Every year our school hosts a Trunk or Treat and it is my favorite event of the year! It’s a really fun way for kids to trick or treat with school friends who don’t live in their neighborhood, dress up and decorate just one trunk instead of an entire house, meaning they can really have fun with a theme. Last year we did an Inside Out Trunk or Treat and it was a huge success!
Here, I’ll break down everything we did to make this amazing treat trunk or display, from the decor to the treats and costumes.
How to: Trunk Inside Out or Treat Memory Screen
Inside Out HQ Memory Orbs are the perfect backdrop for your trunk and they’re easy to make out of cardboard! Fill it with plastic balls and they will look exactly like Riley’s keepsakes.
If you want to hand out your goodies in a creative way, you can even add a “recovery tube” of PVC pipe to let them through!
You will need:
- 2 large sheets of cardboard
- Violet spray paint
- Cardstock in bright colors
- Small wooden dowels and flat wooden beads (which the dowels fit into)
- plastic pool balls
- Battery Powered Tube Lights
- Wide PVC Pipe + 90 Degree PVC Elbow (I would look at your hardware store for the best size and price options!)
- Pencil
- Utility or craft knife
- hot glue
- Command flanges and/or hooks
Step by step tutorial
- Cut a sheet of cardboard so that it is large enough to fit inside the back of your trunk. Cut the second piece of cardboard into 4″ wide strips.
- Take your sheet of cardboard and draw a curved “zig zag” pattern to form the tunnel that the memory orbs will sit in. I made mine about 3.5″ wide and spaced equally. Separate. Save this piece, you will reuse it as the back of the tunnel!
- Hot glue the 4″ wide strips along the curved tunnel you just cut, bending the cardboard to follow the curves.
- Hot glue the piece you cut to the back of the strips to form the back of the tunnel.
- Glue the two pieces of PVC pipe together.
- Spray paint the entire assembly purple, along with the pieces of PVC pipe.
- Cut out several gear shapes from colorful construction paper.
- IF you want your gears to be able to move, glue a wooden bead to the back of each one and glue a peg inside each one. Then, make a hole in the cardboard and insert the dowel. Glue the back end of the dowel into another flat bead on the back, but DO NOT glue the bead to the cardboard. This will allow you to turn. If you want them to be stationery, simply glue the cardstock to the cardboard.
- Hot glue the plastic balls in place along the tunnel. If you want to be able to reuse the balls, use a strong removable adhesive such as butyl.
- Ensure tube lighting throughout the tunnel. You can do this with glue, command hooks, or zip ties, depending on whether you later want to reuse the lights for another purpose or not.
- Hot glue or zip tie the PVC pipe to the side of the cardboard.
- You’re done! Place it in your car and zip tie it to the hooks or hinges of your trunk for added security.
Creating a full-size Inside Out console
The star of Inside Out HQ has to be the console and you can make your own for Trunk or Treat if you can collect enough bottle caps. This also makes for a great interactive moment, where you can include light-up puck lights that kids can press!
What you will need:
- Large core of white corrugated plastic, cardboard or foam. The size needed will depend on the space you have, mine ended up being about 7 feet wide. (Note: Make sure you can fit it in your car for transport before deciding on your final size!)
- Lots of bottle caps of all sizes and colors (I made a post in my local buy-nothing group and asked a local coffee shop to save their caps for me. Worked great!)
- Silver and black paint or permanent markers.
- Cardboard scraps
- Mini wooden dowels
- White battery puck lights (optional) and colored tissue paper
- Pencil
- Craft or utility knife
- hot glue gun
- Spray paint (to paint some of your hats, if you wish)
- Folding table (large enough to support the console, but ideally narrow enough so it doesn’t stick out on either side)
- White spandex tablecloth
- Velcro control strips, zip ties or adhesive tape (to secure the console to the table/tablecloth)
Step by step tutorial
- Cut out a large “kidney” shape as shown to create the console.
- Draw where you want the buttons and silver “sections” to be based on the original console. (I based mine on the Inside Out 2 console, but you can base yours on either!)
- Paint or color any area you want to be silver. This creates a “place” for some of the buttons to live, just like on the real console.
- Spray paint the lids, if desired. It had a variety of colors: black, white, red, yellow, green, orange, blue and purple. I also cut out some cardboard pieces to create larger buttons and spray painted them. Get creative here and let the kids help you!
- If you want to use puck lights, unscrew the light and place a different colored tissue in each one, just under the dome. Put them back together.
- I wanted some buttons to look more “toggles” so I first glued them to a mini dowel.
- Start designing your buttons. I kept the puck light buttons that the kids would press toward the center, where the console would be most stable, and placed bottle caps throughout. Once you’re happy with your design, hot glue it into place. My puck lights came with adhesive on the back, so I only used it for those!
- When it’s time for the event, prepare your folding table. Cover it with the spandex tablecloth. This REALLY makes it look like a real console!
- Place your console piece on top and use tape, command strips, or zip ties to secure your console to the table.
Sweets and treats for a trunk or a treat from the inside out
We love making our trunk or treat booths interactive! To do this for our Inside Out Trunk or Treat, we let each kid turn on one of the nine puck lights (one for each character in Inside Out 2) on the console and then they could choose a color-coordinated prize from a specific cube.
We hid our cubes behind the console, but if you have more space, you can place them next to your trunk!
Here are candy ideas for each character, depending on the color of the packaging:
- Joy: Swedish Fish, Laffy Taffy
- Sadness: Mini Oreos, sour gummy worms, blue airheads
- Anger: Kit Kats, Twizzlers, 100 Grand Bars, Skittles
- Fear: Nerds, fruit snacks,
- Disgust: Sour Patch Kids, Caramel Apple Lollipops
- Envy: nerd groups, tropical bowling
- Shame: Nerds, Nerd Groups, Laffy Taffy
- Ennui: Mini Oreos, fruit snacks
- Anxiety: Jolly Rancher Lollipops, Nerd Clusters, Reeses
We also purchased the following items that worked for multiple characters:
Set up your trunk or treat display
Place the memory orb screen inside the back of your trunk. Turn on battery-operated lights.
Set up your folding table in front of your trunk and cover it with the spandex tablecloth.
Attach the console to the folding table.
Place your treats to the side or on a small table or bench behind the console.
Use your phone to play the Inside Out or Inside Out 2 soundtrack. You’re ready to go!
Inside Out 2 Costumes
Need something to put in your trunk or Inside Out gift? Learn how to make these Inside Out 2 costumes for your whole family!
Dressing up as the characters REALLY excites the kids, it looks like the headquarters in Riley’s brain!
Birthday Party Ideas from the Inside Out
Do you want to be able to reuse your Inside Out projects again? Use them for a birthday party! Here are tons of ideas for throwing the coolest Inside Out birthday party ever!
I hope you have a great time in your Trunk or Treat with these ideas!
