How to Make Your Own Skeleton

Halloween is the holiday for ghouls, ghosts and all things creepy. Perhaps the most fascinating of scary forms is the skeleton. You can put a personal touch on the holiday -- and save a few dollars by avoiding a mass-merchandised, cheaply made decoration -- by making your very own Halloween skeleton at home.

Things You'll Need

• Cardboard (tubes, sheets, boxes in all sizes) (See Tip)
• Clear packaging tape
• Scissors
• Newspaper (a large amount)
• White glue
• Balloon
• White spray paint (2 - 6 cans)
• Razor

Instructions

Making the Body

1. Gather together pieces of cardboard to form the skeleton body. This is a largely free-form project, so you can use your imagination as your best guide. The skeleton can be as large or as small as you want, and does not even have to look human.

2. Tape several long tubes together as leg and arm bones.

3. Form a chest cavity with cardboard strips bent around and taped to a long tube that functions as a spine.

4. Make hand and feet shapes from smaller cardboard strips. You may also make a drawing of the hand and feet and then attach them to the body. You should end up with a model figure that looks like a headless skeleton.

5. Make the skull. Blow up the balloon to the size of a cantaloupe, approximating the size of a human skull (or whatever creature you decided to make). Tape this balloon to the top of your skeleton body.

Using the Newspaper

1. Tear all of the newspaper into strips. You will need lots of newspaper.

2. Mix one part glue with one part water and stir in a large container. You can decide how much of this mixture to make, depending on the size of your project.

3. Put the newspaper strips into the glue mixture. Let the strips sit for five minutes.

4. Cover the entire cardboard model with the newspaper strips. Then cover the balloon carefully.

5. Repeat with a second layer of newspaper strips over the entire model.

6. Allow this to dry for at least two days, turning it over after day one to dry on the other side.

Finishing the Project

1. Once dry, spray-paint the entire model with the white paint. You will need to do at least two coats of paint. Make sure you cover every area thoroughly and let the paint dry between coats.

2. Cut out two circles for the eye holes and one for the nose out of the skull. The balloon will have deflated, leaving you with a round, solid papier-mache skull that can easily be cut.

3. Cut out a mouth directly under the nose hole. To do this, use a razor to cut a horizontal line (the length of the line will vary depending on the type of skeleton made) under the nose hole and then cut a few vertical lines across the horizontal line. It should now appear as if the skeleton has teeth.

Tips & Warnings

• You will need lots of cardboard in various shapes. Because of the freestyle nature of this project, how much and what types you will need is up to you. Look around for toilet tissue tubes, rug cylinders and boxes. They are free and easy to find. You can also use store-bought papier mache to make the skeleton. If you do this, you will not need the white spray paint. The papier mache will take a long time to dry, definitely a few days. A blow-dryer may be used to speed up the process, but this will also be very laborious and will not save you much time.

• This project will need to be done in an open area where you will have room to work and things can get messy. The skeleton can be made outside and then brought inside in a closed room to dry. Do not try to do this in the living room or similar area where you would not want glue, water or paint spills to occur.

References

• Skeleton Models