Halloween Costume - Mermaid and Sea Turtle

This year Lauren wanted to be a Mermaid riding a Sea Turtle.

Take a look...

Materials:
Styrofoam blocks
White Glue
Brown Paper
PVC tubing
Electrical Conduit
1/4" threaded rod
1/4 - 20 bolts and washers
Painting drop cloths
An old stroller
Cardboard
Hot Glue
Home Depot returns paint
Some spray gold glitter
Plastic cat litter bucket
Zip Ties
Cord
Mermaid fabric
Foam Sheet
Dowel

I used 2 runs of conduit.  The conduit is bent around to itself, using connector fittings.
The 2 oval loops of conduit are joined using the threaded rod.  The rod is long enough for the head (cat liter bucket) to swing freely.
The foam sheets are cut in the shape of flippers and covered with paper mache.  I made an error on the front flippers.  They are not balanced correctly and they are pulling themselves apart.  I retrofitted some cord to take some of the weight, but they droop a little.
The flippers and head use PVC tubing to protect them from the threaded rod.
I took one painters drop cloth and added 1/4" grommets.  This is hung on the top oval and is painted to be the turtle's body (green) and also the ocean (blue).
The other painter's drop cloth is hot glued over a cardboard turtle shell.  It is not attached to the puppet but it sits on top of the oval frame.
The dowel is cut to fit inside the turtle, two holes were drilled to match up with the stroller frame and it was zip tied to the stroller.  If the turtle has to be taken apart (to fit into a mini van) the zip ties are snipped and the body is lifted off.  The back end of the turtle's frame is tied to the stroller as an additional balancing mechanism.

Anyway if you have any questions about building it, please drop me a note and I'll try to be more clear in describing it.

dg