Manning Makes Stuff - Halloween decorations, paper mache masks, costumes, party ideas, and more

Manning Makes Stuff - Halloween decorations, paper mache masks, costumes, party ideas, and more

Creature from the Black Lagoon hands

Making these hands was the easiest part of my whole Creature from the Black Lagoon (/Bayou) costume. Here’s how I made ’em!

I started by tracing my own hand onto foam board, and then drawing a much bigger hand over that; I wanted to be sure that when I’m wearing these hands that my real hands are totally hidden. Read more…

Published by Manning on February 7th, 2023 [No Comments]

Creature from the Black Lagoon mask, part 2

This part 2 of my Creature from the Black Lagoon(/Bayou?) mask process. See part 1 here!

Okay, so the paper mache for the Creature head was all done, and now it’s time for painting all the other finishing touches.

Painting the Creature head

For all my big masks, I always use some kind of base coat before moving on to spray paint. This time I tried something new: I started with a coat of Mod Podge (paid link) that I brushed on; Read more…

Published by Manning on February 6th, 2023 [2 Comments]

Creature from the Black Lagoon mask, WIP part 1

For Mardi Gras 2023 I made a Creature from the Black Lagoon(/Bayou?) mask and costume! I makde this stuff for my second year marching with my Mardi Gras krewe, Cryptique. Here’s my article about making the mask!

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Published by Manning on January 5th, 2023 [3 Comments]

Lifesize paper maché Nosferatu statue!

Check this thing out! For Halloween 2022 our party’s theme was the 100th anniversary of the film Nosferatu (well, the U.S. release) and I wanted to try making a lifesize paper maché statue of good ol’ Count Orlok, aka the guy that jabronis like you call Nosferatu.

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Published by Manning on November 3rd, 2022 [1 Comment]

Halloween 2022 theme: Nosferatu, a Century of Horror

For many years I’d been waiting for 2022 to roll around so I could do this Halloween party theme; it’s the 100th anniversary of the film Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror!

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Published by Manning on November 2nd, 2022 [1 Comment]

Cryptique vampire bat standard!

Cryptique bat standard - painted and finished!

I made this standard for my Mardi Gras krewe, Cryptique; one more fun thing for us to carry on our march. It’s based on this illustration I did; I call this design our bat-de-lis (like fleur-de-lis):

Cryptique bat-de-lis design by Manning Krull-

Here’s how I made the standard!

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Published by Manning on May 20th, 2022 [No Comments]

Tiger piñata sculpture!

I made this lil’ tiger piñata for one of my favorite people in the world, writer and illustrator Jon Morris; it’s for his Gordo book project, which you can read about in this thread! The tiger sculpture I made isn’t a real piñata, in that it’s not (completely) hollow and it’s not intended to be destroyed. It’s just a prop that’s meant to look like a piñata. Here’s how I made the thing!

Tiger pinata sculpture - reference drawings

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Published by Manning on April 12th, 2022 [No Comments]

Introducing Cryptique!

I’m excited to announce I’ve got a new Mardi Gras krewe! Cryptique, Krewe of Cemetery Shamblers is a brand new phantasmagorical walking krewe in New Orleans, put together by me and a few friends just a couple weeks before Mardi Gras 2022. Read more…

Published by Manning on March 18th, 2022 [No Comments]

DIY wrestling championship belt props

My wife and I made these fun pro wrestling championship belt props to go with our skeleton tag team wrestler costumes. Here’s how we made ’em!

Pro wrestler skeleton costumes - close up of The Skull Krushers

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Published by Manning on March 8th, 2022 [2 Comments]

Pro wrestler skeleton costumes for Mardi Gras 2022!

Pro wrestler skeleton costumes - THE SKULL KRUSHERS!

Many months ago while brainstorming ideas for our new Mardi Gras skulls/costumes, my wife had the great idea for us to be skeleton pro wrestlers; we decided to be a tag team, and I came up with the name The Skull Krushers! These costumes were extremely fun to wear for our first march with Cryptique! Here’s how we made our skull masks…

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Published by Manning on March 7th, 2022 [No Comments]

Rooster Man Halloween costume!

For Halloween 2021, my wife and I went as two urban legends from her island, La Réunion: La Dame Blanche (“the white lady”; a classic vanishing hitchhiker story with a twist) and L’Homme Coq; the rooster man, who eats children for some reason! This is my favorite Halloween costume I’ve done in many years; here’s some info about how I made everything…

La Dame Blanche and the Rooster Man Halloween costumes

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Published by Manning on November 17th, 2021 [No Comments]

Easy DIY tombstone decorations for Halloween!

My wife and I made these tombstone decorations pretty last-minute for our back yard Halloween party; our first annual Halloween party that would be 100% outdoors. They were fun and quick to make!

DIY tombstone decorations for Halloween

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Published by Manning on November 9th, 2021 [No Comments]

New Halloween party invitation: Prick or Treat!

My wife and I skipped Halloween last year due to the pre-vaccine Covid situation, but this year we’ve decided to throw a small, outdoor, vaccinated party. There’s no real theme and we’re not making a ton of decorations, but I did want to get back into the rhythm of creating an animated invitation to get people (including me!) excited. Here it is!
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Published by Manning on October 12th, 2021 [2 Comments]

Huge 5-foot skull decoration for Halloween!

I made this giant 3D skull decoration for a wonderful client to display on the front of his house for Halloween 2021. Here’s how I did it!

Giant paper maché skull Halloween decoration - side view

Building the base

I started with a few sketches of the skull in different styles to get a sense of what the client wanted. When we settled on a final sketch, I re-drew it at real size onto foam board.

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Published by Manning on October 8th, 2021 [4 Comments]

Pumpkin Night custom paper maché mask!

I made this custom Pumpkin Night paper maché mask for a wonderful client! Here’s how I made it! (And check out my page about custom work!)

Pumpkin Night mask - by Manning Krull

I wasn’t aware of the Pumpkin Night manga so of course I started with lots of Google image search results. What a cool design! I’d never done anything like this before!

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Published by Manning on February 28th, 2021 [35 Comments]

Mardi Gras 2021 — I made a skull mask of my own damn head!

For Mardi Gras 2021, my wife and I made skull masks of ourselves! This was all her idea, and it was super fun to plan out how to do it and then watch it all come together.

Manning Krull skull mask for Mardi Gras 2021

Here’s how I made my skull!

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Published by Manning on February 16th, 2021 [16 Comments]

Spider skeleton costume for Mardi Gras 2020! — part 2

I made this six-armed spider skeleton costume for Mardi Gras 2020! This is part two; see part one here for how I made the mask. A lot of people have asked me: why only six arms, rather than eight? — ’cause with my legs that’s eight limbs total, duh! Anywhere, here’s how I made all this stuff!

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Published by Manning on February 25th, 2020 [3 Comments]

Spider skull mask and costume for Mardi Gras 2020! — part 1

I made this spider skull mask and six-armed spider skeleton costume for Mardi Gras 2020! I know, I know, spiders don’t have bones; they got like an exoskeleton or somethin’. Deal with it, nerds. Anyway I’m really happy with how this whole thing came out, and now I’m going to bore you with every detail of how I made it!

Spider skeleton costume - finished!

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Published by Manning on February 25th, 2020 [4 Comments]

DIY hot glue gun holder

Here’s one of the dumbest and coolest things I’ve ever made! It’s my very own DIY hot glue gun holder, made out of paper maché and other junk.

DIY hot glue gun holder

If you’ve used a small hot glue gun like this you know they (usually) have a little foldable metal wire stand that’s completely infuriating; it gets in the way when you’re gluing stuff and it’s a pain to unfold it and set the hot glue gun down while you’re working quickly. Read more…

Published by Manning on February 23rd, 2020 [No Comments]

Mardi Gras 2020 is in the works!

That’s right, it’s not even Christmas yet and I’m working on next year’s Mardi Gras mask! My skull is always top-secret until I unveil it on Mardi Gras morning, so I can’t show you what this thing is, but I can tell you I’m really excited about it, and it’s less insanely complicated than the mechanical skull with marching skeletons I made last year; that thing nearly killed me!

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Published by Manning on December 18th, 2019 [No Comments]