“Gras-goyle” gargoyle costume for Mardi Gras 2025, WIP part 1!
I’ve already started on my Mardi Gras costume for next year! I’m doing something really ambitious (for me); a gargoyle costume where my legs are hidden in a fake stone column, with fake crouched legs on top, and then I’ll have wings on my back and of course a gargoyle mask. I knew this would take a lot of time and effort so I started on the column part back in May of 2024! Here’s how I made the column and pedestal… Read more…
Audrey II mask!
All right, this one wasn’t my project, but I want to take a minute to tell you about my wife’s Audrey II mask! Of course Audrey II is the killer plant in Little Shop of Horrors. Check out how we made this thing!
Easy method for symmetrical horns
Experiment time! I’ve made horns for a ton of masks and things, and I’ve used different methods, which were all frustrating for different reasons; generally the problem is that it’s difficult or impossible to make horns from scratch that are truly symmetrical. Read more…
One-day challenge: Halloween devil mask
TMI backstory here; feel free to skip! Every Halloween I run into the same problem: I put a few months of effort into our Halloween party decorations as well as my costume for the party, but our party is always the Saturday before Halloween, and then on Halloween night I never have a great costume; I usually half-ass something at the last minute. Read more…
Giant eyeball masks for Halloween 2024!
For our Monster Prom Halloween party, my wife and I made matching giant eyeball masks. They were fun to make and easy to wear, and they were a big hit at our party! Here’s how we made ’em… Read more…
Eyeball/tongue monster!
This batshit thing is my wife’s project and I love it! She actually made most of the parts last year; there were some problems with the first version of the eyestalks, so she scrapped those after our party and kept the eyes and the hands, and this year she made new improved eyestalks as well as a new base and she reassembled everything. Read more…
Monster punch bowl and ladle
My wife made this hilarious thing! It’s huge; about 30″ across and maybe 18″ tall.
She made the base of the bowl out of foam board, starting with a huge circle and then creating the 3D bowl shape with a bunch of foam board panels. Picture the bowl shape in profile — basically a half-circle — and then slice that down the middle to create a quarter-circle. She traced and cut out 32 of these and then hot-glued them in place onto the circle. Read more…
Giant heart photo backdrop for Monster Prom
This thing was pretty easy!
Making the heart and banner
I designed the heart on paper and then messed with it in Photoshop to make it perfectly symmetric and stuff. I transferred the drawing to a giant panel of foam board using the grid method — you know, you put your small drawing in a grid, and then draw a large grid onto a large surface, and sketch the pieces square by square until it all comes together. Pretty easy once you dive it and try it, really! Read more…
Foam board keytar prop
I made this simple 1980s keytar prop for my Frankenstein keytar player statue for our monster new wave band.
I made this in a very similar way to how I made my foam guitar prop. Another easy and fun one! It’s really just mostly foam board with a little hot glue and a lot of tape. Read more…
Foam board guitar prop
I made this very simple foam guitar prop for the demonic singer of our monster new wave band. It was so easy and fun to make! It’s really just mostly foam board with a little hot glue and a lot of tape.
I first drew and cut out a guitar shape from foam board. I traced the head and neck to make a second foam board copy of those and glued them in place behind the main shape. Read more…
Monster Prom band, part 3: Frankenstein keytarist!
Last but not least! I learned a lot of important lessons when I was working on our demonic singer — mostly that I didn’t want to do anything that complicated again for a long time! :) So I figured out ways to make our Frankenstein monster keytarist a lot simpler. The key here was to keep most of the shapes much more geometric and simple rather than organic and curvy. You can see the guy’s torso and legs and left arm are basically just simple box shapes. Read more…
Monster Prom band, part 2: demon singer!
This demonic singer lady is one of the most challenging things I’ve ever made! I wanted to try to make a free-standing life-size human figure, using just my normal techniques with foam board and tape and stuff. This was a first for me and it worked out pretty well!
I started with the legs; it was critical to design these to be strong enough to stand up on their own and to support the weight of the figure. (Although I cheated a bit with the microphone stand; coming up.) Read more…
Monster Prom band, part 1: alien drummer!
For our Monster Prom Halloween party, my main project was our monster new wave band. I started with the alien drummer because I knew he would be the easiest!
The first idea I had in creating the drummer was to re-use my paper maché alien mask from last Halloween as the head of the drummer. So that saved me a ton of time and materials right off the bat! Read more…
Halloween 2024 theme: Monster Prom!
I’m posting our Halloween theme a bit later than usual this year because I’m so swamped with projects that I forgot! I’ve really bitten off more than I can chew this year but I think the results are going to be a lot of fun. Anyway, this year’s theme is Monster Prom, and we’re going for a sort of 1980s synthwave vibe with our color scheme. Read more…
Cerberus mask for Mardi Gras 2024, part 2
See part 1 of my Cerebus mask project here. As I mentioned in that first bit, I had to do a few steps of this project in a weird order, but for the sake of keeping this article neat I’ve grouped things by major sections — so for instance you might see some parts painted before I get to the whole section about painting, etc.
Cerberus mask for Mardi Gras 2024, WIP part 1
I’m working on this Cerberus mask for Mardi Gras 2024! I’ll try to explain how I did it! Unlike most of my projects, I didn’t have a detailed sketch for this one, and I had to do a lot of trial and error to figure out certain bits. It was fun working this way, and terrifying! Boring note: I had to do a few steps in a weird order, but for the sake of keeping this article neat I’ve grouped things by major sections — so for instance you might see some parts painted before I get to the whole section about painting, etc.
Big brain alien costume!
I made this big-brain alien costume for Halloween 2023! Here’s how I done did it!
Hooboy, this was one of those projects where I was in such a rush I didn’t take nearly as many process pics as I usually do. But I can give you the gist of how I did all this. I started out with the three basic big shapes: the shoulder armor, the head tube thing, and the brain. Read more…
48″ flying saucer Halloween decoration
I made this 48″ flying saucer for our 1950s sci-fi Halloween party! Here’s how I made it.
This thing required a lot of math, and A), I’m bad at math, and B) the materials I use are not very precise so sometimes the pieces just don’t work out perfectly even though I’ve done the math correctly. Read more…
Giant robot Halloween decoration
With just a few days left before our 1950s-themed Halloween party I decided to make this simple giant robot statue, loosely based on the robot I drew for our animated party invitation. Read more…
Halloween 2023 theme: UFO!
This is another Halloween theme that I’ve been eager to do for many years! 1950s sci-fi, flying saucers, little green men, et cetera et cetera. I drew all of this stuff in Photoshop with my tablet, and animated everything in Adobe Animate. Read more…
About Manning Krull
How to make a 4-foot paper maché alligator
My violin skull mask, Mardi Gras 2015
Three-headed paper maché dragon sculpture