Halloween Creepy Doll Costume Wind Up Key

     I'm not sure if it's because of the new Annabelle movie, but creepy doll costumes are on trend this Halloween season.  They can also be put together relatively inexpensively.  To step up your costume game, why not add a simple gold wind up key to your look?

Materials:

*Foam board  (you could also use cardboard if you don't have foam board on hand)
*Toilet paper tube
*Scissors
*Gold paint
*X-acto knife or box cutter
*1/2" to 1" Elastic
*Optional: acetone based glue

Directions:

*Print out a copy of the wind up key template given below, or design your own wind up key template.  If using the template I designed, you may want to increase the length of the key stem by a couple of inches.  It's better to cut the foam board a little too long and then trim it back later than to cut it too short.

*Trace the template onto the sheet of foam board.

*Cut out the key shape from the foam board using an X-acto knife.  Alternatively, if you don't have an X-acto knife, you could use a box cutter.

*Optional: If your key shape ends up looking a little rough around the edges, you can use a tiny bit of acetone based glue to erode away the excess foam at the edges.  If you do this, work slowly and carefully, and test on a scrap piece of foam board before you try it on your key.

*Slide the key inside the toilet paper tube.  The key should fit snugly.  Trim the end of the key so that it ends about 1/2" from the bottom of the toilet paper tube.

*Cut slits in the toilet paper tube about 1/4" from the bottom of the tube that are wide enough for your elastic to fit through.

*Paint the key shape and the toilet paper tube gold.  If you use spray paint, be careful, because the spray paint may eat at the foam.  Let dry.

*Once dry, place the key inside the toilet paper tube.  You could glue the key in place if you'd like, but I chose not to.

*Cut off a length of elastic about 10" or so longer than your waist measurement.

*Slide the elastic through the slits in the toilet paper tube.

*Tie the ends of the elastic around your waist to fasten the key to your body.  (I forgot to buy elastic, so I'm using ribbon to hold it up in the picture above, so that's why the key looks a little slouchy.)