulldog clips

Twill tape

Adhesive Velcro

Alarm clock

Box of tissues

Book

Lamp shade

1. Cut out an 18-by-24-inch piece of foam board. On one long end, use the utility knife to make a rectangular cut, wide and long enough to fit snugly around your waist. Choose a large piece of fabric to drape over the foam-core "tabletop." Cut out a rectangle from one long end of the fabric, making it large enough to accommodate the cutout in the foam core.

2. Attach the fabric to the foam core with the double-stick tape. Use the binder or bulldog clips to attach a 56-inch length of twill tape to each side of the tabletop, about 4 inches in from the front.

3. Use adhesive Velcro to attach the alarm clock, tissue box, and book. Sew the Velcro to the fabric if necessary.

4. Slip your neck through the loop, and position the table around your waist. Wear a lamp shade as a hat.

Long-sleeve shirts

Sports jacket

Batting

Latex gloves

Safety pins

1. Cut the arms off several long-sleeved shirts, and sew them to the back of an inexpensive sports jacket.

2. Stuff each sleeve with batting. Partially inflate the latex gloves, and tie off each one as you would a balloon. Safety-pin a balloon hand to the inside of each cuff.

Black-Eyed Peas

Joel Cordenner

Aaron Caramanis

The Seven Seas

April Marks

Margaret Lee

Kristine Kinsella

Molly Bradford

Mark Ski

Carlos Baguer

Leah Wendt

Pigs in a Blanket

Sean Steyer

Tony Tocci

Kim McCarthy

Peter Trivelas

Sean Elms

Wallflower

Danielle Boccher

One Nightstand

Tom Tamborello

Coat of Arms

Jason Horn

Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia

Zippy foam

Available at crafts stores

Sailor's hat

Available at army-navy surplus stores

Halloween props (tortoise puppets, rubber chickens, dragon skulls, and remote rats)

American Science & Surplus

P.O. Box 1030

Skokie, IL 60076

847-647-0011

Fax: 800-934-0722