58 Cosplay Prop Making Tutorials
How to Make a ‘Wooden’ Wizard Staff (with clay)
Sometimes you need to make a wooden wizard staff for your next cosplay, but there’s no way to get ahold of an actual stick to use. Or maybe you need to create a wooden staff that has a very specific…
How to Make Floppy Dog Ears with (faux) Fur
Making floppy dog ears is a little different than cat ears for a costume. In order for the material to accurately reflect the shape of a dog’s ear, you need to create a solid base for the ear (I used…
Cosplay Armor: How to Make a Simple Chest Plate
Many anime and video game characters have a chest plate as part of their costume design. This tutorial will go over the basics for creating your own breastplate with EVA foam. You can add as many details as you want…
How to Make a Collar Stand Up Like an Anime Character
As someone who does not have a background in sewing, there was a lot I had to teach myself about how to make costumes look the way they should. One of the things I had to learn was how to…
Cosplay Armor: How to Make Basic Arm Bracers and Hand Guards
If you’re new to using EVA foam and making cosplay armor, arm guards are one of the easiest places to start. The shape and design for these are fairly simple, and you can easily make tests using paper before cutting…
Tutorial: How to Make Vampire Fangs for Cosplay
It’s pretty easy to create custom fangs for your next cosplay. You can use a non-toxic thermoplastic and mold your fangs from scratch. With this method, you can also create bottom fangs, a snaggle tooth, or even large tusks (links…
Cosplay Armor: How to Make Basic Pauldrons or Shoulder Guards
Because of their domed shape, pauldrons can be one of the more difficult pieces of armor until you understand the trick for creating curves. This tutorial will walk you through how to create basic shoulder guards. You can build upon…
Cosplay Armor: How to Make a Full-Face Helmet with EVA Foam
Helmets are absolutely one of the most difficult pieces of armor to construct for a costume. Not only do you have to get the shape of the helmet right, but it also has to fit over your face (sometimes with…
Cosplay Armor: How to Create Leg Armor with a Knee Guard
This tutorial will go over the basic technique for creating leg armor with a knee guard. Leg armor is fairly straightforward to make, so this is a great project to start with if it’s your first time using EVA foam…
4 Methods to Make Cosplay Props Look Like Metal (for beginners)
The easiest method for making your swords and other props look like metal is by using metallic acrylic paint. However, this doesn’t give you the most realistic effect, since there will always be brush strokes and surface texture even if…
Tutorial: Create Armor Talons for Costumes (with moveable joints)
If you want to create talons that you can wear and move around with your fingers, EVA foam (or craft foam) will be the easiest material to use. You will create three separate pieces and create hinges around your finger…
Tutorial: How to Create Claws for Costumes
You can attach claws directly to your fingernails for a beast-like effect. The type of claws you make will depend on the overall look you’re going for and the amount of work you want to put into the claws. Nail…
Tutorial: Create a Round Domed Shield for Costumes
For this tutorial, we will be heat-forming a flat disc of EVA foam into a domed shape (like the Captain America shield). If you’re unfamiliar with EVA foam, I recommend you take a couple of minutes to learn the basics…
How to Make (faux) Fur Animal Ears For Cosplay (a step-by-step guide)
In these tutorials you will learn how to create animal ears that are made of fur and can be attached directly to a wig or headband. The other method will involve attaching ears to a hoodie, coat, or caplet so…
How to Make Custom Goggles for Your Cosplay (it’s easier than you think)
Goggles are a very common accessory among cosplay protagonists, but they all come in unique shapes with odd details added on. Unless the character is very popular, it’s usually pretty difficult to find ready-made goggles that are perfect for your…
Tutorial: Sturdy Boot and Shoe Covers for Costumes (EVA foam)
There are countless methods for creating boot covers for your cosplay. For some, you glue (or otherwise attach) the cover to the base shoe. However, I prefer to make covers that are completely detachable. Since I expect to wear these…
Cosplay Armor: How to Make Hip Plates and Attach Them to Your Costume
Hip armor is a fairly common detail in anime and game character designs. It’s one of the easier types of armor to make since you can easily create mock-ups with paper to test out your design. Sometimes the hardest thing…
Tutorial: How to Make Dragon or Bat Wings
Making cellophane wings is slightly more difficult than other methods of costume wings, but it’s still doable for the determined beginner. This method creates shining, see-through wings that look somewhat ephemeral. It’s best used for open wing structures, such as…
Tutorial: Cosplay Swords for Beginners
Need a shield to go with your sword? check out my other tutorial (which includes two types of shields) Crafting a cosplay sword can elevate your costume from good to great, providing that element of realism that can impress at…
Tutorial: Creating Faux Leather With EVA Foam
You can use EVA foam to create a faux leather effect. It’s not going to be 100% realistic, but the overall look is still pretty good for costumes. While I certainly don’t recommend using EVA foam in any kind of…
Tutorial: Making Large Tusks for Costumes
To make your tusks, we’re going to use moldable thermoplastic. This is a type of material that looks like small bead dots to start. When you heat them, they melt into a putty-like material that you can use to mold…
Cosplay Armor: How to Make a Female Chest Plate
If you were making an actual female breastplate, the construction wouldn’t actually be all that different from a standard male breastplate. However, most anime, cartoons, and video games take a lot of creative license with this. So as cosplayers, we…
Tutorial: How to Make a Snaggle Tooth for Costumes
Adding fangs to the bottom jaw is a little more difficult than adding them to the top. This is because most people have a slight overbite, so a bottom tooth that stands straight up will poke into your top gums…
Tutorial: Butterfly Fairy Wings (with wire and fabric)
Fabric and wire are ideal for creating large wings with a closed shape. Butterfly or insect wings are good options. The idea is to create your desired shape with the wire, pull the fabric over it, and paint your design…
Tutorial: Easy Vampire Fangs with Acrylic Nails
It’s pretty easy to create custom fangs for your next cosplay. The cheap, simple method is to use acrylic nails and cut them into points. If you want to create more realistic teeth, you can use a non-toxic thermoplastic and…
Tutorial: Make a Clip-On Unicorn Horn
For this tutorial, you use two strands of clay and twist them around each other to create the horn effect. This method creates unicorn horns that have a somewhat more cartoonish look, which will work well for a lot of…
Tutorial: Easy Visor Tutorial for Costumes
In this tutorial, I’ll be making a visor using EVA foam (or craft foam). But you can use the same idea to construct many different types of simple hats. This works best for hats that you can build off of…
Tutorial: Easy Full-Face Mask for Costumes
There are many, many ways of creating a full mask, but this is the method that’s the cheapest and does not require you to make a mold of your face. This method will not work for a mask that’s supposed…
Tutorial: How to Use Polymer Clay for Costume Props and Accessories
Polymer clay is a type of clay that needs to be baked to harden. You can mold it as much as you want before baking, the clay will not dry out, but once you bake it, you cannot go back…
Tutorial: Using Foam Clay for Costume Props
Foam clay is kind of like plastic clay. It’s a little rubbery and moldable, but when it dries it behaves similarly to EVA foam. EVA foam is a common material used for cosplay prop making. It’s excellent for making lightweight…
Tutorial: How to Make Gloves (and fingerless) for Anime Costumes
Making gloves from non-stretch fabric is difficult because you need to take the thickness of your hand and fingers into account. The fabric is not going to be able to stretch around your hand. It took me three tries to…
Tutorial: Make Gems for Custom Jewelry with Resin
A lot of jewelry will have gems and jewels inlaid as part of the design. The good news is that you don’t have to go out and purchase expensive gemstones to recreate the costume piece. Instead, you can create fake…
Tutorial: Create Costume Jewelry With EVA Foam
EVA foam is a common, lightweight material that is used for all kinds of cosplay props. You can get big sheets of a flat, foam material. Then you’ll cut it and use heat to shape the EVA foam into three-dimensional…
How to Paint Fabric for Cosplay Costumes
Many anime and comic costumes have unique designs that you’re not going to find at the fabric store. This can be anything from a superhero logo to a specific pattern of stripes on your character’s T-shirt. If you can’t find…
9 Tips to Weather Your Props
Weathering props adds character and story to them. After all, what fighter will ever have a pristine shield or armor that looks like it’s never seen battle? All of the items that we use day-to-day will have some kind of…
How to Make a Detachable Magic Staff Prop (the easy way)
Sometimes magic staffs that you need for cosplay are too tall or large to easily transport to an anime convention. In these cases, you’ll need to design your prop in a way that allows you to detach the head, save…
3 Methods to Create a Fake Beard or Goatee for Cosplay
There are a lot of skills to learn in cosplay, and one that doesn’t get talked about as much is creating fake facial hair. Despite this, it’s an essential skill for crossplayers to master but is a useful skill for…
How to Make a Cardboard Dagger or Knife for Your Cosplay (the easy way)
There are any number of ways to go about making a dagger for cosplay. If you’re a beginner and you want an easy first project to try your hand at prop making, this tutorial is for you. It is a…
Tutorial: How to Make “Wooden” Shield for Costumes
You can use props of any kind to help your costume stand out within the crowd of cosplayers. One of the most common types of props that costumes call for is some form of shield. There are many different types…
How to Make Easy Deer Antlers for Cosplay
You can create antlers for your next cosplay (or Christmas-related event). This type of headdress is actually a lot simpler and cheaper than it looks. Even if you’ve never made a cosplay prop before, you’ll be able to get a…
Make Custom Rings For Cosplay (or just for fun)
Sometimes a character you’re cosplaying has a ring with a very unique design. You may be able to find a prop replica if it happens to be a popular show or series, but often your only option is to make…
Tutorial: How to Paint Faux Leather For Cosplay
There are lots of characters in anime, comics, D&D, and games that have leather as some aspect of their costume. However, real leather is not a material that most of us will want to use for a cosplay costume. Not…
Tutorial: Make a Unicorn Horn and Hold it on Your Forehead
Whether you’re dressing up as a unicorn for Halloween, cosplaying as a galarian ponyta, or just want to be a narwhal, you’ll have to make a horn to match your costume. If you’re ambitious, you might also try to find…
How to Create Custom Gems for Your Next Cosplay
Gems are used everywhere in anime, cartoons, comics, and TV shows. If you cosplay a lot, you’ll have to figure out how to make them at some point. It’s inevitable. If you’re lucky, you’ll be able to find ready-made gems…
Tutorial: How to Make the Perfect Witch Hat for Cosplay or Halloween
Have you tried making a witch hat only to find that it looks stiff and lifeless or keeps drooping? Well, I have the fix for you! Mostly, this comes down to the material you use for your witch hat. I…
How to Create Custom Hats for Cosplay (with EVA foam)
Hats are one of those parts of cosplay costumes that are intimidating to many beginners. Unless it’s a popular character, you’re not going to be able to find your hat in the store. Of course, you can find a similar…
Tutorial: Superhero Eyemasks for Costumes
Creating a superhero eyemask for cosplay is a fun way to immerse yourself in your character. Whether you’re aiming to replicate the iconic look of characters like the Incredibles or crafting an original creation, the eye mask is a central…
Resin 101: How to Cast Resin and Make a Custom Silicone Mold
Resin is a useful tool in cosplay, especially when you need to create multiple copies of one costume piece. A custom resin mold makes it easy for everything on the costume to look uniform. You can easily purchase ready-made molds…
Tutorial: Using Paper Clay for Cosplay Props
Clay is my favorite type of material to use for my cosplay props. It’s a beginner-friendly material, and it’s fairly cheap compared to many alternatives. You also don’t need to work with a pattern like you do with most other…
Tutorial: How to Make Stretch Gloves for Costumes
Custom gloves can add that finishing touch to your costume, setting you apart in a sea of store-bought outfits. From sleek superheroes to Victorian damsels, gloves can play an essential role in a character’s look. Making gloves might seem daunting…
How to Paint Something to Look Like Wood (the easy way)
When making cosplay props, one of the most common painting techniques you’ll need to learn is how to paint something that is not wooden to look like wood. There are really countless techniques for painting objects to look like they…
Making Comfortable Invisible Shoes for Barefoot Cosplays
It’s not uncommon for characters in movies, comics, and anime to walk around barefoot all the time. They don’t have to worry about glass on the ground or rusty nails on the ground (or just plain unsanitary conditions). If you…
How to Make a Custom Prop Template for Any Cosplay (without software)
The starting point for (almost) all cosplay props is a template. This is especially important for any props you’ll be making out of EVA foam or Worbla. The template will act similar to a sewing pattern so you can have…
Tutorial: How to Use Polymer Clay for Cosplay Jewelry
It’s pretty common for characters from all sorts of anime, comics, or games to be wearing jewelry that you just can’t find at a store. Sometimes the jewelry pieces have symbolism that has meaning to the character, and sometimes it’s…
Tutorial: How to Make Tiefling Horns for Costumes
Crafting tiefling horns for your cosplay ensemble isn’t just about adding a striking visual; it’s about embodying your character’s otherworldly charm. It’s easier than you might think to create your own custom horns that look great and stay put no…
Tutorial: How to Make Simple Shoujo-Style Wings For Costumes
You don’t need to be a master crafter to take your outfit to new heights; making simple wings for cosplay is something you can totally do on your own. This guide will walk you through the process, from selecting materials…
How to Make a Poseable Cosplay Tail for Cats and Tieflings
Your cosplay character has a tail and you want to make one that doesn’t just hang behind you lifelessly. You’ve come to the right place! I will teach you how to create a tail that you can position into various…
Tutorial: Cosplay Shoe Covers Using Fabric
Cosplay shoe covers are your secret weapon for bringing your favorite characters to life without breaking the bank on footwear. Instead of hunting down the perfect boots to match your costume, you can create a custom cover that slips over…