Easy Mummy Crafts

A wrapped mummy is the inspiration for many easy crafts.

Mummies have long been a source of youthful -- and not so youthful -- fascination. The ancient human remains, known for their distinctive linen wrappings, fancy coffins and legendary curses, are both historically significant and a part of the pop-culture monster canon. Make easy mummy-themed craft projects for Halloween, or as part of a lesson on ancient Egypt.

Mummy Heads

Creepy mummy heads wrapped in gauze with eyes peering out can be used as decorations, toys or candy holders. Start with a base, such as a foam or rubber ball, an aluminum coffee can or a plastic cup. Paint the base black or brown, and paint on eyes or glue on plastic googly eyes or plastic gems. Wrap the base with gauze bandages, leaving the eyes uncovered. If you're using a can or cup as a base, you can even poke holes for the eyes, and place a battery-powered LED tea light inside for spooky glowing eyes.

Mummy Hands

Homemade mummy hands can be laid out on a table as a decoration, or they can be worn as part of a costume or a moving prop for a haunted house. To make them, spray paint a pair of rubber dishwashing gloves brown or black. When dry, glue gauze bandages or strips of linen around each glove, including the fingers. You can paint on fingernails if you like, and rub a little bit of dirt into the gauze to make it look old. For decorative use, stuff the gloves with newspaper.

Easy Sarcophagus

Make your own sarcophagus -- the opulent outer box that holds a mummy's remains. Look at pictures of a real one -- the most famous is King Tut's golden sarcophagus -- and use the pictures as the inspiration for your own. Start with a narrow wood craft box, a shoe box or even a potato chip tube. Paint it gold, and paint a human form on top, either ancient or modern. Glue embellishments such as plastic gems and glitter to the container. If you like, you can make a mummy out of linen and gauze or wrap a small doll to put inside the sarcophagus.

Edible Mummy Crafts

An icing tip with a flat end creates ribbons of white icing that can turn almost anything into an edible mummy. Cut out cookies or crispy rice treats with a person-shaped cookie cutter and decorate with white icing mummy wrapping, or make mummy faces on the tops of cupcakes or round cookies. If you prefer savory snacks, make breadsticks that look like mummy fingers -- take edible rice paper, found in Asian markets, cut it into strips, and wrap it around refrigerated breadstick dough before baking. Add an almond for a fingernail, and serve with marinara sauce.

References

• History for Kids: Egyptian Mummies
• Reader's Digest: Mummy Heads
• Craft Gossip: Oreo Mummy Pops and Nutter Butter Ghosts
• TargetWoman: Edible Rice Paper