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SALT LAKE CITY — Two women living in Utah are among the 10 finalists for a costume contest being held by Amazon.
Elise Peterson and Courtney Rippstein were selected by a panel of judges to advance in the “Think Inside the Box” contest, which was inspired by the recently released movie “The Boxtrolls.” Now the grand prize winner, who will receive $3,000 worth of Amazon gift cards, is being selected by voters online. The contest runs until midnight Friday.
Amazon provided instructions on how participants could make their own simple Boxtroll costumes for the contest, but Peterson and Rippstein took it to the next level by spending hours on the projects to add their own artistic touches. Peterson, who was in first place Thursday morning with more than 1,100 votes, said she discovered the contest while browsing for a birthday present on the site.
“I’m always looking for opportunities to create things,” she said. “I love making anything out of anything.”
While her daughter took naps, Peterson used boxes, papier-mache, acrylic paints and T-shirts purchased from Deseret Industries to create costumes for her husband and child. She said she posted a step-by-step explanation of the process on her blog so others can be inspired to make their own costumes.
Rippstein was also happy to take on the Boxtroll challenge. She suspected most people would make one of the main Boxtroll characters, so she decided to bring to life a box in the background of the movie poster that reads “Kibble & Bone Pet Grocer."
In addition to creating costumes for herself and a friend's baby named James, Rippstein used cardboard to build a boxer dog, cat, parrot and mouse. Just making the animals took about 13 hours, she estimated.
“The idea is that ‘Kibble’ is better at dealing with animals than with others, so when the child 'Eggs’ became one of the Boxtrolls, the only way he knew how to bond with the child was to play with his ‘pets’ that he had made out of cardboard,” she said. “James loved playing with the animals, though most of the time all he wanted to do was chew on the edge of the box.”
This isn’t the biggest costume project Rippstein has tackled — she loves making costumes for Halloween, movie premiere parties and comic conventions. Her previous creations include costumes of a Transformer, Rufio from “Hook” and Effie Trinket from the “Hunger Games.” Right now she is working on a costume of Smaug, the dragon from “The Hobbit,” for the upcoming movie release.
“I love making costumes — I enjoy challenging myself and learning new skills,” she said. “One day, I'd like to do this sort of thing as a living.”
Peterson said her daughter, who will turn 3 in December, was wary of the costumes until she was shown clips of “The Boxtrolls” movie on YouTube.
“It had to grow on her — she thought it was pretty scary that her dad was dressed up like a monster, but then she figured out (the Boxtrolls) were really nice and she was good with it,” Peterson said.
However, she said her daughter is still “dead set” on being a princess for Halloween.
