Ahhhh Halloween…. the added pressure to make a costume as good as the recipe you’re bringing to a party. If y’all have followed along on the ‘gram then you’ll know I’m queen of snacks so this DIY costume was a must! As my friend says “when being a snack just isn’t enough, you must be a vending machine full of snacks.”
What you’ll need:
- 1 extra large box
- Black Gorilla Tape
- Black Spray Paint
- Plexiglass (purchased from Amazon or Home Depot)
- 2 packs of 12″ white zip ties as vending machine coils (purchased from Amazon)
- 3 of each desired snack bags (empty bags — I had 9 different snacks)
- 1 battery click light (purchased from Amazon)
- 1 sheet of Poster Board cut into 3 “shelves” (purchased from Michael’s)
- Hot glue gun
- Letters for “SNACKS” and “PUSH” (one of my teacher friends cut these out for me at school)
- Printed labels “A1, B1, C1” — quick and easy to print out at home
- 1 Dad that knows what he’s doing
How to make a DIY Vending Machine
- Find a BIG box. I ended up posting on my neighborhood Facebook group and was able to get a baby car seat box. I found this to be the perfect size for my height…. I’m 5’3″. My box was not very sturdy with one pretty dinged up corner requiring me to use a ton of black gorilla tape to reinforce the box so it was sturdy enough to wear.
- Bribe your friends boyfriend to help cut arm holes and a head hole in the box. This took a few attempts to try on the box and make the exact holes. I recommend cutting the hole for your head first and then cut small arm holes. Remember you can always cut it a little bigger so start small. If you plan accordingly, you can set your beer on top of the vending machine all night. It was a multipurpose use! HA!
- Spray paint the entire box black. You will need to paint the inside too because you can see the surrounding sides of the box through the plexiglass. Depending on the size of the box, you will likely need at least 3 cans of spray paint. This won’t take long to dry, but the box will smell like paint so plan to let this air dry outside during the day or in the garage overnight. I was in a time crunch, so I desperately rubbed coffee grounds all over the painted box to dilute the smell — thanks Google! I don’t recommend this as it gets pretty messy. 🙂
- Call your Dad the day of the party, in fact just hours before, and frantically ask for help. Just remember… you have a vision!!! We spent maybe 2 hrs hot gluing everything together in the basement. A lot of the time was spent just holding everything in place so it dried, but some things took longer than others. Here’s what he helped me with.
- First we took the zip ties and looped them to create the coils. They were evenly spaced to fit 3 snacks across and 3 snacks deep. Repeat for the next two shelves.
- This is the hardest part… you have to eat your snacks! The key is to discretely open and empty the package, otherwise the snacks will weigh down the front of the vending machine! Carefully glue the packages back together and pretend none of that happened.
- Next up, glue the snack packages in place in between the zip ties. Let all of this sit while the glue dries.
- Glue the tap light on the top of the box. Don’t forget a battery!
- Gently add glue to the perimeter of the plexiglass and hold in place until the glue dries.
- Carefully apply glue to the sides of your snack shelves and insert inside of your box.
- Lastly, glue the SNACK and PUSH words onto the front of the box.
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And just like that, you’re a snack!
If you end up making a similar costume of your own, I’d love to see the finished product. Tag me on Instagram using #rightbackspatula
Because snacks need to snack too…
Now that you’ve achieved looking like a snack, it’s time to make a snack that fits the Halloween theme too. Since the costume was labor intensive enough for one day, I went with this easy mini mummy dog recipe. These were easily one of the most popular appetizers on the table AND they look cute.
Mini Mummy Dogs
Ingredients
- 1 pckg Lil smokies or all beef hotdogs cut in half
- 1 pckg Pillsbury reduced fat crescent rolls
- 1/4 cup BBQ sauce
- 1-2 tsp sriracha optional
- 1 egg
- 1 tbsp mustard for eyes
- Ketchup, Mustard, BBQ sauce for dipping
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
- In a small bowl, mix together BBQ sauce and sriracha. Toss hotdogs in the sauce
- Unroll the crescent dough and seal the seams of the triangles to create rectangles. Using a pizza cutter, cut strips (about 1/4" thick) of dough. Stretch the strips to make them longer and wrap aroud the hotdogs, leaving a small opening for mummy mustard eyes. Place on baking sheet and repeat this process until all hotdogs are wrapped.
- Whisk the egg and gently brush the wrapped mummies with the egg wash.
- Bake the mummies for about 12-15 minutes, until crescent dough becomes golden brown. Remove from the oven and let cool.
- Using a toothpick, dot mustard on each mummy to create eyes.
- Serve on a platter with extra Ketchup, mustard, and bbq sauce for dipping!
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!
I wish I had some of these mini mummy dogs right freaking now!