How to Make a Beak Mask

Glamorize your beak mask for an adult costumed event.

Whether you are a yellow canary fan or interested in penguins, craft a beak mask and transform yourself into an animal in minutes. Design a beak mask into a party mask using rhinestones, glitter or beading and wear it to a Mardi Gras carnival. Copy the colors and beak design of a particular animal from one of your child's books and sport the mask during story time. Use this mask as part of a homemade Halloween costume for a party or trick-or-treating.

Things You'll Need

• Paper plate
• Scissors
• Construction paper
• Thin ribbon
• Hot-glue gun
• Acrylic paints (optional)
• Paintbrush (optional)
• Craft feathers (optional)

Instructions

1. Cut a paper plate in half. Place one half of the plate on your face with the flat edge facing down. Identify the position of your eyes and cut 1 1/2-inch circles for eye holes.

2. Draw a 5-inch diameter circle on a sheet of construction paper. Cut out the circle and cut across the radius of the circle.

3. Roll the straight edges of the circle over each other to form a cone shape in the width of the desired beak for your mask. Squirt a line of hot glue in between the overlapping edges and press the paper together. Add another line of hot glue along the seam on the outside of the cone shape.

4. Cut across the base of the cone to reach the length you desire for the beak and trim the base so the beak fits evenly against the paper mask.

5. Position the cone on the front of the paper plate below the space between the two eye holes. Squeeze hot glue along the base of the cone and press it to the paper mask. Add a second line of glue around the space connecting the base to the mask for strength.

6. Hot-glue one end of a roll of thin ribbon on the back of the plate on the left side of the mask. Hold the mask onto your face and pull the ribbon taut around your head. Cut the ribbon at the position of the right side of the mask. Affix this end of the ribbon to the mask with hot glue.

Tips & Warnings

• You can paint the mask according to the color scheme of a particular bird or beaked animal using acrylic paint.

• Consider hot-gluing craft feathers on the mask if the beak mask is a replica of a feathered animal.

References

• Heartland All Species Project: Mask Making
• Kids' Corner; Mask; Kevin Schafer