Posts tagged "paper mache":
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…
Making a crown for my festive Creature costume
The short version: the crown is foam board with just one layer of paper maché, and it’s held on with magnets! The jewels are craft foam covered with Mod Podge and then painted.
(This is the last part of my Creature costume project: check out my articles on making the Creature mask and hands, and the scaly suit.)
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…
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…
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!
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.
Cryptique vampire bat standard!
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):
Here’s how I made the standard!
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!
Pro wrestler skeleton costumes for Mardi Gras 2022!
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…
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!)
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!
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.
Here’s how I made my skull!
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!
New Orleans Devil Man mask — the sequel!
I made a mask of the New Orleans Devil Man back in 2015 for my “Voodoo Bayou” Halloween party. I no longer have that mask, but I made another similar one this year because I’ll be in New Orleans for Halloween and I wanted to reprise the costume. I wasn’t trying to make the same exact mask again; I figured I’d just start over and include a lot of the same elements, but let the style go in different directions as I work on it.
Paper maché bear trap prop
I made this paper maché bear trap prop as part of my Halloween costume for my Summer Camp Slasher party. It was pretty easy!
99% of my projects start with lots of foam board and tape and end with paper maché and paint, and this one was no different. I started out by building the “jaws” of the bear trap. I measured and cut out a few 1.5″ strips of foam board to serve as the jaws, minus the teeth; those will come later. Read more…
Paper maché machete, hatchet, meat cleaver, sickle, etc props
I made all these paper maché weapon props for Halloween 2019 — a machete, a meat cleaver, a sickle, a scythe, two hatchets, a hand saw, a pitchfork, and a few knives. They were easy!
I used a lot of the same process for these that I did for my paper maché kitchen knife prop last year and this paper maché axe that I made a few weeks ago, so check out that article if you want some more details and pics. Read more…
Paper maché archery target decoration
I made this paper maché archery target decoration for my 2019 summer-camp-slasher-movie-themed Halloween party! Here’s how I did it…
I started by deciding on a size for my target — 36″ in diameter. I taped two 30″ x 20″ sheets of foam board together with heavy duty shipping tape, and drew a 36″ circle on ’em. (See my article about drawing precise circles here.) I cut out this circle with an X-acto knife. I then made a second copy of the same thing.
Paper-maché severed head props!
I made these severed head decorations for Halloween 2019, using paper maché and clay and a bunch of other stuff. They were fun! Here’s how I made ’em…
I started with a couple of styrofoam heads I already had laying around; one dude and one lady. I’d bought these ages ago for some project or other; I don’t even remember what it was specifically because I’ve ended up using them for a million different things — as a stand for masks I was working on, as a base for other Halloween head props I’ve made, etc. Read more…
Paper maché fireplace prop
I made this paper maché fireplace for my 2019 Halloween party — Summer Camp Slasher!
Of course I started by measuring and sketching the fireplace to make sure it would be the right size for our wall and tall enough to reach our ceiling. I built the basic big shapes using my usual method for building box shapes out of foam board. Read more…
Freddy Krueger hand prop accessory!
I made this Freddy Krueger hand prop as part of my wife’s 2019 Halloween costume; soon it’ll be a wearable prop that’s bursting out of her chest! For now, here’s how I made the hand itself…
Sculpting the hand
I definitely went overboard with building the hand; I totally could’ve just stuffed a glove with wadded-up paper towels or something. But that would leave me with a really lifeless, fake-looking hand, and I wanted something more realistic, with more tension in the way it’s posed. I’m always up for overkill on these things!
Paper maché chainsaw prop
This thing was fun! And relatively easy, really! I made this paper maché chainsaw prop as a decoration for my 2019 Halloween party. There are so many different little shapes to this thing, and I was really winging it along the way, so there’s no way I can accurately write about every single step or this article would be twenty pages long. But I’ll show you some of the broad strokes…