Secure a Float and Car

• The most important step in making a parade float is having something to work with. For your parade, you are going to need something you can turn into a float. You are also going to need a car to pull it with. The float should be a trailer. Flatbed trailers work, and so do trailers that have some sort of siding on them already. The trailer should not have a roof on it. If there are sides on it, they should be short. The car needs to be able to pull the trailer, but doesn't need to go very fast. You can choose to decorate the car as well, or you may use it as is.
  
  

Decorate the Float

• Once you have a trailer to use for a float, and a car to pull it with, you can start to decorate. Pull the trailer into a garage or somewhere else it will be sheltered. The most common way to decorate a float is to use chicken wire, paper and spray paint. For this method, you first want to attach chicken wire to the sides of the trailer. If the trailer is a flat bed, hang the chicken wire so that it does not touch the ground, and so that it is as high as you would like the "walls" of the float to be. This will depend on if you are going to have people standing on the trailer, or if you are going to have anything else in it. Attach the wire to the trailer, all the way around. Then take your paper, napkins or other material and stick it into the chicken wire. The best thing to do is to use one standard sheet of paper per hole in the chicken wire. Poke the middle of the paper into the wire so that most of it sticks out. It should look a little bit like a flower. Once you've covered the entire float like this, you can use spray paint to make it any color you wish.
  
  

Add Items and People to It

• Depending on the theme of your float, and the theme of the parade or the reason for the parade, you can now complete your float by adding to it. If you are having an island-themed float, you've already painted the float to look like water and sand, so add a palm tree and some coconuts. Once you've created the look you are going for with the theme, you can add props and costumed people to it as well.