I needed a wall around the perimeter of the box. I had enough corogated plastic to build a 10-inch border around the whole thing.

I checked to make sure that 10" would be enough. It looked perfect! All the brown blocks fit on the board, and the wall would be tall enough to enclose them like a real box.

My first choice was to cover it in high-gloss white wrapping paper, but I didn't know how I could protect it from humidity or from the impending rainfall.

I decided to use white paint instead.

Another component of the costume were 26 black paper circles, folded into fluted bowls like giant origami bowls.

They seemed easy enough, but my source for craft paper rolls (wishing well) was all out of black. The search for black paper become something of an odyssey.

It isn't expensive to buy parts for a super-sized halloween costume. What gets expensive is buying the wrong parts.

Not finding the black paper, I bought 7 yards of brown paper. Maybe I could paint it, and it was only a few dollars if I didn't end up using it. Next I tried Michael's Crafts and Joanne's fabrics, but couldn't find anything there. The 99 cent store had black crepe paper, which was too thin, but I bought it anyway, because it was cheap and I might be able to make it work.

A visit to a florist supply shop yielded nothing.

Next I tried the other Wishing Well in town and came away with $8 worth of black paper tablecloths. These were also too thin, but might work in a pinch.

My brown craft paper circles had the right thickness, so I considered painting them black. I ran a test with both latex paint and spraypaint, but both paints made the paper too floppy.

Searching online yielded only 500-foot rolls for $60 plus shipping. I need 36 feet.

My brother Mike suggested the best option I'd heard: Use wood stain. This sounded great! Stain might color the paper without waterlogging it!

I picked up a can of Ebony Minwax and a roll of heavy floor-protecting paper at Home Depot. A test strip worked great! The stain gave me a very dark, slick finish, and even colored both sides of the paper with only one coat.

I cut the 26 big circles out of the floor paper. ven with a 19-inch cardboard circle to trace, it took almost an hour to mark and cut them all.

Then it was time to stain them.

When they dried, they looked great. The color was right on.

The next step was to put dozens of little folds into the edge, for that fluted coffee-filter look.

Getting the folds to look right took some practice. It didn't have to look perfect, so I wasn't discarding anything. Each one got a little better.

Folding took an extraordinarily long time. I think I watched the "30 days of night" in its entirety while folding black circles.

Ah! They looked great, like gigantic candy papers!

Please continue reading page 5 of the See's candy costume.

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