“Oh, you mean Zuma’s Revenge,” I said, and I realized there was a perfectly fine excuse to write another column about my obsession. And to show off my Peacock’s Provocation (not yet fully Aced but all conquered with honors!).

I nearly sat here and spent the morning completing these levels just for a more impressive screenshot. But I probably have other things I should be doing.

So as the name implies, Iron Frog is a very difficult game mode. For one thing, you only get one life to complete all ten levels, and you can’t save your game and come back to it later! You know, like the olden days when you plunked in a quarter and never got past level 1 but kept playing over and over. It’s old-school unforgiving arcade-style goodness, and I love it.

It took me a while to get all the way through this mode, and even though I know now I can beat it, I still feel challenged every time (and I still often burn out on Level 6… it’s a tough one!). So I’ve put some thought into the tips I would offer a dedicated player who is stuck on any particular level in Iron Frog.

Level 1: Ok, I really don’t have much for you. This one’s pretty straightforward. A slog, to be sure, but just do your Zuma thing and save your energy to worry about what’s to come!

Level 2: This may be my personal favorite place for the Lightning power-up, because that curve is long, and it’s just so satisfying to see a huge number of balls clear from all over it all at once. Cannon’s also great, aimed up to the right to cut across all the layers of balls rolling in.  On this level, the number of times the balls curve makes for a daunting obstacle but also a great opportunity for gap shots!

Try to allow your eye to take in the board as a whole (I find this much easier if I play in a smaller window rather than full-screen mode) so you can plan a shot that clears a gap and sets up a subsequent gap shot whenever possible! This is the beauty of the “preview” ball on the frog’s back as well as the option to swap between them if necessary. At the same time, those many layers of curve do mean you won’t have the chance to pick off any combos you set up for long, so immediate rather than long-term planning is the best strategy here. By the time you see the pairs you created coming around again, it may be because they’re heading into the final turn!

Level 3: Try not to let the balls encircle the second lily pad, but if they wind up over there, jump between lily pads as often as needed to take advantage of the biggest combo available at any moment so the balls will suck back together and close big distances. And of course, there’s the exception to that rule, which is if you have a Lightning power-up you can use, let the balls roll out as long as you feel comfortable letting them go so that when you choose your color to detonate it takes out the biggest possible number.

Once the end is nigh, try to remain on the first lily pad until there are no longer any balls on that side, because from that vantage point, you can shoot through the nearer balls to create, yes, gap shots! Gap shot bonuses are a very worthy goal!

With a Lightning power-up in hand (or mouth, I suppose), I allowed the balls to run nearly the full length of the curve just so I could enjoy the blast!

Level 4: This is my favorite one for using a Cannon power-up (the three cannonballs that roll out at once). If I’m not in serious trouble, I’ll aim it straight up into the left corner where the balls are rolling in from, because the tracks are so closely wound at that point you’ll get rid of a huge section at once.

This is a level that starts out a little bit easy… deceptively so. It speeds up very quickly, so don’t let yourself rest even a moment! Once the balls pass beneath you, you will have little chance of beating the level without some seriously fancy frogwork.  But as I always say in Zuma, hope is not lost — remember that you can see power-up balls forming out of the corner of your eye, so you will always instantly know where there is about to be a shot you could use to regain some ground quickly. Cannons, Lightning, Reverse, and Bombs are always worth taking extra steps to trigger. (Accuracy is not helpful enough to risk letting balls get by on a level this nail-biting! And Slow-down is great if I can get to it easily enough, but I won’t sacrifice time or other moves to reach it.)

Level 5: This one’s almost a gimme, like a breather. Just try to keep making matches on both sides quickly enough that the lines of balls never even pass each other; it’s easier than it may sound. (I’ve always suspected this level was deliberately made a little easier to let you rest up for the onslaught that follows.)

Level 6: Try not to make any shots that aren’t matches if you can avoid it, unless you’re setting up combos. (That’s actually good advice in general, but I find levels 6 and 9 move especially fast, making it even more important. Level 9 has the additional nerve-wracking quality of taking the playable area out of range within seconds, barring gap shots.) On 6, the area right in front of you is ripe for matches, combo preparation, and setting up gaps to take advantage of. Most importantly, though, always try to be putting each ball you shoot next to another ball of the same color. Even if it’s not a match now, it’s a match later.

Level 7 is a deadly curve that feels almost easy... because the skull is so slyly hidden away down there. The end comes sooner than you know!

Level 7: This one’s great for gap shots, and all those places where the path of balls crosses over and under itself are perfect for Bomb power-ups, because you can take out more than one section of the curve simultaneously! Be very careful with your aim when you’re shooting into any of the areas where the path overlaps, though, because it’s way too easy to hit the path above or below. Better to just choose shots that avoid those intersections whenever possible. And this winding path is deceptive too — it can reach the end before you even notice, just because it’s so hard to see where it starts and where it will terminate!  Just try to keep on top of the curve.

Level 8: This is a marathon. Try to keep your eyes moving quickly between the two halves of the screen so you can aim in the direction where the matches/gap shots/power-ups are going to clear the biggest path at once, because if you can get one side pretty clear in a quick shot or two, that gives you a few seconds to focus on the bigger challenge on the other side. If you can keep that up as a kind of momentum, knocking down one side then picking at the other until it’s set up for a big blast, then taking that blast and switching your attention back to the first side again, you’ll get through this one.

Level 9: This one is a nightmare, no lie. Take a moment and pause the game as 8 is clearing, because your eyes are probably watering by now, and it’s a good idea to blink a few times before you try to tackle this monster. It’s going to be fast and furious. You’ve got mere moments before the balls are out of shooting range, so just keep plonking blues next to blues, whites next to whites, right-click if you have a shot at a match, but don’t take time to think, or you’re done!

See that? I misplaced a few shots and paused to consider a few others, so all the matches are out of reach, and nothing can save me now.

Once the line of balls stops rolling out, you may be tempted to relax before clearing the last of what’s already on the board, but don’t do it! This is the hardest level in the game, and it will whomp you if you don’t stay on point! Just plug at those last few matches as fast as you can. The only thing more important than speed here is accuracy. No, I got that backwards. No, I was right the first time… the point is, be fast as you can be; you cannot afford to pause for thought on this level! But at the same time, be very judicious with each shot, because you cannot afford more than a few false moves! And never be afraid to throw a ball or two away by shooting it off the bottom of the screen. You need to make each move count, so if there’s no good move to be made, toss away your hand and see what comes up on the next deal!

Then pause the game again before 10 loads, blink some more, take a breath, and settle in for the last trial of Iron Frog.

Level 10: Long and arduous, but not capriciously cruel. You can get this one, if you’ve made it this far. The curves are very tight, so if you are aiming into corners of the triangle path you are likely to miss and wind up breaking up a line of lovely matches waiting to be combo-blasted. For that reason, I recommend aiming into the straight sections of the triangle path. Triangle corners are great for setting up and taking advantage of gap shots, though, so that’s a strong edge you’ve got in this one.

I hope some of that was helpful; if nothing else, it may help to know you’re not alone in obsessing and going white-knuckle on your mouse over this one. Iron Frog is a big challenge, which makes defeating it a big achievement! Have fun, and if you have any tips of your own, share them in the comments below, or better yet, head over to the forums to discuss with other players!

Today in Seattle we celebrate the most hoppin’ of national events: National Dress Up Your Pet Day! (I swear we’re not making this up.)

While I know many a PopCap employee will be dressing up their furry friends on this most glorious day, we want to make sure everyone can get in on the fun, even if they don’t have an animal buddy of their own! Courtesy of the awesome artists on the Zuma Blitz team, we’ve created a pet that won’t get you in trouble with your landlord: The Fold-A-Frog!

Fold-A-Frog may not be able to shoot marbles like his big brother the Zuma Blitz frog, but he’s got some mighty fine hopping skills and a wardrobe from the Cray-Z House of Fashion to match his mad moves.

You can download your own frog here (PDF).

Here’s our highly trained professional frog folder demonstrating proper Fold-A-Frog construction technique:

Once you’ve got your frog folded and decked out in the latest amphibian fashion, be sure to take a picture and post it to the Zuma Blitz Wall. Five fabulous frog folders will net themselves fame and glory, as well as 500,000 Mojo!

Tara is PopCap’s Community Manager for Zuma and you can find her on the Zuma Blitz Facebook fan page. 

It’s deceptive, to be sure. He’s a cute little stone froggy with wide eyes, and the balls are so colorful, and hey, it’s a casual game. It can’t be that hard. But I confess that to me, this game was so very hard at first that I almost gave up trying until I got some tips. Since I was fortunate enough to get those tips from the very creator of Zuma himself, it is both my duty and my honor to pass them along to you.

I remember sitting down with Brian Rothstein for a meal and telling him I couldn’t play Zuma; it was just too hard for me. I felt like the game wanted me to fail; there was no way to keep up with it. He casually said, “Are you shooting the coins?  You gotta shoot the coins.” That was the first little bit of crucial advice I got, and the reason I knew it was important was that I asked, “What coins?”

Oh yeah...those coins.

I had been letting the speed of the balls overwhelm me and make me feel stressed, and as a result, I wasn’t even seeing the rest of the game! Just fighting to keep up with a rushing line of balls before I lost, I was missing all the other cues and the ways to improve on my gameplay. So, first tip:“You gotta shoot the coins.”  When one of those appears, look for any match you can make that will open up a space through which you can shoot the coin. Trust me, it’s worth a few extra moves to set it up, and it’s even worth waiting a second or two for the right set of balls to pass directly in front of it. The benefits of shooting that coin far outweigh those little sacrifices. (In Zuma’s Revenge & Zuma Blitz there’s fruit instead of coins.)

Another thing about Zuma is that the power-ups and bonuses are huge and many!

Gap shots: Set yourself up with a gap in the first line of balls, then make a match in the now-exposed line behind it — big points! Just like shooting the coins, you can plan shots to make this happen. See a sweet match coming up that will take out a huge section of balls at once? As you shoot to make that match, look right at the line behind it and start planning your next shot. Any matches you can make in the moments before the gap closes again are bonus points!

The elusive gap shot, screen-captured in its native form.

Chain bonuses: Make more than one match in a row without wasting a shot on any non-match. This is mostly a matter of staying calm and scanning for any two or more of the same color in a row before you make each shot. At first, it may feel like it takes too long to get a good sense of the board in motion, so you just want to keep firing as fast as possible and hope for the best. Don’t give in to that sense of urgency.

The simple yet elegant chain. It dresses up any outfit.

Cascades: Match a color between three or more of another color so that your match triggers another on impact. You can either take advantage of a naturally occurring situation on the board, or you can set these up for yourself with a few well-placed shots. See a pair of greens between two reds on one side and one red on another? Try seeding a two-and-one of a third color on the outside of the reds, then shoot the greens at the center. The greens hit, then the reds, then the third color you set up, and boom! Cascade bonus to the power of three!

And don’t forget all the power-up balls you can take advantage of, like bombs, slow-down, or accuracy (which is great for gap shots!).

Cascades happen so fast, the points pile up like beautiful little snowflakes.

One of the best pieces of advice I got is, “Never waste a ball by putting it next to any other color than its own.” Granted, that’s not always entirely possible, but it is always a worthy goal! Even if you can’t make a match with every shot, you can always be setting up a future match. So if there aren’t two or more consecutive balls of a color in your frog’s mouth, look for just one more ball of that color, and then the next time it comes up, there will be two or more consecutive balls, because you will have made it happen!

Also, be adaptable: Don’t get hung up on a plan you hatched a few moves back — always make the best move in the moment. It’s like chess, in a way, you need to react to the board as it changes. You may be all in love with your original strategy, and you were so looking forward to seeing it play out… but if there’s a new move you could make that would be better, just do it. Also, holding tight to a plan will get you off-track if you aren’t able to carry it out quickly enough. You’ll watch those cascades you were setting up slide out of reach, and you’ll be kicking yourself over the other matches you could have made in the meantime.

If you’re coming to the end of the level, and you’ve made ZUMA so no new balls are rolling in, but the balls you still have to get rid of are coming perilously near the skull mouth, don’t panic! You can still snatch victory from the literal jaws of defeat. Just remember that you have control over the way those balls continue to advance. A very important factor is what’s known as “suck back,” in other words the way two like balls are always drawn together, and you can use that to make them move backward as well as forward! If you’ve got any space in your line, try to put a ball at the beginning of the second section of the line that matches the one at the end of the first section. They don’t need to be 3 or more to help you in this case — one blue at the far end of the gap will act like a magnet on the blue at the closer end of the gap, and your gap will close backwards, moving the whole line of balls away from the skull!

Finally, give Gauntlet mode a shot!  It’s a great way to practice individual levels without the pressure to advance your level in Adventure mode.

Zuma is one of my personal all-time favorite games, I think partly because it was so hard for me at first that getting good at it was a real accomplishment.  Now, I play it to relax!

It’s Lex – everyone’s favorite erudite invertebrate!

In addition to how super-cool Lex is (how about those Bookworm Adventures, right?), this costume had two other big things going for it: I’m much more adept with a needle and thread than with a hot glue gun, and I love neon.

A riot of color!

You will need: at least a yard of neon green fleece, a matching top (look in the athletic wear section), a red bow tie, some seriously dorky glasses, and various sewing supplies — needle, thread, one big button, and a bunch of safety pins. Oh, and a few rubber bands.

Like fitting yourself for a wedding dress... for a marriage to a Martian!

I started by wrapping the fleece around my midsection to measure where to put the button.  Place the button about an inch from the edge in each direction. Use a safety pin to mark where the button goes on the side of the fabric you won’t be cutting. Then use a second safety pin to mark where the overlapping fabric will hit the button — that’s where you’re going to make a buttonhole. It’s also where you should cut a triangular swath of fabric off the top.

Why triangular, rather than just cutting straight down? Because you don’t want this to be a straight-legged dress; it should get wider as it moves down. Also, that triangle of fabric will make you a nice scarf (if you don’t wind up with a big enough triangle for a scarf, there are other options for head decorations that we’ll cover later)!

Now sew the button on and make the buttonhole. This is simple enough, but don’t rush it, because an oops while cutting the buttonhole will be hard to fix.

A buttonhole should be just wide enough to accommodate the button. Stitch around the edges to keep them from widening.

Now, lay the skirt flat on the ground and button the button. Align the edges of the fabric from the button all the way down to the place where the triangular cut you made ends.

Starting a few inches below the button, use your safety pins to hold the fabric in this exact position.

Then take your needle and thread and make your seam along the path of safety pins.

Step back into the skirt and button it to make any final adjustments for length. With the button situated at the back, and the gradually flaring skirt dropping down, you will see that you have a long “tail” naturally forming at your heels! Gather it into a “ponytail” shape and use rubber bands to hold it in place at a few key points to better define the tail.

Thereby hangs a tail...

Once you’re in the shirt and skirt, put on your red bow tie, and your incredibly dorky glasses, then tie the extra triangle of fabric on your head like a bandana. If this won’t work because the triangle is too small, you can buy a bandana in this color, or you can try using the spray-on temporary hair color they sell at costume shops. I considered that myself, but the warning label said not to use it if you already dye your hair. (What, you thought this was my real color?)

This is a great costume — by far my favorite yet. It’s so comfortable, and the fleece will keep you nice and warm while you wander around on a chilly Halloween night! Plus, if you’re going trick-or-treating, the day-glo color is totally in line with pedestrian safety recommendations! And I kid you not, just try not to smile while draped head-to-toe in neon green. It’s impossible.

Have fun, Blog Riders and costume-makers!

This week, we decided to recreate a PopCap classic: Bejeweled. This costume was originally made by one of our writers, Steve Notley. We thought his costume was awesome and decided not to stray too far from his original idea.

Tada! A very happy game of Bejeweled.

Materials you need: at least 3 pieces of different-colored foam board (green, blue, orange, red, yellow, purple or white), a very sharp X-Acto knife (box cutters should work too), yarn or string to tie your gems together, a ruler, a nail file or emery board, and glittery paint.

I chose to make the blue, yellow and red gems as they seemed to be the easiest shapes. Which gems you choose are up to you.

Start by sketching out the shape of your gem on the white side of the foam board. Here’s what my sketch of the blue gem looked like:

I drew a line down the middle of the board so the gem would be as symmetrical as possible.

The next part is slightly difficult — foam board is a little hard to cut. So make sure you have a sharp blade (or better yet, multiple blades) for your X-Acto knife!

Tip: if you hold your knife up to a ruler, it will make cutting the foam board a little easier.

You should end up with something like this:

Pretty blue diamond!

Once you finish your first gem, the next few will go a little more quickly. Just repeat this process for your next two gems — you’ll need at least three gems for your Bejeweled costume to be accurate.

My three (un-matching) gems.

As shown in Steve’s picture above, one of these gems will have to go over your face. Choose whichever color you like best, and use your knife to cut a hole in the middle of the gem.

You’ll have to eyeball the size a little bit (or ask somebody to measure your face for you). I started by cutting out a smaller circle, measuring it against my face and adjusting the circle until I was able to fit my face in it.

Yep, that's big enough.

Then I used an emery board to clean up some of the messy edges.

This part is optional.

Now the fun part! I decided to add more dimension (and fun) to my costume by painting the gems with glittery paint.

Keep painting until you have glittery gems!

Lastly, cut out little holes to loop your yarn through so that you can connect the three gems. Your Halloween costume is done!

This would be a fun costume to do with a bunch of friends as well -- for a full game of Bejeweled!

If I started photosynthesizing last Halloween, I still wouldn’t be able to pull this off without some serious cosmetic surgery.

When you’re intimidated, it’s best to break things down to components and start from there. For this costume, you will need: a plain hat (or at least a hat you don’t care about), Styrofoam balls, green paint, green wire, green felt and black felt. Tools: hot glue gun, wire cutters, paintbrush.

I used a plain old baseball cap as the foundation for my little felt sculpture. Look just to the left of the cap for a happy accident brilliant idea: that is a piece of cardboard that comes with a new baseball cap! I was all set to have to improvise a piece of rounded cardboard or use an empty soup can or something to make the mouth of the Peashooter, and then I looked inside the brand-new cap to find a perfect little piece of cardboard there already, holding the shape of the hat.

Use hot glue to affix the cardboard into the bill of the hat, making the nice round shape for the front part of the peashooter.

Next, you want to cover the entire baseball hat in green felt. This is a little difficult (ever wrapped a stuffed animal or basketball as a gift for someone’s birthday?).

Start by cutting your felt to the approximate size of your baseball hat. I cut a piece of felt that would cover the hat from ear-to-ear with a few inches extra to glue the felt to the inside of the hat.

You also want to leave extra felt on the front part of the hat, as you will use this felt to cover the bottom part of the hat’s bill as well. After you finish gluing, you should have a hat almost fully covered in green felt.

Cut the green felt so you can glue it to the hat's bill

This is what the fully-wrapped peashooter base will look like

Next, cut out little circles of black felt and glue them on for the eyes.  You may feel a little silly at this stage if you bought a full yard of black felt… not that I know anyone who did that.

Once it was all neatly glued into place at the front, I built myself a leaf to attach to the top. This was done in the same way the sunflower petals from Tuesday’s post were constructed: I cut a leaf shape out of thick paper, then cut two pieces of felt that same shape but just slightly larger.

Make like a tree and leave

I glued the paper to the bottom piece of felt, then glued the top piece down as well. To finish it off, I used a black magic marker to lightly draw on leaf vein patterns. I glued that to the top of the hat at the back.

The real magic of this is it allowed me to cover up the imperfect back seams I made (did I mention how hard it is to cover round things with flat things?).

Finally, I took the balls I’d painted green the day before and cut myself a length of wire roughly three times as long as the mouth of the peashooter.

Poke the wire through the felt and bend the short end tight against the cardboard as an anchor. Push the long end all the way through so it sticks out of the mouth.

String the balls on at equal distances along the wire.

Use the wire cutters to twist the wire back on itself so it’s poking into the front ball. This keeps the ball from falling off and the wire from injuring people!

Finally, dress in green from head to toe. That part’s easy! See you again next week for more costuming fun!

Hey Zombie, come closer... closer... closer...

This week, we’re moving from PvZ’s undead zombies to their botanical counterparts – the sweeter and much cuter plants. And, what’s cuter than our always cheerful Sunflower?

Materials you need: 1-2 yards of yellow felt, heavy construction paper, glue gun, 2 wide stretchy headbands, green tights, brown skirt (or you can just wear green or brown pants) and a green top.

Ignore the wire and wire cutters; you need everything else

To make the Sunflower petals:

Start by figuring out what size you want your petals to be. I chose to cut out three different sizes so that the costume will have more depth: small, medium and large. Cut these out on the construction paper first so you have a pattern to work with.

Sunflower petals... or kernels of corn?

Trace around these patterns on the yellow felt and start cutting!

Because felt is thin, you’ll need two identical pieces of felt per petal. This way you can stuff construction paper inside (you can also use cotton) to keep the petals from drooping.

Each petal is made up of two pieces of felt

Next, cut out petal-shaped construction paper (it doesn’t have to be perfect) to put inside the petals. Glue this to one of the petal pieces. Then glue the other petal piece on, leaving the bottom of the petal unglued.

Remember to leave the bottom of the petal unglued

To make the Sunflower headpiece:

Cut a slit the length of your sunflower petal into the headband.

The headband fabric splayed after cutting it, so I also glued the cut edges together on each side of the slit. This is optional.

You will then insert the petal into this slit. Fold the bottom half of each petal piece so it can be glued to the inside of the headband. See the picture below:

This is what it will look like after you fold each petal piece so that you can glue it to the inside of the headband

Kinda complicated, but it makes the exterior of your headpiece look cleaner

Repeat this process with the larger petal pieces, leaving room in between each slit so that your headband stays together.

All the large petals on one headband

Once you have this framework, you can then glue the rest of your petals on top of the larger petal pieces to fill in the gaps. You should end up with something like this:

See how the other pieces are glued on top of the larger petals, instead of to the headband itself?

To finish the headpiece, I cut another headband in half and glued it to the ends of the first headband. This allows you to wrap it around your head and then tie it under your neck. The boys from our video team took turns trying the sunflower headpiece on. What do you think?

To complete the costume, I put on green tights, a brown skirt and a green top!

Will you be making this costume? We’d love to see pictures – be sure to send them to us at blog@popcap.com

I am the first to admit that my method of creating costumes is built on a solid foundation of choosing easy characters. I’m no seamstress, but I can do a lot with “found objects” and a bit of fabric paint. And hey, if you are a top-notch costumer already, you’re probably not looking to this blog for instructions. So I’m here to present the “simple enough not to intimidate anyone” costume of the week: Balloon Zombie!

This is my idea of a perfect character to cosplay—he’s recognizable and distinctive, and yet I don't think, “Oh man, how am I supposed to recreate that?”

One of the best parts about Balloon Zombie is that he’s not really wearing anything special. I mean, if you are really active in sports, you might be planning to go as Football Zombie, but if you don’t already have football gear in the closet, that’s a fair expense for a Halloween costume. Balloon Zombie, though? He’s a regular joe, floating along in jeans and a white shirt. If you don’t already have either of these things… well, they’re not that expensive. You can get a pair of jeans at your local thrift store. And the white t-shirt I am wearing for this costume was under $5 at the crafts store! Hard to beat.

Beyond the basic outfit, though, there are two much more distinguishing components to the Balloon Zombie ensemble:

The whirly beanie and, of course, the balloon!

We were all set to buy a plain hat, paint it various colors, attach a whirligig to the top… imagine my delight when I saw that the local party supply store sells them as-is! (For what purpose, I cannot guess, but lucky me!)

As for the balloon, well, that’s the party supply store too, of course. Find any store capable of blowing up a helium balloon, and ask for a red one. That part’s easy. Then fret and knit your brow as you gingerly draw the face on with a black magic marker. That part’s a little harder, especially if you’re notoriously clumsy… not that I, um, know anyone who fits that description.

I made it through without explodinating the balloon!

Tie the balloon string through the belt loop at the back of your jeans so that it bobs just above your head. All you need is some zombie makeup, and you’re ready to go!

Miner zombie not included.

Around this time of the year, we receive a ton of requests from our fans about where they can find PopCap costumes. Although, we don’t sell any costumes officially, there are plenty of DIY options!

This month our blog will post Halloween costume tutorials to show you how you can make your own PopCap costume. There will be a new tutorial every Tuesday and Thursday throughout the month, so there is plenty of time to submit your requests (in the comments)!

First up – the Plants vs. Zombies Bobsled Team

Materials you need: at least 2 cardboard boxes (depending on the number of zombies on your team), red spray paint, red acrylic paint, red tights, red gloves, goggles (the ones below are scuba goggles), leotards or you can just wear a red top.

Not pictured, but items I discovered I needed: hot glue gun, white construction (or heavy) paper & suspenders

To make the bobsled:
Start by spray-painting your boxes red at least 24 hours in advance.

one coat of banner red spray paint

Cut out the shape for the bottom of the bobsled using heavy construction paper. Glue using a hot glue gun.

I only put this on one side of the box -- you can cut out two for each side of the box

Download and cut out the zombie brain image for the front of the bobsled. You can use tape or hot glue to secure this to the front of your bobsled.

Of course, you need brainz

Lastly, use a metallic silver paint pen to write Brains or Bust on the side of your bobsled.

Perfecting my zombie handwriting

You also have the option of cutting the top corners of your box so that it makes a curved shape. Again, optional.

To make the Zombie Bobsled Team costume:
We didn’t have ski goggles lying around, so we bought cheap scuba goggles instead and glammed them up with red glitter paint.

Glittery red goggles

The rest of the costume can be made with items found around your house: red tights, matching red shirts, red gloves and red shoes (not pictured). Use red suspenders to hang the zombie bobsleds over your shoulders. Easy!

Try to pick a teammate that you'd like to stay with throughout the night

Will you be making a PopCap-themed costume this Halloween? We’d love to see it! You can share your costume with us by emailing blog@popcap.com.