How-To: Make Monster and Alien Feet
By Dave Simon
Where I work we cannot have elaborate costume festivities. Only one item of clothing can be “Halloweenish”. For instance, one year your hat can be the costume, then another year the shoes you wear can be the costume. I intended to be a duck, and wanted to make the flippers. I took an old pair of foam shoes and carefully sprayed expanding foam around them so that I could carve them. They looked good as craggy monster feet, so instead I painted them as is, with gnarly toes and all. My daughter was always borrowing them so I made a pair for her for her third birthday. She loved them in pink and purple. (Monsters can be pretty, you know.) This Halloween, we’ll be making some alien feet for my son.
Materials
Old or new foam shoes
Expanding foam in a can I used minimal expanding foam.
Disposable gloves
Newspaper
Spray paint
Directions
Step 1: Set up a work area with plenty of ventilation, preferably outside, by layering newspaper on a table or workbench. Follow the instructions on the expanding foam can. Orient the shoes so that you can keep track of the left and right shoes.
Step 2: Slowly squeeze the trigger and outline the shoe. The slower you can meter the foam, the easier it is to form into the shape you want. The foam will continue to expand a bit, so work slowly and watch how your type of foam behaves.
Step 3: Our goal is to make some monster alien feet. Our aliens have 3 toes, so begin to shape them on this first layer. Remember you or your kids will have to walk in them, so try to make the insides of the feet as straight as you can so you don’t waddle. (Aliens don’t waddle!)
Step 4: Begin to add the next layers of foam, giving a few moments between layers for the foam to begin to set.
Step 5: Work your way around the back and top of the shoe.
Step 6: Fill in any blanks and cover up any evidence of “humans” (i.e. the shoe). Step back and look at them to make sure that they look balanced. Let them set overnight to cure the foam through the thicker parts.
The next day you’ll find that they have finished expanding and are a bit smoother.
Step 7: Now let’s begin painting. The monster alien foot will ultimately be green. I like to lay down a base coat of gray paint and add 4 or 5 flicks of accent paint, in this case purple and blue. I don’t paint too close to the paper so the sole of the foot is lighter.
Step 8: Finish off the foot with our main color: green. Don’t spray paint too heavily or else you will cover up the lower layers of paint entirely.
No alien is without stylish toes. Ours had a base of orange and red.
Notice the foot is still earthly, so next we will play a bit with the colors.
Step 9: Since I needed the feet to look otherworldly, I added some flicks of silver paint. Everyone knows that aliens with fashion sense will not go outdoors without gold toes.
Step 10: After the paint dries, carefully peel the newspaper from the bottoms of the shoe.
About the Author:
Dave Simon lives in St Augustine, Florida, and is always willing to try to make something before buying it. Some of his projects are “cool” to the children and the wife, some not so much.
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