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

Posts tagged "sculpture":

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…

Published by Manning on October 31st, 2023 | No 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

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

Axe Man sculpture from History Bones!

I’m still recovering from Halloween, and this is a thing I’ve been dying to post about for weeks: Lee from History Bones sent me her sculpture of my Axe Man costume! Holy shit! Incredible! The whole thing is not even 7″ tall! The mask comes off! And the likeness underneath is uncanny!

Axe Man sculpture by History Bones

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Published by Manning on November 1st, 2018 | No Comments

Paper maché gingerbread men!

I made these evil paper maché gingerbread men (excuse me, gingerbread people!) for Halloween 2018. They were easy!

Paper mache gingerbread men - finished!

I started by designing a basic gingerbread man shape in Photoshop so it would fit on a sheet of 20″ x 30″ foam board (aka foam core). I printed it out as several pages, taped ’em together, and cut the shape out.

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Published by Manning on October 14th, 2018 | No Comments

Another giant paper maché lollipop

I made this giant paper maché lollipop with a spiral design (the one on the left, duh) as part of a group of giant candy decorations for my gingerbread house Halloween party. Here’s how I did it…

Paper mache Halloween lollipop decorations - finished

Paper mache spiral lollipop - foam board circles

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Published by Manning on October 13th, 2018 | No Comments

Jack o’ lantern lollipop prop

I made this big jack o’ lantern lollipop decoration (the one on the right, duh) for my Halloween party in 2018. It was easy!

Paper mache Halloween lollipop decorations - finished

Paper mache jack o' lantern lollipop prop - cutting out foam board

I started by drawing the shape of the jack o’ lantern on a piece of foam board and cutting it out with an X-acto knife. I then traced and cut out two more copies, for three total.

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Published by Manning on October 12th, 2018 | No Comments

Paper maché peppermint decorations for Halloween

I made these oversized paper maché peppermint decorations as part of a set of giant candy props for Halloween 2018. Here’s how I made ’em…

Paper mache peppermint candies - finished!

Paper maché peppermint decorations - cutting out circles

I gathered materials to make three peppermint candies at the same time. I cut out six 12″ circles, two for each candy. See my article about drawing precise circles! I cut the circles out with an X-acto knife.

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Published by Manning on October 11th, 2018 | No Comments

Making a giant paper maché lollipop

This giant paper maché lollipop was the easiest project in the world! I made this along with a bunch of other types of giant candy for my gingerbread house Halloween party. Here’s how I did it…

Paper mache giant lollipop - finished

I started by searching Amazon for “inflatable ball” and bought the cheapest one I could find in the 15″ – 18″ range; it turned out to be a globe, which is kind of funny because the last time I ordered inflatable balls it was to make two paper maché globes!

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Published by Manning on October 5th, 2018 | 2 Comments

Giant scary clown Pez dispenser — part 2

This is part two of my giant scary clown Pez dispenser project! See part one here.

Giant evil clown Pez dispenser - finished head

Making the evil clown head

For the spooky clown head, I started by cutting a panel of foam board that’s the same size as the top panel of the Pez dispenser body (see part one), to use as a base for the head, in order to ensure the head will fit nicely on the “neck.” I built the rest of the head onto this panel.

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Published by Manning on September 16th, 2018 | 1 Comment

Making giant paper maché Pez candies

I made these giant paper maché Pez candies to go with my scary clown Pez dispenser prop for Halloween 2018! I made half a dozen of them, one to go in the Pez dispenser and the others to have strewn around nearby. They were easy to make! Here’s how I did ’em…

Making giant PEZ candies - finished!

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Published by Manning on September 16th, 2018 | No Comments

Giant scary clown Pez dispenser!!! — part 1

I made this 6-foot scary-ass clown Pez dispenser for my Halloween party in 2018! The idea came to me when I was working on some other giant candies and realized this would be a pretty easy project that would really add to the overall ambiance.

Giant evil clown Pez dispenser - finished!!!

My first step for this project was laying everything out in Photoshop and figuring out the exact measurements for the “body” of the Pez dispenser — the evil clown head I pretty much just freestyled!

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Published by Manning on September 16th, 2018 | 2 Comments

Paper maché giant gummi bears!

These were so fun! I made these paper maché gummi bears as part of a set of giant candy decorations for my haunted gingerbread house Halloween party!

Paper mache gummi bear decorations - finished!

I created a reusable base for the giant gummi bears; I built one nice solid gummi bear shape and then used it to make multiple paper maché copies. (Other projects where I used a reusable base: paper maché baby chicks, twin skull masks)

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Published by Manning on September 1st, 2018 | 3 Comments

Paper maché candy corn decorations!

I made these candy corn decorations as part of a set of giant candy decorations for my haunted gingerbread house Halloween party! They were easy and fun! My main goal for the candy corn was to keep them super cheap and super quick, so I could make a ton of them!

Giant candy corn decorations - finished!

I started with a bunch of foam pipe insulation; I use these things for tons of art projects. I buy them at Home Depot in bags of four 36″ tubes for about three bucks each. Read more…

Published by Manning on August 30th, 2018 | 2 Comments

Giant candy cane decorations!

I made these giant 4-foot paper maché candy cane decorations as part of a set of giant candy decorations for my Halloween party — that’s why they’re orange and black rather than red and white! Our theme was basically “haunted gingerbread house” so I made lots of different kinds of giant spooky candies. I did these in Halloween colors but of course you could do them in more traditional colors for Christmas!

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Published by Manning on August 30th, 2018 | No Comments

Making paper maché shapes with a reusable base

This is my method for creating multiple paper maché copies of a shape using a reusable base. I’ve tried different variations on these steps over the last few years and have settled on this process as my favorite.

Start with a base

First, you wanna build a base for your sculpture, so that you can cover it in paper maché and make copies of it. Read more…

Published by Manning on April 7th, 2018 | No Comments

Custom SLY skull trophy sculpture

SLY skull sculpture - painting finished!

I made this skull sculpture (skullpture??) for my good friend, Twitch superstar Slyvinlisha, aka Sly. I made the sculpture based on two different versions of her logo illustration, pictured below.

SLY skull sculpture - reference illustrations

I started with a nice plastic skull from one of my Halloween skeleton decorations that broke in half due to a spooky Halloween mishap! I broke the neck off at the base and put the rest of the bones away to use for other Halloween decorating purposes. Read more…

Published by Manning on March 31st, 2018 | No Comments

Craft foam sea serpent and other relief shapes

I made these layered craft foam reliefs to use as decorations on the paper maché globes I made recently.

Craft foam relief - Isabella the sea serpent

I designed three different relief elements for the globes: Isabella the three-headed sea serpent, a ship based on the Crewe of Columbus logo, and a simple compass shape. I decided to make two copies of each, so each of the two globes could have all three elements.

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Published by Manning on December 10th, 2017 | 2 Comments

Paper maché globe decorations

Paper mache globe - ship and compass

You may remember recently I posted about making a three-headed sea serpent sculpture for the Crewe of Columbus, a Mardi Gras parade group in Mobile, Alabama. The same wonderful client from that project also commissioned this pair of paper maché globes, which go along with the Crewe’s theme of world exploration; they’re going to be hung up as decorations in the same ballroom as Isabella. These were really fun to make!

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Published by Manning on December 10th, 2017 | 13 Comments