Everything You Need To Become An Emoji For Halloween This Fall

Fall is in the air, and everyone's got candy and costumes on their mind. Why? Because our favorite holiday of the year is just around the corner. The COVID-19 pandemic took a heavy toll on Halloween festivities in the past few years, but a new survey from the National Retail Federation finds that more Americans are ready to celebrate this season. While only 65 percent of Americans were prepared to celebrate Halloween in 2021, that percentage has climbed up to 69 percent. With more Halloween celebrations lining up, you'll need to get your costume ready. We've found a costume that will make you an instant hit at Halloween parties and draw tons of delighted giggles.

Emojis are royally cool — the late Queen Elizabeth even had her own emoji for her Platinum Jubilee – and Kathy, who is a Chicago mom and founder of popular arts-and-craft website Merriment Design, has just the thing you need to become an emoji for Halloween this fall. If you have a color printer and a few hair accessories lying around, you're already halfway done with your new emoji-inspired outfit. The best thing about this DIY costume is that although it's super simple to make, its creativeness makes it an awesome last-minute costume for that upcoming office Halloween party. It won't look as though you just threw on whatever you could find (looking at you, bedsheet ghosts and toilet-paper mummies!)

Without further ado, let's take a look at what you'll need to become an emoji this Halloween.

First things first, you'll need to grab the PDF emoji set from the Kathy's website, Merriment Design. The PDF includes everyone's favorite kiss-blowing emoji, the sweating emoji, and more. The website was nice enough to make the printable completely free to download, so that makes this costume budget-friendly.

Kathy recommends you print out the emojis on cardstock paper so that they'll stand up on their own. Nothing's worse than having someone wonder what you're supposed to be because your flimsy emojis are folding in half. Once you've got your emojis in hand, it's time to bring out the heavy equipment: a glue stick and paper scissors. That's right — all you'll need are a couple of kid-friendly, everyday craft items to get your emoji costume ready. No sewing skills required.

The final thing you'll need is a yellow headband to affix your cutout emojis to. While there are plenty of great costume accessories to look for at a thrift store, we wouldn't recommend buying hats and head accessories from one. Country Living points out that buying secondhand headgear puts you at risk of contracting harmful bacteria and even head lice. A thorough cleaning should take care of the issue, but who wants to risk feeling itchy all Halloween? If you don't already have a yellow headband lying around, pick one up for cheap at a local dollar store.

Arrange the emojis on your headband in any order you'd like. You can even print out extras and only use your favorite emoji. That's the fun of this Halloween costume — it's completely customizable, so you can make an emoji costume that suits your taste and humor. Glue the emojis onto the headband, making sure the paper straps are pinched tightly around the band. A hot glue gun could do the trick if your emojis aren't sticking together as they should. Just remember to keep the hot glue away from your skin. Glue Guns Direct recommends wearing protective gear if you want to be cautious.

You may have noticed that the printable emoji set also comes with larger emojis on a separate page. These are for your shirt. We recommend wearing a bright yellow sweatshirt, or T-shirt if you live somewhere warm, to complete your emoji costume. You can find a variety of affordable yellow shirts right at Walmart.

And there you have it — you now have an absolutely adorable emoji costume ready to go for Halloween this fall.