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.
Skeleton bunkbeds!
I made these skeleton bunkbeds to transform my apartment’s bathroom into a summer camp dormitory for my 1970s-summer-camp-slasher-movie-themed Halloween party. They were easy!
The bunkbeds consist of a few main parts: the beds themselves, the ladder, and the vertical supports holding up the top bunk. I made all of these out of just foam board, tape, and hot glue, using my usual techniques Read more…
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…
8-foot foam board rowboat prop
I made this big rowboat prop for my 2019 Halloween party — Summer Camp Slasher! It was a somewhat complicated project but I tried to simplify everywhere I possibly could and take every shortcut I could find. I made this whole thing in one afternoon!
Here’s my weird idea I came up with for creating this slightly complex boat shape: I started with two giant foam board panels — one to be the bottom surface of the boat, and one to span across what would be the open upper surface; this one would be removed when the shape was done. 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…
Fake wood summer camp sign decoration
Here’s a quick and easy one; I made this summer camp sign mostly by re-using techniques I made up a few years ago for these fake wooden signs. Here’s how I did it…
I started with two sheets of foam board; one for the wooden planks and one for the background. I cut wavy lines with an X-acto knife to make the four planks, and I trimmed the background piece to be a bit smaller.
2019 Halloween theme revealed: SUMMER CAMP SLASHER!
This year my Halloween party theme is 1970’s summer camp slasher movie! I’m super excited about it! Check out the invitation video, with art and animation by me and music and sound by Robbie Davis:
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…
Home-made Jason Voorhees mask!
I made this very quick and easy Jason Voorhees mask prop for Halloween 2019. Sure I could’ve bought one for a few bucks, but it’s always more fun to make my own, and I like for all my Halloween decorations and props to have a really rough DIY look to ’em.
Making a paper maché rifle and gun rack prop
I made this paper maché hunting rifle and gun rack as a wall decoration for my summer camp slasher movie Halloween party. It was easy!
I started by doing some image searches for old hunting rifles, to get an idea of the shape and size. I found an image I wanted to use, scaled it up in Photoshop and printed it out as several pages, then taped the pages together and cut the rifle shape out.
Paper maché axe prop
I made this here paper maché axe prop for my 2019 Halloween party — theme to be announced soon! It was really easy; here’s how I did it…
A little background: you may remember I made a way-oversized axe prop a while back for my Axe Man skeleton costume (why would you remember that?). So I’d already learned a few lessons from that project, and I decided to do this one a little differently. Along with being oversized, I intentionally designed that axe to be a little bit exaggerated in its proportions; almost a little cartoony. Read more…
Sculpture technique: making box shapes out of foam board
Most of my sculpture projects start with a base of foam board shapes connected with tape and/or glue. I made up this technique for creating sturdy box shapes in any kind of shape or size, and I use it for almost every project, with some slight variations. This technique works great for anything from very geometric shapes to completely irregular custom shapes, as long as they’re flat on two sides. Here’s what I do…
Custom paper maché sword piñata!
My boss at my day job asked me if I’d be up for making a paper maché sword piñata for our company’s 10th anniversary, and I jumped at the chance! This thing is a giant-sized replica of a wooden sword that periodically changes hands among different teams here as a trophy for amazing creative work. Here’s a pic of the real sword and one of the winning teams, on our company’s Instagram. Anyway, I’d never made a piñata before, but I always wanted to try — it was fun!
Love 2 make new Friends
It’s June, and that means Halloween preparation is well underway! This here is the very early stages of making a dozen paper maché severed heads!
I’ll post a few pics of the heads in progress below; full article coming soon!
Experiment: using paper maché in place of a hard hat for big masks
I wrote way too many words about this! So I’ll start with a short version, and then you can read the rest for more details if you want:
The short version
I mount most of my big masks on a hard hat. Hard hats are almost perfect for this because they’re stable and comfortable, but they’re also somewhat heavy and very hard to cut. The suspension inside (that’s the rigging/straps/padding) is all I really need, but there’s no easy way to attach just the suspension into a mask without the big plastic shell of the hard hat. I came up with this method to make my own structure to attach the suspension to, using foam board and paper maché.
Skull mask with marching skeletons — pics from Mardi Gras!
Here are some more pics of my mask in action on Mardi Gras day, and another video as well!
You can check out my posts about making this mask here:
• Part 1 – making the gears and moving parts
• Part 2 – making the little skeletons
• Part 3 – building a skull mask around all this
• Part 4 – painting, hat, finishing touches, etc!
Skull mask with dancing skeletons, part 4
This is part four of my skull mask project with rotating gears and marching skeletons. See parts one, two, and three.
Installing the hard hat
Almost all of my big paper maché masks are mounted on a hard hat. Hard hats are great because they’re cheap and they provide a lot of comfort and stability in a big mask. I usually saw off some parts of the hard hat for each mask depending on its shape, in order to reduce weight and to help the hard hat fit in the mask as well as possible. Read more…
Skull mask with dancing skeletons, part 3
This is part three of my skull mask project with rotating gears and marching skeletons. See parts one and two.
Building the skull shape
In part one I built the whole mechanism with the gears inside of a big circular wall; this would become the outer wall of the skull mask at around ear-level (not my ears, the skull’s ears — uh, wait a minute…). 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