My husband and I rang around in search of masks, capes etc to no luck, as we were not prepared to spend $60 on a Darth Vader mask with a voice-altering gadget (although it did sound pretty awesome!).

So, whilst Googling where to find costumes we stumbled upon a link to free printables for Star Wars masks – BINGO! Gotta love Google and Pinterest.

We downloaded a set of masks, which included most of the main characters and printed out the Princess Leia and Ewok versions. I then pasted them onto a thin poster board (to make them stronger) and cut them out, including holes for the eyes. Using a scalpel blade or cutting knife is good for accuracy of cutting around the shapes, but scissors would also do the job.

With a single hole punch, I punched a hole on either side of the mask to thread through the elastic (to put over Ava’s head). I actually didn’t have any elastic on hand and ended up using some silver thread that I had left over from my wrapping supplies.

So while Ava’s masks were not the real deal, they certainly worked a treat at the party and we didn’t spend a cent – result!