• Use items around the house to create a costumeMe in my costume image by Frenk_Danielle Kaufmann from Fotolia.com
  
  As Halloween draws near, teens may be hesitant to accept invitations to Halloween parties, fearing they will need an elaborate costume. However, teens can create inexpensive costumes out of their own clothes and supplies around the house at the last minute.
  
  

Celebrities

• Teens can look like their favorite celebrity or movie character with just a few accessories. To dress like country music star Taylor Swift, teen girls should don a short party dress or a mini skirt, curl their hair in waves and carry a guitar while lip-syncing to her hits. The movies inspire several Halloween costumes, including "Alice in Wonderland," which takes only a blue dress, a white apron, a blond wig and classic Mary Jane shoes. For "Pirates of the Caribbean," teen boys can dress like Jack Sparrow with a dreadlock wig, a red handkerchief, a dirty white shirt with brown pants and brown boots, and a long sword.
  
  

Games

• To create a classic Rubik's Cube for a Halloween costume, cut the flaps off a large box and attach different colors of construction paper to make the nine colored blocks on each side. For a Sudoku puzzle costume, use two large pieces of cardboard, some tape and a marker; use the tape to set up a grid on the cardboard and the marker to copy a real Sudoku puzzle onto its squares. Carry the answer sheet with you. Use duct tape for shoulder straps to wear the costume like a sandwich board.
  
  

Mummy or Zombie

• Purchase at least 14 yards of 2-inch-wide gauze to achieve the mummy look. When it is time to dress, put on white or beige long underwear and then wrap the gauze around yourself. For the finishing touch, wear chipped black nail polish and gaudy necklaces. For Michael Jackson's zombie look, wear a black leather jacket, high-legged black pants and one white glove, with white make-up and your hair slicked back. To complete the effect, do some dance moves at the party from some of his videos. If want to look like a vampire from the "Twilight" trilogy, wear all-black clothing and fake fangs, apply some white make-up to your face, and muss up your hair.