Elizabeth Johnson Are you wondering how to DIY a Wild Kratts costume? Whether you are looking forward to Halloween or your child is just a fan, you can totally do this on your own.
My children are big Wild Kratts fans. They love the cartoon version, and I love that it is educational. So, Wild Kratts is one show I can feel pretty okay with them watching.
My children decided they wanted to be specific Wild Kratts power suits. My son wanted a rhino power suit and my daughter wanted to have a wolf power suit.
Sadly, at the time the stores only offered a vampire bat and a panther power suit.
That was disappointing to my littles, so I kicked it into gear to figure out how I could create DIY Wild Kratts power suits that they would love. Find out my tips and tricks below.
Supplies Needed to Make DIY Wild Kratts Costumes
- black stretch pants
- black long sleeve shirts
- fabric puffy paint
- cosplay foam 2MM
- contact cement
- circle touch light
- Cricut vinyl
- Velcro dots
- E6000
- 3M Heavy-Duty Double-Sided Tape
- duct tape
- construction paper
How to DIY a Wild Kratts Costume
When it comes to the actual outfit, I wanted it to be low-cost and easy. Notice the emphasis on easy.
So, I started with finding black stretch pants and matching black long-sleeve shirts in the kids’ sizes. It’s the easiest way to get a no-sew DIY costume on a budget.
I found the shirts and pants we used on sale at Target for about $5 apiece.
I happened to have a supply of various colored fabric puffy paint. To start, squirt the desired colors on a paper plate and paint your base coat using a brush. The puffy paint is fabric paint and will adhere to the cloth even through washing machine cleanings.
Martin wears the blue Wild Kratts power suit, and Chris wears the green Wild Kratts power suit. It mattered to my children which character they were, so be sure to ask before you start painting.
Pro-tip: I use cut cardboard pieces inside the shirts and pants to make sure the fabric paint doesn’t bleed through to the other side.
Before flipping the clothing over, allow the fabric paint to dry completely. Once you have the desired look to your base paint you can go over it with puffy paint straight out of the tube to make more expressive lines that pop out.
To help create a more accurate Wild Kratts costume, I looked at the cartoon images of the rhino power suit and wolf power suit. This helps to add some fun details, but don’t stress about it being exactly like the picture.
How to Create Wild Kratts Creature Power Suit Details
The most challenging part of creating these DIY Wild Kratts creature power suits is adding the 3D pieces. I had heard about a newer item you can find at Joann cosplay foam. The foam is branded by a famous cosplay costume creator Yaya Han.
This foam is bendable, carvable, and moldable with heat. And it glues together with a strong bond using contact cement. I like using the kind with a brush attached to the container lid.
Creating the Rhino Wild Kratts Power Suit
The hardest part of creating the rhino Wild Kratts power suit was designing the boots and helmet. Once again, I wanted to keep it cheap, but look cool enough to make my decerning little one feel like he was wearing the real deal.
I purchased one sheet of cosplay foam and was determined to make it work for everything. First, I created a cylinder shape that would fit loosely around my son’s calves with an overlap for the Velcro to connect it in the back.
We needed a way to cover his tennis shoes while easily connecting it to the cylinder for a complete boot look. I happened to get Gevalia K cups at Publix on a buy-one-get-one, and they had the perfect scoop out (the opening pointed toward the ground) that would work great for a shoe to fit in.
You can reinforce the box with duct tape—especially on the bottom and near the edges. Adhered the box to the cylinder with contact cement to create a boot shape. Then paint it with puffy paint to your desired effect.
Creating the Rhino Wild Kratts Costume Helmet
If you didn’t get it by now, I wanted this costume project to be cheap, cool, and easy. So, when creating the rhino Wild Kratts costume helmet I wanted to figure out the easiest way to do it, but also to support the weight of the horn.
In my mind, the easiest way to make a helmet was to use, well, a helmet. I used my son’s bike helmet as a base. It not only fits, but the strap helps to keep the helmet in place if the weight of the horn becomes an issue.
- Start by making a symmetrical foam shape that will run the length of the helmet and fold over the ends. Attach to the underside of the helmet with heavy-duty double-sided “mounting” tape.
- Use construction paper to create an ear template. Trace and cut 2 tears.
- Make a construction paper template for the horn in the shape of a long triangle.
- Use contact cement to pinch and glue the base of the ears together to form a curve. Tape in place until dry.
- Use the contact cement to glue the horn into a 3-D skinny cone shape. It will likely curve around at the end. Tape it in place until it dries.
- Curve the horn by using a heat gun or hot blow-dryer.
- Carefully spread the contact cement to glue the horn and ears in place on the foam strip you attached to the helmet. Use tape to keep it in place until it dries.
- Use the green puffy fabric paint to paint circular shapes on the foam strip of the helmet, the outside of the ears. Let it dry. Then use the paint to paint the entire horn. While wet sprinkle generously with green glitter.
Creating the Wolf Wild Kratts Costume Mask
In the pursuit to save money, I decided to use a Batman mask I had left over from the previous year. All I would need to do is paint and attach some shapes with the EVA foam. I used the following steps to easily create the wolf mask, which was simple in comparison to the rhino helmet.
- Lay the mask onto construction paper, or directly onto the EVA foam, and draw an extension to the ear and a fur outline for the face (be sure to leave an extra flap where the foam can glue to the mask).
- Use the cutout flip to the opposite side to create a symmetrical piece for the opposite side of the mask.
- Spread contact cement to glue the foam to the back of the plastic mask.
- Use the fabric puffy paint to paint to create designs onto the plastic and foam that look similar to the cartoon representation of the Wild Kratts wolf costume.
How to Make the Light-Up Creature Power
To make the Wild Kratts costume look super authentic I decided I was going to make a light-up creature power button in the center of the chest—just like the show. I thought the easiest way to do this was to use a touch light. I found a two-pack of circle GE touch lights for $10. They were a pretty good size, frosted so you didn’t see the light bulbs. and reasonably priced.
To make these light-ups and attach them you will need the following:
- circle touch-light
- e6000 fabric glue
- Velcro circles
- black vinyl
- Cricut
- clear Walmart contact paper
Directions to Make the Wild Kratts Creature Power
- Glue 3 Velcro dots, with e6000, in an equal distant triangle on the back of the touch-light. I made sure that the touch button was perfectly centered on the bottom of the light. Let dry.
- With the Velcro closed, put glue on the back of the other side of the Velcro. Place the touch-light onto the shirt centered on your chest and design with the touch button on the bottom. Allow to fully dry.
- Use a Cricut machine to find and cut a simplified, one-layer animal design out of the black vinyl.
- Transfer the animal design to the disk light using the clear contact paper. (I really like how well the Walmart clear contact paper works and use it for all of my Cricut transfers.)
Final Thoughts on Making Wild Kratts Costume
This DIY Wild Kratts Costume was a bit of a learning curve, so I hope my experience helps you more easily create a one-of-a-kind costume for your little one. Yes, it’s more work than buying off the rack, but your children will feel so much pride in their unique Halloween costume.
It was hilarious to see how the surprise on people’s faces when my son came around with his giant rhino horn helmet. And he bonked more than one person when he went to look into the candy bowl.
A lot of the older folks didn’t know what Wild Kratts was, but kids and younger parents did. Regardless, he was a hit for sure.
I especially loved how the touch light creature power circle worked as an added safety feature. You could certainly see my kids coming which was helpful with the rest of the costume being black. Yes, we also use flashlights and glow-in-the-dark jewelry to help the children be noticeable.
If you like this post and are gearing up for Halloween I think you may also enjoy this post on how to clean pumpkin seeds and roast them. And be sure to check out the blog for more great children tips.
